321To James Madison from George Lee Turberville, 20 January 1790 (Madison Papers)
An opportunity occurring to a post office—enables me to consign a few lines to you—to assure you that I am still sensible of the obligations that Myself my posterity & my fellow citizens are under to you—who have devoted Your life hitherto to the formation of such measures as tend to the promotion of general happiness. I was not a little disappointed that you did not visit Richmond during the...
322Madison at the First Session of the First Federal Congress, 8 April–29 September 1789 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The United States officially began its existence as a federal republic with the meeting of the First Congress in March 1789. During the preceding fourteen years the Continental Congress had been the American central government. Now there was a three-branched federal mechanism, designed at Philadelphia in 1787 to cure the chronic ailments of its predecessor. The demands placed on the First...