Patrick Henry Caucus Misnamed
(Letter in Salt Lake Tribune, March 19, 2010)
It’s interesting that Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, named his legislative caucus that focuses on state sovereignty and opposes federal programs after Patrick Henry (“Panel OKs bill letting Utah opt out of health reform,” Tribune , Feb. 3). Henry did oppose ratifying the Constitution in the name of states rights, but his views changed, and by the late 1790s he supported the Federalist policies of Presidents George Washington and John Adams.
Henry warned that civil war was threatened because Virginia, “had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the Constitution, and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not warranted by any authority.”
Similarly, Henry strongly supported Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who made several important decisions relating to federalism that shaped the balance of power between the federal government and the states during the republic’s early years. In particular, Henry repeatedly confirmed the supremacy of federal law over state law.
So I wonder, was the supremacy of federal law what Wimmer and the other members of the caucus had in mind when they assumed Patrick Henry’s name?
Allan J. Ayoub
West Valley City