Patrick Henry delivered these three speeches to the Virginia State ratifying convention in June 1788. Henry sought to persuade the Virginia State Ratifying Convention against accepting the Constitution as written. Henry insists that the Constitution makes the central government too powerful, that it centralizes authority in too few representatives, and that the executive has excessive, almost monarchical authority. He also questions whether the writers of the proposed constitution had the authority to speak on behalf of “We the People” in the preamble, as opposed to “we the states.” The speeches indicate great concern that the proposed constitution did not sufficiently protect individual rights. Though Henry opposed the Constitution to the end, his concerns over the document’s lack of a Bill of Rights would be resolved with the ratification of the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution in the First Congressional session of the new government.