1Instruction to Virginia Delegates in re Confiscated Property, 17 [and 23] December 1782 (Madison Papers)
RC ( NA : PCC , No. 69, II, 429–32). Docketed, “Resolutions of the Genl. Assembly of Virginia Read March 20. 1783. Referred to Mr. Osgood Mr. Mercer Mr. Fitzsimmons.” Whereas Resolutions in States which end in a dissolution of their former Government or constitution, bear no similarity to contests between independant Nations in which the object is the defence & support of their...
2The General Assembly Session of October 1784 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
Wartime emergencies faded as peace returned and the pace of political life in Virginia slipped back into its earlier tempo. The May 1784 session was the last spring meeting held by the legislature, the members having determined that henceforth a single session would be adequate. JM had no quarrel with the slower pace—it was the power rather than the working habits of the older crowd that...
3The General Assembly Session of May 1784 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The sword had been sheathed, so the problems faced by the Commonwealth of Virginia and her sister states in 1784 were no longer a life-and-death matter. As James Madison rode down to Richmond in May his thoughts must have been on the still-unsolved dilemma that had confronted Congress from almost the outset: finance. The cost of running the small bureaucracy that kept the Confederation...