Mr. Jefferson used to say, that Mr. MADISON rendered himself very acceptable to the members of the legislature by his amiable deportment, and by the services he performed in drafting reports, bills, &c., for them. It was this that recommended him for election the next winter as a member of the executive council, where his talents for writing and for business generally, particularly his acquaintance with the French language, of which Governor Henry was ignorant, and which was necessary to the executive of Virginia, in their then constant intercourse with French officers, soon made Mr. MADISON the most efficient member of the council. He wrote so much for Governor Henry, that Mr. Jefferson said he was called the governor's secretary. This council was, moreover, the best adapted stage for his first essays as a public speaker: not consisting of more than ten persons, their debates were less trying to a modest man. So extreme was Mr. MADISON'S diffidence, that it was Mr. Jefferson's opinion, that if his first public appearance had taken place in such an assembly as the house of representatives of the United States, Mr. MADISON Would never have been able to overcome his aversion to display. But by practice, first in the executive council of Virginia, and afterwards in the old congress, which was likewise a small body, he was gradually habituated to speech-making in public, in which he became so powerful.

Elected to congress, he took his seat in that body in March, 1780; and was continued there by reëlections till the expiration of the allowed term, computed from the ratification of the articles of confederation in 1781. From the spring of 1780 to the fall of 1783, the journals show, what is known to all, that he became an active and leading member of congress, taking prominent part in many of the most important transactions. The letter of instructions to Mr. Jay, American minister in Spain, in October 1780, maintaining the right of the United States to the Mississippi river, and the address to the states at the close of the war, urging the adoption of the plan providing for the debts due to the army, and the other public creditors, were composed by him, and are some of the earliest of his contributions to those American state papers which, during the infancy of the United States, were among their most powerful means of conservation and advancement.

In the years 1784, '5, and '6, he was elected a delegate by his county to the state legislature: and it is worthy of remark, that one reason why Virginia was always fruitful of statesmen of the first rank, is, that they constantly, all of them, sought seats in the state assembly, where such men both acquired and conferred the experience and

knowledge which make statesmen. During Mr. MADISON's service in this capacity, it was his primary object to explain and inculcate the pressing necessity of a reform in the federal system, and to promote the means leading to such amelioration. The independence of the United States was recognised rather than established. More perfect union was indispensable to their general welfare. The pressure of war being withdrawn, nationality almost disappeared amid the conflicting interests of many independent states, languid with exhaustion, after the struggle almost in conflict with each other, and in obvious danger of a deplorable relapse. The unsuccessful attempt to vest congress with powers immediately required for the public wants, led to the meeting at Annapolis in August, 1786, to which Mr. MADISON was deputed, and which resulted in a recommendation of the convention with fuller powers, at Philadelphia, in May, 1787. The state of Virginia promptly set the example of compliance with this recommendation, by an act drawn by Mr. MADISON, and by the appointment of a deputation, in which he was included. The tenor of that act, and the selection of the delegates, with Washington at their head, manifest her solicitude on the occasion.

From 1784 to 1786, inclusive, beside what related to the federal system, several subjects of great importance were agitated in the Virginia legislature: paper money, British debts, the separation of Kentucky from Virginia, the code of laws revised by Jefferson, Wythe, and Pendleton, and the religious establishment proposed by Mr. Henry: Mr. MADISON took a conspicuous and effective part in all these proceedings; against paper emissions, in favor of paying British debts, in favor of the separation of Kentucky, in support generally of the revised code, and in opposition to a religious establishment. To the latter project he was strenuously and successfully an explicit antagonist; and he composed the memorial and remonstrance, which was so generally concurred in and signed by persons of all denominations, as to crush Mr. Henry's scheme.

The journal of the federal convention which sat at Philadelphia in 1787, proves that he participated as much as any member of that body in framing the constitution of the United States, which for now nearly fifty years has been the government of this country. A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Adams the elder, which has been published, states, as is otherwise well authenticated, that Mr. MADISON preserved the debates of that convention at much length and with great exactness and there is reason to believe, that in due time this precious minute will be given to the community. For many years the survivor

of all his associates in that illustrious assembly, Mr. MADISON is entitled by various claims to be called the father of the constitution. As a leading member of the convention which framed the government, of the congresses which organized it, of the administration of Mr. Jefferson, which conducted it for a long time in the path it has since for the most part followed, and finally as the head of his own administration in its most trying time, when the exigencies of war were superadded to the occasions of peace, no individual has impressed more of his mind, either theoretically or practically, on it, than JAMES MADISON.

During the same period, and until the expiration of the old congress, to which he had been reappointed in 1786, he continued a member of that body. His avowed object in returning there, was to prevent, if possible, the project, favored by congress, of shutting up the river Mississippi for a long period. That measure, besides other causes of complaint, threatened to alienate Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, from any increase of the federal powers. If the magnificent and inexhaustible south-west now teaches us by overwhelming lessons the impolicy of any thing tending to deprive the United States of such immense resources, let the foresight of Mr. MADISON, and such other statesmen as strained every nerve to avert that misfortune, be appreciated as it should be, not only throughout that region, but everywhere in the United States.

In the interval between the close of the convention at Philadelphia for framing the federal constitution, and the meeting of the state conventions to sanction it, the well-known work called the Federalist was written, which has since become a constitutional text-book. Gideon's edition authenticates Mr. MADISON's contributions to it, and it is too well known to require that in this sketch of his life it should be dwelt

upon.

Till his country was secured, and its welfare established by a proper form of national government, Mr. MADISON was constant and indefatigable in his endeavors to explain and recommend it for adoption. Accordingly, in 1788, he was elected by his county a delegate to the convention of Virginia, which was to determine whether that state would accede to it. His agency in the proceedings of that convention appears in the printed account of them, and is too familiar with every person whose attention has been turned to the subject, to require explanation.

On the adoption of the constitution, he was elected a representative to congress from the district in which he lived, in February, 1789, and remained a member by reëlections till March, 1797. His participa

tion during those eight years in all the acts and deliberations of congress, was so prominent and pervading, that nothing of importance took place without his instrumentality, and in most of the leading measures his was the leading place; especially in all that concerned foreign relations. Addressing the house on all important questions, he never spoke without full preparation; and so completely exhausted every topic he discussed, that it was remarked by his adversaries that Mr. MADISON's refutation of their views frequently suggested arguments which they themselves had not thought of, to be answered by him in the same triumphant strain of calm and respectful, but irresistible reasoning. Every one knows that in the formation of parties under the lead of Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Hamilton respectively, Mr. MADISON took side with the former, or what was called the democratic party, contradistinguished from what was called the federal party, particularly on the great dividing questions of the bank and the British treaty. But there never was any personal estrangement between him and Washington; and throughout the lives of both, each did full justice to the talents, principles, and patriotism of the other. Nor did Mr. MADISON, however differing from much of the politics of Hamilton, ever entertain any but the highest opinion of his abilities, services, and good intentions.

In 1794 he married Mrs. Todd, the widow of a respectable lawyer of Philadelphia; a lady of Virginia parentage, of most amiable disposition and engaging deportment, whose constant attachment and excellent temper, her courtesy to all persons while her husband was president, and her unintermitting attentions to him afterwards, when enfeebled by age and infirmity, rendered his connection with her what he never ceased to consider it, as the happiest event of his life.

The celebrated resolutions of the legislature of Virginia, in 1798, against the alien and sedition laws, are now known to have been written by Mr. MADISON, though not a member of that legislature. And it being understood that a vindication of those resolutions would be called for, he was elected a member the next year, and drew up the yet more celebrated report containing the vindication, which, like the papers of the Federalist, has become an acknowledged standard of constitutional doctrine. These state papers have been much appealed to latterly, during the nullification controversy, and though sometimes partially misrepresented, cannot be misunderstood when properly explained and considered. For under whatever state of excitement, either between contending parties of his own country, or between it and foreign nations, Mr. MADISON's numerous and admirable state

papers may have been drawn up, there is a tone of moderation, as well as an abiding earnestness, candor, and force of truth about them, together with a simplicity of diction and plainness of argument, that prevent either misrepresentation or refutation.

In 1801, he was appointed one of the Virginia electors of president and vice president, and voted with all the rest of his associates for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Mr. Jefferson, after the well-known struggle that preceded his election, being chosen president of the United States in 1801, appointed Mr. MADISON his secretary of state, in which office he continued during the eight years of Jefferson's presidency, illustrating the whole period by his masterly writings, judicious suggestions, and unexceptionable conduct. This is not the occasion for a full view of his performances in the department of state: but it may be said, in a word, that of all the great disputes on international and municipal law, evolved by an epoch that at last, after unexampled forbearance and efforts to avert hostilities, closed with the war which it was Mr. MADISON's destiny to conduct as chief magistrate,-the complicated questions of the conflicting rights of war and peace, colonial commerce, contraband trade, impressment of seamen, search and seizure of ships and cargoes, blockades, embargoes, non-importation and non-intercourse, there was not one which Mr. MADISON did not present to his country and before the world with a power of research, of argument, and of reasoning, unsurpassed in the annals of diplomatic writing. In 1805, he visited Philadelphia, for more convenient access to the best treatises on the subject of a pamphlet he published in 1806, on the British doctrine against the trade of neutrals with enemies' colonies. Throughout every succeeding year, the public was constantly enlightened by his elaborate productions, which every session of congress brought forth. On the question of impressment, the most trying and also the most perplexing of the grievances to which the United States were then subjected, his letters to the American ministers in England, and the British ministers in this country, were composed with a power equal to all we could desire, and in a temper which it was impossible for them to take offence at. It has been said with perfect truth, that give Mr. MADISON the right side of a good cause, and no man could equal him in its vindication. The department of state at that time was the main stay of the country. Doubting the ability of the United States to contend in war with the great belligerants who were devastating the universe by land and sea; at all events, deeply interested in adhering to that system of neutrality which Washington established