In December 1779, Madison was selected to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress for a three year term and he departed for Philadelphia in March 1780. Jefferson was left to cope with the British invasion of Virginia, and like Madison later, he had his capital burned. Jefferson himself escaped capture only because a young man, Jack Jouette, rode through the woods to warn him of the British approach. Jouette, a Virginia hero, was to bear facial scars from the branches for the rest of his life.

When Madison entered the Continental Congress in March 1780 he was its youngest member. The Continental Congress had proposed the Articles of Confederation in 1777, and they took effect in 1781: Madison found himself serving in the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation.

Madison's letters to Jefferson reveal that from the start he was distrustful of reliance on the states and supportive of stronger national powers: he wrote disparagingly of "Congress . . . recommending plans to the several states for execution and the states separately rejudging the expediency of such plans." In 1783, his last year in Congress, Madison secured passage of a proposed amendment to the Articles that would give Congress a source of revenue: a circumscribed power to collect duties on imported goods. Adoption of the amendment, however, would require the unanimous approval of the thirteen states and was undecided when Madison left Philadelphia in 1783. It was not to be.

Madison also was involved in foreign affairs. France had become an ally in 1778, and French gold, supplies, troops and ships were critical to American continuation of the Revolutionary War. American interests in Paris were represented by Benjamin Franklin, an internationally honored diplomat, inventor and scientist. Franklin affected simple manners and was lionized by the French. Nonetheless, a faction in the Congress was suspicious of the French and distrustful of Franklin. Madison became an influential defender of Franklin and the French alliance.

The victory of French and American forces at Yorktown in October, 1781, demonstrated the value of the French alliance, while at the same time diminishing it: with peace at hand, the alliance was no longer essential. Differences between the supporters of the French ties and those favoring the traditional links with England persisted throughout Madison's service in the Continental Congress; would be a factor in the two party rift that emerged in the 1790s; and would remain a factor through the War of 1812.

Madison assumed other important responsibilities. He served on a committee that prepared the instructions to John Jay, our ambassadors in Spain, regarding the free navigation of the Mississippi. In October 1780, he was asked to draft the letter to accompany the report and justify American claims. The free transit of the Mississippi was important as it provided the only feasible means of export for the produce of most of the vast lands west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi. Virginia claimed much of this land, and it was natural that Madison, a Virginian, would see free transit as essential. Madison, however, would support the free transit of the Mississippi throughout his career -- long after Virginia had given up her claims and new states had been formed west of the Appalachians.

The cession [an act of ceding or surrendering] of state claimed lands west of the Appalachians was a related issue. Virginia had well established claims for what are now Kentucky and West Virginia. Additionally, Virginia claimed the Northwest Territory on the basis of the startlingly successful expedition of George Rogers Clark into that territory. There was general agreement, perhaps, that the lands, as they became populated, should be formed into new states. However, conflicting claims of state governments, Revolutionary War veterans who had been promised land, and land companies swirled around these lands and made settlement difficult.

George Mason, Madison and, Joseph Jones, another Virginia delegate, produced a plan for Virginia's cession of the Northwest Territory. Virginia would renounce its claims dependent upon Congressional acceptance of its conditions: recompense for the Clark expedition; recognition of claims of veterans; disavowal of claims based on purchases from the Native American nations. and that the ceded lands be a common fund for benefit of the United States. Virginia agreed in January, 1781, but Madison was initially unable to secure agreement by Congress. The matter dragged on for several years, but was finally resolved along the lines of the Virginia proposal:

"Thus important foundations were laid: the principle of cession of Western lands for the common good had been agreed to by all the states and the idea of new, fully equal states acceding to the union of the original thirteen opened the way for, in Jefferson's famous phrase, the "empire of liberty" to spread across the continent." (Ketcham, page 100)

Jefferson's wife died in September of 1782, and Madison hoped to lure Jefferson back to public service by asking Congress to add him to the peace negotiators in Paris. Congress did and Jefferson agreed. Madison and Jefferson were together in Philadelphia several months in early 1783 while Jefferson unsuccessfully sought passage to France. Jefferson returned to Virginia, but later that same year returned to Philadelphia as a delegate to Congress. Madison and Jefferson were together again, but, the Articles provided for rotation in office and Madison's term in office ended shortly after Jefferson's arrival. The next session of Congress was to be held in Annapolis, so the two traveled together to Annapolis in late 1783. Madison went on by himself to Virginia. Madison had "served in the Continental Congress almost every day for nearly four years, a record of steady attendance unsurpassed by any other delegate in its fifteen-year history." (Ketcham, page 101). Madison had left Virginia a young patriot; he returned "one of the nation's acknowledged, creative leaders." (Ketcham, page 143).

Madison served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1786. In 1784, Patrick Henry endorsed a bill to levy a tax to support "Teachers of the Christian Religion." When the bill seemed likely to pass, Madison and others decided to put the vote off to the next session to give themselves time to arouse opposition. In the summer of 1785 Madison wrote the Memorial and Remonstrance arguing against Henry's bill. Hundreds of copies were circulated throughout the state. Madison, who was often cautious in his words, wrote passionately concerning Church and State:

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

The Memorial and Remonstrance drew wide support and Henry's bill died in the next session. Madison had bested the formidable Henry. He would come up against Henry again at the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution.

Sensing a favorable political climate in the Virginia legislature, Madison brought forth an old proposal of Jefferson, a bill concerning religious freedom. With the author thousands of miles away in Paris, Madison secured the adoption of Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom. Jefferson would list the Statute on his grave stone as one of his greatest achievements.

Madison's efforts were not uniformly successful: efforts to revise the Virginia constitution, to establish a public school system, and to provide for the gradual abolition of slavery all failed.

Madison succeeded in a matter which was to become the first step toward the Constitutional Convention. In June 1784, he convinced the Assembly to elected five representatives, including himself, to meet with Maryland representatives to discuss the use of the Potomac. The Potomac River reached far west and north: appropriate canals might link it with the tributaries of the great Ohio river system. The potential for profitable trade was enormous. For Madison, George Washington and others links such as this would also promote unity between the original states on the eastern seaboard and the new lands west of the Alleghanies. The Virginians were stymied, however, without Maryland's cooperation since the borders of Maryland extended over the entire width of the river to Virginia shore.

Madison missed the meetings held at Mount Vernon in March 1785. Nonetheless he shepherded through the Virginia legislature its provisions, including a call for a conference of all the states to discuss the regulation of commerce.