Virginia Vignettes

From the time of the Revolution, Virginians had considered canal systems that would bypass the fall lines of the James and Potomac rivers and link the eastern Tidewater with the western part of the state, perhaps as far as the Ohio River. The James River Company, chartered by the assembly in 1785 at George Washington’s [...]

In an effort to fashion some kind of Republican party machinery in Virginia in the early nineteenth century, a State Central Committee of Correspondence brought together several locally powerful elite groups of Republicans in the interest of party unity and continuity. The organization became known as the Richmond or Essex “Junto.” After the War of [...]

A possible war with France in 1797-98 led a frightened and politically motivated Federalist Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts designed to suppress criticism of the government that was coming largely from their Republican adversaries. While some Virginia Federalists like Washington and Marshall were hesitant about this legislation, Republicans Jefferson and Madison vigorously opposed [...]

James Madison of Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia is generally conceded to have been the most important author and advocate of the United States Constitution. After years of service in the Continental Congress and Virginia assembly, Madison came to believe that the Articles of Confederation under which the new American regime was operating severely restricted the [...]