“Mr. Maddison in a very able and ingenious Speech ran through the whole Scheme of the Government,—point out all the beauties and defects of ancient Republics; compared their situation with ours.”16 The young Virginian was steering the convention toward a new government that would be very different from the diffuse state of the nation under the Articles of Confederation. It was an extraordinary achievement for Madison.
Fellow conventioneer Georgia’s William Pierce (alumni of William & Mary).
