[1199] Elliott, iii, 43-64.
[1200] General Posey, a Revolutionary officer, who was for the Constitution, afterwards said that Henry's speech made him believe that the Constitution would destroy liberty. Another intelligent man who heard Henry's speech said that when the great orator pictured the President at the head of the army, he felt his own wrists for the shackles, and that his place in the gallery suddenly seemed like a dungeon. (Grigsby, i, 118-19.)
[1201] Grigsby, i, 121.
[1202] Elliott, iii, 64-86. In the debate, much was made of this famous case. Yet Philips was not executed under the provisions of the law Randolph referred to. When arrested, he was indicted, tried, and convicted in the General Court; and he was hanged by sentence of the court, December 4, 1778.
Although, at that time, Randolph was Attorney-General of Virginia and actually prosecuted the case; and although Henry was Governor and ordered the arrest of Philips (Henry, i, 611-13), yet, ten years later, both had forgotten the facts, and Randolph charged, and Henry in reply admitted, that Philips had been executed under the bill of attainder without trial. (Jefferson to Wirt, Oct. 14, 1814; Works: Ford, xi, 407.) The bill of attainder was drawn by Jefferson. It appears in ib., ii, 330-36.
[1203] Again, Randolph's speech was marred by the note of personal explanation that pervaded it. "The rectitude of my intentions"; "ambition and popularity are no objects with me"; "I expect, in the course of a year, to retire to that private station which I most sincerely and cordially prefer to all others,"—such expressions gave to his otherwise aggressive and very able appeal a defensive tone.
[1204] Grigsby, i, 130. Madison's apparel at this Convention was as ornate as his opinions were, in his opponents' eyes, "aristocratic."
[1205] Elliott, iii, 86. See entire speech, ib., 86-96.
[1206] Bushrod Washington to Washington, June 6, 1788; Writings: Sparks, ix, 378. But Madison gave Henry an opening through which that veteran orator drove like a troop of horse, as far as practical and momentary effect was concerned. Madison described the new government as partly National and partly Federal. (Elliott, iii, 94; and see Henry's use of this, ib., 171; also infra.)
[1207] Elliott, iii, 97-103.