Happy Birthday J-Mad
On March 16, 1751 (262 years ago today) James Madison Jr., the 4th President of the United States, was born in Port Conway in what was then the colony of Virginia. Madison is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights. He served as a politician much of his adult life and like other Virginia statesmen of the time, he was a slaveholder. He inherited his plantation known as Montpelier, and owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.
After the constitution had been drafted, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced the Federalist Papers. He was also a delegate to the Virginia constitutional ratifying convention, and was instrumental to the successful ratification effort in Virginia. During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favored a strong national government, though later he grew to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life. Madison supported the three-fifths compromise believing slaves were human property and would be under the protection of their masters and the government.
Madison drafted the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and often called the "Father of the Bill of Rights". He worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government. Breaking with Hamilton and what became the Federalist Party in 1791, Madison and Thomas Jefferson organized what they called the Republican Party (later called by historians the Democratic-Republican Party). As Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801–1809), Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation’s size. After his election to the presidency, he presided over renewed prosperity for several years. After the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against Great Britain, he led the nation into the War of 1812. He wanted to end the influence of the British among their Indian allies, whose resistance blocked United States settlement in the Midwest around the Great Lakes. Madison found the war to be an administrative nightmare, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, he once again supported a stronger national government and a strong military, as well as the national bank, which he had long opposed.
I found the following description of Madison in Richard Brookheiser's 2011 biography simply called James Madison at pages 11-12:
Madison was a cogwheel in one of America's first political machines, the Virgina Dynasty. America revolted against George III and the House of Hanover, but the dynastic temptation remained strong. John Adams, the second president and the only founder president with sons, saw his eldest, John Qunicy Adams, become the sixth president. But the Adamses were unpopular one-termers. Between them stretched the Virginia dynasty: two terms of Jefferson, two terms of Madison, two terms of Monroe - twenty-four years of government by neighbors and ideological soul mates.
One of the iron laws of politics is that what comes around goes around. Throughout his career, Madison was beset by enemies and supposed friends, wielding the same dark arts that he himself practiced. Fortunately for him, he was generally skillful enough to beat them back.
But another iron law of politics is that you can't win them all. Heroes can aspire to perfection, especially if they die young, through the purity of an action, or a stance. But the long haul of politics takes at least some of the shine off almost everyone. Madison had an unusually good record when it came to winning elections; not quite so good when it came to sizing up issues and men. The years would see many achievements, as well as rigidities and blunders, from demonizing people and countries, and mishandling his own associates.
We pay much less attention to James Madison, Father of Politics, than to James Madison, Father of the Constitution. That is because politics embarrasses us. Politics is the spectacle on television and YouTube, the daily perp walk on the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report. Surely our founders and framers left us something better, more solid, more inspiring than that? They did. But they all knew - and Madison understood better than any of them - that ideals come to life in dozens of political transactions every day. Some of those transactions aren't pretty. You can understand this and try to work with this knowledge, or you can look away. But ignoring politics will not make it stop. It will simply go on without you - and sooner or later will happen to you.
Dolley Payne Todd, in the first excitement of meeting a possible suitor, her future husband, told a friend "the great little Madison" has asked "to see me this evening." All his life, Madison's acquaintances rang the changes on this contrast: he was a mighty figure and a little guy. The contrast has a moral dimension too. James Madison was a great man who helped build a republic. He was also an ambitious and small-bore man who stumped, spoke, counted votes, pulled wires, scratched backs and stabbed them. He was not afraid of the contrast for his deepest thinking told him that the builders of liberty had to know and sometimes use the materials of passion and self-achievement.
After the constitution had been drafted, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced the Federalist Papers. He was also a delegate to the Virginia constitutional ratifying convention, and was instrumental to the successful ratification effort in Virginia. During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favored a strong national government, though later he grew to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life. Madison supported the three-fifths compromise believing slaves were human property and would be under the protection of their masters and the government.
Madison drafted the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and often called the "Father of the Bill of Rights". He worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government. Breaking with Hamilton and what became the Federalist Party in 1791, Madison and Thomas Jefferson organized what they called the Republican Party (later called by historians the Democratic-Republican Party). As Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801–1809), Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation’s size. After his election to the presidency, he presided over renewed prosperity for several years. After the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against Great Britain, he led the nation into the War of 1812. He wanted to end the influence of the British among their Indian allies, whose resistance blocked United States settlement in the Midwest around the Great Lakes. Madison found the war to be an administrative nightmare, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, he once again supported a stronger national government and a strong military, as well as the national bank, which he had long opposed.
I found the following description of Madison in Richard Brookheiser's 2011 biography simply called James Madison at pages 11-12:
Madison was a cogwheel in one of America's first political machines, the Virgina Dynasty. America revolted against George III and the House of Hanover, but the dynastic temptation remained strong. John Adams, the second president and the only founder president with sons, saw his eldest, John Qunicy Adams, become the sixth president. But the Adamses were unpopular one-termers. Between them stretched the Virginia dynasty: two terms of Jefferson, two terms of Madison, two terms of Monroe - twenty-four years of government by neighbors and ideological soul mates.
One of the iron laws of politics is that what comes around goes around. Throughout his career, Madison was beset by enemies and supposed friends, wielding the same dark arts that he himself practiced. Fortunately for him, he was generally skillful enough to beat them back.
But another iron law of politics is that you can't win them all. Heroes can aspire to perfection, especially if they die young, through the purity of an action, or a stance. But the long haul of politics takes at least some of the shine off almost everyone. Madison had an unusually good record when it came to winning elections; not quite so good when it came to sizing up issues and men. The years would see many achievements, as well as rigidities and blunders, from demonizing people and countries, and mishandling his own associates.
We pay much less attention to James Madison, Father of Politics, than to James Madison, Father of the Constitution. That is because politics embarrasses us. Politics is the spectacle on television and YouTube, the daily perp walk on the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report. Surely our founders and framers left us something better, more solid, more inspiring than that? They did. But they all knew - and Madison understood better than any of them - that ideals come to life in dozens of political transactions every day. Some of those transactions aren't pretty. You can understand this and try to work with this knowledge, or you can look away. But ignoring politics will not make it stop. It will simply go on without you - and sooner or later will happen to you.
Dolley Payne Todd, in the first excitement of meeting a possible suitor, her future husband, told a friend "the great little Madison" has asked "to see me this evening." All his life, Madison's acquaintances rang the changes on this contrast: he was a mighty figure and a little guy. The contrast has a moral dimension too. James Madison was a great man who helped build a republic. He was also an ambitious and small-bore man who stumped, spoke, counted votes, pulled wires, scratched backs and stabbed them. He was not afraid of the contrast for his deepest thinking told him that the builders of liberty had to know and sometimes use the materials of passion and self-achievement.