In these notes from representative James Madison’s journal on the proceedings of Congress dated March 12–15, 1783, Madison reflects on the favorable terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783). The treaty ending the American Revolution was signed on September 3, 1783, and ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784.
In this memorandum from April 1787, Virginia congressman James Madison outlines his critiques of the Articles of Confederation, particularly the need for a stronger central government. Madison incorporated these ideas into the Virginia Plan, his proposal for a revised structure of government presented at the Constitutional Convention.
In this April 16, 1787, letter to George Washington, Virginia congressman James Madison outlines his ideas for a revised structure of government. The letter is a precursor to the Virginia Plan that Madison prepared for the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. Washington, then a private citizen, was elected head of the Virginia delegation to the convention and later president of the convention.
In this letter from August 19, 1789, Virginia Representative James Madison tells Pennsylvania Representative Richard Peters about the importance of his “nauseous project of amendments”—a bill of rights for the U.S. Constitution—despite the challenges of achieving consensus.
In this letter, dated September 8, 1783, James Madison writes to his father James Madison Sr. about his decision to not bring Billy Gardner, an enslaved man, back to Virginia after he had accompanied Madison during his three years with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In Gardner, Madison recognized a desire for freedom that was not dissimilar from his own involvement in the American Revolution. Madison feared that Gardner might inspire the other people enslaved at Montpelier to seek their own freedom. Constrained by Pennsylvania law from selling Gardner outright, Madison sold Gardner into a seven-year term of indenture. Afterward, Gardner lived as a free man.
In this letter, dated October 17, 1784, James Madison gives Thomas Jefferson a report of the negotiations that produced the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix. With the end of the American Revolution, the American Indian nations, who had signed treaties of peace with Great Britain, needed to negotiate their treaties with the newly formed United States. The 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix between the United States and the Six Nations (comprised of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) was the first of those treaties to be renegotiated. The words in italics were written in code and were decoded between the lines by Thomas Jefferson.
In this essay, the forty-second of the Federalist Papers, published January 22, 1788, James Madison makes the case for the compromise included in the U. S. Constitution that the slave trade would continue temporarily. He makes this case amidst a discussion of how the Constitution structures the government’s regulation of trade and commerce. The Federalist Papers were a series of essays by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The essays were written under the pseudonym “Publius.”
In this essay, the fifty-fourth of the Federalist Papers, published February 12, 1788, James Madison makes the case for the three-fifths compromise as best representing enslaved peoples’ status as property and persons. The Federalist Papers were a series of essays by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The essays were written under the pseudonym “Publius.”
From May 25 to September 17, 1787, the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to draft the Constitution of the United States. On May 29, Governor Edmund Randolph, representing the Virginia delegation, presented this outline for a new constitution. James Madison wrote most of what came to be known as the Virginia Plan.
From May 25 to September 17, 1787, the Federal Convention met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to draft the Constitution of the United States. Although the delegates avoided mentioning slavery in the Constitution, this account of the proceedings, reconstructed from notes kept by James Madison, on August 25, 1787, includes a discussion about establishing a timeline for abolishing the slave trade.
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