Archaeologists are excavating slave quarters at James Madison's Montpelier estate in a four-year project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The estate of the fourth president was maintained by scores of enslaved African-Americans. Archaeology is revealing how they lived.
The focus here is not an in-depth understanding of the specifics (such as the Virginia Resolutions), though many of those issues are covered in the related EDSITEment lessons listed above. This lesson asks students to understand how the Constitution has been applied and to appreciate the depth of Madison's involvement with that document and many controversies surrounding its interpretation.
James Madison, America’s fourth President (1809-1817), made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.”
At his inauguration, James Madison, a small, wizened man, appeared old and worn; Washington Irving described him as “but a withered little apple-John.” But whatever his deficiencies in charm, Madison’s … wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety. She was the toast of Washington.
Born in 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.
When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates.
Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison protested that the document was not “the off-spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many hands.”
In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation. Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton’s financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party.
As President Jefferson’s Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law. The protests, John Randolph acidly commented, had the effect of “a shilling pamphlet hurled against eight hundred ships of war.”
Despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their ways but did cause a depression in the United States, Madison was elected President in 1808. Before he took office the Embargo Act was repealed.
During the first year of Madison’s Administration, the United States prohibited trade with both Britain and France; then in May, 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, if either would accept America’s view of neutral rights, to forbid trade with the other nation.
Napoleon pretended to comply. Late in 1810, Madison proclaimed non-intercourse with Great Britain. In Congress a young group including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the “War Hawks,” pressed the President for a more militant policy.
The British impressment of American seamen and the seizure of cargoes impelled Madison to give in to the pressure. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war.
The young Nation was not prepared to fight; its forces took a severe trouncing. The British entered Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capitol.
But a few notable naval and military victories, climaxed by Gen. Andrew Jackson’s triumph at New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful. An upsurge of nationalism resulted. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war–and who had even talked secession–were so thoroughly repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party.
In retirement at Montpelier, his estate in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states’ rights influences that by the 1830’s threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, “The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.”
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.
Learn more about James Madison’s spouse, Dolley Payne Todd Madison.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, has a birthday today. How much do you know about the fourth President?
Madison, who was born on March 16, 1751 in Virginia, was one of the most influential of all the Founding Fathers. He was a driving force behind the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and presented the first version of the Bill of Rights to Congress.
Madison and Alexander Hamilton also wrote most of the Federalist Papers, which played a key role in getting the Constitution ratified.
Serving as Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of state, Madison helped to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. And as President, Madison served two terms and held office during the War of 1812.
But what else do we know about Madison?
1. Madison was introduced to his wife Dolley by Aaron Burr. Yes, in yet another Founding Father connection to Burr, Madison was taken with the young widow Dolley Payne Todd. Burr was staying at the Payne boarding house in Philadelphia (about three blocks from the current National Constitution Center) and asked Burr to arrange an introduction. The rest is history.
2. Madison and Burr were Princeton classmates. Madison graduated one year before Burr. The men were in rival debating societies at Princeton. Madison graduated in 1771; his roommate was poet Philip Freneau.
3. There was a 17-year difference in age between James and Dolley. The couple dated for just four months before their marriage in 1794. James was 43 years old; Dolley was 26. The couple was inseparable after the marriage.
4. Madison didn’t fight in the Revolutionary War. Small in stature and sometimes sickly, Madison served briefly in the Virginia militia and then entered politics at a young age. He was also the youngest delegate at the 1780 Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
5. Madison really was the Father of the Constitution. He arrived 11 days early for the event, presented his Virginia plan of checks and balances as the foundation of the Constitution, and then worked tirelessly to get the Constitution ratified. Toward the end of his life, a modest Madison said the Constitution “ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.”
6. Madison wasn’t keen on writing the Bill of Rights--at first. Madison feared that actually listing individual rights in the Constitution would possibly limit other, unlisted rights. He had a change of heart when it became apparent that a Bill of Rights was needed to get the Constitution ratified. During the 1st Congress, Madison presented the first draft of the Bill, which he had written. It had nine articles with 20 amendments.
7. Madison retired for about four years at the height of his political powers. After serving in the House for eight years, Madison walked away from national politics in March 1797 and returned to his estate at Montpelier. But Madison, along with his mentor, Thomas Jefferson, had formed an opposition party to the Federalists, and in 1798 Madison wrote the Virginia Resolution (in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts) during his time off.
8. Madison’s likeness did appear on U.S. currency. If you have a Madison in your purse or wallet, it is a very rare $5,000 bill. Some are still in circulation; a bill in very good condition went for more than $100,000 at an auction in 2010.
9. We really don’t know what Madison liked to eat. Biographers know a lot more about the meals that Dolley Madison served at social functions. One theory is than Madison liked Virginia ham. But he only weighed about 100 pounds and stood about 5 feet 4 inches tall.
10. Madison was a man of few hobbies. Unlike George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who had numerous pursuits outside of work, Madison stuck with playing chess and reading Latin and Greek literature in their original languages.