Chronology
Chronology of Relevant Events Related to Federalist 10 and the Debate over the Constitution by Howard Lubert, Associate Professor of Political Science, JMU
1751: James Madison born March 16 in Port Conway, Virginia
1763: The Seven Year's War (the French and Indian War) between Great Britain and France ends. Britain conquers Canada and the eastern Mississippi Valley from France. The victory is celebrated in the American colonies (colonists, including George Washington, fought in the British Army). But the war leaves Great Britain with an enormous debt and places new demands--including military defense of the newly conquered lands--on British finances.
1764: In an effort to raise revenue, Parliament enacts the Sugar Act, which places a fee on molasses imported to the colonies (molasses was important to the rum trade). The controversial law bypasses long-established precedent by allowing suspected violators to be tried by a judge (rather than by a jury) in vice-admiralty courts.
1765: Parliament enacts the Stamp Act, which requires that the colonists purchase and use specially stamped paper (to be printed in and shipped from London) for all sorts of printed documents, including newspapers, marriage certificates and property deeds. The colonists protest (and riot). While they acknowledge some parliamentary authority--in particular, the power to regulate trade--they insist that Parliament lacks the authority to tax them.
1766: Parliament repeals the Stamp Act but insists that it continues to possess sovereignty over the colonies.
1767: Parliament imposes a series of new taxes by placing fees on the importation of various goods into the colonies, including tea and glass.
1770: After months of tension between residents and British troops (sent to Boston in late 1768 to ensure order), a confrontation between civilians and troops ends in tragedy. The Boston Massacre claims the lives of three Bostonians, including an African-American.
1771: Madison graduates from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)
1773: In May Parliament enacts the Tea Act, which will lower the price of tea in the short term but which the colonists fear will eventually give the East India Company a monopoly over the sale of tea in the colonies. In December a group of Boston protesters register their opinion by dumping a large quantity of it into Boston harbor.
1774: Parliament passes a series of laws known collectively as the Coercive Acts (also known as the Intolerable Acts). Boston Harbor is closed and General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British army in North America, is made governor of Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, the first Continental Congress meets. Convinced that Parliament will never accept constitutionally limited power over the colonies, Congress declares that Parliament has no lawful authority over the colonies whatsoever. The colonists retain a political bond with Great Britain, however, through an allegiance to a common king.
1775: On April 19 British troops sent from Boston to seize weapons stashes from the colonists meet a ragtag group of colonial militiamen on the public green in Lexington. Shots are fired and the war begins. The very brief battle in Lexington continues later that day in Concord.
1776: On July 2nd Congress officially votes to declare independence. Two days later Congress approves a Declaration of Independence. The last political bond with Great Britain (the allegiance to the king) is severed. Congress also begins to draft and debate our first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation.
1777: The Articles of Confederation are sent to the states for ratification.
1780: Madison joins the U.S. Congress as a delegate from Virginia, serving from March of that year until December 1783. His time in Congress will persuade him that the national government has to be vested with greater political authority.
1781: The Articles of Confederation are finally ratified by all thirteen states.
1783: A peace accord with Britain is reached and a treaty signed.
1784: Madison is elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses (the lower house of the State assembly). He will serve for three years.
1785: Madison writes and publishes his Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, an important and politically influential essay in favor of the separation of church and state. Later, Madison will apply some of the arguments he presents here in Federalist 10.
1786: Madison attends the Annapolis Convention in September as a delegate from Virginia. The Convention is convened to work through issues of interstate commerce. Only five states send delegates, and Madison helps write a report that calls on Congress to convene a general Convention the following summer in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, in the fall 1786 a rebellion of small indebted farmers, led by revolutionary war soldier Daniel Shays, breaks out in Massachusetts. Soon "debtor rebellions" are breaking out throughout the states, suggesting to many political leaders that the nation is on the verge of collapse and lending urgency to the calls for constitutional reform.
1787: The Constitutional Convention convenes in May. It is charged with the task of revising the Articles of Confederation in order to make "the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union." Instead, the Convention's delegates scrap the Articles entirely and draft a new Constitution. The Convention adjourns in September and the Constitution is sent to States, where popularly elected ratifying conventions debate and vote on it. The approval of only nine states is required to make the Constitution the new law of the land.
October 18 (1787): The first "Brutus" essay appears in the New York Journal. By April the following year sixteen essays by Brutus--believed by many scholars to be Robert Yates, a leading New York politician and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention--will be published. Written in opposition to the Constitution, the Brutus essays are among the most important writings in the Anti-Federalist literature.
Fearing that New York might very well reject the proposed Constitution, Alexander Hamilton decides to take up the pen and respond to the State's Anti-Federalist authors. Hamilton enlists the help of James Madison and John Jay, and on October 27, 1787 the first essay by "Publius" is published. The three authors write at a prodigious rate, with as many as four essays appearing weekly in New York newspapers. The final (eighty-fifth) Federalist essay appears on May 28, 1788. As it turns out, by then nine states have already ratified, thereby undermining the importance of New York's vote. Still, The Federalist almost immediately becomes the recognized authority on the meaning of the Constitution. It remains so today.
1788: Madison is a vocal and influential participant in the Virginia State ratifying convention. Virginia becomes the tenth State to ratify the Constitution. Shortly thereafter Madison is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
1789: Madison takes a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and single-handedly assumes responsibility for preparing a bill of rights for the Congress to consider as amendments to the Constitution. Sifting through nearly two hundred amendments proposed by the states, Madison puts together a list that focuses on the protection of private rights. His dogged determination is largely responsible for the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Still, he doesn't get everything he wants. The amendment that he considers "the most valuable . . . on the whole list"--a prohibition on the state governments against violating rights of conscience, freedom of the press, and trial by jury in criminal cases--is defeated during congressional debate. These rights (and others) will not apply to the state governments until well into the 20th century.
1791: The Bill of Rights is adopted when in December Virginia approves it, reaching the constitutionally required mark of three quarters of the states.