For God, Family and Republic

"What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."
—James Madison

Today, March 16, 2006 marks the two-hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the birth of James Madison. James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was the fourth President of the United States serving two terms from 1809–1817. He was co-author, with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, of the Federalist Papers. Born to a prominent family in Port Conway, Virginia, he was the eldest of twelve children. Madison entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1769. At maturity, Madison was not a very tall man, nor a master orator, but possessed of an amazing political acumen and trenchant pen which won him the respect of his colleagues. Madison stood at only 5'-4" and weighed little over one-hundred pounds Washington Irving described Madison as "but a withered little apple-John."

He graduated in 1771, completing a four year degree in two years. Madison then studied theology, history, & law, both at the college and his own proprietary studies. For a time, he prepared solely for ministry in the Episcopalian church, though he became possessed of a profound melancholy, depression and sense of isolation which elicited the concern of his family and friends.

At the age of 23, he began his civil service career with appointment to the King George County Committee for Public Safety in Virginia at the age of twenty-three. In 1776, he became a member of the Virginia Constitutional Committee, the body which drafted the Commonwealth of Virginia's new constitution and Bill of Rights.

In 1779, Madison was elected to represent the state of Virginia to the Continental Congress. He participated in the abortive Annapolis Convention in 1786 to discuss the perceived defects of the Articles of Confederation. He was instrumental in the commencement of the Convention to draft a new Constitution. In point of fact, when delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison was at the heart of the turgid and tense debates. He zealously recorded the proceedings thereof, which were sealed for many years. Likewise, he advanced his Virginia Plan though unsuccessfully. He urged for ratification of the Constitution in a serious of pamphlets in George Clinton's New York. Likewise, he was a major player at the Virginia State Ratifying Convention.

Madison also spearhead the initiative for the U.S. Bill of Rights, particularly the Tenth Amendment which affirmed the federal character of the Constitution, and how states' rights were integral to federalism, as the central government was possessed only of enumerated objects of power. And despite being a strong nationalist in the Convention, after the 1790's, Madison came to find common cause with the Jeffersonians. Now, that the federal government was sufficiently empowered under the new Constitution, the States he recognized had to be vigilant to guard their reserved rights, powers and authority from any encroachments by the new government.

Likewise, he followed the Republican Party. As all of them served together in Washington's cabinet, Madison and Jefferson developed an antagonism towards Hamilton's intrigue and schemes such as the "Report on the Manufacturers" and his proposal for the Bank of the United States. In the 1790s, Madison considered the Hamiltonian camp as subversive of republicanism, and began to see Hamilton as Jefferson did. Madison considered it a perversion of the republic, "[t]o make power the primary and central object of the social system, and Liberty but its satellite." Yet, he recognized that is essentially what Hamilton hoped to do. Madison remarked candidly to his friend Jefferson, about how Hamilton lamented the political order under the Constitution in the after hours of cabinent meetings. In fact, Jefferson and Madison were both convinced that Hamilton wanted that same unitary state on the of Great Britain that he had previously urged for at the Constitutional Convention. Hamilton, he thought, had hoped to achieve by loose "construction" of the Constitution, what he could not achieve at the Constitutional Convention, and he garbled his essentially monocrat arguments in republican forms. Madison initially opposed the plan for a central bank.

In 1794, Madison married a Quaker Dolley Payne Todd in September 1794. Madison was allured by her charm, blue eyes, fair skin, and black curls. Before their courtship, Dolley reported to her best friend that "the great little Madison has asked... to see me this evening." Madison was seventeen years her senior, but they had a happy marriage, though childless. "[O]ur hearts understand each other," she assured her husband. Dolley became renowned for her social graces.

When John Adams was elected President, Madison retired from Washington's cabinet to his home in Virginia. In 1798, Madison penned the Virginia Resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts, and affirmed that "in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them."

In 1801, after Jefferson was elected President, Madison entered the cabinet again as Secretary of State. During this time, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was illegal, an encroachment upon American sovereignty and violation of the rule of nations. His opposition to European encroachments upon the United States eventually paved the way for the War of 1812. Madison was elected President in 1808, despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their ways as Jefferson had hoped but rather caused a severe depression in the United States. The Embargo Act continued throughout Madison's administration. Not surprisingly, during his Presidency, his administration was plagued with difficulties. Madison challenged the British impressment of American merchants and sailors on the high seas, and lobbied Congress to inaugurate a Declaration of War against Great Britain, the so called War of 1812. This was a conflict marked of deprivation for the Americans, and the humiliating desecration of the capital city Washington, D.C. by the British. It was only diplomacy and the military prowess of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans that turned the conflict in favor of the Americans.

Madison felt opposition in both the north and the south. New England Federalists commenced the Hartford Convention and threatened secession, while some among them ignored the Embargo Act. The Old Republicans such as John Randolph of Roanoke, John Taylor of Caroline and Nathaniel Macon tended to see Madison as they saw Jefferson, as a compromiser of principle driven by expediency and an otherwise pragmatic politician.

Madison eventually retired from public life, though he communicated regularly with active and retired statesmen and he followed current events. At their plantation Montpelier in Virginia, the Madisons lived in pleasant retirement until Madison died in 1836.

Related Web Sites of Interest
Answers.com - James Madison
James Madison Center at James Madison University
Montpelier - Madison's Estate
Papers of James Madison at the University of Virginia