4681Madison at the First Session of the First Federal Congress, 8 April–29 September 1789 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The United States officially began its existence as a federal republic with the meeting of the First Congress in March 1789. During the preceding fourteen years the Continental Congress had been the American central government. Now there was a three-branched federal mechanism, designed at Philadelphia in 1787 to cure the chronic ailments of its predecessor. The demands placed on the First...
4682A Note on the Sources of Madison’s Speeches in the Second Congress, 22 November 1791–1 March 1793 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
One result of JM’s reduced role as a congressional leader after 1791 was that he spoke less frequently. While the editors selected over one hundred of his speeches for publication from the First Congress, only twenty-eight from the Second Congress merit full coverage when using the same selection criteria (Madison at the First Session of the First Federal Congress, 8 Apr.–29 Sept. 1789, PJM...
4683Madison’s Rebuttal to “The Earth Belongs to the Living” Precept, 4 February 1790 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
JM’s cogent reply to Jefferson’s famous 6 September 1789 letter with its radical proposition that “the earth belongs to the living, not to the dead,” now needs little introduction to the serious scholar. Yet there were generations of Americans who studied Jefferson without knowledge of Madison’s philosophical chiding of his fellow Virginian; an oversight corrected since the 1940s by the...
4684Memorandum from an Unidentified Correspondent, [ca. 2 January] 1800 (Madison Papers)
I admit that the word states is used in the constitution, in all the senses which have been ascribed to it, by the paper which I have seen; that the state-governments neither created nor can abrogate the fœderal compact, and that the people of the states did create, and may abrogate it. But none of these considerations settle the question. The true enquiry is, in what sense the resolution of...
4685Note on the Virginia Resolutions, 10 January, and the Address of the General Assembly to the People of the Commonwealth … (Madison Papers)
Few editors and scholars would question that the drafting of the Virginia Resolutions was JM’s most important contribution to the proceedings of the 1798–99 session of the Virginia General Assembly. Earlier generations of editors have maintained, however, that JM was responsible not only for the resolutions of 21 December 1798 but also for three resolutions criticizing the foreign policy of...
4686Madison’s Courtship and Marriage, ca. 1 June–15 September 1794 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
In eighteenth-century American society the relationship between husband and wife was a private, almost secret, matter. History and biography have been poorer for this fact, as witness Martha Washington’s destruction of her husband’s letters after his death. Thus the affectionate exchanges between John and Abigail Adams have long stood out and been cited as unusual survivals of that era of...
4687Madison’s Aurora General Advertiser Essays, 23 January–23 February 1799 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
In his 12 January 1799 letter to Jefferson , JM enclosed “a few observations,” which the editors believe were published under the title of “Foreign Influence” in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser on 23 January 1799. Similarly, on 8 February, JM forwarded to Jefferson “a few more observations,” and the editors have concluded that these appeared in the same newspaper on 23 February...
4688The Recently Rediscovered Letters of Edmund Pendleton, 25 March 1782–30 January 1795 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The following is the first of 37 letters from Edmund Pendleton to JM that either have never been previously published or have been published only in the form of a partial extract. Twenty-five of the letters fall into the former category and 12 into the latter. These letters are part of a larger collection of 155 letters and other documents that Pendleton wrote to JM and to his father, James...
4689The General Assembly Session of October 1786 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
Historians tend to see the past only in the official documents or letters from public men. Yet in Virginia for almost three hundred years the main topics of conversation were undoubtedly the weather, the market price of tobacco, and horses for riding, racing, pulling, or plowing. This perspective was evident when, on the eve of JM’s arrival in Richmond to take his seat in the General Assembly,...
4690Madison’s Election to the First Federal Congress, October 1788–February 1789 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The first federal election in Virginia took place in an atmosphere of bitterness that carried over from the preceding June, when the Federalists had scored a narrow victory for unconditional ratification of the Constitution. At the autumn meeting of the General Assembly, Patrick Henry and his Anti-federalist followers were firmly in control and eagerly seized the opportunity presented by the...
4691A Note on the Sources of Madison’s Speeches in the Second and Third Sessions of the First Congress, 25 January 1790–8 … (Madison Papers)
As explained in the preceding volume, the editors have followed contemporary sources rather than the Annals of Congress Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 1789–1824 (42 vols.; Washington, 1834–56). in presenting the texts of JM’s speeches in Congress ( PJM William T. Hutchinson et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (vols. 1–10, Chicago, 1962–77; vols. 11—,...
4692Madison’s National Gazette Essays, 19 November 1791–20 December 1792 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
JM wrote eighteen unsigned essays that Philip Freneau published in the National Gazette between 21 November 1791 and 22 December 1792. (For details of his encouragement of Freneau’s newspaper, see The Origins of Freneau’s National Gazette , 25 July 1791.) Each essay bears the heading “For the National Gazette .” Two of them, forming a single, extended essay— “Money”—were probably written...
4693Editorial Note (Madison Papers)
When JM returned to Virginia in 1772, after three years at the College of New Jersey, the colony was in the throes of a religious revival. Baptist preachers, usually zealous but unlettered, itinerated through the province paying little heed to the statutes regulating the holding of religious services. This disregard of law was compounded by derogatory attacks on the Established Church. As...
4694Madison’s Authorship of The Federalist, 22 November 1787–1 March 1788 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
After the adjournment of the Federal Convention and his return to Congress in New York, JM did not expect to participate actively in the campaign to ratify the proposed Constitution. Privately disappointed with the outcome of the convention, he nevertheless wished the new plan well and was an interested observer of its reception in the various states. Although the initial reaction was almost...
4695Madison at the Federal Convention, 27 May–17 September 1787 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
JM had already committed himself to work for a new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation when he arrived in Philadelphia on 5 May 1787, nearly three weeks before the Federal Convention had a quorum. The government he hoped to see established would be “republican,” deriving its authority from the great body of the people and administered by persons appointed directly or...
4696The Election of 1800, October 1800–February 1801 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
In 1834 JM recalled the “Crisis” in government during the Adams administration and the part he had played in Jefferson’s “election to the Chief Magistracy” in 1800. His role in those events, he declared, was well known, but since the letters received at Montpelier that survive far outnumber those sent during this period, it is more difficult now to determine just how involved JM was in the...
4697Creation of the National Capital, 6 April 1791 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
In the 1790 legislative skirmish over the national capital, JM led the fight for the Potomac site, but once that battle was won the executive branch took charge. Thereafter, JM was not officially involved in planning the new federal district. His interest, however, never flagged, and he was frequently consulted from the summer of 1790 onward (Memorandum on the Residence Bill, ca. 29 Aug. 1790,...
4698Instruction to Virginia Delegates in re Contracts, 4 and 7 June 1783 (Madison Papers)
FC (Virginia State Library). Resolved that the Delegates representing this State in Congress be instructed to take proper Steps for procuring and transmitting to the Executive of this State copies of all Accounts and Vouchers relative to disbursements and Contracts made with the Individuals of this State by any person acting under the authority of Congress in order that a proper inquiry may be...
4699To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 3 August 1795 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 3 August 1795, Philadelphia. Acknowledged in JM to an unidentified correspondent, 23 Aug. 1795 . Enjoys improved health. Will forward “Features of Mr. Jay’s Treaty” to JM; asks for JM’s views on the treaty.