By the late 1790s, the United States was still fragile. The Federalists, led by President John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts, laws that silenced dissent and punished critics of the government. In response, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison crafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, claiming that states had the right to nullify federal law. It was a bold stand, but one that alarmed many Americans. If every state could decide which laws to follow, the union itself might not hold.
George Washington saw the danger. Even in retirement, he worried that partisan battles could break the country apart before it had fully begun. As tension grew, with whispers of disunion and foreign entanglements, Washington turned to an unlikely figure for help. Patrick Henry, the fiery revolutionary once known for opposing the Constitution, was asked to return to public life.
Henry understood what was at stake. Though he had built his reputation challenging centralized power, he believed that preserving the Union mattered more than any single dispute. In 1799, he addressed a crowd at Charlotte Courthouse and warned against turning political disagreement into rebellion. He argued that citizens had every right to protest laws they disliked, but the remedy was the ballot box, not secession. His message was simple yet urgent: united we stand, divided we fall.
John Ragosta from the Jack Miller Center is here to share the story.