Editing James Madison (section)

===Election to Congress===
{{Main|1789 Virginia's 5th congressional district election}}

After Virginia ratified the constitution, Madison returned to New York and resumed his duties in the Congress of the Confederation. Madison unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Virginia in 1788.<ref>{{cite web |title=Virginia 1788 U.S. Senate |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/tufts:va.ussenate.1788 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316091547/https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/tufts:va.ussenate.1788 |archive-date=March 16, 2020 |access-date=February 15, 2018 |work=Tufts Digital Collations and Archives |series=A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825 |publisher=[[Tufts University]]}}, citing The Virginia Centinel, or, the Winchester Mercury (Winchester, VA). November 19, 1788., The New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer (Elizabethtown, NJ). December 10, 1788., and Mattern, David B., J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne K. Cross and Susan Holbrook Perdue, ed. The Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series. Vol. 11. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1977. 336, 339, 340.</ref> After Madison was defeated in his bid for the Senate, and with concerns for both his political career and the possibility that [[Patrick Henry]] and his allies would arrange for a second constitutional convention, Madison ran for the House of Representatives.{{sfn|Wills|2002|pages=38–39}}{{sfn|Feldman|2017|pages=247–248, 251–252}}{{sfn|National Archives Founders Online}} Henry and the Anti-Federalists were in firm control of the General Assembly in the autumn of 1788.{{sfn|National Archives Founders Online}} At Henry's behest, the Virginia legislature designed to deny Madison a seat by [[Gerrymandering in the United States|gerrymandering]] congressional districts. Henry and his supporters ensured Orange County was in a district heavily populated with Anti-Federalists, roughly three to one, to oppose Madison.{{sfn|National Archives Founders Online}}{{sfn|Cost|2021|page=162}}{{sfn|National Archives Founders Online}} Henry also recruited [[James Monroe]], a strong challenger to Madison.{{sfn|Cost|2021|page=162}} Locked in a difficult race against Monroe, Madison promised to support a series of constitutional amendments to protect individual liberties.{{sfn|Wills|2002|pages=38–39}} In an open letter, Madison wrote that, while he had opposed requiring alterations to the Constitution before ratification, he now believed that "amendments, if pursued with a proper moderation and in a proper mode ... may serve the double purpose of satisfying the minds of well-meaning opponents, and of providing additional guards in favor of liberty."{{sfn|Feldman|2017|pages=252–253}} Madison's promise paid off, as in [[1789 Virginia's 5th congressional district election|Virginia's 5th district election]], he gained a seat in Congress with 57 percent of the vote.{{sfn|Labunski|2006|pages=148–150}}

Madison became a key adviser to Washington, who valued Madison's understanding of the Constitution.{{sfn|Wills|2002|pages=38–39}} Madison helped Washington write his [[First inauguration of George Washington|first inaugural address]] and also prepared the official House response to Washington's speech. He played a significant role in establishing and staffing the three [[Cabinet of the United States|Cabinet]] departments, and his influence helped Thomas Jefferson become the first [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]].{{sfn|Burstein|Isenberg|2010|pages=189–193, 203}} At the start of the [[1st United States Congress|first Congress]], he introduced a tariff bill similar to the one he had advocated for under the Articles of the Confederation,{{sfn|Feldman|2017|pages=258–259}} and Congress established a federal tariff on imports by enacting the [[Tariff of 1789]].{{sfn|Bordewich|2016|pp=100–102}} The following year, Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton introduced an ambitious economic program that called for the federal assumption of state debts and the funding of that debt through the issuance of federal [[Security (finance)|securities]]. Hamilton's plan favored [[Northern United States|Northern]] speculators and was disadvantageous to states, such as Virginia, that had already paid off most of their debt; Madison emerged as one of the principal congressional opponents of the plan.{{sfn|Burstein|Isenberg|2010|pages=213–217}} After prolonged legislative deadlock, Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton agreed to the [[Compromise of 1790]], which provided for the enactment of Hamilton's assumption plan, as part of the [[Funding Act of 1790]]. In return, Congress passed the [[Residence Act]], which established the federal capital district of [[Washington, D.C.]]{{sfn|Burstein|Isenberg|2010|pages=217–220}}