Why did Patrick Henry make this statement at the Virginia Ratifying Convention?

This is a speech given by Patrick Henry at the Virginia ratifying convention. Suspicious of centralized authority, Henry opposed the ratification of the proposed Constitution. He said the new system would take away too much power from the state governments and give too much power to the new national government.

treaties

explanation:

a phrase from a poem by ralph waldo emerson about the battle of lexington and concord. emerson's words read, “here once the embattled farmers stood / and fired the shot heard round the world.”