[11] The debates in the Virginia Convention on the Federal Constitution,
and his forensic argument against the recovery of the forfeited British
debts.
[12] He is said (_Wirt_, p. 404) to have been offered by Washington the
Secretaryship of State and the embassy to Spain. He certainly was, by
him, also offered the War Department, and by Mr. Adams the embassy to
France. These are known. When the papers of Alexander Hamilton come to
be published down to those of 1796, it will be seen that he was then
offered, by the heads of the Federal party, through John Marshall, the
nomination for the Presidency, as Washington's successor, but declined
it.
=Madison.=
[Illustration: Madison fac-simile of letter]
[Illustration: Montpelier, Madison's Residence]