Sheehan argues that Madison's vision for the new nation was informed by the idea of republican self-government.

1. Republican opposition; 2. The Federalist agenda; 3. Madison and the French Enlightenment; 4. The commerce of ideas; 5. Madison and Jefferson: an appeal to the people; 6. The spirit of republican government.

Colleen A. Sheehan is Associate Professor of Political Science at Villanova University and has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She is the co-editor of Friends of the Constitution: Writings of the Other Federalists 1787-1788 and author of numerous articles on the American Founding and eighteenth-century political and moral thought; these have appeared in journals such the William and Mary Quarterly, American Political Science Review, Review of Politics, and Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal.