This state of sentiment must be kept in mind in order to make intelligible the rabid violence of the party warfare which had long been going on against Hamilton, and which--now that Jefferson had left the Cabinet--was soon to be extended to Washington himself.
When Giles went to the front in this war, both Jefferson and Madison were busy behind the firing line supplying munitions.

Giles was elected in 1790 to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Theodorick Bland, and took his seat in the third session of the First Congress.

The assumption bill had been passed, but that was only the first of the series of financial measures proposed by Hamilton, and Giles followed Madison's lead in unsuccessful resistance to the excise and to the national bank.

Giles was re-elected to the Second Congress, which opened on October 24, 1791.

In the course of this session he became the leader of the opposition, not by supplanting Madison but through willingness to take responsibilities from which Madison, like Jefferson, shrank, because he, too, preferred activity behind the scenes.