In an impassioned speech to the Virginia state legislature—"passionate" is pretty much Patrick Henry's default speech setting—Henry defended the Articles of Confederation against the ratification of the Constitution, in a last-ditch effort to keep the Virginia legislature from backing what he thought was the wrong horse.

It is said eight States have adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve States and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. (Source)

Madison, in Henry's eyes, is way too quick to throw the Articles out the window like yesterday's news.

It was the government that saw them through the Revolutionary War, and the government that secured a territory larger than anything a European ruler has. And after it's done all that for the country, it's being accused of uselessness?

Like Madison, he also brings up past republics. How many times, he asks, have there been revolutions in history where as soon as the war is won, liberty is lost by the schemes of the few. And where in the Constitution, he asks, are there any protections for the civil liberties that Madison speaks so fondly of in Federalist Paper 51?

Is all they get in exchange for giving up their state sovereignty an assurance that "those in power, being our Representatives, will not abuse the power we put in their hands…?"

While Madison says in Federalist Papers 10 and 51 that government must protect one group of citizens from another, Henry observes that liberty is lost far more often to tyrannical rulers than to any group of citizens, and that the very proposition that a strong government is needed to protect the people from themselves is absurd.