James Madison played a major role in shaping the United States in its
formative years and is probably more noted for his system of checks and
balances in the central government and his part in framing the U.S.
Constitution than for his presidency. His keen political insight and philosophy continue to guide American policies in present times.
Virginia background
Madison was born on March 16, 1751. He was raised in Orange
County, Virginia, on a large, slave-owning plantation. He received a
strong education and graduated from Princeton University (then called
the College of New Jersey) in 1771. Since his teachers were clergymen,
he was well versed in Christian thought, but he also took an avid interest in the European philosophers of the
Enlightenment, an intellectual movement of
the eighteenth century, who promoted human
reason as the path to a better, more balanced
society.
American Revolution
In 1776, Madison participated in the Virginia
convention that drew up a resolution for independence from Britain and drafted a new state
constitution. In 1780, he was elected to represent
Virginia in the new nation’s Congress. At twentynine, he was Congress’s youngest member.
The Congress Madison entered was not
like Congress today. During the American
Revolution (1775–83), the Articles of
Confederation had been adopted to structure a
union among the former colonies. The Articles
provided the original thirteen states
(Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, and Virginia) with far more power than the central government.
Madison, along with statesmen Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) and
George Washington (1732–1799), believed that the regions of the United
States would have to unite under a strong central government to maintain
independence from Europe. Their position became known as federalism.
Opponents of federalism feared that a strong national government would
threaten the freedom of individuals.
Framing the Constitution
A convention to improve the Articles of Confederation was called in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787. Madison submitted a plan to
replace the Articles altogether. Known as the Virginia Plan, it called for
three separate sections of government: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. Each would have well-defined
powers that would guard against any one branch becoming stronger than
the others. The national government would possess broad general powers, while the states would possess local powers.
One of the first of many debates at the Constitutional Convention
was over Madison’s concept of a president as leader of the executive
branch. Many Americans worried that with a powerful leader and a
strong central government, they would return to the kind of tyranny
they had experienced under the English king and parliament.
Another area of conflict was whether each state should have an equal
vote in the central government or if each state should be represented
according to its population. The small states feared that the large ones
would unfairly outweigh them. Madison supported representation
according to population. A compromise was proposed, creating a legislature consisting of two houses, one in which each state would be represented according to population (the House of Representatives), and one
in which each state would have equal representation (the Senate). Both
sides finally accepted this “Great Compromise,” which became the basis
for today’s Congress.
For Madison, the Constitutional Convention represented a period
of almost superhuman effort. He gave more than two hundred speeches
and kept a complete record of the entire convention. Writing tirelessly,
he took notes in shorthand all day long, then recopied them at night.
Because of this achievement, history has a nearly perfect account of the
shaping of the Constitution.
On September 17, 1787, the final draft of the Constitution was
approved. It was ratified (approved by two-thirds of the states) the following year. Although the Constitution was the result of many compromises, its basis could be found in the checks and balances system of
Madison’s Virginia Plan.
Bill of Rights
Two years after the adoption of the Constitution, a movement began for
a bill of rights, a list of the rights and privileges guaranteed by the
Constitution (such as freedom of speech, press, and religion, and the
right to a fair trial). Madison assumed leadership of the movement,
introducing the subject to the House of Representatives in June 1789.
After lengthy debate, the House agreed to place the Bill of Rights in a
series of amendments to the Constitution. In March 1792, Secretary of
State Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) announced that these ten amendments, now known as the Bill of Rights, were in effect.
Clash of the Federalists
During the ratification process of the Constitution, Madison cooperated
with Hamilton and John Jay (1745–1829) on a series of essays called
The Federalist (commonly known as the Federalist Papers) in 1787 and
1788, with the purpose of explaining and promoting the new
Constitution. When Madison entered the House of Representatives in
1789, however, he soon found himself opposing Hamilton, the secretary
of the treasury. Now on opposite sides, the two Federalists differed on
how much power could appropriately be wielded by the new central government. Madison joined Jefferson in opposing Hamilton’s proposal for
federal assumption of state debts and a national bank, arguing that the
president lacked the constitutional authority to initiate them. With
Jefferson, he formed a party—the Democratic-Republican Party—to
combat the power of Hamilton’s Federalist Party.
Presidency and war
Madison served as secretary of state under President Jefferson and was
then elected president (serving from 1809 to 1817). As Jefferson’s secretary of state, Madison oversaw the Louisiana Purchase, a $15 million
purchase from France that nearly doubled the size of the United States.
During Jefferson’s second term, a conflict between Britain and France
began to involve neutral American ships. The British practice of
impressment, whereby American sailors were kidnapped and forced to
serve in the Royal Navy, aggravated relations. The troubles only grew in
Madison’s first years as president. In June 1812, he asked Congress to
declare war on Britain. The ensuing conflict, the War of 1812
(1812–15), lasted for two and a half years. At first, the U.S. military was
inadequate to the task, and in August 1814 the British burned much of
the new capital city, Washington, D.C. Finally, under General Andrew
Jackson (1767–1845), the United States defeated the British at New
Orleans.
In his final two years as president, Madison proposed several innovative programs. The building of canals and roads and the establishment
of a national university and a new national bank were among his most
important recommendations. By the time his second term ended, the
United States was stronger and Americans were reveling in war-inspired
nationalism. His wife, Dolley Madison (1768–1849), was one of the
most fashionable and popular presidents’ wives in history.
Retirement
Madison retired to Virginia after his term in the White House, taking
part in Virginia politics from time to time. He died on June 28, 1836,
the last of the nation’s founding fathers.