James Madison

James Madison was born on March 16, 1751 at Port Conway Virginia. He was the eldest of twelve children to James and Nellie Conway Madison. Madison was a frail sickly child during his younger years. At 18, he entered The College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and took active interest in politics. He graduated in two years in 1771. He then studied Hebrew Philosophy and grew a deep interest in religion, but because of a weak speaking vi=oice he turned down a career as a minister and turned to politics. Madison was elected to the Committee of Safety in Orange County Virginia. These small committees provided a local government in the days when the British colonial government was curmbling. In 1776, he helped draft a new Virginia constitution and Virginia Declaration of Rights. These documents were used later by other colonies to draw up their own constitutions. That same hear he served in Virginia’s revolutionary assembly ( a group that worked together for American independence) where he met Thomas Jefferson which became a lifetime friendship. In 1779, Madison was elected to the Continental Congress. In those days Congress had no power to raise taxes, so it had trouble paying national debts. Therefore, Madison strongly favored increasing powers of Congress and advocated many ways to stabilize and dignify the government. He was known as the ablest member of Congress that was elected as a Virginia assemblyman in 1783, for three consecutive one year terms. He struggled for separation of the church and state in Virginia and in 1786, the assemvly passed Virginia’s statute of religious freedom. In 1787, Madison represented Virginia at the Constitutional Convention. He fought for stronger central government and drafted the Virginia plan for the union (Randolph Plan). This plan foreshadowed the constitution that the convention finally adopted. Next he served as a member of a convention that was called in Virginia to consider whether the state should ratify the new constitution. He also joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay of New York in writing the Federalist, a series of proratification letters to newspapers. In 1789, he defeated James Monroe in an election for the United States House of Representatives, where he was largely responsible for drafting the first tem ammendments to the constitution, “The Bill of Rights”.

In 1791 & 92, Madison and Thomas Jefferson formed the Democratic Republican Party to oppose the Federalists whose plans they believed favored wealthy Easterners at the expense of ordinary citizens, particularly small farmers in the southern and western United States. In 1794, he married Dolly Payne Todd, who was a youg widow and famous for her hospitality. She served as a White House hostess during administrations of Madison and Jefferson. By 1797, he hot tired of politics and retired to his estate just in time for Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts which outraged him. The Alien Act gave Congress unchecked power to deport aliens whom they considered dangerous to American security. The Sedition lAct made it a penal offense to publish any writing against the vovernment, President or kCongress with intent to bring them any disrepute or stir up hatred against them. This caused him to join in the political ranks again and he proposed joint action with the states to declare the acts unconstitutional. In 1801, he was appointed Secretary of State under President Thomas Jefferson, and in 1808, he succeeded Jefferson a President of the United States.

During Madison’s first administration, the British and French were engaged in wer, blocking each other’s coasts from American trade ships. Many American seamen were seized and forced to serve on British and French warships. This angered the Americans and damaged the trade industry. In 1810, a bill that reopened trade with iether Bitain or France. It stated that whoever would stop attacking American ships first, would be the country that the United States would continue trading with. The bill backfired, however, and the Americans, once again became very angered. Because of this, Madison recommended war in 1812, even though he knew the United Stated was very unprepared and Congress good feeling in the United States. After the war, trade expanded, resulting in economic growth and Madison signed a bill that created the country’s second mational bank. This made it easier for settlers to buy lank and migration the the West increased. In 1813, Madison was reelected for his second term and war progressed. The Americans were defeated by Canada, and the Britains invaded Maryland and burned down the capital. Baltimore was saved by Fort McHenry and Andrew Jackson won at Jew Orleans which did nothing for the war , but did preserve American territorial integrity. The end of the war ended the Federalist Party and conflicts were submerged in the Republican-Democratic Party. It left an era of Good Feeling.

In 1817, Madison left office and retired to his estate. He became the President of the University of Virginia and not much later, he died on June 28, 1836.