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Line 183: 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 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}} Henry was somewhat mollified, after the convention voted on June 21 to ratify the Constitution, by the fact that the convention then proposed about 40 amendments; some of them were later incorporated in the Bill of Rights. George 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 Madison's county, Orange, 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 3 of that year, Henry introduced a resolution, which would be passed by the House of Delegates and by the [[Senate of Virginia|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}} | |||