Abstract
Abstract American revolutionaries eked out victory in their war for independence, but their country remained surrounded by hostile foreign nations. They feared that foreign actors might jeopardize American sovereignty by plotting against them or stunting their westward expansion. Plagued by political uncertainty, social unrest, and economic suffering, Americans fretted that foreign powers would dismantle the new, loosely united country. Few Americans felt that alarm as keenly as James Madison. The future president linked America’s domestic discord with its international weakness. Hamstrung by the Articles of Confederation, Congress remained a bickering diplomatic assembly rather than a national government. If disagreements and divisions persisted, the confederacy might dissolve. If the confederacy dissolved, foreign powers would intervene, and Americans would surrender the sovereignty they had just won.
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