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Though the Roanoke region from which he hailed was among the most pro-[[Patriot]] areas in the state, Macon did not again serve in the military until 1780, when he joined one of the militia units formed in response to the British invasion of [[South Carolina]]. He enlisted as a private, declining an officer's commission and an offered cash bounty for signing up. He fought at the [[Battle of Camden]], and remained with the army until January 1781, when he was elected to represent Warren County in the state senate. Macon intended at first to decline the seat, saying he believed the need for military manpower was too great, but was eventually persuaded to take office.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=QG6_hdkUZo4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22William+Edward+Dodd%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikg7_QvOnjAhVIbKwKHX3nCF0Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref>
Though the Roanoke region from which he hailed was among the most pro-[[Patriot]] areas in the state, Macon did not again serve in the military until 1780, when he joined one of the militia units formed in response to the British invasion of [[South Carolina]]. He enlisted as a private, declining an officer's commission and an offered cash bounty for signing up. He fought at the [[Battle of Camden]], and remained with the army until January 1781, when he was elected to represent Warren County in the state senate. Macon intended at first to decline the seat, saying he believed the need for military manpower was too great, but was eventually persuaded to take office.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=QG6_hdkUZo4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22William+Edward+Dodd%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikg7_QvOnjAhVIbKwKHX3nCF0Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref>
==Political Career==
'''North Carolina'''
After his election to the state senate, Macon left the army and went to Halifax to attend the General Assembly in June 1781, and for the next several years was active in that body, being repeatedly re-elected from Warren County. While in the legislature, he joined a political faction led by Willie Jones, which dominated state politics for much of the 1780s. Somewhat radical by the standards of the times, the Jones party sought greater political power for the backcountry, a harsh policy toward the remaining [[Loyalist]] residents, the greatest possible independence for the state from the [[Continental Congress]], and the repression of the more conservative elites (mostly merchants and great planters) in the eastern regions.
Not all of Macon's positions and actions on these issues during the period are known, but he was generally in support of Jones and his faction, especially regarding the suppression of Loyalists and the maintenance of state sovereignty. He also opposed over-reliance on a paper currency, as most states had been guilty of during the war, arguing that a [[specie]]-backed currency was the only safe policy.
During this same time, Macon married, established a new plantation at Buck Spring near the Roanoke River, and was appointed a lieutenant colonel of the Warren County militia, a position he was highly active and diligent in. In 1786 he was elected to serve in the Continental Congress for the following year, but declined on grounds of insufficient compensation (though more likely because of dislike for involvement in the federal government). He likewise opposed the new Constitution that was drafted in 1787, and, though not (unlike his brother John, also a Jones supporter) a member of the ratification convention, supported the campaign to reject it. After North Carolina finally ratified the Constitution in November 1789, however, Macon accepted calls to represent the [[Anti-Federalists]] in [[United States Congress|Congress]], and was elected as the first U.S. Representative for the Hillsboro district in 1790.
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