The framers who pushed for the Constitution were fearful that the nation was about to dissolve
they begin with the main procedure secrecy we're just going to speak
about what we think the windows will be closed no matter how hot it is this summer
and no one will leave notes outside the convention nobody tells what's happening to anybody outside
and they begin shaping something that had never been shaped before in the history of the world
how that could be brought about was something to behold
It was a long very hot Philadelphia summer and so you can imagine how tempers ultimately
began to flare when they couldn't get anything done it was a very hard debate and I think that
had the Constitution not come into effect the unity of the country would shatter politics begins
in disagreement Madison says in Federalist 14 remember that we fought together against
a common enemy we fought for the same cause we share the same language we were brothers
from 1783 to 1787 things began to unravel tariffs between the states
local jealousies the British still in the forts in the northwest the jealousy between the states
and so economically the country was in a mess which meant that politically the country was not
in good shape even those who would become known as anti-federalists recognized that
something needed to be done without a governmental structure that can pull us together as a nation we
will fail to become a nation to stay as a nation Madison's goal his life's goal was to figure out
how to make republican government work so that it could last through the ages
James Madison was everywhere at every time at the Constitutional Convention he took a seat up front
as everyone knows in order to hear everyone to take notes often dramatically putting his
pen down when he thought a speech was simply boring the mind of James Madison was a mind
constantly at work on the questions that he thought were most important
he understood that this was a unique moment in history he once said we are going to
determine whether republican government can ever be successful what Madison saw
and brought to life in the new Constitution was based on his study of the history of political
philosophy throughout the ages he pinpointed the very things that made it impossible for free small
or republican government to work and then he was determined to figure out a way to make that work
and here's what Madison said when he thinks he's figured it out
you can feel his excitement leaping off the page when he says this is the government for which
philosophy has been searching and humanity signed from the most remote ages this is the government
which it is the glory of America to have invented and her happiness to possess it's Madison who
brought the ideas that would become the basis for the Virginia Plan and in many ways the basis for
separation of powers and limited government in the form that they ended up in the Constitution
so when the Constitutional Convention adjourns on September 17, 1787 the work really had just begun
Madison insisted that this new Constitution was nothing but a dead letter until life was breathed
into it by the American people in other words until it was ratified by the people of the several
states the problem was quite a good critical mass of people were worried that this Constitution did
not include a Bill of Rights Madison opposed a Bill of Rights he said if you set up a series
of rights you are implying that congress can then legislate on all these other rights
in fact it could be a danger of a Bill of Rights because it might imply that only those rights
listed in the Bill of Rights are rights retained and so there was a concern of sending that message
and there's a problem the upstate opposition to the Constitution is enormous they had lived
under a king King George III and they were afraid of monarchy coming back as it were
they wanted to guard against any kind of threat to the liberties of the people it was not at all
clear that they would win ratification in fact many people were calling for a second convention
we'll have another convention in which we include a Bill of Rights they argue and then
we'll go to ratification well that horrified Madison you can just feel Madison's frustration
a second convention the first was hard enough
they made it through the first when all the odds were against them the federalists could not
say you know you're right we could have done a better job let's go back to the drawing boards
they had gone through three months of compromises if they had opened that box again there wouldn't
have been a Constitution they had to defend it as it was they had to say take it or leave it in
convention after convention among the states the demand was there should be a Bill of Rights
and the Constitution almost failed in a number of states because there wasn't a Bill of Rights
but the anti-federals kept beating on this this was their one almost winning argument
no Bill of Rights no Bill of Rights and Madison thought how can we have a Bill of
Rights because they'll lose the Constitution so Madison and others said all right okay
we'll go with a Bill of Rights since it's so much the desire of the people of the United States
so the question is why did he change his mind
he said number one we promised you know who the people were who were asking for these Bills of
Rights these people fought alongside of us they bled and died for the country they were
as much patriotic as we why keep them out why keep them out if we pass this Bill of Rights
it will embrace the whole country into the Constitution he wanted to heal the country
bring people on board make the enemies to the Constitution into friends of the Constitution
and lastly he said we're the federalists we can write the Bill of Rights so it doesn't change
the structure of the Constitution we don't have to touch the constitutional structure
just give them the Bill of Rights and he was right is that quite genius giving
them the Bill of Rights without destroying the structure and the integrity of the Constitution
that's a marvelous attainment and in fact when the new government is established Madison is the de
facto leader of the house of representatives and one of the first things he does
is introduce a series of amendments that would become known as the Bill of Rights
it worked just the way Madison had hoped it would work even though he lost on a number
of the debates he lost in the way Madison understood he should lose through compromise
through negotiation through listening to the other side and a lesson he learned himself even in the
Constitutional Convention that even through his defeats in the Constitutional Convention
something came out that was better than he thought he wanted in the beginning and we
had a unified country we need to find a way as Madison put it to share together
things that we care about the most this is the core of self-government
this is the challenge of what it means to be human and this is what it means to try to live this life
in a way that when all is said and done one can look back and say it was worth it
and another thing we have to understand about Madison and Hamilton too Madison's
detriment compared to Hamilton is that Madison could not do rap at all
Madison was considered father Constitution for many years and now lots of people are
saying no no no because the Constitution really isn't a reflection of his thought
that's ridiculous that's i think that's pure trash it would have to be one of these
intimate theater in the rounds because he'd be such a quiet character like a check off play
you'd have to lean forward to get Dolly Madison would make a great broadway show but James no