Editor’s Note: This was a letter to the editor 20 years ago. Monika Jackson of North Beach requested that her husband’s letter be published again posthumously because of what she believes is the letter’s continuing relevance. 

To the Editor:

Two hundred and eighteen years after Patrick Henry refused to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787 because he “smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward Monarchy,” his fears look prophetic.

February 7, 2024