Many minute and wise provisions are due to Madison, and he spoke before the convention more frequently than any delegate except James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. In spite of the opposition to the Constitution of the Virginia leaders George Mason and E. J. Randolph, Madison induced the State's delega tion to stand by the Constitution in the convention. To meet the objections brought against it throughout the country, he joined Alexander Hamilton (q.v.) and John Jay in writing The Federal ist, a series of 85 papers, out of which 20 certainly, and nine others probably, were written by him. In the Virginia convention for ratifying the Constitution (June 1788), when eight States had rati fied and it seemed that Virginia's vote would be needed to make the necessary nine (New Hampshire's favourable vote was cast only shortly before that of Virginia), and it appeared that New York would vote against the constitution if Virginia did not ratify it, Madison was called upon to defend that instrument again, and he appeared at his best against its opponents, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Benjamin Harrison, William Gray son and John Tyler. He answered their objections in detail, calmly and with an intellectual power and earnestness that carried the convention. The result was a victory against an originally adverse public opinion and against the eloquence of the opponents of the constitution, for Madison and for his lieutenants, Edmund Pendle ton, John Marshall, George Nicholas, Harry Innes and Henry Lee. At the same time Madison's labours in behalf of the consti tution alienated from him valuable political support in Virginia. He was defeated by Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson for the United States Senate, but in his own district he was chosen a representative to Congress, defeating James Monroe.
Madison took his seat in the House of Representatives in April 1789, and assumed a leading part in the legislation neces ' sary to the organization of the new Government. He drafted a tariff bill giving certain notable advantages to nations with which the United States had commercial treaties, hoping to force Great Britain into a similar treaty; but his policy of discrimi nation against England was rejected by Congress. It was his belief that such a system of retaliation would remove the possi bility of war arising from commercial quarrels. He introduced resolutions calling for the establishment of three executive de partments, foreign affairs, treasury and war, the head of each removable by the president. Most important of all, he proposed nine amendments to the constitution, which were the basis of the Bill of Rights embodied in the first ten amendments. Although a staunch friend of the Constitution, Madison believed that the instrument should be interpreted conservatively. The tide of "strict construction" was setting in strongly in his State, and he was borne along with the flood. It is very probable that Jefferson's influence over Madison, which was greater than Hamilton's, contributed to this result. Madison now opposed Hamilton's
measures for the funding of the debt, the assumption of State debts, and the establishment of a national bank, and on other questions he sided more and more with the Opposition, gradually assuming its leadership in the House of Representatives and labouring to confine the powers of the National Government within the narrowest possible limits. Madison objected to the carrying out of the recommendations in Hamilton's famous report on manufactures (Dec. 5, 1791), which favoured a protective tariff. In 1793-96 he strongly criticized the administration for maintaining a neutral position between Great Britain and France, writing for the public press five papers (signed "Helvidius"), attacking the "monarchical prerogative of the executive" as exer cised in the proclamation of neutrality in 1793 and denying the president's right to recognize foreign States. He found in Wash ington's attitude—as in Hamilton's failure to pay an instalment of the moneys due to France—an "Anglified complexion," in direct opposition to the popular sympathy with France and French Republicanism. In 1794 he tried again his commercial weapons, introducing in the House of Representatives resolutions based on Jefferson's report on commerce, advising retaliation against Great Britain and discrimination in commercial and navigation laws in favour of France; and he declared that the friends of Jay's treaty were "a British party systematically aiming at an exclu sive connection with the British Government." In 1797 Madison retired from Congress, but not to a life of inactivity. In 1798 he joined Jefferson in opposing the Alien and Sedition laws, and Madison himself wrote the resolutions of the Virginia legislature declaring that it viewed "the powers of the Federal Government as resulting from the compact to which the States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact; as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that corn pact ; and that, in case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the States, who are parties thereto, have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them." The Virginia resolutions and the Kentucky resolutions (the latter having been drafted by Jefferson) were met by dissenting resolutions from the New England States, from New York, and from Delaware. In answer to these, Madison, who had become a member of the Virginia legislature in the autumn of 1799, wrote for the committee to which they were referred a report elaborating and sustaining in every point the phraseology of the Virginia resolutions.