Introduction Chapter 8 opens with a discussion of patriot James Madison's political development during the 1770s and 1780s. Madison was the son of a wealthy plantation master and had an excellent education. He became involved in Revolutionary politics and served in the Continental Congress, where he became frustrated by the practical limitation of the Articles of Confederation. In 1787, he organized the Philadelphia convention, which rewrote the entire governmental structure of the nation by producing the Constitution. His personal growth from an aimless young man to a leading political thinker mirrored the path of the developing United States. The Articles of Confederation, pp. 250-253 From 1776 until 1781, the Second Continental Congress governed without any constitutional basis. Members found it hard to establish a government on principles congruent with the themes of the Revolution. Eventually, the congress promulgated the Articles of Confederation, which they found difficult to implement, mainly because the thirteen states had serious disagreements about how to manage lands to the west. Nonetheless, once the Articles were ratified, political focus returned to state governments. Congress and Confederation In 1776, a year after it convened, the Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation, which spelled out the authority of congress. Completion of the Articles was delayed until 1777 because of disputes over the relationship of congress to state governments, reluctance by states to cede control of western lands, and the demands of war. The final document allowed state governments to retain most of their powers and restricted the national government to providing for common defense. State governments conferred sovereignty, or legitimacy, to the Articles of Confederation, and their agents ran the new national government. The new system consisted of a unicameral legislature where each state possessed one vote. Nine of the thirteen states...