When James Madison entered the Continental Congress in
March 1780, the war-torn American states were set to be loosely
governed by the Articles of Confederation. The Articles had been
passed in 1777, but would not go into effect until 1781. They were
informed by the principle that the thirteen infant states were
sovereign entities, and that any national union of which they might
be apart was dissoluble by the will of the state governments. A
number of men in Congress opposed such a clear-cut view of states'
rights, James Madison among them. He saw an essential unity in
the American states that went far beyond their struggle against
a common enemy, the British. To Madison, the American people were
a single people, and they should have a strong national government
which would represent them in that unity. This idea would eventually
inform the doctrine known as Federalism.
In 1781, the British commander, General
Cornwallis, surrendered at Yorktown, effectively
ending the American Revolution and marking the American patriots'
victory in their struggle against British rule. In 1783, the Treaty
of Paris formally ended the conflict, and Great Britain recognized
the United States as an independent country. In Congress, members
such as Madison turned their eyes in a more focused way toward
the government of the new American nation. Debates ensued over
whether the United States would be a confederation of thirteen small
republics, or a single, federated republic. Madison favored the
latter view, and in its interest he worked toward strengthening
Congress's power over the state governments. In 1783, he helped
secure the passage of an amendment to the Articles of Confederation
that would give Congress a new taxing power over the states. The
state governments rejected this amendment.
Madison made a name for himself early on in Congress for
his involvement in foreign policy and trade questions. He was a
leading figure in supporting a continued alliance with the French.
He defended Benjamin Franklin's closeness to the French, angering many
in Congress who favored closer ties with Britain after the revolutionary
controversies had subsided. He also served on a committee which
dealt with boundary and trading disagreements with the Spanish.
The Americans wished to transport and trade freely up and down
the Mississippi River, particularly at its Spanish-controlled delta.
Americans also wished to mark their western boundary along the
Mississippi. Much of the land west of the thirteen states was claimed
by Virginia; though he was a proud Virginian, Madison worked toward
Virginia's ceding those claims to the Congress as national property.
This action reinforced his federalist position.
In the early months of 1783, Madison's hopes for a strong national
union were dashed by the breaking up of nationalist efforts in
the Continental Congress. He desired to return home to Virginia,
but was kept in Philadelphia by a personal preoccupation: he had
fallen in love with a young lady named Catherine Floyd, the daughter
of a New York delegate to the Congress. The two became engaged that
year, but at the end of the summer, Catherine broke the engagement
and decided she should marry a young medical student instead of
James Madison. Madison was hurt by the affair, and in October 1783,
with Congress's adjournment, he left Philadelphia behind and returned
home.
Back in Virginia, Madison quickly found himself involved
once again in politics. He was elected to the Virginia House of
Delegates in the spring of 1784. Before immersing himself entirely
in legislative affairs, however, he spent the summer of that year
on an extended tour of the northern states. While on the road, he
ran in with the Marquis de Lafayette, the famous young Frenchman
who had fought alongside General George Washington. The two traveled
together as far as the Mohawk Valley in New York, where Lafayette
helped settle a boundary dispute with the Iroquois people. Madison
returned to Virginia in the fall, and found himself at odds with
Patrick Henry over the question of religious establishment in the
state.
Henry was pushing for a bill which would have taxed Virginians to
support "Teachers of the Christian Religion." Madison opposed the
measure, and wrote a pamphlet in the summer of 1785 called the Memorial
and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments which set
forth his views. It was distributed and read throughout Virginia,
and circulated as a petition. The pamphlet argued for the "unalienable
right" of every man to exercise his religion as "conviction and
consciencemay dictate, " and it also claimed that religious establishment
"is a contradiction to the Christian Religion itself, for every
page of it disavows a dependence on the powers of this world."
Largely because of Madison's efforts, Henry's bill died
quietly in the fall session of the assembly. Madison followed up
this victory by securing the passage of the Statute for Religious
Freedom, which his good friend Thomas Jefferson had drafted before
leaving for a diplomatic mission in Paris. Less successful were
Madison's efforts against slavery, his efforts to establish a public
school system in Virginia, and his efforts to reform the constitution
of the state.
Madison served in the Virginia House of Delegates through
the 1786 session, when he was called once again to represent Virginia in
the Continental Congress, which was then meeting in New York. The
delegates were engaged in debates over American commerce and constitutional
questions, and they voted to call together a Constitutional Convention
which would meet in Philadelphia in the spring of 1787. Once and
for all, a genuine settlement of the problems surrounding the Articles
of Confederation would be attempted. Madison was one of the delegates
voted to represent Virginia at this important convention, along
with George Mason and the great George Washington.
