Former Governor Patrick Henry, of the Commonwealth of Virginia, at the Constitutional Ratification Convention, argues against ratification of the proposed Constitution for the united States, as very few men can be trusted with the powers of the presidency:
America found a person [George Washington] worthy of that trust: She looked to Virginia for him. We gave a dictatorial – power to hands that used it gloriously; and which were rendered more glorious by surrendering it up. Where is there a breed of such Dictators? Shall we find a set of American Presidents of such a breed? Will the American President come and lay prostrate at the feet of Congress his laurels? I fear there are few men who can be trusted on that head. The glorious republic of Holland has erected monuments of her warlike intrepidity and valor: Yet she is now totally ruined by a Stadtholder-a Dutch President.
[restored 10/5/2021]
Subsequent Events:
References:
Murray Dry, The Anti-Federalist: An abridgement, from The Complete Anti-Federalist by Herbert J. Storing, ed., (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 315, 316.
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