Hey it’s Professor Dave; let’s talk about James Madison.
Though James Madison stood a mere five foot four, and only 100 pounds, he was an American
Colossus, a Founding Father of both the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Along with Thomas Jefferson he co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, he served
as Jefferson’s Secretary of State, supervised the Louisiana Purchase, and was the President
of the United States during the War of 1812, which saw the emergence of the United States
as a world power.
Madison would frequently change his political views during his life.
He favored a strong national government at the Constitutional Convention yet rejected
calls for a Bill of Rights before becoming its strongest advocate.
After witnessing Federalist excesses under John Adams, Madison joined Jefferson in penning
resolutions that argued that the states could reject compliance with unconstitutional Federal
laws.
But after assuming the Presidency, he began appreciating the effectiveness of a strong
Federal government during the War of 1812.
In the end, he arrived at a position between the two extremes.
Born into the Virginia plantation slave owner class that produced four of the first five
presidents, Madison served in the Virginia state legislature and became a protégé of
fellow delegate Thomas Jefferson.
He attained prominence in Virginia politics while aiding Jefferson with the Virginia Statute
of Religious Freedom in 1786, which revoked the power of the State in religious matters,
and would influence the drafting of the Constitution.
It quickly became apparent that the Articles of Confederation, which had served as America’s
first constitution beginning in 1777, were not sufficient to govern the expanding nation.
The Congress had no authority to tax or raise revenue, and the individual colonies couldn’t
pay off their war debts.
Many people, including George Washington, feared bankruptcy and disunion.
Partly at Madison’s initiative, a national convention was called.
He was crucial in persuading Washington to attend, knowing how instrumental his fellow
Virginian would be in uniting the various factions.
Although its original intent was only to revise the Articles, many attendees, like Madison
and Alexander Hamilton, wanted to create a new government.
The convention met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, and Washington was
unanimously elected as its president.
The 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution would later become known as the Founding Fathers,
who among them possessed a remarkable depth of knowledge.
Thomas Jefferson, who was Minister to France during the Convention, wrote to John Adams
calling it, “An assembly of demigods.”
36-year-old Madison, the youngest man at the Convention, spoke over 200 times and was a
forceful advocate for the Federalist cause.
Two plans for structuring the federal government arose at the outset: The first was Madison’s
Virginia Plan, proposing that the new legislative branch of government be composed of a bicameral
Congress based on population-weighted representation.
The second proposal, the New Jersey Plan, proposed a unicameral legislative body with
one vote per state, which favored the smaller, less populous states.
Madison’s plan was the more influential.
One of Madison’s lasting legacies was the Bill of Rights.
A Bill of Rights modeled on various state declarations was suggested during the convention,
but the motion was defeated, with many delegates tired and wanting to adjourn.
Jefferson urged the inclusion of guarantees of individual liberties, writing to Madison,
“If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can.”
Delegate Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the Constitution because it lacked such a guarantee
of Rights, along with other prominent figures like Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Richard
Henry Lee.
Initially, both Madison and Hamilton dismissed the need for a bill of rights in their Federalist
Papers, and both men wrote many essays that advocated Constitutional ratification.
Madison argued that the states were sufficient guarantors of personal liberty while Hamilton
felt such amendments were unnecessary because, as he wrote, “The Constitution is itself,
in every rational sense and to every useful purpose, a Bill of Rights.”
In December 1787 and January 1788, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut
ratified the Constitution, but the Massachusetts Convention was contentious.
A fistfight between Francis Dana and Elbridge Gerry broke out, and the conflict between
those who wished to ratify and those who didn’t was only resolved when leading Anti-Federalists
Samuel Adams and John Hancock agreed to ratify on the condition that certain proposed amendments
be included, one requiring a grand jury indictment in capital cases, which would form part of
the Fifth Amendment, and another reserving powers to the states not expressly given to
the Federal government, which would form the basis for the Tenth.
Federalists in Virginia and New York were able to obtain ratification by linking its
passage to other amendments, and ultimately, only North Carolina and Rhode Island abstained,
waiting for assurances from Congress before ratifying.
On September 13th, Congress certified that the new Constitution had been ratified by
enough states for a new government to be implemented, and directed it to meet in New York City the
following year.
On March 4th, 1789, the new government came into being with eleven of the thirteen states
participating.
On June 8th, Congressman James Madison introduced a bill proposing up to 20 potential amendments,
suggesting they be incorporated into the body of the Constitution.
The House rejected that idea but it adopted 17 of the amendments and sent the bill to
the Senate, which made further modifications.
A joint House–Senate Committee resolved the differences between the two proposals
and it was this version that was approved by Congress on September 25th, 1789.
Madison was active throughout the legislative process, and as one historian wrote, “There
is no question that it was Madison’s personal prestige and his dogged persistence that saw
the amendments through the Congress.
There might have been a Federal Constitution without Madison but certainly no Bill of Rights.”
Yet even at the outset, ideological divisions between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander
Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson divided the new government.
Hamilton had contributed to the organization of the American economy, which was a masterpiece
of economic engineering, but Jefferson clung to his idealized view of the United States
as an agrarian nation.
Madison supported Jefferson’s view.
He was also opposed to Hamilton’s creation of a national bank and became increasingly
frustrated with Washington’s constant support of Hamilton over Jefferson.
Madison had begun organizing fellow House members in Congress who were hostile to Washington’s
Federalist policies.
On March 13th, 1791, he wrote to Jefferson proposing that they make a tour of northern
New York so Jefferson could indulge in botanical research and some much needed relaxation.
Jefferson promptly agreed, feeling that such a trip would be beneficial to his health,
having been plagued by migraines due to the constant conflict with Hamilton.
But both men had an agenda – organizing resistance to Federalists policies.
Frustrated that the Federalists had their own paper, the Gazette of the United States,
Jefferson and Madison intended to try and launch an anti-Federalist paper during their
New York City stopover, as well as reach out to state and local leaders in New York.
At that point, Madison was better known than Jefferson, who’d been in Europe during the
long debate over the new Constitution, whereas Madison’s writings in support of the Constitution
had been influential in largely anti-Federalist upstate New York.
Madison was also widely appreciated as author of the recently adopted Bill of Rights.
Their trip, however, drew much speculation that it was for more than just for relaxation.
A British envoy wrote London that “The Secretary of State, together with Mr. Madison, are now
gone to proselyte as far as they are able a commercial war with Britain,” with Jefferson’s
favoritism for France being well-known.
Alexander Hamilton’s son John claimed the duo were meeting secretly with the newly elected
Senator Aaron Burr, before going on to meet with Governor George Clinton, another leading
anti-Federalist; dismissing their professed excuse of a botanical excursion to Albany,
insisting it was in reality, to study “Clintoniana borealis.”
Refreshed by their journey, the two men returned to Philadelphia, determined to create a political
party opposed to what they saw as Federalist overreaching.
This party would embrace the rights of the common man against the very elites Jefferson
and Madison had come from.
But in writing the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, meant to curb federal overreach, both men
would justify arguments that would lead to secession and Civil War.
When Jefferson was elected president in the so-called “Revolution of 1800,” he chose
Madison to be his Secretary of State, and Madison would supervise the negotiations with
France for the Louisiana Purchase, which was the acquisition of land stretching from the
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
With the Napoleonic 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,
but neither London nor Paris showed much respect for the American position.
The situation between the U.S. and the two European nations deteriorated during Jefferson’s
second term as Napoleon tried to starve Britain into submission with an embargo ruinous to
all three countries.
Madison and Jefferson decided to punish Britain and France, launching their own disastrous
embargo, forbidding American trade with any foreign nation.
This caused massive hardships along the Atlantic seaboard, which was dependent on foreign trade,
and was allowed to expire as Jefferson was leaving office.
Madison was easily elected President in 1808 as the Federalist Party had shrunk to a small
base in the Northeast.
Determined to continue Jefferson’s dismantling of the Federalist system, Madison allowed
the charter of the Bank of the United States to expire, which he would later come to bitterly
regret.
In 1807, Britain issued the Orders of Council forbidding French trade with the UK, its allies,
or any neutral country.
The United States saw this embargo as a violation of international law and an attack on its
sovereignty.
Relations deteriorated as Britain armed Indian tribes in the Northwest Territory, encouraging
them to attack American settlers, even though the region hadn’t been British territory
for over twenty years.
Americans called for a “second war of independence” to restore honor to the new nation as an angry
public elected a hawkish Congress, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war, which was issued on June 18th, 1812,
unaware that the British had repealed the Orders of Council as a concession to the Americans
just two days earlier.
At first, the war was a disaster for the United States.
Madison faced a divided cabinet, obstruction from state governors, incompetent generals,
and militias that would not fight outside their own states.
There were threats of disunion from New England, which refused to provide financial or military
support, fearing damage to their seaport-based livelihood.
The reduction of the senior command at the War Department had led to cowardice and incompetence
amongst its ranks, and the war was almost impossible to fund, since the national bank
was abolished in 1811, and major financiers in the Northeast refused to help.
But, after a victory at the naval Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, the British retreated and
General William Henry Harrison destroyed the British and Indian armies at the Battle of
the Thames, permanently destroying Indian power in the Great Lakes region.
Madison remains the only president to lead troops in battle during wartime while in office,
in this War of 1812, though it did not go well for the Americans.
His defeat allowed the British to raid the capital, and his wife Dolley rescued White
House valuables and documents shortly before the British burned the White House, the Capitol,
the Library of Congress and other public buildings.
But the tide began to turn as Harrison and General Andrew Jackson destroyed the British-incited
Indian threats in the West and South, and in a famous three-hour sea battle the USS
Constitution earned her nickname, “Old Ironsides.”
The American naval squadron on Lake Erie successfully defended itself and captured six British vessels,
crippling British military forces in the western theatre of the war.
Commander Oliver Hazard Perry reported his victory with the simple statement, “We have
met the enemy, and they are ours.”
Meanwhile, the successful defense of Fort McHenry against one of the most intense naval
bombardments in history led Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became “The Star
Spangled Banner” after seeing the flag still flying at daybreak after the attack.
Jackson put together a force including regular Army troops, militia, frontiersmen, Creoles,
Native American allies and Jean Lafitte’s pirates and repulsed the British invasion
army in the Battle of New Orleans, the most decisive victory of the war.
The US ratification of the Treaty of Ghent ended the war in February 1815 with no territorial
gains on either side, but Americans felt that their national honor had been restored in
what has been called “the Second War of American Independence.”
To most Americans, the quick succession of events appeared as though American heroism
at New Orleans had forced the British to surrender after almost winning.
Though inaccurate, this belief contributed to the post-war euphoria that lasted a decade.
Madison’s final years ushered in an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity known as the
“Era of Good Feelings.”
Madison’s reputation grew and Americans believed the United States had established
itself as a world power.
Madison’s presidency, like his life, was a testament to his many great contributions
to the United States.