162 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS according to the dictates of conscience." The inci dent illustrates not only Madison s liberality of spirit, but also his precision and forethought in so drawing up an instrument as to make it mean all that it was intended to mean. In his later career these qualities were especially brilliant and useful. Madison was elected a member of the first legis lature under the new state constitution, but he failed of re-election because he refused to solicit votes or to furnish whiskey for thirsty voters. The new legislature then elected him a member of the governor s council, and in 1780 he was sent as dele gate to the Continental congress. The high consideration in which he was held showed itself in the number of important commit tees to which he was appointed. As chairman of a committee for drawing up instructions for John Jay, then minister at the court of Madrid, he in sisted that, in making a treaty with Spain, our right to the free navigation of the Mississippi river should on no account be surrendered. Mr. Jay was instructed accordingly, but toward the end of 1780 the pressure of the war upon the southern states increased the desire for an alliance with Spain to such a point that they seemed ready to purchase it at any price. Virginia, therefore, proposed that the surrender of our rights upon the Mississippi should be offered to Spain as the condition of an offensive and defensive alliance. Such a proposal was no
