James Madison

I

Introduction

James Madison (1751-1836), fourth president of the United States (1809-1817) and one of its founding fathers. In a distinguished public career that covered more than 40 years, he worked for American independence, helped to establish the government of the new nation, and went on to participate in that government as congressman, secretary of state, and ultimately president. Madison’s work on the Constitution of the United States gave him his best opportunity to exercise his great talents and is generally considered his most valuable contribution. His intense concern for religious and intellectual freedom led him to seek the strongest possible safeguards of individual liberty. More than any other person, Madison can be considered responsible for making the Bill of Rights part of the Constitution.

II

Early Life

Madison was the eldest child of James and Eleanor Conway Madison. He later characterized his forebears in these terms: “In both the paternal and maternal line of ancestry [they were] planters and among the respectable though not the most opulent class.” He was born on March 16, 1751, in the home of his maternal grandmother and stepgrandfather, on the Rappahannock River near what is now Port Conway, Virginia. Shortly after the christening, his mother brought him to his father’s estate in nearby Orange County, Virginia, where he grew up. Madison later inherited his father’s estate, Montpelier, and lived there the rest of his life.

Like most plantation children of colonial times, young James received his earliest schooling at home, probably largely from his grandmother, Mrs. Frances Taylor Madison. When he was about 12, he was enrolled in the school of Donald Robertson in King and Queen County. After “three or four years” with Robertson, he studied for “a year or two” under the Reverend Thomas Martin and in 1769 enrolled in the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

Already well prepared in the classics, Madison concentrated on the study of history, government, and public law. He found considerable revolutionary sentiment stirring at the college and became a leading member, although probably not a founder as is sometimes claimed, of the American Whig Society, a club greatly interested in discussing current public controversies. In 1771 he received his degree and, after some months of postgraduate study, returned home to Virginia.

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From 1772 to 1775, Madison remained in his father’s home at Montpelier in poor health, convinced that he would not have a long life. It has been suggested that he suffered from hypochondria, a condition in which he experienced the symptoms of a disease but none was diagnosed. Uncertain about a career, he devoted his time to extensive reading in literature, theology, and law. Before long a growing interest in political and religious freedom led him into a serious study of public law and of the forms and principles of government. He wrote a friend early in 1774 of the change in his tastes. He used to have, he wrote, “too great a hankering after those amusing studies. Poetry, wit, and criticism, romances, plays, etc., captivated me much; but I begin to discover that they deserve but a small portion of a mortal’s time, and that something more substantial, more durable, more profitable, befits a riper age.”

III

Early Career

By the spring of 1774, when the colonies were deep in protest against British domination, Madison was emerging from his long period of isolation and melancholy. He felt that his health was returning and with it a zest for taking part in the events that were absorbing so many able people of the time. His own position was already clear. He was committed to republican government and to separation of the American colonies from Great Britain.

In December 1774 Madison was elected a member of Orange County’s committee of safety, which exercised certain governmental functions as provided by the Continental Congress, a council of 12 of the 13 colonies. The committee was also responsible for local defense. Madison wrote at the time: “We are very busy at present in raising men and providing the necessaries for defending ourselves.”

In 1776 Madison was elected a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention. Madison later wrote that, being young and inexperienced, he played only a small part in the proceedings. He was much too modest, for he served on the committee that prepared a declaration of rights and he drafted a plan of government for the new state. At this time he worked closely with Virginia legislator Thomas Jefferson in a great effort to establish religious freedom as a part of Virginia law. Madison wrote the article of the declaration of rights that asserted the right of all “to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.” However, it was not until 1786 that, through Madison’s leadership, the Virginia legislature enacted Jefferson’s monumental Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.

When the Virginia constitution went into effect in June 1776, Madison, along with the other delegates to the convention, became a member of the legislature, the General Assembly. The following spring, however, he failed to be reelected by his Orange County constituents. His refusal to indulge the people’s expectation to be wooed with whiskey for their votes is generally blamed for Madison’s loss of the election.

A year later, although he did not seek the office, he was returned to the assembly. In the meantime he had been appointed to the governor’s council. Madison gained valuable experience in practical government while he was serving on the council, although he characterized this administrative body as being “the grave of all useful talents.”

A

Member of the Continental Congress

In December 1779 Madison was elected to the Continental Congress. He took his seat with the Virginia delegation in March 1780, just four days after his 29th birthday. He was not only the youngest man in Congress but at the beginning probably the least imposing. He was slight, reserved, and hesitant in taking the floor to speak. But these drawbacks did not prevent his making a speedy and accurate appraisal of the condition of the country, and after the first few months he assumed a leading role in Congress.

In 1781 major hostilities with Britain came to an end, and the independence of the United States was assured. However, there was still much to be decided regarding the new nation’s form of government and its relations with its neighbors. Madison favored strengthening the central government by giving it the power to enforce its financial requisitions on the states and to levy import duties. He led the fight in support of Virginia’s claims to western territories. In negotiations with Spain over navigational rights on the Mississippi River, he urged firmness against Spain’s demands for control of all shipping upon it. When Madison left Philadelphia at the end of 1783, he had established himself as an able and farsighted politician.

Before leaving Congress for home, Madison suffered a deep personal disappointment. He had fallen in love with Catherine Floyd, the young daughter of another congressional delegate. In April 1783 he wrote to Jefferson that he had “sufficiently ascertained her sentiments.” He hoped to be married at the end of the year. But Miss Floyd broke the engagement, and Madison returned to Montpelier for a solitary winter of reading and study.