Editing Patrick Henry (section)

== Opponent of the Constitution (1787–1790) ==
Disinclined to return to distant Leatherwood after his time as governor ended in November 1786, Henry hoped to purchase land in Hanover County but bought property in [[Prince Edward County, Virginia|Prince Edward County]] instead.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=370–371}} [[Hampden-Sydney College]], which he had helped found in 1775, is located in that county, and Henry enrolled his sons there. The local freeholders elected Henry to the House of Delegates in early 1787, and he served there until the end of 1790. Governor Randolph offered to make Henry a delegate to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]], scheduled to meet in Philadelphia later that year to consider changes to the [[Articles of Confederation]], the document that had governed the loose union among the states since 1777.{{sfn|Campbell|pp=319–320}} Henry refused the appointment, alleging it would be difficult financially.<ref name = "a" /> One legend is that when Henry was asked why he had not gone, he replied, "I smelt a rat."{{sfn|Kidd|pp=182–183}}

Henry's record of urging unity made him a potential supporter of a closer bond between the states, and as late as the end of 1786, Madison hoped for Henry as an ally in the fight. Several factors had eroded Henry's trust in the Northern states, including what he deemed Congress's failure to send adequate troops to protect Virginia settlers in the Ohio River Valley. Henry was outraged by the [[Jay–Gardoqui Treaty]], which would have ceded exclusive navigation on the Mississippi River to Spain for 25 years.{{sfn|Kidd|p=177}} This was in exchange for commercial concessions that would benefit New England, where there was a growing separatist movement. Northern votes were sufficient to relax [[John Jay]]'s negotiating instructions, which had originally forbidden restricting American navigation on the Mississippi, to allow him to reach a deal; Southern votes were sufficient to block the treaty's ratification. These events caused Henry and some other Virginia leaders to feel betrayed and to have little trust in the good faith of the North.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=300–305}}

When the Philadelphia convention adjourned in September 1787, its president, Washington, returned home and immediately sent a copy of the new [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] to Henry, recommending he support it. Henry was in Richmond for the autumn legislative session as delegate for Prince Edward County. While thanking Washington for presiding in Philadelphia and for sending the document, he said of it, "I have to lament that I cannot bring my Mind to accord with the proposed Constitution. The Concern I feel on this account is really greater than I am able to express."{{sfn|Kukla|p=307}} He hinted, though, that he was still open to changing his mind. This allowed Henry to remain noncommittal as opponents of the Constitution, such as Mason and Edmund Randolph (both delegates at Philadelphia) published their opinions, and to refine his views.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=307–310}} In the initial Virginia battle over the Constitution, the call for a convention to decide whether the state should ratify it, Henry and Mason were among those who supported allowing the convention to ratify it conditional on amendments being made. The matter was compromised with language allowing the convention's members full rein in deciding what to do, and it was set for June 1788, with elections in March; both those who supported it and those who did not felt time would be to their advantage.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=381–382}}

Henry was elected to the convention from Prince Edward County without difficulty, though [[John Blair Smith]], president of Hampden-Sydney, caused him some annoyance by having students read at an assembly, in Henry's presence, a speech by Henry on the subject of the Constitution and Smith's own rebuttal.{{sfn|Mayer|p=391}} Henry opposed the Constitution because of its grant of a strong executive, the president; he had not fought to free Virginia from King George to surrender such powers to what might prove a despot. Henry accordingly deemed the Constitution a backwards step and a betrayal of those who had died in the Revolutionary cause.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=191–192}} At the [[Virginia Ratifying Convention]], which began on June 2, 1788,{{sfn|Kukla|p=321}} according to Kidd, Henry's "personality blazed in all its power and glory."{{sfn|Kidd|p=194}} Henry suggested that the framers of the Constitution had no right to begin it "We the People" and ignore the powers of the states. He suggested that the document put too much power in the hands of too few.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=194–195}} He noted that the Constitution, proposed without a [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]], did not protect individual rights: 
{{quote|Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings—give us that precious jewel and you may take everything else. But I fear I have lived long enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old-fashioned: if so, I am contented to be so.{{sfn|Campbell|p=340}}}}

Madison, the lead supporter of the Constitution, was inhibited in replying to Henry's criticisms, since he was ill through most of the convention. Henry likely realized he was fighting a losing battle as sentiment in the convention moved towards ratification, but he continued to speak at length,{{sfn|Kidd|pp=200–201}} and his speeches fill nearly one-quarter of the pages of the Richmond convention's debates.{{sfn|Campbell|p=335}} Governor Randolph, who had become a supporter of ratification, suggested that if the convention allowed Henry to continue arguing, it would last six months rather than six weeks.{{sfn|Kidd|p=201}} After the convention voted on June 25<ref>{{Cite web|last1=M. A.|first1=History|last2=B. A.|first2=History|title=The Order in Which the States Ratified the US Constitution|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/ratification-order-of-constitution-105416|access-date=July 15, 2020|website=ThoughtCo|language=en|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108001653/https://www.thoughtco.com/ratification-order-of-constitution-105416|url-status=live}}</ref> to ratify the Constitution, Henry was somewhat mollified by the fact that the convention had proposed about 40 amendments; some of them were later incorporated in the Bill of Rights. Mason, Henry's ally in opposing ratification, intended a fiery diatribe on the faults of the new plan of government; he was talked out of it. By one account, Henry told other opponents that he had done his duty in opposing ratification, and as republicans, with the issues settled in a democratic way, they had best all go home. Madison wrote to Washington that Henry still hoped for amendments to weaken the power of the federal government, possibly to be proposed by a second national convention.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=207–208}}

Henry returned to the House of Delegates where he successfully defeated Madison's effort to become federal senator from Virginia, for under the original Constitution senators were elected by legislators, not the people. Although Henry made it clear he would not serve in office outside Virginia, he received a number of votes in the election. Madison gained election to the House of Representatives in a district where he was opposed by [[James Monroe]], though Madison's supporters complained that Henry's supporters in the legislature had unfairly placed Orange County, Madison's home county, in a district leaning anti-Federalist. Henry also saw to it that the requested amendments were incorporated in petitions from the legislature to the federal Congress. Despite his qualms, Henry served as one of Virginia's presidential electors, voting for Washington (elected President) and John Adams (elected Vice President).{{sfn|Campbell|pp=375–377}} Henry was disappointed when the [[1st United States Congress|First Congress]] passed only amendments dealing with personal liberties, not those designed to weaken the government.{{sfn|Campbell|pp=378–379}}

A final cause Henry engaged in before leaving the House of Delegates at the end of 1790<ref name = "a" /> was over the [[Funding Act of 1790]], by which the federal government took over the debts of the states, much of which dated from the Revolutionary War. On November&nbsp;3, 1790, Henry introduced a resolution which was passed by the House of Delegates and by the state Senate, declaring the act "repugnant to the constitution of the United States, as it goes to the exercise of a power not granted to the general [federal] government".{{sfn|Kukla|pp=385–366}} This would prove the first of many resolutions passed by Southern state legislatures in the decades to come, defending [[states' rights]] and strict interpretation of the Constitution.{{sfn|Kukla|p=368}}