410 MARION COUNTY. 



Convention, were preserved by him. In the interval be- 

 tween the close of the Convention at Philadelphia for fram- 

 ino- the Federal Constitution and the meeting of the State 

 Legislatures to sanction it, that celebrated work, the Federal- 

 ist, was written, and the chief contributions to it, were made 

 by Mr. Madison. He was in Congress in 1789, and remained 

 a member until 1797. In 1801 Mr. Jefferson gave him the 

 office of Secretary of State, which office he held through eight 

 years of Jefferson's Presidency. In this department he estab- 

 lished his reputation as a consummate statesman. "On the com- 

 plicated questions of the conflicting rights of war and peace, 

 colonial commerce, contraband trade, impressment of seamen, 

 search and seizure of ships, and others too numerous to men- 

 tion, Mr. Madison did nof present one view unmarked with 

 a power of research, of argument, and of reasoning, unsur- 

 passed in the annals of diplomatic writing."* In 1809 he was 

 elected President of the United States, and was re-elected for 

 a second term. The history of his administration is the his- 

 tory of the country at a very trying period. Mr. Madison, at 

 the close of his term, had the satisfaction of seeing his coun- 

 try prosperous. At sixty-six years of age he retired from the 

 turmoils of public life, and resided on his estate in Virginia. 

 For twenty years his chief enjoyments were derived from his 

 farm and books. In 1829, although eighty years of age, he 

 was prevailed upon to become a member of the Convention 

 which sat in Richmond to amend the Constitution of the 

 State of Virginia. At the age of eighty-five his mind was 

 bright, his memory retentive, and his conversation highly de- 

 lightful and instructive. He closed his mortal career June 

 28, 1836. 



MARION. 



Boundaries, Extent. — Bounded North by Talbot, East by 

 Macon, South by Sumter and Stewart, and West by Musco- 

 gee. Laid off in 1827, from Lee and Muscogee. Length, 

 about 41 miles ; breadth 30 ; square miles, 1,230. 



Rivers, Creeks. — There are no very large streams in this 



