Editing Dolley Madison (section)

==At Montpelier (1817–1837)==
[[File:DolleyMadison1817.jpg|thumb|Madison at the end of her tenure as First Lady in 1817.]]
Dolley and James Madison returned to the Montpelier plantation in Orange County, Virginia, on April 6, 1817, a month after his retirement from the presidency.<ref name="Allgor, A Perfect Union p 340">Allgor, ''A Perfect Union'' p. 340</ref>

In 1830, Dolley Madison's son Payne Todd, who had never found a career, went to debtors' prison in Philadelphia, and the Madisons sold land in Kentucky and mortgaged half the Montpelier plantation to pay his debts.<ref>Allgor, ''A Perfect Union'' p. 352</ref>

James Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836. He was 85 years old. Dolley remained at Montpelier for a year. Her niece Anna Payne moved in with her, and Todd came for a lengthy stay. During this time, Madison organized and copied her husband's papers. Congress authorized $55,000 as payment for editing and publishing seven volumes of these papers, including James's notes on the 1787 convention.<ref name="Allgor, A Perfect Union p 340"/>

In the fall of 1837, Dolley returned to Washington, charging Todd with the care of the plantation. She and her sister Anna moved into a house, bought by Anna and her husband [[Richard Cutts]], on [[President's Park#Lafayette Square|Lafayette Square]]. Dolley took Paul Jennings with her as a butler, forcing him to leave his wife and children in Virginia.<ref>Allgor, ''A Perfect Union'' p 380</ref>