During the first six of the ten months covered by this volume, Madison
completed his initial period of service as a delegate from Virginia in
the Congress of the Confederation. His correspondence with Thomas
Jefferson and Edmund Randolph, as well as his other papers, reveal the
mounting difficulties besetting him and his fellow nationalists who
sought to preserve a union among the thirteen states. The major
problems, which included demobilizing the discontented army, obtaining
public revenue, funding the Confederation debt, pressing the British to
evacuate their military posts, enforcing the preliminary articles of
peace, creating a public domain in the West, locating a provisional or
permanent capital of the Confederation, and negotiating commercial
treaties with European powers, fostered sectionalism, factionalism, and
an emphasis upon state sovereignty. As a prominent member of Congress,
Madison sought legislative and constitutional remedies for this menacing
divisiveness. To him the maintenence of the new nation embodied the
greatest trust ever confided to a political society, for it was the last
and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature.
Early in December, after an absence of over three years, Madison
returned to Montpelier, his father's estate. There during the winter of
1783-1784, he studied law, renewed old friendships, and canvassed the
residents of Orange County for support of his candidacy for election to
the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly.
maintenance
