Patrick Henry was one of the leaders of opponents of the Constitution.  At the Virginia General Assembly session in fall 1788, Henry, a member of the House of Delegates who controlled the legislature, prevented James Madison from being appointed as one of the state's first senators.  Henry then used his political power to create a congressional district designed to make it almost impossible for Madison to be elected to the House.  The district was comprised of eight counties in central Virginia, most of them teeming with Anti-Federalists.  Madison would have to oppose his longtime friend, James Monroe, in the election.  If Madison did not win, the nation may not have had a bill of rights.  The election took place on a very cold day, February 2, 1789.
 

Patrick Henry (left) believed that if Madison was elected, he would propose amendments related only to individual rights, and thus Congress would not offer more radical amendments to limit the new government.  He helped recruit James Monroe (right) to oppose him in the House election. (Henry: National Portrait Gallery) (Monroe: National Archives)

This is a weather log kept at Montpelier, Madison's home in Orange County, VA. It shows the temperature on February 2 was two degrees at sunrise.  Ten inches of snow were on the ground in many parts of the district.  Citizens had to travel up to 25 miles to get to their county seat to vote, which would have taken all day under the best conditions.  (Library of Virginia)

Francis Taylor, James Madison's cousin who lived in Orange County, kept a diary with notations on the House election.  These pages are from February 3 and 6.  Taylor wrote in the first entry that he went to the courthouse (in the city of Orange) around noon, and he gives election results from other counties.  In the second entry, Taylor said that his father had heard that Madison got a majority of 104 votes in Louisa County and that sheriffs from the district were meeting in Charlottesville to count the votes. (Library of Virginia)

James Madison won the election by 336 votes.  He arrived in New York in early April 1789.  This was the newly remodeled Federal Hall located at Wall and Nassau streets in lower Manhattan.  It was in this building where the Bill of Rights was debated and proposed. (Library of Congress)