James Madison

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James Madison

Born March 16, 1751
Port Conway, Virginia

Died June 28, 1836
Montpelier, Virginia

Politician, president of the United States

James Madison was a guiding light among the group of men who created and defended the United States Constitution, which established a government structure that continues to survive. A shy person of small stature—he stood only five feet, four inches tall and weighed about one hundred pounds—Madison achieved greatness as a political thinker. He was devoted to balancing the interests of the Union with individual liberties, and he was good at making compromises to achieve that balance. While serving as president during the unpopular and problematic War of 1812, Madison was criticized for weak leadership. Yet when the war was over, Americans were more optimistic than they had ever been, and Madison's popularity rose again. He is credited with leading the United States in a valiant struggle to retain its independence and national honor during the war.

A privileged childhood

James Madison was born into privilege. He was the oldest of twelve children of wealthy tobacco grower James Madison Sr. and Nellie Conway Madison, who also came from a wealthy family. The future president was born at his maternal grandparents' home in Port Conway, Virginia and grew up at Montpelier, his family's five-thousand-acre plantation. Madison lived at Montpelier his whole life, except for those periods when his role as an elected official kept him away.

A period of doubt

After graduating from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Madison considered a career as a minister but, unable to decide what path to take, he returned to Montpelier. There he entered one of the bouts of illness and depression that he was to experience throughout his adult life. An intellectual with a love of sophisticated culture, Madison felt isolated on the plantation, and was plagued by indecision about what to do with his life.

It wasn't long before Madison's gloom lifted, as he began to breathe the scent of rebellion that was in the air. At this time, the American colonies were starting to become annoyed with British rule. Leaders who spoke of independence and democracy were emerging, and Madison began to debate their ideas with a local group. In 1774 the soft-spoken but brilliant Madison was elected to Virginia's Committee of Safety, which would serve as the colony's government during the American Revolution (1775-83).

A young legislator gains experience

Two years later, Madison joined the Virginia Convention, where delegates would draft a new constitution and declaration of rights for their state. There Madison met another Virginia delegate named Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who had just returned from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he had authored the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 he was appointed to serve on the Governor's Council under Governor Patrick Henry (1736-1799). When Jefferson succeeded Henry as governor of Virginia, Madison began to work closely with him, and the two began a lifelong collaboration and friendship.

The Revolutionary War was now in full swing. Madison served in the Continental Congress, the body established to serve as the colonies' central government, from 1780 to 1783. When he entered the Congress at age twenty-nine, he was the youngest representative. During these years he honed his skills as a debater and legislator, emerging from the experience as a seasoned politician.

The need for a new form of government

After serving as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, a meeting called to resolve some trade issues between the states of Virginia and Maryland, Madison was appointed to the Virginia delegation to Constitutional Convention. Members of the convention fashioned a document called the Virginia Plan, their concept—authored primarily by Madison—of how the new government should be shaped.

The Constitution: Madison's brilliant plan

Most commentators agree that the formulation of the Constitution was Madison's greatest achievement. The government he proposed through the Virginia Plan included an elected executive (the president) with the power to veto legislation, a federal judiciary branch (the courts or justice system), and a two-body legislature (the law-making body, which in the United States is the Congress). Each branch would have certain responsibilities, but each would be controlled by a system of checks and balances. This meant that because the branches would be able to approve or disapprove each other's actions, none of them could become more powerful than the others.

In 1788 Madison was elected to the brand-new House of Representatives, and he soon became one of its most distinguished legislators. One of his first tasks was to assist in the passage of the Bill of Rights, a set of twelve amendments to the Constitution that were designed to safeguard such individual rights as the freedom to practice one's own religion, to express (and publish) one's beliefs, and to gather together to peacefully protest government policies.

Disagreeing with the Federalists

In 1789 George Washington (1732-1799) unanimously became the first president of the United States. However, by 1792, Madison and Jefferson had become increasingly opposed to the Federalist slant of Washington's administration. (The Federalist Party supported a strong central or federal government.) Gradually, those who agreed with Madison and Jefferson became known as anti-Federalists. When war broke out between Great Britain and France in 1793, differences between the two viewpoints became even more pronounced. Eager to maintain the commercial ties with Great Britain that had been re-established after the Revolutionary War, the Federalists sided with the British. The anti-Federalists sympathized with the French, who had assisted the United States so ably in its fight for independence and who had recently waged their own revolution.

A brief retreat to Montpelier

In 1796 Federalist John Adams (1735-1826) won the U.S. presidential election. Discouraged by what he saw as a decline in his own influence, Madison retired from Congress in 1797. Three years earlier, he had married Dolley Payne Todd (1768-1849; see biographical entry), a lively twenty-six-yearold widow he had met in Philadelphia. Probably concerned about his aging parents and perhaps longing for the tranquility of rural Virginia, Madison and his wife moved back to Montpelier. There he enjoyed a happy married life and ran his plantation while also keeping on eye on political developments.

Madison was soon pulled back into politics, however, by the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were designed, in part, to stifle criticism of the government. To Madison, this stirred memories of Great Britain's attempts to limit freedom in its former colonies. Convinced the laws were a direct threat to freedom of speech and freedom of the press and thus unconstitutional, he sponsored the Virginia Resolution in his state's legislature. This document, which says that states have the right to oppose federal laws they consider unconstitutional, was matched by a similar resolution sponsored by Jefferson in the Kentucky legislature.

A new political party is formed

Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts among the anti-Federalists was a leading factor in the formation of a newpolitical party led by Madison and Jefferson. During the next several years, the Democratic-Republicans (eventually referred to as simply the Republicans) would gain dominance in national affairs as more and more citizens came to consider them the champions of ordinary people's interests.

In fact, by 1800 the political party had garnered so much popularity that Jefferson was elected as the nation's third president. He appointed Madison as secretary of state, which gave Madison responsibility for foreign policy issues. The two friends worked closely together through the major events of Jefferson's first term, especially the Louisiana Purchase, in which France sold a huge piece of territory west of the Mississippi to the United States for only fifteen million dollars. Both Jefferson and Madison were eager to acquire more territory into which U.S. settlers could move; in fact, this would be one of the motivations for the War of 1812, as the United States saw an opportunity to acquire land in both Canada and Spanish-held Florida.

Jefferson's second term was dominated by the growing problems connected to the ongoing war between England and France. Unable to dominate Great Britain militarily, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)—the emperor of France—had established the Continental System, which prevented neutral countries from trading with Great Britain. In response, Great Britain had put in place the Orders in Council, which similarly punished countries that continued to trade with France. The United States was caught in the middle, and its ships were being seized by both countries.

In addition, the British were carrying on a practice called impressment by which men they considered British citizens and deserters from their navy were taken from U.S. ships and forced back into military service. Many U.S. citizens (or former British citizens who had become Americans) had been illegally impressed. Americans were incensed by this practice, especially after the Chesapeake-Leopard incident, when the captain of the USS Chesapeake refused to allow British sailors from the HMS Leopard aboard to reclaim alleged deserters. As a result, the British attacked the Chesapeake and several were sailors killed.

Trying to avoid war

Convinced that the United States was not ready for another war with Great Britain, Madison urged Jefferson to try to resolve the problem through economic means. The resulting Embargo Act of 1807, which eliminated all U.S. trade with other nations, was intended to teach both France and Great Britain a lesson. The act, however, proved a disaster for the U.S. economy.

As Jefferson's second term came to an end, he wanted his friend Madison to succeed him. Despite growing dissatisfaction with the "Virginia dynasty"—the group of Virginia politicians, including Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, that had dominated politics during the last two decades—Madison won the 1808 presidential election. With his victory he inherited the continuing problems of trade restrictions and impressment and the very real possibility of war. In his inaugural speech, Madison stated that the United States would not put up with interference from other nations, but this tough talk did nothing to change the situation.

"Mr. Madison's War"

Meanwhile, some young members of Congress felt passionately that war with Great Britain was a good idea. Nicknamed the War Hawks, these men (most of whom were from the western and southern states) resented British interference in U.S. trade and shipping and thought the United States should defend its national honor by striking back. They also claimed that the British were involved in arming Native Americans in the Northwest Territories (what would become the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and parts of Minnesota) and even encouraging them to attack white American settlers in that region. The War Hawks believed that a war with Great Britain would give the United States a chance to expand its territory by annexing the British colony of Canada as well as Spanish-held Florida.

Toward the end of 1811, Congress began debating the prospect of war. The Federalists, many of them representing the northeastern states, argued that entering a war with Great Britain would only cause further damage to the American economy, and that an invasion of Canada was unnecessary and ill-advised. Seven months later, on June 1, 1812, Madison sent Congress a "War Message" in which he stated that Great Britain's actions had made war unavoidable.

Although Congress approved the declaration of war on June 18, the close votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate showed that there was considerable opposition to the war. Not surprisingly, all of the Federalists in Congress had voted against the war, but a substantial number of Republicans also were against it. These divisions would grow deeper and more troublesome for Madison as the conflict, which his critics immediately began to call "Mr. Madison's War," continued.

Only a few days before the declaration of war was signed, Great Britain had cancelled its Orders in Council, but the slowness of communication (the news could only travel by ship across the Atlantic Ocean) meant that the news arrived too late; in addition, the British still did not agree to end the practice of impressment. The war would proceed, despite a startling lack of U.S. military and financial preparation for it. Neither the army nor the navy had adequate soldiers or sailors to effectively fight a war, and neither the secretary of war, William Eustis (1753-1825), nor the secretary of the navy, Paul Hamilton (1762-1816) had the experience to direct the effort.

A disappointing start

It's not at all surprising, then, that the first year of the war did not go smoothly. There were some unexpected victories at sea, such as the defeat of the HMS Guerriere by the USS Constitution, but the U.S. invasion of Canada failed due to poor planning and leadership and an over-reliance on state militias (armies made up not of professional soldiers but of private citizens who fight on an emergency, temporary basis), who often refused to fight. The surrender of U.S. troops at Detroit to a much smaller British force added to the mood of humiliation and anxiety that dominated the country as 1812 drew to a close.

Madison was just barely re-elected to the presidency in 1812. Widely faulted for weak leadership, he was especially criticized for failing to get rid of the incompetent people in his administration. The Federalists and a sizable number of Republicans who were dissatisfied with Madison backed New York statesmen DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) in the election, and he almost beat Madison. The close election served as something of a wake-up call to Madison, who reshuffled his cabinet at the beginning of 1813. Eustis and Hamilton were replaced with John Armstrong (1758-1843) and William Jones (1760-1831), both men of solid military experience.

Both victories and defeats in 1813

During the course of the next year, the military began slowly improving as Congress authorized funds to build up its numbers and as younger, more skilled and dynamic officers were promoted to replace the Revolutionary War veterans who had been in charge at the beginning of the war. In 1813 the United States won a few significant victories, including those at York (now Toronto), on Lake Erie, and at the Battle of the Thames.

Madison had suffered from a long illness in the early summer of 1813 from which he nearly died. His recovery was about all he had to celebrate, though, especially after some ominous news arrived from Europe in the fall. Great Britain and its allies had defeated Napoleon's troops at the Battle of Leipzig, and the tide in the Napoleonic Wars seemed to be turning. The French emperor was on the run now, and his defeat would free up thousands of British troops for service in the war with the United States.

Meanwhile, addressing Congress at the end of 1813, Madison tried to sound optimistic about the prospects for a U.S. victory, but there was no overcoming the bleak mood that prevailed in Congress and around the country. On December 30, however, a glimmer of hope arrived in the form of an offer from Great Britain to begin peace negotiations. Madison quickly approved the offer. Another year of war remained, though, before peace would be reached.

The British burn Washington, D.C.

In July 1814 Madison and a few other leaders began to worry that the British were planning to attack Washington, D.C. Armstrong, however, strongly believed that Great Britain's target would be Baltimore, Maryland, a major shipping center and a more strategic target than the nation's capital. Therefore, Armstrong devoted most of the available military resources (especially troops) to Baltimore. As August approached, however, it became clear that an attack on Washington was probable, and defensive preparations were quickly begun.

The British landed in the Chesapeake Bay on August 18 and began their march toward Washington, which they had decided to attack from the north. On August 24 a force of inexperienced, hastily assembled U.S. troops—most of them militiamen—were thoroughly defeated by the British force at Bladensburg, Maryland. The British then marched south and entered Washington, which most residents had already left. After visiting Bladensburg just before the battle began, Madison had retreated into the Virginia countryside outside of Washington, D.C. He was joined at a roadside inn by his wife Dolley, who had left the capital with a load of official documents and other treasures, including a famous portrait of George Washington.

In retaliation for the burning of public buildings when U.S. troops occupied York in Canada, the British ransacked and destroyed the Capitol, the president's home, and other government buildings. Then they marched north to attack Baltimore, but they found that city much better defended. Unable to defeat Baltimore's U.S. defenders with either their land or naval forces, the British retreated.

In Ghent, Belgium, peace negotiations between the United States and Great Britain began in August. Madison sent a set of able statesmen representing a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints: diplomat John Quincy Adams (1767-1848); James Bayard (1767-1815), a Federalist senator known for his moderate views; Speaker of the House Henry Clay (1777-1852; see biographical entry), the leader of the War Hawks; and Madison's longtime, trusted ally Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), the former secretary of the treasury.

In October, Madison heard the first, discouraging news about what was happening in Ghent. The British were asking for too much, especially in their demand that most of the Northwest Territory be made into a Native American homeland. It appeared that the United States would continue fighting the war as 1815 approached. As the year drew to a close, a mood of discontent prevailed over much of the United States. The newspapers expressed impatience with Congress and with Madison's administration. In New England, delegates to a special meeting called the Hartford Convention expressed heir complaints against the way they felt the Madison administration had treated their region.

End of the war

With the new year, however, came a change of fortune—or at least of attitude—for the United States. On January 8, after a series of preliminary skirmishes (small gunfights or battles), the British attacked New Orleans with a large force of seasoned soldiers who had recently fought Napoleon's troops in Europe. Under Major General Andrew Jackson's (1767-1845; see biographical entry) strong leadership, a diverse assortment of regular soldiers, militiamen, Native American allies, and even pirates won a lopsided victory for the United States. The British lost about two thousand men (including three hundred dead and five hundred captured) and the Americans only seventy (including only about a dozen killed).

The news of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent ending the war arrived in the United States in February 1815. As it turned out, the British had given up their previous demands, and both sides had agreed to return to the status quo antebellum, the situation that had existed before the war. None of the issues over which the war had supposedly been fought were mentioned in the treaty, for the Orders in Council had been cancelled in June 1812, and impressment was no longer an issue (since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain's need for more soldiers had dropped off). In military and political terms, the War of 1812 had ended in a draw.

A new spirit of pride and optimism

Against all expectations, the United States had fought off a much bigger, more experienced force, and now peace was at hand. The Treaty of Ghent had gained nothing for the United States, but that hardly mattered to Americans. After the months and even years of gloom as the war continued with no victory in sight, they were basking in the light of triumph. In the wink of an eye, Madison was transformed from the much-criticized head of a nation at war to the leader of a victorious people who considered themselves capable of almost anything now that they had (or felt that they had) brought Great Britain to its knees. Madison was popular again, and his remaining two years as president were pleasant.

An active retirement

In the presidential election of 1816, Madison was succeeded by his fellow Republican (and member of the Virginia dynasty) James Monroe (1758-1831). Madison retired to Montpelier, where he took up farming again and experimented with new, scientific approaches to agriculture. He offered advice to Monroe when called upon, and helped Jefferson establish the University of Virginia, also serving as the university's rector (president) after Jefferson's death in 1826.

Eighty-six years old when he died at Montpelier, Madison was buried in the family cemetery. In a document titled Advice to My Country, which Madison specified was to be opened only after his death, he expressed his wish for the nation he had helped to found: "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is, that the union of the states be cherished and perpetuated."

For More Information

Books

Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. Charlottesville: UniversityPress of Virginia, 1971; reprinted., 1992.

Leavell, J. Perry, Jr. James Madison. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

Madison, James. Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Published by Order of Congress. Edited by Philip Fendall. Philadelphia, Penn.: Lippincott, 1865.

Malone, Mary. James Madison. Springfield, N.J.: Enslow, 1997.

McCoy, Drew R. The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Polikoff, Barbara. James Madison: 4th President of the United States. Ada, Okla.: Garrett Educational Corp., 1989.

Rakove, Jack. James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.

Rutland, Robert A. James Madison: The Founding Father. New York:Macmillan, 1987; reprint, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997.