Patrick Henry's firsts highlighted at Crader Lecture

Attorney and politician Patrick Henry, best known for his declaration "give me liberty or give me death," seemed to be first in a lot of things, Dr. Thomas Kidd, professor of history and senior fellow in the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, said in this year's Crader Lecture.

Henry, who lived from 1736 until 1799, was the first to say the king was degenerating into a tyrant and the first to say Virginia should take up arms against the British. He also led Virigina in opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, which taxed many printed materials. Kidd said he was "amazingly brazen, and I would say courageous, in his resolves" against it.

Speaking to an audience of about 250 people in the Rose Theatre of the Grauel Building at Southeast Missouri State University, Kidd said Henry convinced Virginia's leaders the time had come for war against Britain.

"He believed this was the only way for Americans to secure their liberty," Kidd said.

Henry received a classical education at home and kept religion and liberty as major priorities. He held the traditional view that if religion was important, it deserved support from the government.

A strong supporter of states' rights, Henry refused to attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia saying he "smelt a rat." He believed it would give rise to a "monstrous new national government," Kidd said, and give the president too much power.

Today, the Constitution is sacrosanct, Kidd said. But Henry feared it would make Southern states forever subservient to the North. He said it did not leave people the means to defend their rights and gave federalists license to create an empire. The checks and balances, it was feared, also would not work.

Steven Hoffman, professor in the Department of History and coordinator of the historic preservation program at Southeast, said he thought the presentation was "really good."

"I thought he did a really nice job bringing Patrick Henry to life," Hoffman said.

He added that to be able to present someone in opposition to the Constitution while highlighting their contributions to the overall creation of the country was "really well done."

The Crader Family Endowment for American Values, within the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, is dedicated to education, research and public engagement in the historical traditions of the United States and Western civilization.

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