tion, and outnumbered upon the important
question, collected his whole strength, and pointed his
whole force against the government, in the Assembly. He here
met with but a feeble opposition.... He led on his almost
unresisted phalanx, and planted the standard of hostility
upon the very battlements of federalism. In plain English,
he ruled a majority of the Assembly; and his edicts were
registered by that body with less opposition than those of
the Grand Monarque have met with from his parliaments. He
chose the two senators.... He divided the State into
districts, ... taking care to arrange matters so as to have
the county, of which Mr. Madison is an inhabitant, thrown
into a district of which a majority were supposed to be
unfriendly to the government, and by that means exclude him
from the representative body in Congress. He wrote the
answer to Governor Clinton's letter, and likewise the
circular letter to the executives of the several States....
And after he had settled everything relative to the
government wholly, I suppose, to his satisfaction, he
mounted his horse and rode home, leaving the little business
of the State to be done by anybody who chose to give
themselves the trouble of attending to it."[412]

How great was the effect of these strategic measures, forced by
Patrick Henry through the legislature of Virginia in the autumn of
1788, was not apparent, of course, until after the organization of the
first Congress of the United States, in the spring of 1789. Not until
the 5th of May could time be found by that body for paying the least
attention to the subject of amendments. On that day Theodoric Bland,
from Virginia, presented to the House of Representatives the solemn
application of his State for a new convention; and, after some
discussion, this document was entered on the journals of the
House.[413] The subject was then dropped until the 8th of June, when
Madison, who had been elected to Congress in spite of Patrick Henry,
and who had good reason to know how dangerous it would be for Congress
to trifle with the popular demand for amendments, succeeded, against
much opposition, in getting the House to devote that day to a
preliminary discussion of the business. It was again laid aside for
nearly six weeks, and again got a slight hearing on the 21st of July.
On the 13th of August it was once more brou