Madison, James

MADISON, JAMES. (1751–1836). Continental congressman, fourth president of the United States. Virginia. Born on 5 March 1751 in King George County, Virginia, James Madison received his bachelor's degree from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1771 and remained another year for further study. An early advocate of religious toleration, Madison also favored being prepared to defend Virginia's civil liberties by force of arms. He was elected to the Orange County committee of safety on 22 December 1774, but there is no proof that he wrote its enthusiastic response of 19 May 1775 to Patrick Henry's call for arming the militia. On 25 April 1776 he was chosen as a delegate to the fifth Virginia convention. Although the twenty-five-year-old Madison held a militia commission as colonel, he was "too slightly built (5?6? [tall], thin, with light blue eyes and dark brown hair) and too frail (subject to fits of a sort of epilepsy) to take the field" (Revolutionary Virginia, 1, p. 471). He served on the committee that framed the state constitution and bill of rights and proposed an amendment declaring that "all men are equally entitled to the full and free exercise" of religion. A member of the first assembly under the new constitution, he was not reelected in 1777 because he refused to canvass or buy drinks for votes. In November 1777, however, the assembly elected him to the governor's council, and two years later it elected him to the Continental Congress.

Taking his seat on 20 March 1780, he served in Congress until November 1783, where he "acquired a continental reputation for his mastery of legislative business" and was "soon regarded as the most effective member of the Congress" (Lance Banning in ANB). He supported efforts by Robert Morris to reform the department of finance and advocated levying duties on foreign imports to raise a national revenue. In September 1783 he worked out an agreement by which Virginia agree to cede its claims to the territory north of the Ohio River (thus creating a national domain) and, by suggesting that five slaves be considered the equivalent of three free persons, he broke a deadlock about how to use population figures to calculate state contributions to the central government.

His most important contribution to the new nation was his work in framing the federal Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Madison wrote twenty-nine numbers of The Federalist urging ratification of the document, and then he drafted its first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights) and guided them through the House of Representatives, in which he sat as majority leader until 1797. He was Jefferson's secretary of state (1801–1809) and twice won the presidency, serving from 1809 to 1817. But the disgraceful performance of an unprepared and disunited country in the War of 1812 cost him popularity. He retired to his country home, Montpelier, after his presidency and spent the rest of his life as a country gentleman. He died at Montpelier on 28 June 1836.

Dolley Payne Todd, a widow, was introduced to Madison by Aaron Burr, and they were married in 1794. Almost twenty years younger than her husband, Dolley was friendly and tactful and had a remarkable memory. She was extremely popular and earned a reputation as an effective Washington hostess. Fleeing from the British invaders of Washington in August 1814, she saved many state papers and the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. After her husband's death she moved into a house on Lafayette Square, opposite the White House. She died on 12 July 1849 at Washington, D.C.

SEE ALSO Populations of Great Britain and America.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brant, Irving. James Madison. 6 vols. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1941–1961.

Rakove, Jack N. James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. 2nd Edition. New York: Longman/Pearson Education, 2002.

Van Schreeven, William J., comp, and Robert L. Scribner, ed. Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence—A Documentary Record. Vol. 1: Forming Thunderclouds and the First Convention, 1763–1774. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia for the Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1973.

                            revised by Harold E. Selesky