Richard Henry Lee's Predictions

A Story by Star2128

this is an essay i did for my government class

On October 13^th, 1787 Richard Henry Lee wrote a letter to the Republican on his opinions about what was going to happen in the future if the government did not take caution on certain things while they had time to do so. It was not that Richard disagreed with what the government wanted to do, it was that he felt they were approaching things wrong, and it was going to cause disastrous situations to form sooner or later. He made six predictions about how he thought this would all end. As time progressed, these predictions seemed showed to be true through facts, and not just opinions. I agree with Richard Henry Lee on his understanding that not all people were going to agree with the next best thing and automatically accept it with open arms. He broke it down and discussed in his letter the six main things that were going to happen with the choice of writing the Constitution.

Lee was describing that when the constitution was written, it really did not include people who are poor, only the ones with money. I side with this theory because anyone who has money has always had power. Even in the 21^st century money is all you need to gain and hold power. People with money can do just about anything they want. They can get themselves out of trouble with the law most of the time or get a punishment that is less than the one they deserve to get. It simply is not right nor fair that people who have money to throw around can do just about anything they want, but you see it happens a lot especially when you look at the people who are in control of our government. Richard suspected that since money makes people greedy, that they would never understand what it is like to be poor, and to them the poor really do not matter. The government does not take care of its people like they are supposed to, and to me, Lee knew that this is what it was going to end up being, and tried to warn everyone about what the government was going to do but no one listened.

When the Constitution was being written, it lacked something that would give the people of this new country a document that allows people to have certain rights. Our constitution definitely needed a Bill Of Rights and if it did not have one we would not be able to do or say what we do today. We would be like other countries where if you speak out against your government, you would be killed for it. We would not be able to own guns to have in our homes for protection. You can forget about the freedom to vote, because, it would have never existed to us. We would have to step to the side if someone wanted to search our homes for no reason, because there would not have been anything to stop them. People need to have the freedom to vote for who they want to be president or be able to tell someone that they cannot walk into their home without a viable warrant. When someone wants to walk up and break into your home, you should be able to have a weapon for protection and try to make them leave. Our ancestors broke away from England to start something new over here, not to be exactly like they were over there. They wanted to each be their own individual person and to do so you have to have limitations and laws to tell people that they have rights to do this, but cannot take it as far as to murder someone and get away with it. For a leader to have honest support from the people he looks over, he must be able to be voted in and cannot just walk up to the stand and tell everyone that he is going to be the next president whether we like it or not.

In 1787, the colonies called forth a meeting to revise and edit The Articles of Confederation. Not all of the colonies showed up, and it turned into deciding to make a whole new document. By law, doing this makes The Constitution an illegal document, but if it was not for the colonies doing what they did we would not have the democracy we have today. People can throw a fit about it not being a legal document, but when you break down the laws and really look into them, what really is legal? Laws clash into each other and can even have things thrown into them that has nothing to do with the main idea of it, but it is all still there. If you think about it, if the colonies would not have gathered together and decided to make a new set of laws, the United Stated would probably be communist just like Russia. We would not have a say in who is the president over us, or what laws can and cannot be passed. We would not have freedom as people to do what we do today. Because of what we have today, I am grateful that The Constitution was made and as illegal as it may be, I am glad we have it. I agree with Lee that it is considered an illegal document, but if that means I get to vote for who I want looking over me in the government and I can choose to be in a political party or not, then what is really wrong with whether or not it is legal? If it is illegal then our country as a whole is based off of something illegal.

At this point, the states had their own little “constitution” and made their own rules. They even had their own money. With the making of the official constitution, the states would have to give up their own individual power, and come together as a whole country to make laws and rights to be shared and obeyed by everyone. Richard was afraid that the states would lose their sovereignty and he did not want that to happen. Losing their sovereignty though means they will gain more support and help of other colonies around them in the end. He thought they were better off being their own independent little states, but he did not see how much more beneficial in the end it would be if the states came together and were all under the same constitution. In reality people must lose something before they can gain something so much more than they ever expected.

Following the writing of The Constitution, Lee declared that it would eventually lead to his sixth prediction, tyranny. No one really thought about it then, but 70 years later in 1861, the American Civil War broke out between the states in the north and the states in the south, proving this last prediction factual. The civil war lasted for four years, ending with the making of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendment. Although Richard did not know to what extent a tyranny would affect the U.S. or what would come of it, he was smart enough to realize that a war was going to take place in general.

Richard had six predictions he explained in detail to the Republican on what he visualized would happen if The Constitution was passed. Whether people agreed with him or not, these things he foreshadowed still happened in the United States and made it what it is today. We would not have been able to get this far if certain events had not happen. I admire Richard Henry Lee and appreciate that he was a very intelligent man who foresaw things that no one else did.

© 2011 Star2128

Author's Note

i have my own opinion on things, if you do not agree with what i say, you are more than welcome to comment but i will not argue with you about what i write about.