Patrick Henry smells a rat and George Mason threatens to chop off his right hand.

wo of our favorite Founding Fathers refused to sign the constitution in 1787—both fearing the document gave the Federal Government too much power.

Patrick Henry was suspicious of the Constitutional Convention’s stated goal of simply amending the Articles of Confederation and famously announced, “I smell a rat,” declining to attend. His instincts were accurate as the Articles were immediately scrapped and a new Constitution lacking sufficient protections for the smaller states was hammered out. Another Henry quote illustrates the questions of authority and jurisdictions we should always be asking: “What right had they to say, We, the people? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask, who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the people, instead of We, the states?”

We often run into Patrick Henry at Colonial Williamsburg, just one stop on our Virginia Historic Triangle Tour October 17 & 18.

George Mason was one of only three delegates present at the end of the convention who refused to sign the final document. James Madison’s notes from the Constitutional Convention, specifically from August 31, 1787, cite Mason, seconding a motion by Elbridge Gerry to postpone consideration of the document, declaring “he would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands.” The quote underscores his principled stand, particularly his insistence on a Bill of Rights, which he argued for on September 12, 1787, only to see the motion unanimously defeated before finally being ratified in 1791.

George Mason’s memorial sits adjacent the Jefferson memorial, and is part of our Heart of American History Tour October 20-24.

Learn from great men of the past—they have so much to teach us.

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Image Credits: 1 Patrick Henry (colonialwilliamsburg.org) 2 George Mason (nps.gov)