and
having there refused to sign the Constitution, had published an
impressive statement of his objections to it, and, for several months
thereafter, had been counted among its most formidable opponents.
Concerning the attitude of the legal profession,--a profession always
inclined to conservatism,--Madison had written to Jefferson: "The
general and admiralty courts, with most of the bar, oppose the
Constitution."[373] Finally, among Virginians who were at that time
particularly honored and trusted for patriotic services during the
Revolution, such men as these, Theodoric Bland, William Grayson, John
Tyler, Meriwether Smith, James Monroe, George Mason, and Richard Henry
Lee, had declared their disapproval of the document.

Nevertheless, within the convention itself, at the opening of the
session, it was claimed by the friends of the new government that they
then outnumbered their opponents by at least fifty votes.[374] Their
great champion in debate was James Madison, who was powerfully
assisted, first or last, by Edmund Pendleton, John Marshall, George
Nicholas, Francis Corbin, George Wythe, James Innes, General Henry
Lee, and especially by that same Governor Randolph who, after
denouncing the Constitution for "features so odious" that he could not
"agree to it,"[375] had finally swung completely around to its
support.

Against all this array of genius, learning, character, logical acumen,
and eloquence, Patrick Henry held the field as protagonist for
twenty-three days,--his chief lieutenants in the fight being Mason,
Grayson, and John Dawson, with occasional help from Harrison, Monroe,
and Tyler. Upon him alone fell the brunt of the battle. Out of the
twenty-three days of that splendid tourney, there were but five days
in which he did not take the floor. On each of several days he made
three speeches; on one day he made five speeches; on another day
eight. In one speech alone, he was on his legs for seven hours. The
words of all who had any share in that debate were taken down,
according to the imperfect art of the time, by the stenographer, David
Robertson, whose reports, however, are said to be little more than a
pretty full outline of the speeches actually made: but in the volume
which contains these abstracts, one of Patrick Henry's speeches fills
eight pages, another ten pages, another sixteen, another twenty-one,
another forty; while, in the aggregate, his speeches constitute nearly
one quarter of the entire