James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June
28, 1836) was an American statesman and Founding
Father who served as the fourth President
of the United States from 1809 to 1817.
He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution"
for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting
the United States Constitution and the Bill
of Rights.
Born into a prominent Virginia planting family,
Madison served as a member of the Virginia
House of Delegates and the Continental Congress
during and after the American Revolutionary
War.
In the late 1780s, he helped organize the
Constitutional Convention, which produced
a new constitution to supplant the ineffective
Articles of Confederation.
After the Convention, Madison became one of
the leaders in the movement to ratify the
Constitution, and his collaboration with Alexander
Hamilton produced The Federalist Papers, among
the most important treatises in support of
the Constitution.
After the ratification of the Constitution
in 1788, Madison won election to the United
States House of Representatives.
While simultaneously serving as a close adviser
to President George Washington, Madison emerged
as one of the most prominent members of the
1st Congress, helping to pass several bills
establishing the new government.
For his role in drafting the first ten amendments
to the Constitution during the 1st Congress,
Madison is known as the "Father of the Bill
of Rights."
Though he had played a major role in the enactment
of a new constitution that created a stronger
federal government, Madison opposed the centralization
of power sought by Treasury Secretary Alexander
Hamilton during Washington's presidency.
To oppose Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Madison
organized the Democratic-Republican Party,
which became one of the nation's two first
major political parties alongside Hamilton's
Federalist Party.
After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential
election, Madison served as Jefferson's Secretary
of State from 1801 to 1809.
In this role, Madison supervised the Louisiana
Purchase, which doubled the nation's size.
Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory
in the 1808 presidential election, and he
won re-election in 1812.
After the failure of diplomatic protests and
a trade embargo against the United Kingdom,
he led the U.S. into the War of 1812.
The war was an administrative morass, as the
United States had neither a strong army nor
a robust financial system.
As a result, Madison came to support a stronger
national government and military, as well
as the national bank, which he had long opposed.
Historians have generally ranked Madison as
an above-average president.
== Early life and education ==
James Madison Jr. was born on March 16, 1751,
(March 5, 1751, Old Style, Julian calendar)
at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway,
Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway
Madison.
He grew up as the oldest of twelve children,
with seven brothers and four sisters, though
only six of his siblings would live to adulthood.
His father was a tobacco planter who grew
up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant,
which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood.
He later acquired more property and slaves,
and with 5,000 acres (2,000 ha), he became
the largest landowner and a leading citizen
in the Piedmont.
James Jr.'s mother was born at Port Conway,
the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco
merchant.
In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved
into a newly built house, which they named
Montpelier.
From age 11 to 16, Madison was sent to study
under Donald Robertson, a Scottish instructor
who served as a tutor for a number of prominent
plantation families in the South.
Madison learned mathematics, geography, and
modern and classical languages—he became
especially proficient in Latin.At age 16,
Madison returned to Montpelier, where he began
a two-year course of study under the Reverend
Thomas Martin in preparation for college.
Unlike most college-bound Virginians of his
day, Madison did not attend the College of
William and Mary, where the lowland Williamsburg
climate—more susceptible to infectious disease—might
have strained his delicate health.
Instead, in 1769, he enrolled at the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University),
where he became roommates and close friends
with poet Philip Freneau.His studies at Princeton
included Latin, Greek, science, geography,
mathematics, rhetoric, and philosophy.
Great emphasis was placed on both speech and
debate; Madison helped found the American
Whig Society, in direct competition to fellow
student Aaron Burr's Cliosophic Society.
After long hours of study that may have compromised
his health, Madison graduated in 1771 and
remained at Princeton to study Hebrew and
political philosophy under President John
Witherspoon.
He returned home to Montpelier in early 1772,
still unsure of his future career.
His ideas on philosophy and morality were
strongly shaped by Witherspoon, who converted
Madison to the philosophy, values, and modes
of thinking of the Age of Enlightenment.
Biographer Terence Ball says that at Princeton:
He was immersed in the liberalism of the Enlightenment,
and converted to eighteenth-century political
radicalism.
From then on James Madison's theories would
advance the rights of happiness of man, and
his most active efforts would serve devotedly
the cause of civil and political liberty.
== Military service and early political career
==
In the early 1770s the relationship between
the American colonies and Great Britain deteriorated
over the issue of British taxation, culminating
in the American Revolutionary War, which began
in 1775.
In 1774, Madison took a seat on the local
Committee of Safety, a pro-revolution group
that oversaw the local militia.
This was the first step in a life of public
service that his family's wealth facilitated.
In October 1775, he was commissioned as the
colonel of the Orange County militia, serving
as his father's second-in-command until his
election as a delegate to the Fifth Virginia
Convention, which produced Virginia's first
constitution.
Of short stature and frequently in poor health,
Madison never saw battle in the war, but he
rose to prominence in Virginia politics as
a wartime leader.
At the Virginia constitutional convention,
Madison supported the Virginia Declaration
of Rights, though he argued that it should
contain stronger protections for freedom of
religion.
He had earlier witnessed the persecution of
Baptist preachers in Virginia, who were arrested
for preaching without a license from the established
Anglican Church.
He collaborated with the Baptist preacher
Elijah Craig to promote constitutional guarantees
for religious liberty in Virginia.
With the enactment of the Virginia constitution,
Madison became part of the Virginia House
of Delegates.
Madison lost re-election to the House of Delegates
in April 1777, but the House of Delegates
elected him to the Virginia governor's Council
of State later that year.
In that role, he became a close ally of Thomas
Jefferson, who served as Governor of Virginia
from 1779 to 1781.Madison served on the Council
of State from 1777 to 1779, when he was elected
to the Congress of the Confederation.
The country faced a difficult war against
Great Britain, as well as runaway inflation,
financial troubles, and lack of cooperation
between the different levels of government.
Madison worked to make himself an expert on
financial issues, becoming a legislative workhorse
and a master of parliamentary coalition building.
Frustrated by the failure of the states to
supply needed requisitions, Madison proposed
to grant Congress the ability to levy tariffs
on foreign imports.
Madison, General George Washington, Congressman
Alexander Hamilton, and other influential
leaders favored amending the Articles of Confederation,
the first constitution of the fledgling nation.
However, their proposed amendment to allow
Congress to impose tariffs failed to win the
necessary ratification by all thirteen states.
After serving Congress from 1780 to 1783,
Madison won election to the Virginia House
of Delegates in 1784.Madison served in the
Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1786.
He continued to correspond with Jefferson
and befriended Jefferson's protege, Congressman
James Monroe.
During these years in the House of Delegates,
Madison committed to an intense study of law
and political theory, and was heavily influenced
by Enlightenment texts sent by Jefferson from
France.
He grew increasingly frustrated with what
he saw as excessive democracy.
He criticized the tendency for delegates to
cater to the particular interests of their
constituents, even if such interests were
destructive to the state at large.
In particular, he was troubled by a law that
denied diplomatic immunity to ambassadors
from other countries, and a law that legalized
paper money.
He thought legislators should be "disinterested"
and act in the interests of their state at
large, even if this contradicted the wishes
of constituents.
Madison believed this "excessive democracy"
was the cause of a larger social decay which
he and others (such as Washington) thought
had resumed after the revolution and was nearing
a tipping point—Shays' Rebellion was an
example.
He also continued to advocate for religious
freedom.
Along with Jefferson, he drafted the Virginia
Statute for Religious Freedom, which guaranteed
freedom of religion and disestablished the
Church of England; the amendment was passed
in 1786.
== Father of the Constitution ==
Throughout the 1780s, Madison advocated for
reform of the Articles of Confederation.
He became increasingly worried about the disunity
of the states and the weakness of the central
government after the end of the Revolutionary
War in 1783.
As Madison wrote, "a crisis had arrived which
was to decide whether the American experiment
was to be a blessing to the world, or to blast
for ever the hopes which the republican cause
had inspired."
He was particularly concerned about the inability
of Congress to capably conduct foreign policy,
which threatened American trade as well as
settlement of the lands between the Appalachian
Mountains and the Mississippi River.Madison
helped arrange the 1785 Mount Vernon Conference,
which helped settle disputes regarding navigation
rights on the Potomac River and also served
as a model for future interstate conferences.
At the 1786 Annapolis Convention, he supported
the calling of another convention to consider
amending the Articles.
After winning election to another term in
Congress, Madison helped convince the other
Congressmen to authorize the Philadelphia
Convention for the purposes of proposing new
amendments.
But Madison had come to believe that the ineffectual
Articles had to be superseded by a new constitution,
and he began preparing for a convention that
would propose an entirely new constitution.
Madison ensured that George Washington, who
was popular throughout the country, and Robert
Morris, who was influential in the critical
state of Pennsylvania, would both broadly
support Madison's plan to implement a new
constitution.As a quorum was being reached
for the Philadelphia Convention to begin,
the 36-year-old Madison wrote what became
known as the Virginia Plan, an outline for
a new constitution.
Madison worked with his fellow members of
the Virginia delegation, especially Edmund
Randolph and George Mason, to create and present
the plan to the convention.
The plan called for three branches of government
(legislative, executive, and judicial), a
bicameral Congress apportioned by population,
and a Council of Revision composed of members
of the executive and judicial branches which
would have the right to veto laws passed by
Congress.
Reflecting the centralization of power envisioned
by Madison, the Virginia Plan granted the
United States Senate the power to abrogate
any law passed by state governments.
Many delegates were surprised to learn that
the plan called for the abrogation of the
Articles and the creation of a new constitution,
to be ratified by special conventions in each
state rather than by the state legislatures.
Nonetheless, with the assent of prominent
attendees such as Washington and Benjamin
Franklin, the delegates went into a secret
session to consider a new constitution.During
the course of the Convention, Madison spoke
over two hundred times, and his fellow delegates
rated him highly.
William Pierce wrote that "... every Person
seems to acknowledge his greatness.
In the management of every great question
he evidently took the lead in the Convention
... he always comes forward as the best informed
Man of any point in debate."
Madison recorded the unofficial minutes of
the convention, and these have become the
only comprehensive record of what occurred.
The historian Clinton Rossiter regarded Madison's
performance as "a combination of learning,
experience, purpose, and imagination that
not even Adams or Jefferson could have equaled."Though
the Virginia Plan was an outline rather than
a draft of a possible constitution, and though
it was extensively changed during the debate
its use at the convention has led many to
call Madison the "Father of the Constitution".
Madison had hoped that a coalition of Southern
states and populous Northern states would
ensure the approval of a constitution largely
similar to the one proposed in the Virginia
Plan.
However, delegates from small states successfully
argued for more power for state governments
and presented the New Jersey Plan as an alternative.
In response, Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut
Compromise, which sought to balance the interests
of small and large states.
During the course of the convention, the Council
of Revision was jettisoned, each state was
given equal representation in the Senate,
and the state legislatures, rather than the
House of Representatives, were given the power
to elect members of the Senate.
Madison was able to convince his fellow delegates
to have the Constitution ratified by ratifying
conventions rather than state legislatures,
which he distrusted.
He also helped ensure that the President of
the United States would have the ability to
veto federal laws and would be elected independently
of Congress through the Electoral College.
By the end of the convention, Madison believed
that the federal government would be too weak
under the proposed constitution but he viewed
the document as an improvement on the Articles
of Confederation.The ultimate question before
the convention, Wood notes, was not how to
design a government but whether the states
should remain sovereign, whether sovereignty
should be transferred to the national government,
or whether the constitution should settle
somewhere in between.
Most of the delegates at the Philadelphia
Convention wanted to empower the federal government
to raise revenue and protect property rights.
Those, like Madison, who thought democracy
in the state legislatures was excessive and
insufficiently "disinterested", wanted sovereignty
transferred to the national government, while
those who did not think this a problem, wanted
to fix the Articles of Confederation.
Even many delegates who shared Madison's goal
of strengthening the central government reacted
strongly against the extreme change to the
status quo envisioned in the Virginia Plan.
Though Madison lost most of his battles over
how to amend the Virginia Plan, in the process
he increasingly shifted the debate away from
a position of pure state sovereignty.
Since most disagreements over what to include
in the constitution were ultimately disputes
over the balance of sovereignty between the
states and national government, Madison's
influence was critical.
Wood notes that Madison's ultimate contribution
was not in designing any particular constitutional
framework, but in shifting the debate toward
a compromise of "shared sovereignty" between
the national and state governments.
== The Federalist Papers and ratification
debates ==
The Philadelphia Convention ended in September
1787, and the United States Constitution was
presented to each state for ratification.
Each state was requested to hold a special
convention to deliberate and determine whether
or not to ratify the Constitution.
Madison returned to New York, where the Confederation
Congress was in session.
He convinced his fellow Congressman to allow
each state vote upon the Constitution as formulated
by the Philadelphia Convention, and remain
neutral in the ratification debate.
While in New York, Madison was approached
by Alexander Hamilton, who asked him to help
write The Federalist Papers, a series of 85
newspaper articles published in New York that
explained and defended the proposed Constitution.
Under the pseudonym Publius, Hamilton, Madison,
and John Jay wrote 85 essays in the span of
six months, with Madison writing 29 of the
essays.
The articles were also published in book form
and became a virtual debater's handbook for
the supporters of the Constitution in the
ratifying conventions.
Historian Clinton Rossiter called The Federalist
Papers "the most important work in political
science that ever has been written, or is
likely ever to be written, in the United States."
Federalist No. 10, Madison's first contribution
to The Federalist Papers, became highly regarded
in the 20th century for its advocacy of representative
democracy.Madison ensured that his writings
were delivered to Randolph, Mason, and other
prominent Virginia anti-federalists, as those
opposed to the ratification of the Constitution
were known.
Consensus held that if Virginia, the most
populous state at the time, did not ratify
the Constitution, the new national government
would not likely succeed.
When the Virginia Ratifying Convention began
on June 2, 1788, the Constitution had not
yet been ratified by the required nine states.
New York, the second largest state and a bastion
of anti-federalism, would likely not ratify
it without Virginia, and Virginia's exclusion
from the new government would disqualify George
Washington from being the first president.
Arguably the most prominent anti-federalist,
the powerful orator Patrick Henry, was a delegate
and had a following in the state second only
to Washington.
Initially Madison did not want to stand for
election to the Virginia ratifying convention,
but was persuaded to do so due to the strength
of the anti-federalists.
At the start of the convention, Madison knew
that most delegates had already made up their
mind about how to vote, and he focused his
efforts on winning the support of the relatively
small number of undecided delegates.Although
Henry was by far the more powerful and dramatic
speaker, Madison's expertise on the subject
he had long argued for allowed him to respond
with rational arguments to Henry's emotional
appeals.
Madison persuaded prominent figures such as
Randolph to change their position and support
it at the ratifying convention.
Randolph's switch likely changed the votes
of several more anti-federalists.
On June 25, 1788, the convention voted 89–79
to ratify the Constitution, making it the
tenth state to do so.
New York ratified the constitution the following
month, and Washington won the country's first
presidential election.
== Member of Congress ==
=== Election to Congress and adviser to Washington
===
After Virginia ratified the constitution,
Madison returned to New York to resume his
duties in the Congress of the Confederation.
At the request of Washington, Madison sought
a seat in the United States Senate, but his
election was blocked by Patrick Henry.
Madison then decided to run for a seat in
the United States House of Representatives.
At Henry's behest, the Virginia legislature
created congressional districts designed to
deny Madison a seat, and Henry recruited a
strong challenger to Madison in James Monroe.
Locked in a difficult race against Monroe,
Madison promised to support a series of constitutional
amendments to protect individual liberties.
Madison's promise paid off, as he won election
to Congress with 57% of the vote.Early in
his tenure, Madison was a principal adviser
of President Washington, who looked to Madison
as the person who best understood the constitution.
Madison helped Washington write his first
inaugural address, and also prepared the official
House response to the address.
He set the legislative agenda of the 1st Congress
and helped establish and staff the first three
Cabinet departments.
He also helped arrange for the appointment
of Thomas Jefferson as the inaugural Secretary
of State.
=== Bill of Rights ===
Though no state conditioned ratification of
the constitution on a bill of rights, several
states came close, and the issue almost prevented
the constitution from being ratified.
Madison had opposed proposals for a bill of
rights throughout the ratification process,
but while running for Congress he had pledged
to support a bill of rights.
In the 1st Congress he took the lead in pressing
for the passage of several constitutional
amendments that would form the United States
Bill of Rights.
Madison feared that the states would call
for a new constitutional convention if Congress
failed to pass a bill of rights.
He also believed that the constitution did
not sufficiently protect the national government
from excessive democracy and parochialism,
so he saw the amendments as mitigation of
these problems.
On June 8, 1789, Madison introduced his bill
proposing amendments consisting of nine articles
consisting of up to 20 potential amendments.
The House passed most of the amendments, but
rejected Madison's idea of placing them in
the body of the Constitution.
Instead, it adopted 17 amendments to be attached
separately and sent this bill to the Senate.The
Senate edited the amendments still further,
making 26 changes of its own, and condensing
their number to twelve.
Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill
of Rights to the states as well as the federal
government was eliminated, as was his final
proposed change to the preamble.
A House–Senate Conference Committee then
convened to resolve the numerous differences
between the two Bill of Rights proposals.
On September 24, 1789, the committee issued
its report, which finalized 12 Constitutional
Amendments for the House and Senate to consider.
This version was approved by joint resolution
of Congress on September 25, 1789.
Of the proposed twelve Amendments, Articles
Three through Twelve were ratified as additions
to the Constitution on December 15, 1791,
were renumbered one through ten, and became
the Bill of Rights.
Proposed Article Two became part of the Constitution
in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment, while
proposed Article One is technically still
pending before the states.
Madison was disappointed that the Bill of
Rights did not include protections against
actions by state governments, but passage
of the document mollified some critics of
the original constitution and shored up Madison's
support in Virginia.In proposing the Bill
of Rights, Madison considered over two hundred
amendments that had been proposed at the state
ratifying conventions.
While most of the amendments he proposed were
drawn from these conventions, he was largely
responsible for the portions of the Bill of
Rights that guarantee freedom of the press,
protection of property from government seizure,
and jury trials.
He initially introduced an amendment that
guaranteed all citizens the right to a jury
trial in all civil cases where there was $20
or more at stake.
While the original amendment failed, the guaranty
of a civil jury trial in federal cases was
incorporated into the Bill of Rights as the
Seventh Amendment.
=== Founding the Democratic-Republican Party
===
As the 1790s progressed, the Washington administration
became polarized among two main factions.
One was led by Jefferson and Madison, broadly
represented Southern interests, and sought
close relations with France and westward expansion.
The other was led by Secretary of the Treasury
Alexander Hamilton, broadly represented Northern
financial interests, and favored close relations
with Britain.
In 1790, Hamilton introduced an ambitious
economic program that called for the federal
assumption of state debts and the funding
of that debt through the issuance of federal
securities.
Hamilton's plan favored Northern speculators
and was disadvantageous to states such as
Virginia that had already paid off most of
their debt, and Madison emerged as one of
the principal Congressional opponents of the
plan.
After prolonged legislative deadlock, Madison,
Jefferson, and Hamilton agreed to the Compromise
of 1790, which provided for the enactment
of Hamilton's assumption plan through the
Funding Act of 1790.
In return, Congress passed the Residence Act,
which established the federal capital district
of Washington, D.C. on the Potomac River.
In 1791, Hamilton introduced a plan that called
for the establishment of a national bank,
which would provide loans to emerging industries
and oversee the money supply.
Madison objected to the bank, arguing that
its creation was not authorized by the constitution.
After Congress passed a bill to create the
First Bank of the United States, Washington
carefully considered vetoing the bill, but
ultimately chose to sign it in February 1791.
With the passage of much of Hamilton's economic
program, Madison came to fear the growing
influence of Northern moneyed interests, which
he believed would dominate the fledgling republic
under Hamilton's plans.
Madison also lost much of his influence in
the Washington administration, as Washington
increasingly turned to Jefferson and Hamilton
for advice.When Britain and France went to
war in 1793, the U.S. was caught in the middle.
The 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France was
still in effect, yet most of the new country's
trade was with Britain.
Madison and Jefferson continued to look favorably
upon the French Revolution despite its increasingly
violent nature, but Washington proclaimed
American neutrality.
War with Britain became imminent in 1794,
after the British seized hundreds of American
ships that were trading with French colonies.
Madison believed that the United States was
stronger than Britain, and that a trade war
with Britain, although risking a real war
by that government, would probably succeed,
and allow Americans to assert their independence
fully.
Great Britain, he charged, "has bound us in
commercial manacles, and very nearly defeated
the object of our independence."
According to Varg, Madison discounted the
more powerful British military when the latter
declared "her interests can be wounded almost
mortally, while ours are invulnerable."
The British West Indies, Madison maintained,
could not live without American foodstuffs,
but Americans could easily do without British
manufactures.
He concluded, "it is in our power, in a very
short time, to supply all the tonnage necessary
for our own commerce".
Washington avoided a trade war and instead
secured friendly trade relations with Britain
through the Jay Treaty of 1794.
Madison's harsh and unsuccessful opposition
to the treaty led to a permanent break with
Washington, ending a long friendship.The debate
over the Jay Treaty helped solidify the growing
divide between the country's first major political
parties.
Those opposed to the policies of the Washington
administration, including many former anti-federalists
took the name "republican," and coalesced
into the Democratic-Republican Party.
Those who supported the administration's policies
took the name "federalist," and, under the
leadership of Hamilton, coalesced into the
Federalist Party.
With Jefferson out of office after 1793, Madison
became the de facto leader of the Democratic-Republican
Party.
In advance of the 1796 presidential election,
Madison helped convince Jefferson to run for
the presidency.
Madison also laid the groundwork for Jefferson's
campaign, building alliances in various states
in hopes of ensuring Jefferson's election.
Despite Madison's efforts, Federalist John
Adams defeated Jefferson, taking a narrow
majority of the electoral vote.
Declining to seek re-election, Madison left
Congress in 1797 and returned to Montpelier.Though
he was out of office, Madison remained a prominent
Democratic-Republican leader in opposition
to the administration of Adams.
In 1798, the U.S. and France unofficially
became combatants in the Quasi-War, which
involved naval warships and commercial vessels
battling in the Caribbean.
The Federalists created a standing army and
passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which
were directed at French refugees engaged in
American politics and against Republican editors.
In response, Madison and Jefferson secretly
drafted the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
declaring the enactments to be unconstitutional
and noted that "states, in contesting obnoxious
laws, should 'interpose for arresting the
progress of the evil.'"
The resolutions were largely unpopular, even
among republicans, since they called for state
governments to invalidate federal laws.
Jefferson went further, urging states to secede
if necessary, though Madison convinced Jefferson
to relent this extreme view.
Jefferson sought the presidency again in the
1800 presidential election, with Madison again
acting as Jefferson's campaign manager.
In a closely contested election that was ultimately
decided in the House of Representatives, Jefferson
narrowly prevailed.
== Marriage and family ==
Madison was married for the first time at
the age of 43; on September 15, 1794, James
Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a 26-year-old
widow, at Harewood, in what is now Jefferson
County, West Virginia.
Madison met Dolley Payne while serving in
Congress.
In May 1794, Madison asked his and Dolley's
mutual friend Aaron Burr, to arrange a meeting.
By August, she had accepted his proposal of
marriage.
For marrying Madison, a non-Quaker, she was
expelled from the Society of Friends.
Also in 1794 Madison was elected a Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Madison had no children but adopted Todd's
one surviving son, John Payne Todd (known
as Payne), after the marriage.Dolley Madison
put her social gifts to use when the couple
lived in Washington, beginning when he was
Secretary of State.
With the White House still under construction,
she advised as to its furnishings and sometimes
served as First Lady for ceremonial functions
for President Thomas Jefferson, a widower
and friend.
When her husband was president, she created
the role of First Lady, using her social talents
to advance his program.
She is credited with adding to his popularity
in office.Madison's father died in 1801.
At age 50, Madison inherited the large plantation
of Montpelier and other possessions, including
his father's 108 slaves.
Madison had begun to act as a steward of his
father's properties by 1780.
== United States Secretary of State (1801–1809)
==
Jefferson wanted to ensure that he controlled
his administration's foreign policy, and he
selected the loyal Madison for the position
of Secretary of State despite the latter's
lack of foreign policy experience.
Along with Secretary of the Treasury Albert
Gallatin, Madison became one of the two major
influences in Jefferson's cabinet.
As the ascent of Napoleon had dulled Democratic-Republican
enthusiasm for the French cause, Madison sought
a neutral position in the ongoing Coalition
Wars between France and Britain.
Early in Jefferson's presidency, the United
States learned that Spain planned to retrocede
the Territory of Louisiana to France, raising
fears of French encroachment on U.S. territory.
In 1802, Jefferson and Madison dispatched
James Monroe to France to negotiate the purchase
the city of New Orleans, which controlled
access to the Mississippi River and thus was
important to the farmers of the American frontier.
Though Napoleon had briefly hoped to re-establish
a French empire in Louisiana and Saint-Domingue,
which had rebelled against French rule, he
ultimately turned his attention back to European
conflicts.
Rather than selling merely New Orleans, Napoleon's
government offered to sell the entire Territory
of Louisiana.
Despite lacking explicit authorization from
Jefferson, Monroe and ambassador Robert R.
Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase,
in which France sold over 800,000 square miles
(2,100,000 square kilometers) of land in exchange
for $15 million.Many contemporaries and later
historians, such as Ron Chernow, noted that
Madison and President Jefferson ignored their
"strict construction" of the Constitution
to take advantage of the purchase opportunity.
Jefferson would have preferred a constitutional
amendment authorizing the purchase, but did
not have time nor was he required to do so.
The Senate quickly ratified the treaty providing
for the purchase.
The House, with equal alacrity, passed enabling
legislation.
The Jefferson administration argued that the
purchase had included West Florida, but France
refused to acknowledge this and Florida remained
under the control of Spain.With the wars raging
in Europe, Madison tried to maintain American
neutrality, and insisted on the legal rights
of the U.S. as a neutral party under international
law.
Neither London nor Paris showed much respect,
however, and the situation deteriorated during
Jefferson's second term.
After Napoleon achieved victory over his enemies
in continental Europe at the Battle of Austerlitz,
he became more aggressive and tried to starve
Britain into submission with an embargo that
was economically ruinous to both sides.
Madison and Jefferson also decided on an embargo
to punish Britain and France, forbidding American
trade with any foreign nation.
The embargo failed in the United States just
as it did in France, and caused massive hardships
up and down the seaboard, which depended on
foreign trade.
The Federalists made a comeback in the Northeast
by attacking the embargo, which was allowed
to expire just as Jefferson was leaving office.
=== Election of 1808 ===
Speculation regarding Madison's potential
succession of Jefferson commenced early in
Jefferson's first term.
Madison's status in the party was damaged
by his association with the embargo, which
was unpopular throughout the country but especially
in the Northeast.
With the Federalists collapsing as a national
party after 1800, much of the opposition to
Madison and the Jefferson administration came
from other members of the Democratic-Republican
Party.
Madison became the target of attacks from
Congressman John Randolph, a leader of the
tertium quids.
Randolph criticized what he saw as the Jefferson
administration's abuses of power and sought
to derail Madison's potential presidency in
favor of a Monroe presidency.
Many northerners also hoped that Vice President
George Clinton could unseat Madison as Jefferson's
successor.
Despite this opposition, Madison won his party's
presidential nomination at the January 1808
congressional nominating caucus.
The Federalist Party mustered little strength
outside New England, and Madison easily defeated
Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
At a height of only five feet, four inches
(163 cm), and never weighing more than 100
pounds (45 kg), Madison became the most diminutive
president.
== Presidency (1809–1817) ==
Upon his inauguration in 1809, Madison immediately
faced opposition to his planned nomination
of Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin
as Secretary of State, led by Sen. William
B. Giles.
Madison chose not to fight Congress for the
nomination but kept Gallatin, a carry over
from the Jefferson administration, in the
Treasury Department.
The talented Swiss-born Gallatin was Madison's
primary advisor, confidant, and policy planner.
Madison's cabinet, which included men of unremarkable
talent, were chosen for the purposes of national
interest and political harmony.
Smith in particular would frequently clash
with Madison until he was replaced by Monroe
in 1811.
=== War of 1812 ===
==== Prelude to war ====
Congress had repealed the embargo right before
Madison became president, but troubles with
the British and French continued.
Aside from U.S. trade with France, the central
dispute between the Great Britain and the
United States was the impressment of sailors
by the British.
During the long and expensive war against
France, many British citizens were forced
by their own government to join the navy,
and many of these conscripts defected to U.S.
merchant ships.
Unable to tolerate this loss of manpower,
the British seized several U.S. ships and
forced captured crewmen, some of whom were
not in fact not British subjects, to serve
in the British navy.
Though Americans were outraged by this impressment,
they also refused to take steps to limit it,
such as refusing to hire British subjects.
For economic reasons, American merchants preferred
impressment to giving up their right to hire
British sailors.Although initially promising,
President Madison's diplomatic efforts to
get the British to withdraw the Orders in
Council were rejected by British Foreign Secretary
George Canning in April 1809.
In August 1809, diplomatic relations with
Britain deteriorated as minister David Erskine
was withdrawn and replaced by "hatchet man"
Francis James Jackson.
Madison resisted calls for war, as he was
ideologically opposed to the debt and taxes
necessary for a war effort.
After Jackson accused Madison of duplicity
with Erskine, Madison had Jackson barred from
the State Department and sent packing to Boston.
In early 1810, Madison began asking Congress
for more appropriations to increase the Army
and Navy in preparation for war with Britain.
Congress also passed an act known as Macon's
Bill Number 2, an attempt to protect American
shipping rights.
Seeking to split the Americans and British,
Napoleon offered to end French attacks on
American shipping so long as the United States
punished any countries that did not similarly
end restrictions on trade.
Madison accepted Napoleon's proposal in the
hope that it would convince the British to
revoke the Orders-in-Council, but the British
refused to change their policies.
Despite assurances to the contrary, the French
also continued to attack American shipping.As
the attacks on American shipping continued,
both Madison and the broader American public
were ready for war with Britain.
Many Americans called for a "second war of
independence" to restore honor and stature
to the new nation, and an angry public elected
a "war hawk" Congress, led by Henry Clay and
John C. Calhoun.
With Britain in the midst of the Napoleonic
Wars, many Americans, Madison included, believed
that the United States could easily capture
Canada, at which point the U.S. could use
Canada as a bargaining chip for all other
disputes or simply retain control of it.
On June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress for
a declaration of war.
The declaration was passed along sectional
and party lines, with intense opposition from
the Federalists and the Northeast, where the
economy had suffered during Jefferson's trade
embargo.Madison hurriedly called on Congress
to put the country "into an armor and an attitude
demanded by the crisis," specifically recommending
enlarging the army, preparing the militia,
finishing the military academy, stockpiling
munitions, and expanding the navy.
Madison faced formidable obstacles—a divided
cabinet, a factious party, a recalcitrant
Congress, obstructionist governors, and incompetent
generals, together with militia who refused
to fight outside their states.
The most serious problem facing the war effort
was lack of unified popular support.
There were serious threats of disunion from
New England, which engaged in extensive smuggling
with Canada and refused to provide financial
support or soldiers.
Events in Europe also went against the United
States.
Shortly after the United States declared war,
Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia, and
the failure of that campaign turned the tide
against French and towards Britain and her
allies.
In the years prior to the war, Jefferson and
Madison had reduced the size of the military,
closed the Bank of the U.S., and lowered taxes.
These decisions added to the challenges facing
the United States, as by the time the war
began, Madison's military force consisted
mostly of poorly trained militia members.
==== Military action ====
Madison hoped that the war would end in a
couple months after the capture of Canada,
but his hopes were quickly dashed.
Madison had believed the state militias would
rally to the flag and invade Canada, but the
governors in the Northeast failed to cooperate.
Their militias either sat out the war or refused
to leave their respective states for action.
The senior command at the War Department and
in the field proved incompetent or cowardly—the
general at Detroit surrendered to a smaller
British force without firing a shot.
Gallatin discovered the war was almost impossible
to fund, since the national bank had been
closed and major financiers in the New England
refused to help.
Lacking adequate revenue, and with its request
for loans refused by New England bankers,
the Madison administration relied heavily
on high-interest loans furnished by bankers
based in New York City and Philadelphia.
The American campaign in Canada, led by Henry
Dearborn, ended with defeat at the Battle
of Stoney Creek.
Meanwhile, the British armed American Indians,
most notably several tribes allied with the
Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, in an attempt to
threaten American positions in the Northwest.After
the disastrous start to the War of 1812, Madison
accepted a Russian invitation to arbitrate
the war and sent Gallatin, John Quincy Adams,
and James Bayard to Europe in hopes of quickly
ending the war.
While Madison worked to end the war, the U.S.
experienced some military success, particularly
at sea.
The United States had built up one of the
largest merchant fleets in the world, though
it had been partially dismantled under Jefferson
and Madison.
Madison authorized many of these ships to
become privateers in the war, and they captured
1,800 British ships.
As part of the war effort, an American naval
shipyard was built up at Sackets Harbor, New
York, where thousands of men produced twelve
warships and had another nearly ready by the
end of the war.
The U.S. naval squadron on Lake Erie successfully
defended itself and captured its opponents,
crippling the supply and reinforcement of
British military forces in the western theater
of the war.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Lake Erie,
General William Henry Harrison defeated the
forces of the British and of Tecumseh's Confederacy
at the Battle of the Thames.
The death of Tecumseh in that battle represented
the permanent end of armed Native American
resistance in the Old Northwest.
In March 1814, General Andrew Jackson broke
the resistance of the British-allied Muscogee
in the Old Southwest with his victory at the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
Despite those successes, the British continued
to repel American attempts to invade Canada,
and a British force captured Fort Niagara
and burned the American city of Buffalo in
late 1813.
In early 1814, the British agreed to begin
peace negotiations in the town of Ghent, and
the British pushed for the establishment of
an Indian barrier state in the Old Northwest
as part of any peace agreement.
After Napoleon's abdication following the
March 1814 Battle of Paris, the British began
to shift soldiers to North America.
Under General George Izard and General Jacob
Brown, the U.S. launched another invasion
of Canada in mid-1814.
Despite an American victory at the Battle
of Chippawa, the invasion stalled once again.
Meanwhile, the British increased the size
and intensity of their raids against the Atlantic
coast.
General William H. Winder attempted to bring
together a concentrated force to guard against
a potential attack on Washington or Baltimore,
but his orders were countermanded by Secretary
of War Armstrong.
The British landed a large force off the Chesapeake
Bay in August 1814, and the British army approached
Washington on August 24.
An American force was routed at the Battle
of Bladensburg, and British forces set fire
to the federal buildings of Washington.
Dolley Madison rescued White House valuables
and documents shortly before the British burned
the White House.
The British army next moved on Baltimore,
but the British called off the raid after
the U.S. repelled a naval attack on Fort McHenry.
Madison returned to Washington before the
end of August, and the main British force
departed from the region in September.
The British attempted to launch an invasion
from Canada, but the U.S. victory at the September
1814 Battle of Plattsburgh ended British hopes
of conquering New York.Anticipating that the
British would attack the city of New Orleans
next, newly-installed Secretary of War James
Monroe ordered General Jackson to prepare
a defense of the city.
Meanwhile, the British public began to turn
against the war in North America, and British
leaders began to look for a quick exit from
the conflict.
On January 8, 1815, Jackson's force defeated
the British at the Battle of New Orleans.
Just over a month later, Madison learned that
his negotiators had reached the Treaty of
Ghent, ending the war without major concessions
by either side.
Additionally, both sides agreed to establish
commissions to settle Anglo-American boundary
disputes.
Madison quickly sent the Treaty of Ghent to
the Senate, and the Senate ratified the treaty
on February 16, 1815.
To most Americans, the quick succession of
events at the end of the war, including the
burning of the capital, the Battle of New
Orleans, and the Treaty of Ghent, appeared
as though American valor at New Orleans had
forced the British to surrender.
This view, while inaccurate, strongly contributed
to the post-war euphoria that persisted for
a decade.
It also helps explain the significance of
the war, even if it was strategically inconclusive.
Madison's reputation as president improved
and Americans finally believed the United
States had established itself as a world power.
Napoleon's defeat at the June 1815 Battle
of Waterloo brought a permanent end to the
Napoleonic Wars, bringing a halt to the attacks
on American shipping.
=== Postwar economy and internal improvements
===
The postwar period of Madison's second term
saw the transition into the Era of Good Feelings,
in which the Federalists ceased to act as
an effective opposition party.
The Federalists had been badly damaged by
the Hartford Convention, in which a group
of New England Federalists proposed a second
constitutional convention.
At the same time, Madison embraced some aspects
of the Federalist program that he had previously
opposed, weakening the ideological divisions
between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.
With the Federalist Party on the decline,
Madison's chosen successor, James Monroe,
would easily defeat Federalist Rufus King
in the 1816 presidential election.Madison
had presided over the expiration of the First
Bank of the United States's charter in 1811.
However, the war convinced him of the need
for a central bank, which he hoped would aid
the government in borrowing money and also
help curb inflation.
In 1816 he signed a bill establishing the
Second Bank of the United States.
He also approved an effective taxation system
based on tariffs, a standing professional
military, and some of the internal improvements
championed by Clay under Clay's American System.
In 1816, pensions were extended to orphans
and widows from the War of 1812 for a period
of 5 years at the rate of half pay.Madison
urged a variety of measures that he felt were
"best executed under the national authority,"
including federal support for roads and canals
that would "bind more closely together the
various parts of our extended confederacy."
However, in his last act before leaving office,
Madison vetoed the Bonus Bill of 1817, which
would have financed more internal improvements
of roads, bridges, and canals: "Having considered
the bill this day presented to me ... I am
constrained by the insuperable difficulty
I feel in reconciling this bill with the Constitution
of the United States.
... The legislative powers vested in Congress
are specified and enumerated in ... the Constitution,
and it does not appear that the power proposed
to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated
powers."
=== Indian policy ===
Upon assuming office on March 4, 1809, in
his first Inaugural Address to the nation,
Madison stated that the federal government's
duty was to convert the American Indians by
the "participation of the improvements of
which the human mind and manners are susceptible
in a civilized state".
Like Jefferson, Madison had a paternalistic
attitude toward American Indians, encouraging
the men to give up hunting and become farmers.
Although there are scant details, Madison
often met with Southeastern and Western Indians
who included the Creek and Osage.
Madison believed their adoption of European-style
agriculture would help the Creek assimilate
the values of British-U.S. civilization.
As pioneers and settlers moved West into large
tracts of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw
territory, Madison ordered the U.S. Army to
protect Native lands from intrusion by settlers,
to the chagrin of his military commander Andrew
Jackson.
Jackson wanted the President to ignore Indian
pleas to stop the invasion of their lands
and resisted carrying out the president's
order.
In the Northwest Territory after the Battle
of Tippecanoe in 1811, Indians were pushed
off their tribal lands and replaced entirely
by white settlers.
By 1815, with a population of 400,000 European-American
settlers in Ohio, Indian rights to their lands
had effectively become null and void.
== Later life ==
When Madison left office in 1817 at age 65,
he retired to Montpelier, his tobacco plantation
in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Jefferson's
Monticello.
As with both Washington and Jefferson, Madison
left the presidency a poorer man than when
elected.
His plantation experienced a steady financial
collapse, due to the continued price declines
in tobacco and also due to his stepson's mismanagement.In
his retirement, Madison occasionally became
involved in public affairs, advising Andrew
Jackson and other presidents.
He remained out of the public debate over
the Missouri Compromise, though he privately
complained about the North's opposition to
the extension of slavery.
Madison had warm relations with all four of
the major candidates in the 1824 presidential
election, but, like Jefferson, largely stayed
out of the race.
During Jackson's presidency, Madison publicly
disavowed the Nullification movement and argued
that no state had the right to secede.Madison
helped Jefferson establish the University
of Virginia, though the university was primarily
Jefferson's initiative.
In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison
was appointed as the second rector of the
university.
He retained the position as college chancellor
for ten years until his death in 1836.
In 1829, at the age of 78, Madison was chosen
as a representative to the Virginia Constitutional
Convention for revision of the commonwealth's
constitution.
It was his last appearance as a statesman.
The issue of greatest importance at this convention
was apportionment.
The western districts of Virginia complained
that they were underrepresented because the
state constitution apportioned voting districts
by county.
The increased population in the Piedmont and
western parts of the state were not proportionately
represented by delegates in the legislature.
Western reformers also wanted to extend suffrage
to all white men, in place of the prevailing
property ownership requirement.
Madison tried in vain to effect a compromise.
Eventually, suffrage rights were extended
to renters as well as landowners, but the
eastern planters refused to adopt citizen
population apportionment.
They added slaves held as property to the
population count, to maintain a permanent
majority in both houses of the legislature,
arguing that there must be a balance between
population and property represented.
Madison was disappointed at the failure of
Virginians to resolve the issue more equitably.In
his later years, Madison became highly concerned
about his historic legacy.
He resorted to modifying letters and other
documents in his possession, changing days
and dates, adding and deleting words and sentences,
and shifting characters.
By the time he had reached his late seventies,
this "straightening out" had become almost
an obsession.
As an example, he edited a letter written
to Jefferson criticizing Lafayette—Madison
not only inked out original passages, but
even forged Jefferson's handwriting as well.
Historian Drew R. McCoy has said, "During
the final six years of his life, amid a sea
of personal [financial] troubles that were
threatening to engulf him ... At times mental
agitation issued in physical collapse.
For the better part of a year in 1831 and
1832 he was bedridden, if not silenced ... Literally
sick with anxiety, he began to despair of
his ability to make himself understood by
his fellow citizens."
Madison died at Montpelier on the morning
of June 28, 1836.
He is buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier.
He was one of the last prominent members of
the Revolutionary War generation to die.
His will left significant sums to the American
Colonization Society, the University of Virginia,
and Princeton, as well as $30,000 to his wife,
Dolly.
Left with a smaller sum than Madison had intended,
Dolly would suffer financial troubles until
her own death in 1849.
== Political and religious views ==
=== 
Federalism ===
During his first stint in Congress in the
1780s, Madison came to favor amending the
Articles of Confederation to provide for a
stronger central government.
In the 1790s, he led the opposition to Hamilton's
centralizing policies and the Alien and Sedition
Acts.
According to Chernow, Madison's support of
the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in the
1790s "was a breathtaking evolution for a
man who had pleaded at the Constitutional
Convention that the federal government should
possess a veto over state laws."
The historian Gordon S. Wood says that Lance
Banning, as in his Sacred Fire of Liberty
(1995), is the "only present-day scholar to
maintain that Madison did not change his views
in the 1790s."
In claiming this, Banning downplays Madison's
nationalism in the 1780s.
During and after the War of 1812, Madison
came to support several policies he had opposed
in the 1790s, including the national bank,
a strong navy, and direct taxes.Wood notes
that many historians struggle to understand
Madison, but Wood looks at him in the terms
of Madison's own times—as a nationalist
but one with a different conception of nationalism
from that of the Federalists.
Gary Rosen and Banning use other approaches
to suggest Madison's consistency.
=== Religion ===
Although educated by Presbyterian clergymen,
young Madison was an avid reader of English
deist tracts.
As an adult, Madison paid little attention
to religious matters.
Though most historians have found little indication
of his religious leanings after he left college,
some scholars indicate he leaned toward deism.
Others maintain that Madison accepted Christian
tenets and formed his outlook on life with
a Christian world view.
Regardless of his own religious beliefs, Madison
believed in religious liberty, and he advocated
for Virginia's disestablishment of the Anglican
Church throughout the late 1770s and 1780s.
he also opposed the appointments of chaplains
for Congress and the armed forces, arguing
that the appointments produce religious exclusion
as well as political disharmony.
=== Slavery ===
Madison grew up on a plantation that made
use of slave labor and he viewed the institution
as a necessary part of the Southern economy,
though he was troubled by the instability
of a society that depended on a large enslaved
population.
At the Philadelphia Convention, Madison favored
an immediate end to the importation of slaves,
though the final document barred Congress
from interfering with the international slave
trade until 1808.
He also proposed that apportionment in the
United States Senate be allocated by the sum
of each state's free population and slave
population, eventually leading to the adoption
of the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Madison believed that former slaves were unlikely
to successfully integrate into Southern society,
and in the late 1780s, he became interested
in the idea of African-Americans establishing
colonies in Africa.
In the 1830s, Madison served a term as president
of the American Colonization Society, which
founded the settlement of Liberia for former
slaves.
== Legacy ==
The historian Garry Wills wrote, "Madison's
claim on our admiration does not rest on a
perfect consistency, any more than it rests
on his presidency.
He has other virtues.
... As a framer and defender of the Constitution
he had no peer.
... The finest part of Madison's performance
as president was his concern for the preserving
of the Constitution.
... No man could do everything for the country—not
even Washington.
Madison did more than most, and did some things
better than any.
That was quite enough."Montpelier, his family's
plantation, has been designated a National
Historic Landmark.
The James Madison Memorial Building is a building
of the United States Library of Congress and
serves as the official memorial to Madison.
In 1986, Congress created the James Madison
Memorial Fellowship Foundation as part of
the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution.
Several counties and settlements have been
named for Madison, including Madison County,
Alabama and Madison, Wisconsin.
Other things named for Madison include Madison
Square, James Madison University, and the
USS James Madison.
== See also ==
Bibliography of the American Revolutionary
War
Republicanism
Report of 1800, produced by Madison to support
the Virginia Resolutions
US Presidents on US postage stamps
List of Presidents of the United States
List of Presidents of the United States, sortable
by previous experience
== References ==
=== Works cited ===
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
White House biography
United States Congress.
"James Madison (id: M000043)".
Biographical Directory of the United States
Congress.
James Madison: A Resource Guide at the Library
of Congress
The James Madison Papers, 1723–1836 at the
Library of Congress
The Papers of James Madison, subset of Founders
Online from the National Archives
American President: James Madison (1751–1836)
at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University
of Virginia
James Madison at the Online Library of Liberty,
Liberty Fund
Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious
Assessments (1785) at the U.S. National Archives
The Papers of James Madison at the Avalon
Project
Montpelier, home of James Madison
"Memories of Montpelier: Home of James and
Dolley Madison", a National Park Service Teaching
with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
"Life Portrait of James Madison", from C-SPAN's
American Presidents: Life Portraits, April
9, 1999
"Writings of Jefferson and Madison" from C-SPAN's
American Writers: A Journey Through History
Booknotes interview with William Lee Miller
on The Business of May Next: James Madison
and the Founding, June 14, 1992.
Works by James Madison at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about James Madison at Internet
Archive
Works by James Madison at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks)
James Madison Personal Manuscripts
