Free Miracles and Massacres by Glenn Beck Page A

of the latter,” Pendleton lectured Henry and the other anti-Federalists. “The war is between government and licentiousness, faction, turbulence, and other violations of the rules of society, to preserve Liberty.”
    Other Federalists followed Pendleton, all making similar points, all virtually jeering at Patrick Henry.
    But it is a dangerous thing to taunt a lion.
    Later that morning, the lion rose from his chair and surveyed his fellow delegates. Moving slowly for effect, he looked skyward and perused the throng in the gallery above. A profound, awesome silence enveloped the crowd. Love him or hate him, audiences hung on Henry’s every word.
    The Federalists had spent a great deal of time emphasizing the financial stability that they claimed a central government would bring. Henry, however, thought finances were inconsequential compared tothe issue that revolutionary patriots had shed their precious blood for: liberty. He intended to hammer this point home as fiercely and relentlessly as possible.
    â€œDon’t ask how trade may be increased or how to become a great and powerful people,” he bellowed. “Ask how your liberties can be secured.” His hands were clenched into fists as though he were ready to wage battle against the idea of tyranny. “For liberty ought to be the direct end of your government. Is the end of trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will abandoning your most sacred rights secure your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings—give us that precious jewel, and you may take everything else!”
    The barren landscape of vanished liberties that Henry sketched was having an effect. An onlooker in the gallery turned to Robert Morris. He wanted to speak but he could not find the words. A scream welled up deep inside him as he felt the cold and hard iron fetters of a devilishly new form of tyranny already pressing upon his flesh.
    Henry saw the faces of those in the gallery and knew his warnings were hitting their mark. He sensed a power welling up within him. He would lacerate every argument proposed for this new Constitution—and many that had not even been considered yet.
    James Madison sat uneasily in his chair as he listened to Henry dismantle the Federalists’ arguments, point by point. He slowly brought his hands together, almost as if in silent prayer. Yes , he thought, in silent answer to Henry’s latest argument against the need for a national army, an adequate military and this Constitution are necessary to protect freedom .
    After watching the faces of his fellow delegates as Henry spoke, he was no longer so sure that a majority felt the same way.
    Richmond, Virginia
    Theatre Square (“The New Academy”)
    Broad Street, between Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets
    June 9, 1788
    Tempers ran high. Civility ran on empty. The time for arguing over articles and amendments, taxation and treaties, term limits and war powers, was passing fast.
    The time for arguing personalities had arrived with a great roar.
    Patrick Henry, refreshed by a good night’s rest, took the floor again and skewered the Federalists’ boasting of the “checks and balances” in their new system. “What are the checks of exposing accounts?” Henry baited them, pacing about the floor with great energy, “Can you search your President’s closet? Is this a real check?”
    At just the right moment, Henry tossed another major bombshell into the proceedings. He had somehow secured a copy of a letter his hated opponent Thomas Jefferson had written four months earlier to an old friend. In it, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and former governor of Virginia had cast doubts on the wisdom of the new Constitution.
    Spreading his arms before him, like an eagle about to swoop down on its prey, Henry added to the drama by slowly introducing the letter to the gallery. “We have