These letters were the basis of those resolutions submitted by Governor Randolph to the convention on which became known in history as the Virginia Plan. 1787) contained “the first shoot in his thoughts of a plan of Federal Government” (Adair, ed., “James Madison’s Autobiography,” WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly. In addition, his letters to Jefferson (19 Mar. In the spring of 1787 he followed this study with another memorandum, Vices of the Political System of the United States. The result was JM’s Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies, prepared in the spring of 1786, many months before he knew there would be a convention at Philadelphia. But not until 1786 did he undertake a systematic course of reading in political history with the apparent purpose of applying his learning to the problems besetting the American Confederation. JM’s intellectual preparation for the Federal Convention had begun at the College of New Jersey, where he imbibed the ideas and principles of the Scottish Enlightenment under the tutelage of Dr. Blending “together the profound politician, with the Scholar,” JM took the lead on nearly every great question at the convention and consistently came forward as “the best informed Man of any point in debate” (William Pierce, “Character Sketches of Delegates to the Federal Convention,” in Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention, III, 94). Yet what distinguished JM from his fellow delegates, apart from his superior intellectual gifts, was not so much his firsthand experience in public life-extensive though it was-as his diligent effort to apply to that experience a scholarly study of the principles of government. His many years of public service on both the state and continental level had provided JM with an unrivaled knowledge of American affairs. No other delegate came to that historic meeting so well prepared as JM, ready to confront the complex problems of establishing an energetic national government based on republican principles.

Long before the deputies assembled at Philadelphia in May 1787, JM had begun mentally “to revolve the subject” to be discussed at the Federal Convention ( JM to Washington, 16 Apr.

What is the purposes of having vices