JAMES MADISON: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - HISTORY - 2025

James Madison (Belle Grove, USA, March 16, 1751 - Orange, USA, June 28, 1836) was a political theorist and the fourth president of the United States. Because of his participation in the drafting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States, he is considered the "father of the Constitution" of that country.

Madison graduated from Princeton University in 1771, with studies that included Latin and classical Greek, philosophy, geography, mathematics, and rhetoric, among other areas of learning. His political career began to develop in the state of Virginia, working closely with Thomas Jefferson, who would also be his predecessor in the presidency.

Madison served as a member of the Continental Congress, which declared independence from the United States in 1776. Later, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. The fragility of the nascent United States worried Madison, so he advocated a new and improved Constitution.

Although in his youth Madison was inclined towards centralism, his federal position was consolidated; this was the one he defended at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. In this event, the projects were presented by Madison and served as the basis for the future Constitution.

After the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, Madison was a member of the House of Representatives from the first Congress. He held this position, for the state of Virginia, between 1789 and 1797.

During this period he was a close collaborator of President George Washington and drafter of the Bill of Rights, the name by which the first ten amendments to the Constitution are known.

He founded the Democratic-Republican Party together with Thomas Jefferson, in opposition to Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party. Jefferson was elected president in 1800 and named Madison secretary of state. From that office, Madison managed the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country.

In 1808, after two terms under Jefferson, Madison was elected president. He had to face the Anglo-American War of 1812, and was re-elected in 1812, when he consolidated the military and financial power of the United States.

Biography

Early years

James Madison was born in 1751 in Port Conway, King George County, Virginia, in the United States. He was the eldest of ten children and a descendant of the landed aristocracy. His mother gave birth to him while visiting his parents.

He grew up on the Montpelier ranch in Orange County, and was educated by his mother, his guardians, and the private school.

He was an outstanding student in his school and university stage. In 1771 he graduated from the College of New Jersey, later known as Princeton. His studies spanned classical languages, philosophy, religion, politics, and rhetoric.

At this time, Madison showed an interest in law and government. He studied theology for another year, since he considered the clergy as a future career. After a time, Madison returned to Montpelier without having decided on a career, but since government and law were matters of his interest, he decided on the patriotic cause.

Political participation

During 1775 he was part of the Orange County Security Committee and in 1776 he participated in the Virginia Assembly, where he advocated revolutionary measures; there he composed the Constitution of Virginia.

He was also part of the House of Delegates in 1776 and 1777. The following three years he worked in the State Council. In 1780 he was elected to go to the Continental Congress to represent Virginia; that Congress had declared the independence of the United States of America in 1776.

He was the youngest delegate, but his participation was essential during the debates. For two years, beginning in 1784, he participated for the second time in the Virginia House of Delegates.

It is also worth noting that he stood out at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785 and participated in the Annapolis Assembly in 1786. Above all, Madison is remembered for inciting the convocation of the Constitutional Assembly of 1787 and writing about the deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation.

Father of the Constitution

There was a consensus among the founding fathers that the Articles of Confederation were not working. These were the fundamental norm of the United States after its independence.

People of the stature of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington feared that the country would remain bankrupt; back then, there was no effective method of paying war debts.

Madison studied all kinds of government models and encouraged the convening of a new constitutional convention. Her studies were recognized in the debates of the Philadelphia Convention, standing out among the delegates despite being only 36 years old.

Madison's main proposal was the Virginia Plan, which served as the basis for the drafting of the constitutional text. Madison was a promoter that the states did not have total sovereignty and that, therefore, they delegated some of their functions to a federal Congress.

Once the Constitution was approved, the fight for ratification began in each of the states. James Madison also collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to write a series of essays published in newspapers from 1787 to 1788.

The essays published under the title The federalist papers were 85 articles that promoted the ratification of the Constitution with political arguments.

Many historians affirm that its promotion was one of the main causes of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States in the state of Virginia, and later, in New York.

Father of the Bill of Rights

James Madison was elected representative in the state of Virginia after a controversial campaign that was marked by redistricting. This was influenced by the opposition of the Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry.

Madison became one of the most prominent figures in the House of Representatives. Madison initially disagreed with a bill of rights for various reasons; this era promoted by the anti-federalists.

One of the reasons for his opposition was that the declaration would be intended to protect citizens from bad government. Madison thought that the central government would not be a bad government, so the declaration was unnecessary.

He also believed that it was somewhat compromised to list the rights of citizens, as he could assume that an unwritten right would be a right that citizens did not have. On the other hand, the same could happen as at the state level: even if the rights are written, many state governments would ignore them.

Anti-federalist demand

However, the declaration was made necessary in Congress by the anti-federal congressmen. Therefore, Madison pushed for a fair statement.

He believed that the Constitution could not protect the national government from excessive democracy or the local mentality. The bill of rights could lessen the problems.

The project was introduced on June 8, 1789; in this 20 amendments were explained. Madison proposed that these be included in the Constitution. Although many of the amendments were approved, they were not included in the Magna Carta. They were written separately and sent to the Senate for approval.

The Senate applied 26 changes and decreased the amendments to only 12. On September 24, 1789, the committee finalized and wrote a report to be evaluated by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Later, on September 25, 1789, through a resolution meeting, the United States Congress approved the final version of the bill of rights. Among the rights enshrined in the amendments are the freedoms of expression, assembly, bearing arms, and of the press, among others.

First presidency

As Jefferson's administration was about to end, the president announced that he would not run again. In the Democratic-Republican Party they began to promote the candidacy of James Madison for the presidency in 1808.

Rep. John Randolph objected. In the end, the presidential clique elected Madison as their representative instead of James Monroe, who had been ambassador to Britain.

Madison appeared in formula along with Jefferson's vice president, George Clinton. They won the elections with 122 electoral votes out of 175; they also prevailed in the popular vote, with 64.7%.

His contender was Charles C. Pinckney of the Federalist Party. Pinckney had been ambassador to France and appeared alongside Rufus King, who had also been ambassador to Great Britain.

Tensions between the US and Britain

One of the challenges Madison faced with his government was managing tensions between the United States and Great Britain. The problem lay in the seizure of American ships and crews.

During his tenure he repealed the Embargo Act and a new law, the No Trade Act, eased the trade embargo on Great Britain and France. In the end it was ineffective, as US merchants negotiated with these nations.

Relations with Great Britain became more bloody in 1812. Trade relations were completely affected and an end to the Napoleonic wars was not in sight in Europe.

The unsustainability of the situation made Madison declare war on June 18, 1812. Great Britain responded timidly with troops from Canada, but with great force through its navy.

Difficult reelection

In the middle of the war, the presidential elections of November 1812 were held. The Democratic-Republican Party had been divided; Madison appeared along with the Governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry.

On the other side of the street was DeWitt Clinton, a former New York mayor, also a Democrat-Republican. He was in coalition with the Federalist Party, which was running Jared Ingersoll as its vice-presidential candidate.

The 1812 election was the tightest up to that time. Madison won with 128 electoral votes out of 217 and only 50.4% of the popular vote, compared to 47.6% for Clinton.

Second presidency

The biggest challenge for the reelected president Madison was to bring to fruition the war that had started in 1812. However, the picture was not clear at first.

The conflict escalated until in 1814 British troops entered the capital and carried out the Burning of Washington. In this the White House and other public dependencies were burned.

Finally, and after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in Europe, a halo of negotiations was opened between Great Britain and the United States. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, in which the pre-war borders were maintained.

In 1817 Madison was busy planning and executing a special board for the purpose of creating the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was part of this project and was the first rector of the university, which opened in 1825.

After Jefferson's death, Madison became the rector of the university. During all this time James had stayed a little removed from public life, until in 1829 he was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

He also participated in the American Colonization Society, whose purpose was to return freed slaves to Africa. Madison co-founded this society in 1816 with Robert Finley, Andrew Jackson, and James Monroe, and became its president in 1833.

Personal life

He was first married at age 43 to 26-year-old widow Dolley Payne Todd in Harewood, West Virginia, now Jefferson County. He never had children, but adopted John Payne Todd, son from his wife's previous marriage.

Lucy Payne, Dolley's sister, married George Steptoe Washington, a relative of President Washington. Being part of Congress, it didn't take long for Madison to meet Dolley during social events held in Philadelphia.

Payne and Madison were recognized for being a happy marriage. Dolley was a woman with very good social skills. She advised on the decoration of the White House when it was built and gave her opinions for the ceremonial functions of Jefferson, a friend of the couple.

His work and collaboration gradually created a solid figure of the first lady. Many people consider the popularity of the James Madison government to be thanks to Dolley.

In 1801 James's father died, inheriting the great family estate in Montpelier and other securities in the portfolio along with 108 slaves.

Death

James Madison was quite sickly, but despite this his death was due to diseases linked to his advanced age. He died at the age of 85 one morning on June 28, 1836 after spending days in his room enduring rheumatic and kidney pain.

Many hoped that he would make it to July 4 alive, the date on which Jefferson and Adams, former US presidents, died.

His body was buried in the family cemetery located in the city of Montpelier in Virginia. His close friends and family were present at the funeral, along with 100 slaves.

Contributions

In short, the life of James Madison was extremely active in the creation and formation of the United States of America as a nation.

- His greatest contribution was the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America. This text was based on his thinking and was the product of his study of government systems.

- In addition, he was the great editor of the first ten constitutional amendments. These are still frequently used today to argue existing rights.

- Madison made the US territory double after the Louisiana Purchase from France.

- President Madison made a great contribution to the consolidation of the United States as a nation. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, the United States came out united and without secessionist threats.

References

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2. Banning, L. (1998). The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal. Recovered from books.google.es
3. Gilman, SC (1995). Presidential Ethics and the Ethics of the Presidency. Recovered from doi.org.
4. Henry, M. (2016). An American Story. Co-inheritance, 13 (25), 119-138. Recovered from doi.org.
5. Ketcham, K. (1990). James Madison: A biography. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Recovered from books.google.co.ve
6. Zinn, H. (1980). A People's History of the United States. 1492-Present. Longman: Essex, UK. Recovered from library.uniteddiversity.coop.