Presidents in Retirement: James Madison
James Madison is remembered as being the Father of the Constitution and for many other major accomplishments in his life. As President, he has been criticized because he took the nation into a war that it was not prepared for. After the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against the United Kingdom, the United States fought the War of 1812. The war was an administrative nightmare, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. Late victories in the Battle of New Orleans and the successful defense of Fort McHenry improved national morale and led to an era of unity in which most American supported the Democratic-Republican Party, while the Federalists Party died out as a political force. But the war changed Madison's point of view on a number of important issues and after the war, he supported a stronger national government and military, as well as the national bank, which he had long opposed.
When Madison left office in 1817, he was 65 years old. He retired to his home known as Montpelier, a tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello. His wife Dolley, had hoped they would finally have a chance to travel to Paris. She was 49 years old at the time. But as occurred to many of the early presidents, Madison left office a poorer man than when he was elected. In his absence, his plantation had experienced a steady financial collapse, due to the continued decline in tobacco prices and also due to mismanagement of the property by his stepson, John Payne Todd.
We have learned much of what we know about Madison and his retirement comes the book "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison", published in 1865 and authored by his former slave Paul Jennings. From the age of 10, Jennings served Madison as a footman, and later as a valet for the rest of Madison's life. After Madison's death, Jennings was purchased in 1845 from Dolley Madison by senator Daniel Webster, who enabled him to work off the cost and gain his freedom. Jennings had great respect for Madison. He wrote that Madison never struck a slave, nor permitted an overseer to do so. Jennings said that if a slave misbehaved, Madison would meet with the person privately to discuss the behavior.
Madison faced mounting debt as he left office. He refused to permit his notes on the Constitutional Convention, or its official records in his possession, to be published in his lifetime. Instead, knowing their value, he wanted them to be sold after his death to provide money to his estate for Dolley's use. He was hoping that they would be sold for one hundred thousand dollars. Madison's financial troubles contributed to his deteriorating mental and physical health.
In his later years, Madison became obsessed with his historic legacy. He changed letters and other documents in his possession, including changing days and dates, and adding and deleting words and sentences. He referred to this practice as "straightening out". For example, he edited a letter that he had written to Jefferson in which he criticized the Marquis de Lafayette. Madison deleted original passages, and it is said that he even forged Jefferson's handwriting as well. As his health became worse, he was said to have developed great anxiety about how history would remember him.
In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the second Rector ("President") of the University of Virginia. He held the position of 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 major issue at this convention was apportionment of representation. The western districts of Virginia complained that they were underrepresented because the state constitution apportioned voting districts by county. The increased population in some parts of the state were not proportionately represented by delegates in the legislature. Western reformers also wanted to extend suffrage to all white men, instead of the existing rule that voting depended on property ownership. Madison tried to broker a compromise. Eventually, suffrage rights were extended to renters as well as landowners, but the eastern planters refused to agree to representative apportionment based on citizen population. They added slaves held as property to the population count, to maintain a permanent majority in both houses of the legislature. Madison was disappointed at the failure of Virginians to resolve the issue more fairly.
In his later years, Madison struggled with the issue of the continuation of slavery in Virginia and the South. He realized that slavery was beginning to be viewed as immoral in other parts of the world, but he knew that Virginians and other slaveholding states would not accept its abolition. Madison saw the answer to be in the transportation of free American former slaves to Africa, as promoted by the American Colonization Society. He wrote to Lafayette, stating that colonization would create a "rapid erasure of the blot on our Republican character." The British sociologist Harriet Martineau visited with Madison during her tour of the United States in 1834. She disagreed with Madison over his belief in colonization as the solution to slavery, calling it "bizarre and incongruous." But Madison was convinced that this was the answer and he either sold or donated his gristmill in support of the Colonization society.
For the better part of 1831 and 1832 Madison was bedridden due to poor health. Despite his failing health, Madison wrote several memoranda on political subjects, including an essay arguing against the appointment of chaplains for Congress and the armed forces. He felt that this would produce religious exclusion as well as political disharmony. He considered an exception for chaplains for the navy, because sailors might otherwise have no opportunity for worship.
In 1833, at the age of 82, Madison sat for what would be his final portrait, shown below. Between 1834 and 1835, Madison sold 25% of his slaves to offset financial losses on his plantation. He was failing in health and financially as well, and he was disappointed over the fact that many politicians and other Americans at the time viewed him as irrelevant.
James Madison died of heart failure at Montpelier on June 28. 1836. He was buried in the Madison Family Cemetery at Montpelier. In 1842, Dolley Madison sold the Montpelier mansion, and in 1844 sold the extensive plantation lands to Henry W. Moncure. She leased half of the remaining slaves to Moncure. The other half were inherited by her, her son John Payne Todd, and James Madison, Jr., a nephew.
When Madison left office in 1817, he was 65 years old. He retired to his home known as Montpelier, a tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello. His wife Dolley, had hoped they would finally have a chance to travel to Paris. She was 49 years old at the time. But as occurred to many of the early presidents, Madison left office a poorer man than when he was elected. In his absence, his plantation had experienced a steady financial collapse, due to the continued decline in tobacco prices and also due to mismanagement of the property by his stepson, John Payne Todd.
We have learned much of what we know about Madison and his retirement comes the book "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison", published in 1865 and authored by his former slave Paul Jennings. From the age of 10, Jennings served Madison as a footman, and later as a valet for the rest of Madison's life. After Madison's death, Jennings was purchased in 1845 from Dolley Madison by senator Daniel Webster, who enabled him to work off the cost and gain his freedom. Jennings had great respect for Madison. He wrote that Madison never struck a slave, nor permitted an overseer to do so. Jennings said that if a slave misbehaved, Madison would meet with the person privately to discuss the behavior.
Madison faced mounting debt as he left office. He refused to permit his notes on the Constitutional Convention, or its official records in his possession, to be published in his lifetime. Instead, knowing their value, he wanted them to be sold after his death to provide money to his estate for Dolley's use. He was hoping that they would be sold for one hundred thousand dollars. Madison's financial troubles contributed to his deteriorating mental and physical health.
In his later years, Madison became obsessed with his historic legacy. He changed letters and other documents in his possession, including changing days and dates, and adding and deleting words and sentences. He referred to this practice as "straightening out". For example, he edited a letter that he had written to Jefferson in which he criticized the Marquis de Lafayette. Madison deleted original passages, and it is said that he even forged Jefferson's handwriting as well. As his health became worse, he was said to have developed great anxiety about how history would remember him.
In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the second Rector ("President") of the University of Virginia. He held the position of 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 major issue at this convention was apportionment of representation. The western districts of Virginia complained that they were underrepresented because the state constitution apportioned voting districts by county. The increased population in some parts of the state were not proportionately represented by delegates in the legislature. Western reformers also wanted to extend suffrage to all white men, instead of the existing rule that voting depended on property ownership. Madison tried to broker a compromise. Eventually, suffrage rights were extended to renters as well as landowners, but the eastern planters refused to agree to representative apportionment based on citizen population. They added slaves held as property to the population count, to maintain a permanent majority in both houses of the legislature. Madison was disappointed at the failure of Virginians to resolve the issue more fairly.
In his later years, Madison struggled with the issue of the continuation of slavery in Virginia and the South. He realized that slavery was beginning to be viewed as immoral in other parts of the world, but he knew that Virginians and other slaveholding states would not accept its abolition. Madison saw the answer to be in the transportation of free American former slaves to Africa, as promoted by the American Colonization Society. He wrote to Lafayette, stating that colonization would create a "rapid erasure of the blot on our Republican character." The British sociologist Harriet Martineau visited with Madison during her tour of the United States in 1834. She disagreed with Madison over his belief in colonization as the solution to slavery, calling it "bizarre and incongruous." But Madison was convinced that this was the answer and he either sold or donated his gristmill in support of the Colonization society.
For the better part of 1831 and 1832 Madison was bedridden due to poor health. Despite his failing health, Madison wrote several memoranda on political subjects, including an essay arguing against the appointment of chaplains for Congress and the armed forces. He felt that this would produce religious exclusion as well as political disharmony. He considered an exception for chaplains for the navy, because sailors might otherwise have no opportunity for worship.
In 1833, at the age of 82, Madison sat for what would be his final portrait, shown below. Between 1834 and 1835, Madison sold 25% of his slaves to offset financial losses on his plantation. He was failing in health and financially as well, and he was disappointed over the fact that many politicians and other Americans at the time viewed him as irrelevant.
James Madison died of heart failure at Montpelier on June 28. 1836. He was buried in the Madison Family Cemetery at Montpelier. In 1842, Dolley Madison sold the Montpelier mansion, and in 1844 sold the extensive plantation lands to Henry W. Moncure. She leased half of the remaining slaves to Moncure. The other half were inherited by her, her son John Payne Todd, and James Madison, Jr., a nephew.