UVA Club of Boston: Henry vs Jefferson - How to Save a Democracy

All alumni, friends, and families are invited to join the UVA Club of Boston for a lecture by John A. Ragosta, PhD, JD, Historian and Fellow, Virginia Humanities, University of Virginia (Double Hoo) on Patrick Henry's final lesson on how to save democracy. We will gather at Foley Hoag LLP in Seaport West - please sign in at the security desk in the lobby and you will be directed to the event space.

About the lecture:

Hyper-partisanship in the 1790s drove the still-new United States to the brink of Civil War. Thomas Jefferson warned that the Federalists’ Sedition Act initiated a “reign of witches” and asked states to “nullify” federal laws. Shocked by the possibilities of state-federal conflict and the possibility of secession, George Washington begged Patrick Henry to come out of retirement to oppose Jefferson’s radical states’ rights agenda. Henry, the great anti-federalist who had opposed ratification of the Constitution as creating a government too powerful and distant from the people, entered his final political campaign to defend the Constitution that he had opposed and the young nation. In the process, Henry explained the role of a “loyal opposition,” offering a lesson for our time. This story – recounted in For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle – is the story about how a democracy must work if it is to survive.

For more information on this event, please contact Laura Holt (Engr '91) at lkholt2@gmail.com.

About our speaker, John A. Ragosta, PhD, JD:

John Ragosta, a fellow at Virginia Humanities, has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, George Washington University, and Hamilton, Oberlin, and Randolph Colleges. Dr. Ragosta’s most recent book – For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle – has received highly favorable reviews in the Wall Street Journal and New York Sun. He is also the author of Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (UVA Press, 2013) and several other works. Previously the Acting Director at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, Ragosta is an award-winning author and frequent commentator. He holds both a PhD and a JD from the University of Virginia. Before returning to academia, Dr. Ragosta was a partner at Dewey Ballantine LLP. He is also a beekeeper.

To read more, please visit his website.