gations of the country. The responsibilities of the Congress were novel and unsatisfactory, and there seemed no remedy for evils which had long ago appeared in the relations of the States and the powers of the Confederacy as represented in the Congress. As the peace became more a matter of certainty, the sense of obligation was visibly diminished. The States claimed power for themselves, and denied it to the Congress, so that at times it became impossible to obtain a vote of two-thirds of the members on any important matter, according to the requirement of the Articles of Confederation.

Arthur Lee, brother of Richard Henry, who had aided in the negotiation of the treaty with France in 1778, was at this time one of the delegates from Virginia, and, true to his reputation of being the most contrary individual in America, he bitterly opposed every motion looking to the raising of a general revenue through the authority of the Congress. Alexander Hamilton, then the most active man in the Congress, and a few others siding with him, favored a Congressional authority which would leave no discretion, hardly a territorial distinction, to the States. Mr. Madison, while adhering to the general plan of State government, now took a decided stand against the position of the Virginia Legislature and in support of the only way in which he believed the war debts could ever be paid, a revenue be raised, and the honor of the States and the Confederacy be maintained, by putting the authority to do so in the hands of the Congress.

When a plan for a revenue was finally adopted by that body Madison, Hamilton, and Ellsworth were ap

pointed to draw up an address to the States on the subject. The task of writing this address fell to Mr. Madison, and it was one of the most able state papers which had yet appeared in the history of the times. John Quincy Adams said that this address was "one of those incomparable state papers which more than all the deeds of arms immortalized the rise, progress, and termination of the North American Revolution." It was, in fact, a reassertion of the noble and admirable principles which had characterized the Congress at the outset of the struggle. With Hamilton Mr. Madison was constantly associated, and although he had not Hamilton's originality, or his ability as an orator and public debater, he was his superior as a scholar, and was one of the most ready and finished writers, as well as careful and accurate thinkers of his time, and perhaps of any other period in his country's history.

Mr. Hamilton could not have had any other than a favorable and friendly feeling for Madison; nor does it appear that Mr. Madison had not a genuine regard for this rare and brilliant character destined to become one of the most interesting and important figures in the early history of the Republic. Nor does it appear that Madison ever made an attempt to underrate or give an unfavorable coloring to any of his deeds.

One of the most annoying questions before the Congress during Mr. Madison's term in it pertained to the territory originally claimed by some of the States on their western borders. On the 2d of January, 1781, Virginia had granted to the Confederation her vast territorial claim, embracing 'nearly all the lands lying west of the thirteen States. But she had attached so many conditions to the grant as to render the case

troublesome and impracticable. Mr. Madison took the view of his State as to the conditions of her conveyance, and throughout the long, weary controversy worked earnestly to bring about a settlement in accordance with her requirements.

Finally, in September, 1783, her proposition was substantially submitted to, and on the first day of March, 1784, the deed was made by her representatives, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Samuel Hardy, and the eccentric Arthur Lee.

The land lying between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain was also in dispute, being claimed as a part of New York under a royal grant, and now known as the New Hampshire Grants, indicating the authority of settlement from New Hampshire.

In the midst of the Revolutionary War the inhabitants of this tract declared themselves independent of both claimants and applied to the Congress for recognition and redress. But the case remained as it was until 1782, when an outbreak of the Green Mountain Boys led the Congress to decide against any action favorable to them; but finally in 1790, the matter was settled, and the New Hampshire Grants became Vermont, the first new State, admitted into the Union March 4, 1791.

It was almost as difficult for the Continental Congress to disband and get rid of an army as it was for it to organize and keep one at a time when it was needed. As to the propriety of the demands of the army, there was justly great diversity of opinion; and at any rate the main difficulty lay in the inability of the Congress to comply with the demands. But fortunately mainly through the influence of General Washington and with

an honorable, patriotic, and wise course of conduct on the part of both the Congress and the soldiers, the army was finally disbanded on the 18th of October, 1783. Prior to this event the definitive treaty had been ratified and the British troops had withdrawn from the country.

Already the question of the location for a permanent seat for the Confederacy had given rise to considerable discussion and even dissension in the Congress. A strong force pulled toward the North, and a stronger one toward the South. Many ridiculous expedients were resorted to in this important matter which every man in the Congress and out of it, should have desired to see settled on the solitary ground of fitness, every thing considered, for the honor and advantage of the whole country. But this was not the first instance of a display of selfish and sectional interests in the Continental Congress. For his part, Mr. Madison even hoped that the Capital of the Confederation (Mr. Adams's rope of sand) might be fixed at Williamsburg. But he wrote in the report of the debates that Virgina and Maryland must unite in a grant of a territory, when their chances of success would be assured. matter was temporarily settled, however, by the most inconvenient and foolish of all possible plans with two seats for the government, one at Trenton and one at Annapolis, and providing for two permanent confederate towns, one on the Delaware, and one on the Potomac.

The

Although the Congress had, after the Declaration of Independence, gradually materially deteriorated in the character and strength of its members, yet during the latter half of Mr. Madison's term in that body it

had regained much of its original ability and spirit. The Rutledges, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, Richard Henry Lee, Dr. Witherspoon, and others had returned, and Ellsworth, Oliver Wolcott, James Wilson, Robt. R. Livingston, Hamilton, McKean, Laurens, Edmund Randolph, and other really able men had been sent as members. Without the qualifications and pretensions of a lawyer, Mr. Madison had unquestionably taken a high position among this race of brilliant men. He was still one of the youngest members, but Virginia, regarding his conduct and character in so favorable a light, had promptly re-elected him annually to the full extent of his eligibility. During his last winter in the Congress he began a systematic course of law studies, which he kept up for several years, but certainly without the least intention of entering upon the practice of the law as a profession. In a letter to Edmund Randolph dated July 26, 1785, Mr. Madison wrote this of his intentions:

"I keep up my attention, as far as I can command any time, to the course of reading which I have of late pursued, and shall continue to do so. I am, however, far from being determined ever to make a professional use of it. My wish is, if possible, to provide a decent and independent subsistence, without encountering the difficulties which I foresee in that line. Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves. The difficulty of reconciling these views has brought into my thoughts several projects from which advantage seemed attainable. I have, in concert with a friend here, one at present on the anvil, which we think can not fail to yield a decent reward for our trouble. Should we persist in it, it will cost me a ride to Philadelphia, after which it will go on without my being ostensibly concerned. I forbear to particularize till I can do it ore tenus.”

In his record of the proceedings in the Congress, Mr. Madison wrote in March, 1783: