hat each State might do
was of quite as much importance as anything the federal government might
or could do. Congress could neither open nor close a single port in
Virginia to commerce, whether domestic or foreign, without the consent
of the State; it could not levy a tax of a penny on anything, whether
goods coming in or products going out, if the State objected. As a
member of Congress, Mr. Madison might propose or oppose any of these
things; as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, he might, if his
influence was strong enough, carry or forbid any or all of them,
whatever might be the wishes of Congress. It was in the power of
Virginia to influence largely the welfare of her neighbors, so far as it
depended upon commerce, and indirectly that of every State in the Union.

In the Assembly, as in Congress, Mr. Madison's aim was to increase the
powers of the federal government, for want of which it was rapidly
sinking into imbecility and contempt. "I acceded," he says, "to the
desire of my fellow-citizens of the county that I should be one of its
representatives in the legislature," to bring about "a rescue of the
Union and the blessings of liberty staked on it from an impending
catastrophe." Early in the session the Assembly assented to the
amendment to the Articles of Confederation proposed at the late session
of Congress, which substituted population for a land valuation as the
basis of representation and of taxation. The Assembly also asserted that
all requisitions upon the States for the support of the general
government and to provide for the public debt should be complied with,
and payment of balances on old accounts should be enforced; and it
assented to the recommendation of Congress that that body should have
power for a limited period to control the trade with foreign nations
having no treaty with the United States, in order that it might
retaliate upon Great Britain for excluding American ships from her West
India colonies. All these measures were designed for "the rescue of the
Union," and they had, of course, Madison's hearty support. For it was
absolutely essential, as he believed, that something should be done if
the Union was to be saved, or to be made worth saving. But there were
obstacles on all sides. The commercial States were reluctant to
surrender the control over trade to Congress; in the planting States
there was hardly any trade that could be surrendered. In Virginia the
tobacco planter s