Madison, James, 1751–1836, 4th President of the United States (1809–17), b. Port Conway, Va.

Early Career

A member of the Virginia planter class, he attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton Univ.), graduating in 1771. Like George Washington and others, he opposed the colonial measures of the British. His distinctive contribution to the colonial cause was a deep knowledge and understanding of government and political philosophy—resources that first proved their value in 1776 when Madison helped to draft a constitution for the new state of Virginia.

He served in the Continental Congress (1780–83, 1787) and represented his county in the Virginia legislature (1784–86), where he played a prominent part in disestablishing the Anglican Church. During this time he watched the ineffectual floundering of Congress under the Articles of Confederation with apprehension and became convinced of the necessity for a strong national authority.

Master Builder of the Constitution

Madison played important role in bringing about the conference between Maryland and Virginia concerning navigation of the Potomac. The meetings at Alexandria and Mt. Vernon in 1785 led to the Annapolis Convention Annapolis Convention, 1786, interstate convention called by Virginia to discuss a uniform regulation of commerce. It met at Annapolis, Md. With only 5 of the 13 states—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—represented, there could be
..... Click the link for more information. in 1786, and at that conference he endorsed New Jersey's motion to call a Constitutional Convention Constitutional Convention, in U.S. history, the 1787 meeting in which the Constitution of the United States was drawn up.

The Road to the Convention

..... Click the link for more information. for May, 1787. With Alexander Hamilton he became the leading spokesman for a thorough reorganization of the existing government, and his influence on the Virginia plan, which advocated a strong central government, is evident.

At the convention his skills in political science and his persuasive logic made him the chief architect of the new governmental structure and earned him the title "master builder of the Constitution." His journals are the principal source of later knowledge of the convention. He fought to get the Constitution adopted. He contributed with Alexander Hamilton Hamilton, Alexander, 1755–1804, American statesman, b. Nevis, in the West Indies.

Early Career

He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton (of a prominent Scottish family) and Rachel Faucett Lavien (daughter of a doctor-planter on Nevis and
..... Click the link for more information. and John Jay Jay, John, 1745–1829, American statesman, first Chief Justice of the United States, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1764. He was admitted (1768) to the bar and for a time was a partner of Robert R. Livingston.
..... Click the link for more information. to the brilliantly polemical papers of The Federalist Federalist, The, series of 85 political essays, sometimes called The Federalist Papers, written 1787–88 under the pseudonym "Publius." Alexander Hamilton initiated the series with the immediate intention of persuading New York to approve the Federalist
..... Click the link for more information. , and in Virginia he led the forces for the Constitution against the opposition of Patrick Henry Henry, Patrick, 1736–99, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Hanover co., Va. Largely self-educated, he became a prominent trial lawyer. Henry bitterly denounced (1765) the Stamp Act and in the years that followed helped fan the fires of revolt in
..... Click the link for more information. and George Mason Mason, George, 1725–92, American political leader, b. Fairfax co., Va. He was one of the most affluent of the colonial Virginia planters. In his triple capacity as trustee of Alexandria (1754–79), justice of the Fairfax county court, and vestryman of
..... Click the link for more information. .

Congressman

As a Representative from Virginia (1789–97), he had a hand in getting the new government established and was a strong advocate of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution Constitution of the United States, document embodying the fundamental principles upon which the American republic is conducted. Drawn up at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Constitution was signed on Sept.
..... Click the link for more information. (the Bill of Rights). Yet, although modern historians have demonstrated the conservative nature of the Constitution and its founders, Madison was an opponent of the policies of the conservative wing in the Washington administration, a steadfast enemy of Alexander Hamilton and his financial measures, and a supporter of Thomas Jefferson Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826, 3d President of the United States (1801–9), author of the Declaration of Independence, and apostle of agrarian democracy.

Early Life

Jefferson was born on Apr.
..... Click the link for more information. . He especially deplored Hamilton's frank Anglophilia. After the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Madison attacked these measures and prepared the protesting Virginia resolutions (see Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, in U.S. history, resolutions passed in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts , which were enacted by the Federalists in 1798.
..... Click the link for more information. ).

Presidency

When Jefferson triumphed in the election of 1800, Madison became (1801) his Secretary of State. He served through both of Jefferson's terms, and he was Jefferson's choice as presidential candidate. As President, Madison had to deal with the results of the foreign policy that, as Secretary of State, he had helped to shape. The Embargo Act of 1807 Embargo Act of 1807, passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System . The U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. was in effect dissolved by Macon's Bill No. 2. The bill provided, however, that if either Great Britain or France should remove restrictions on American trade, the President was empowered to reimpose the trade embargo on the other.

Madison, accepting an ambiguous French statement as a bona fide revocation of the Napoleonic decrees on trade, reinstated the trade embargo with Great Britain, an act that helped bring on the War of 1812 War of 1812, armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. It followed a period of great stress between the two nations as a result of the treatment of neutral countries by both France and England during the French Revolutionary and
..... Click the link for more information. . This move alone, however, did not bring about the war with Great Britain; equally significant were the activities of the "war hawks," led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who, hungry for the conquest of Canada and for free expansion, clamored for action. They helped to bring about the declaration of war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812.

The War of 1812 was the chief event of Madison's administration. New England merchants and industrialists were already disaffected by the various embargoes, and their discontent grew until at the Hartford Convention Hartford Convention, Dec. 15, 1814–Jan. 4, 1815, meeting to consider the problems of New England in the War of 1812 ; held at Hartford, Conn. Prior to the war, New England Federalists (see Federalist party ) had opposed the Embargo Act of 1807 and other
..... Click the link for more information. they talked of sedition rather than continuing "Mr. Madison's War." Even the friends of the President and the promoters of the war grew discouraged as the fighting went badly. Victories in late 1813 and in the autumn of 1814 lifted the gloom somewhat, but disaster came in Sept., 1814, when the British took Washington and burned the White House. Nevertheless the war ended in stalemate with the Treaty of Ghent.

Madison's remaining years in office witnessed the beginning of postwar national expansion. He encouraged the new nationalism, which hastened the split in the Democratic party, evident in the rise of Jacksonian democracy. Through these later upheavals Madison lived quietly with his wife, Dolley Madison, after his retirement in 1817 to Montpelier Montpelier, estate, central Va., near Charlottesville; formerly the home of President James Madison. The brick mansion was built c.1760 by Madison's father. Madison and his wife are buried nearby. The estate is a National Historic Landmark.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

Madison's writings were edited by G. Hunt (9 vol., 1900–1910). See biography in his own words, ed. by M. D. Peterson (1974); biographies by I. Brant (6 vol., 1941–61; abr. ed. 1970), N. Riemer (1968), R. Ketcham (1971), R. A. Rutland (1981), and G. Wills (2002); studies by D. R. McCoy (1989) and L. Banning (1995).

Madison, James

(born March 16, 1751, Port Conway, Va.—died June 28, 1836, Montpelier, Va., U.S.) Fourth president of the U.S. (1809–17). After graduating from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), he served in the Virginia state legislature (1776–80, 1784–86). At the Constitutional Convention (1787), his Virginia, or large-state, Plan furnished the Constitution's basic framework and guiding principles, earning him the title “father of the Constitution.” To promote its ratification, he collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay on the Federalist papers, a series of articles on the Constitution and republican government published in newspapers in 1787–88 (Madison wrote 29 of the 85 articles). In the U.S. House of Representatives (1789–97), he sponsored the Bill of Rights. He split with Hamilton over the existence of an implied congressional power to create a national bank; Madison denied such a power, though later, as president, he requested a national bank from Congress. In protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts, he drafted one of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in 1798 (Thomas Jefferson drafted the other). From 1801 to 1809 he was Jefferson's secretary of state. Elected president in 1808, he immediately faced the problem of British interference with neutral U.S. merchant vessels, which Jefferson's Embargo Act (1807) had failed to discourage. Believing that Britain was bent on permanent suppression of American commerce, Madison proclaimed nonintercourse with Britain in 1810 and signed a declaration of war in 1812. During the ensuing War of 1812 (1812–14), Madison and his family were forced to flee Washington, D.C., as advancing British troops burned the executive mansion and other public buildings. During Madison's second term (1813–17) the second Bank of the United States was chartered and the first U.S. protective tariff was imposed. He retired to his Virginia estate, Montpelier, with his wife, Dolley (1768–1849), whose political acumen he had long prized. He participated in Jefferson's creation of the University of Virginia, later serving as its rector (1826–36), and produced numerous articles and letters on political topics.

Madison, James (1751–1836) fourth U.S. president; born in Port Conway, Va. After his education at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), he returned to Virginia and in 1774 assumed the first of several positions in state government. In 1780 he began three years as a state delegate to the Congress under the Articles of Confederation, where he advocated a stronger national government. As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1784–86), he secured passage of Thomas Jefferson's landmark religious freedom bill. A primary mover behind the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Madison imprinted many of his ideas on the final document; he stressed the need for a strong central government; he skillfully managed many of the necessary compromises; although not the official secretary, he kept the most complete record of the convention; and he would be instrumental in adding the Bill of Rights; for these contributions, history has dubbed him "father of the Constitution." Although Madison joined with Federalists Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in contributing to the Federalist papers, he moved thereafter to the more liberal Jeffersonian Republican side. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1789–97) and then as President Jefferson's secretary of state (1801–09). Elected president (1809–17), he was unable to resist the forces, both domestic and foreign, that led to the War of 1812, which produced the burning of Washington and no real victory. Nonetheless, he left office in 1817 enjoying considerable popularity. Living on his estate at Montpelier (Va.), he was Jefferson's successor as rector of the University of Virginia (1826–36). He opposed such doctrines as nullification and peaceful secession that would eventually lead to the Civil War.