Patrick Henry: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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Jefferson did not go to Staunton: his term as governor had just expired, but the legislature had not met to hold an election. After the raid, he took refuge at his farm in [[Bedford County, Virginia|Bedford County]], and Virginia had no governor for ten days. Several legislators complained of Jefferson's actions and called for an inquiry into the conduct of the executive (Jefferson and his council), and Henry was among those who took the lead. The resolution passed, but the inquiry was set for the next session, and the legislature thought better of it.{{sfn|Campbell|pp=289–291}} Jefferson was angered at Henry's actions, and held a grudge that did not abate until well after Henry's death in 1799.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=159–160}}

With the war effectively ended by the American victory at the [[Siegesiege of Yorktown]], Henry served as delegate from his county through 1784, when he was elected again as governor. Peace brought many adjustments, and Henry sponsored legislation to reform Virginia's currency and to adjust payments from contracts still outstanding from before periods of high inflation. Jefferson and others wanted to reopen contracts that had been already settled, but in depreciated currency; Henry thought that unjust, and because of his influence in the General Assembly, his version prevailed.<ref name = "a" />{{sfn|Campbell|pp=298–299}} This had international implications, as some of the creditors were British, who sought payment in hard money rather than the depreciated currency that had been paid into escrow.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=355–356}} At the May 1783 House of Delegates session, Henry successfully sponsored a resolution to repeal the trade embargo against Britain. That passed despite opposition from John Tyler Sr., the Speaker. Henry also introduced legislation to permit Loyalists to return to Virginia. There was considerable opposition to that, and the measure was held over until later in the year, by which time public sentiment had been gauged through meetings in each county. Henry spoke in the debate, asking "shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, be frightened of its whelps?"{{sfn|Kukla|pp=265–268}} Once it was amended (though in what way is not clear), the bill passed in November 1783.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=265–268}}

Henry worked together with James Madison, a delegate after three years in Congress, on a number of issues. They differed, though, on state support for Virginia's Protestant churches.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=356–359}} Madison, like Jefferson, desired a separation between church and state that meant no public financing of religion, but Henry believed that taxpayers who were Christians should be assessed for the maintenance of the Protestant church of their choice, financing an array of churches in the way that Anglicanism had been funded in Virginia until the start of the war. Henry was not alone in this belief; both Washington and Lee supported such plans. According to Thomas S. Kidd in his biography of Henry, "the general assessment plan is one of the main reasons Henry is not more widely esteemed as a Founder, for in this debate, he seems to have diverted from the progressive flow of history."{{sfn|Kidd|pp=167–168}} The General Assembly might well have passed the bill, but on November 17, 1784, the legislators elected Henry as governor. Madison believed that Henry took the position for family reasons—his wife and children were likely quite happy to be in Richmond rather than in remote Henry County—but the cost was Henry's bill as Madison got it postponed to the following year and eventually defeated. Instead, Madison got Jefferson's [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom|Statute for Religious Freedom]] through the legislature. This law requiring a separation of church and state passed the General Assembly in 1786.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=168–171}}