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MADISON, JAMES (1751–1836)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 287 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MADISON, See also:JAMES (1751–1836) , See also:fourth See also:president of the See also:United States, was See also:born at See also:Port See also:Conway, in See also:King See also:George See also:county, See also:Virginia, on the 16th of See also:March 1751. His first ancestor in See also:America may possibly have been See also:Captain See also:Isaac Maddyson, a colonist of 1623 mentioned by See also:John See also:Smith as an excellent See also:Indian fighter. His See also:father, also named James Madison, was the owner of large estates in See also:Orange county, Virginia. In 1769 the son entered the See also:college of New See also:Jersey (now See also:Princeton University), where, in the same See also:year, he founded the well-known See also:literary See also:club, "The See also:American Whig Society." - He graduated in 1771, but remained for another year at Princeton studying, apparently for the See also:ministry, under the direction of John See also:Witherspoon (1722–1794). In 1772 he returned to Virginia, where he pursued his See also:reading and studies, especially See also:theology and See also:Hebrew, and acted as a See also:tutor to the younger See also:children of the See also:family. In 1775 he became chairman of the See also:committee of public safety for Orange county, and wrote its response to See also:Patrick See also:Henry's See also:call for the arming of a colonial See also:militia, and in the See also:spring of 1776 he was chosen a delegate to the new Virginia See also:convention, where he was on the committee which drafted the constitution for the See also:state, and proposed an See also:amendment (not adopted) which declared that " all men are equally entitled to the full and See also:free exercise " of See also:religion, and was more See also:radical than the similar one offered by George See also:Mason. In 1777, largely, it seems, because he refused to treat the See also:electors with See also:rum and See also:punch, after the See also:custom of the See also:time, he was not re-elected, but in See also:November of the same year he was chosen a member of the privy See also:council or council of state, in which he acted as interpreter for a few months, as secretary prepared papers for the See also:governor, and in See also:general took a prominent See also:part from the r4th of See also:January 1778 until the end of 1779, when he was elected a delegate to the See also:Continental See also:Congress. He was in Congress during the final stages of the See also:War of See also:Independence, and in 1780 drafted instructions to See also:Jay, then representing the United States at See also:Madrid, that in negotiations with See also:Spain he should insist upon the free See also:navigation of the See also:Mississippi and upon the principle that the United States succeeded to See also:British rights affirmed by the treaty of See also:Paris of 1763. When the See also:confederation was almost in a state of collapse because of the failure of the states to See also:respond to requisitions of Congress for supplies for the federal See also:treasury, Madison was among the first to See also:advocate the granting of additional See also:powers to Congress, and urged that congress should forbid the states to issue more See also:paper See also:money. In 1781 he favoured an amendment'of the Articles of Confederation giving Congress See also:power to enforce its requisitions, and in 1783, in spite of the open opposition of the Virginia legislature, which considered the Virginian delegates wholly subject to its instructions, he advocated that the states should See also:grant to Congress for twenty-five years authority to See also:levy an import See also:duty, and suggested a See also:scheme to provide for the See also:interest on the See also:debt not raised by the import duty—apportioning it among the states on the basis of See also:population, counting three-fifths of the slaves, a ratio suggested by Madison himself. Accompanying this See also:plan was an address to the states See also:drawn up by Madison, and one of the ablest of his state papers. In the same year, with See also:Oliver See also:Ellsworth of See also:Connecticut, Nathaniel Gorham of See also:Massachusetts, See also:Gunning See also:Bedford of See also:Delaware, and John See also:Rutledge of See also:South Carolina, he was a member of the committee which reported on the Virginia proposal as to the terms of cession to the Confederation of the " back lands," or unoccupied Western territory, held by several of the states; the See also:report was a skilful See also:compromise made by Madison, which secured the approval of the rather exigent Virginia legislature.

In November r 783 Madison's See also:

term in Congress expired, and he returned to Virginia and took up the study of the See also:law. In the following year he was elected to the See also:House of Delegates. As a member of its committee on religion, he opposed the giving of See also:special privileges to the Episcopal (or any other) See also:church, and contended against a general See also:assessment for the support of the churches of the state. His See also:petition of remonstrance against the proposed assessment, drawn up at the See also:suggestion of George See also:Nicholas (c. 1755–1799), was widely circulated and procured its defeat. On the 26th of See also:December 1785 See also:Jefferson's See also:Bill for establishing religious freedom in Virginia, which had been introduced by Madison, was passed. In the Viginia House of Delegates, as in the Continental Congress, he opposed the further issue of paper money; and he tried to induce the legislature to See also:repeal the law confiscating British debts, but he did not lose sight of the interests of the Confederacy. The boundary between Virginia and See also:Mary-See also:land, according to the See also:Baltimore grant, was the south See also:shore of the See also:Potomac, a See also:line to which Virginia had agreed on See also:condition of free navigation of the See also:river and the Chesapeake See also:Bay. Virginia now needed to make the necessary nine (New See also:Hampshire's favourable See also:vote was See also:cast only shortly before that of Virginia), and it appeared that New See also:York would vote against the constitution if Virginia did not ratify it, Madison was called upon to defend that See also:instrument again, and he appeared at his best against its opponents, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James See also:Monroe, See also:Benjamin See also:Harrison, See also:William Grayson and John See also:Tyler. He answered their objections in detail, calmly and with an intellectual power and earnestness that carried the convention. The result was a victory against an originally adverse public See also:opinion and against the eloquence of the opponents of the constitution, for Madison and for his lieutenants, See also:Edmund See also:Pendleton, John See also:Marshall, George Nicholas, Harry Innes and Henry See also:Lee. At the same time Madison's labours in behalf of the constitution alienated from him valuable See also:political support in Virginia.

He was defeated by See also:

Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson in his candidacy for the United States See also:Senate, but in his own See also:district he was chosen a representative to Congress, defeating James' Monroe, who seems to have had the powerful support of Patrick Henry. Madison took his seat in the House of Representatives in See also:April 1789, and assumed a leading part in the legislation necessary to the organization of the new See also:government. He drafted a See also:Tariff Bill giving certain notable advantages to nations with which the United States had commercial See also:treaties, hoping to force See also:Great See also:Britain into a similar treaty; but his policy of discrimination against See also:England was rejected by Congress. It was his belief that such a See also:system of See also:retaliation would remove the possibility of war arising from commercial quarrels. He introduced resolutions calling for the See also:establishment of three executive departments, See also:foreign affairs, treasury and war, the See also:head of each removable by the president. Most important of all, he proposed nine amendments to the constitution, embodying suggestions made by a number of the ratifying states, especially those made by Virginia at the instance of George Mason; and the essential principles of Madison's proposed amendments were included in a Bill of Rights, adopted by the states in the See also:form of ten amendments. The See also:absence of a Bill of Rights from the constitution as first adopted had been the point on which the opposition had made See also:common cause, and the See also:adoption of this now greatly weakened the same opposition. Although a staunch friend of the constitution, Madison believed, however, that the instrument should be interpreted conservatively and not be made the means of introducing radical innovations. The See also:tide of strict construction was setting in strongly in his state, and he was See also:borne along with the See also:flood. It is very probable that Jefferson's See also:influence over Madison, which was greater than See also:Hamilton's, contributed to this result. Madison now opposed Hamilton's See also:measures for the funding of the debt, the See also:assumption of state debts, and the establishment of a See also:National See also:Bank, and on other questions he sided more and more with the opposition, gradually assuming its leadership in the House of Representatives and labouring to confine the powers of the national government within the narrowest possible limits; his most important See also:argument against Hamilton's Bank was that the constitution did not provide for it explicitly, and could not properly be construed into permitting its creation. Madison, Jefferson and See also:Randolph were consulted by See also:Washington, and they advised him not to sign the bill providing for the Bank, but Hamilton's See also:counter-argument was successful.

On the same constitutional grounds Madison objected to the carrying out of the recommendations in Hamilton's famous report on manufactures (Dec. 5, 1791), which favoured a protective tariff. In the presidential See also:

campaign of 1792 Madison seems to have See also:lent his influence to the determined efforts of the Jeffersonians to defeat John See also:Adams by electing George See also:Clinton See also:vice-president. In 1793-1796 he strongly criticized the See also:administration for maintaining a neutral position between Great Britain and See also:France, See also:writing for the public See also:press five papers (signed " Helvidius "), attacking the " monarchical See also:prerogative of the executive " as exercised in the See also:proclamation of See also:neutrality in 1793 and denying the president's right to recognize foreign states. He found in Washington's attitude—as in Hamilton's failure to pay an See also:instalment of the moneys feared that too much had been given up, and desired See also:joint regulation of the navigation and See also:commerce of the river by See also:Maryland and Virginia. On Madison's proposal commissioners from the two states met at See also:Alexandria (q.v.) and at See also:Mount See also:Vernon in March 1785. The Maryland legislature approved the Mount Vernon agreement and proposed to invite See also:Pennsylvania and Delaware to join in the arrangement. Madison, seeing an opportunity for more general See also:concert in regard to commerce and See also:trade (and possibly for the increase of the power of Congress), proposed that all the states should be invited to send commissioners to consider commercial questions, and a See also:resolution to that effect was adopted (on See also:Jan. 21, 1786) by the Virginia legislature. This led to the See also:Annapolis convention of 1786, and that in turn led to the See also:Philadelphia convention of 1787. In April 1787 Madison had written a paper, The Vices of the Politicai System of the United States, and from his study of confederacies, See also:ancient and See also:modern, later summed up in See also:numbers 17, 18, and 19 of The Federalist, he had concluded that no confederacy could See also:long endure if it acted upon states only and not directly upon individuals. As the time for the convention of 1787 approached he See also:drew up an outline of a new system of government, the basis of the " Virginia plan " presented in the convention by Edmund Jennings Randolph.

Madison's scheme, as expressed in a See also:

letter to Washington dated the 16th of April 1787, was that individual See also:sovereignty of states was irreconcilable with aggregate sovereignty, but that the " consolidation of the whole into one See also:simple See also:republic would be as inexpedient as it is unattainable." He considered as a See also:practical See also:middle ground changing the basis of See also:representation in Congress from states to population; giving the national government " See also:positive and See also:complete authority in all cases which require uniformity "; giving it a negative on all state See also:laws, a power which might best be vested in the Senate, a comparatively permanent See also:body; electing the See also:lower house, and the more numerous, for a See also:short term; providing for a national executive, for extending the national supremacy over the judiciary and the militia, for a council to revise all laws, and for an See also:express statement of the right of See also:coercion; and finally, obtaining the ratification of a new constitutional instrument from the See also:people, and not merely from the legislatures. The " Virginia plan " was the basis of the convention's deliberations which resulted in the constitution favourably voted on by the convention on the 17th of See also:September 1787. Among the features of the plan which were not embodied in the constitution were the following: proportionate representation in the Senate and the See also:election of its members by the lower house " out of a proper number of persons nominated by the individual legislatures "; the vesting in the national Congress of power to negative state acts; and the establishment of a council of revision (the executive and a convenient number of national See also:judges) with See also:veto power over all laws passed by the national Congress. Madison, always an opponent of See also:slavery, disapproved of the compromise (in See also:Art. I. § 9 and Art.V.) postponing to 18o8 (or later) the See also:prohibition of the importation of slaves. He took a leading part in the debates of the convention, of which he kept full and careful notes, afterwards published by See also:order of Congress (3 vols., Washington, 1843). Many See also:minute and See also:wise provisions are due to him, and he spoke before the convention more frequently than any delegate except James See also:Wilson and Gouverneur See also:Morris. In spite of the opposition to the constitution of the Virginia leaders George Mason and E. J. Randolph, Madison induced the state's delegation to stand by the constitution in the convention. His influence largely shaped the form of the final draft of the constitution, but the labour was not finished with this draft; that the constitution was accepted by the people was due in an eminent degree to the efforts of Madison, who, to See also:place the new constitution before the public in its true See also:light, and to meet the objections brought against it, joined See also:Alexander Hamilton (q.v.) and John Jay in writing The Federal- ist, a See also:series of eighty-five papers, out of which twenty certainly, and nine others probably, were written by him.

In the Virginia convention for ratifying the constitution (See also:

June 1788), when eight states had ratified and it seemed that Virginia's vote would be due France—an " Anglified complexion," in See also:direct opposition to the popular sympathy with France and See also:French Republicanism. In 1794 he tried again his commercial weapons, introducing in the House of Representatives resolutions based on Jefferson's report on commerce, advising retaliation against Great Britain and discrimination in commercial and navigation laws in favour of France; and he declared that the See also:friends of Jay's treaty were " a British party systematically aiming at an exclusive connexion with the British government," and in 1796 strenuously but unsuccessfully opposed the See also:appropriation of money to carry this treaty into effect. Still thinking that foreign nations could be coerced through their commercial interests, he scouted as visionary the See also:idea that Great Britain would go to war on a refusal to carry Jay's treaty into effect, thinking it inconceivable that Great Britain " would wantonly make war " upon a See also:country which was the best See also:market she had in the See also:world for her manufactures, and one with which her export trade was so much larger than her import. In 1797 Madison retired from Congress, but not to a See also:life of inactivity. In 1798 he joined Jefferson in opposing the See also:Alien and See also:Sedition Laws, and Madison himself wrote the resolutions of the Virginia legislature declaring that it viewed " the powers of the Federal government as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties, as limited by the See also:plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact; as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that, in See also:case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right and are in duty See also:bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them." The Virginia resolutions and the See also:Kentucky resolutions (the latter having been drafted by Jefferson) were met by dissenting resolutions from the New England states, from New York, and from Delaware. In See also:answer to these, Madison, who had become a member of the Virginia legislature in the autumn of 1799, wrote for the committee to which they were referred a report elaborating and sustaining in every point the phraseology of the Virginia resolutions.' Upon the See also:accession of the Republican party to power in 1801, Madison became secretary of state in Jefferson's See also:cabinet, a position for which he was well fitted both because he possessed to a remarkable degree the gifts of careful thinking and discreet and able speaking, and of large constructive ability; and because he was well versed in constitutional and See also:international law and practised a fairness in discussion essential to a diplomat. During the eight years that he held the See also:portfolio of state, he had continually to defend the neutral rights of the United States against the encroachments of See also:European belligerents; in 18o6 he published An Examination of the British See also:Doctrine which subjects to See also:Capture a Neutral Trade not open in Time of See also:Peace, a careful argument—with a minute examination of authorities on international law —against the See also:rule of war of 1756 extended by Great Britain in 1793 and 1803. 1 See also:Thirty years later Madison's arguments for the Virginia resolutions and the resolutions themselves were freely used by See also:Calhoun and his followers in support of his doctrine of See also:nullification. But Madison insisted that the Resolutions of 1798 did not involve the principles of nullification. Nearly all his arguments, especially where he attempts to interpret Jefferson's writings on the point, notably the Kentucky resolutions, are rather strained and specious, but it does seem that the Virginia resolutions were based on a different idea from Calhoun's doctrine of nullification. Madison's theory was that the legislature of Virginia, being one of the bodies which had chosen delegates to the constitutional convention, was legally capable of considering the question of the constitutionality of laws passed by the Federal government, and that the state of Virginia might invite other states to join her, but could not singly, as Calhoun argued, declare any law of the Federal legislature null and void. (It is to be noted the words " null and void " were in Madison's first draft of the Virginia resolutions, but that they were omitted by the Virginia legislature.) It is notable, besides, that Madison had always feared that the national congress would assume too great power, that he had approved of Supreme See also:Court checks on the national legislature, and of veto power by a council of revision.

During Jefferson's See also:

presidency and whilst Madison was secretary of state, by the See also:purchase of See also:Louisiana, Madison's campaign begun in 178o for the free navigation of the Mississippi was brought to a successful See also:close. The See also:candidate in 18o8 of the Republican party, although bitterly opposed in the party by John Randolph and George Clinton, Madison was elected president, defeating C. C. See also:Pinckney, the Federalist candidate, by 122 votes to 47. Madison had no false hopes of placating the Federalist opposition, but as the preceding administration was one with which he was in See also:harmony, his position was different from that of Jefferson in 18o1, and he had less occasion for removing Federalists from See also:office. Jefferson's peace policy—or, more correctly, Madison's peace policy—of commercial restrictions to coerce Great Britain and France he continued to follow until 1812, when he was forced to See also:change these futile commercial weapons for a policy of war, which was very popular with the extreme French wing of his party. There is a See also:charge, which has never been proved or disproved, that Madison's real See also:desire was for peace, but that in order to secure the renomination he yielded to that wing of his party which was resolved on war with Great Britain. The only certain fact is that Madison, whatever were his See also:personal feelings in this See also:matter, acted according to the wishes of a See also:majority of the Republicans; but whether in doing so he was influenced by the desire of another nomination is largely a matter of conjecture. Madison was re-nominated on the 18th of May 1812, issued his war See also:message on the 1st of June, and in the November elections he was re-elected, defeating De Witt Clinton by 128 votes to 89. His administration during the war was pitiably weak. His cabinet in great part had been dictated to him in 1809 by a senatorial clique, and it was hopelessly discordant; for two years he was to all intents and purposes his own secretary of state, See also:Robert Smith being a See also:mere figure-head of whom he gladly got rid in 1811, giving Monroe the vacant place. Madison himself had attempted alternately to prevent war by his " commercial weapons " and to prepare the country for war, but he had met with no success, because of the tricky See also:diplomacy of Great Britain and of France, and because of the general distrust of him coupled with the particular opposition to the war of the prosperous New England Federalists, who suggested with the utmost seriousness that his resignation should be demanded.

In brief, Madison was too much the mere See also:

scholar to prove a strong See also:leader in such a crisis. The supreme disgrace of the administration was the capture and partial destruction in See also:August 1814 of the See also:city of Washington—this was due, how-ever, to incompetence of the military and not to any lack of prudence on the cabinet's part. In general, Congress was more blamable than either the president or his See also:official family, or the See also:army See also:officers. With the See also:declaration of peace the president again gained a momentary popularity much like that he had won in 1809 by his apparent willingness at that time to fight France. Retiring from the presidency in 1817, Madison returned to his See also:home, See also:Montpelier (in Orange county, Virginia), which he See also:left in no official capacity See also:save in 1829, when he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention and served on several of its committees. Montpelier, like Jefferson's Monticello and Monroe's See also:Oak-See also:Hill, was an expensive See also:bit of " See also:gentleman farming," which with his generous Virginia hospitality nearly ruined its owner financially. Madison's home was peculiarly a centre for literary travellers in his last years; when he was eighty-three he was visited by Harriet See also:Martineau, who reported her conversations with him in her Retrospect of Western Travel (1838). He took a great interest in See also:education—his library was left. to the university of Virginia, where it was burned in 1895—in emancipation, and in agricultural questions, to the very last. He died at Montpelier on the 28th of June 1836. Madison married, in 1794, Dorothy See also:Payne Todd (1772-1849), widow of John Todd, a Philadelphia lawyer. She had great social See also:charm, and upon Madison's entering Jefferson's cabinet became " first See also:lady " in Washington society. Her plump beauty was often remarked—notably by Washington See also:Irving—in contrast to her See also:husband's delicate and feeble figure and wizened See also:face—for even in his See also:prime Madison was, as Henry Adams says, " a small See also:man, quiet, somewhat precise in manner, pleasant, fond of conversation, with a certain mixture of ease and dignity in his address." Her son, spoiled by his See also:mother and his step-father, became a See also:wild See also:young See also:fellow, and added his debts to the heavy See also:burden of Montpelier upon Madison.

Madison's portrait was painted by See also:

Gilbert See also:Stuart and by See also:Charles Willson See also:Peale; Giuseppe Ceracchi made a See also:marble bust of him in 1792 and John H. J. Browere another in 1827, now in See also:possession of the Virginia See also:Historical Society at See also:Richmond. Though commonly dignified and a little stiff he seems to have had a strong sense of See also:humour and he was fond of telling a See also:good See also:story. Henry See also:Clay, contrasting him with Jefferson, said that Jefferson had more See also:genius, Madison more See also:judgment and common sense; that Jefferson was a visionary and a theorist; Madison cool, dispassionate, practical, and safe.' The broadest and most accurate scholar among the " founders and fathers," he was particularly an See also:expert in constitutional See also:history and theory. In the great causes for which Madison fought in his earlier years—religious freedom and separation of church and state, the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the adoption of the constitution—he met with success. His greatest and truest_ fame is as the " father of the constitution." The " commercial weapons " with which he wished to prevent armed conflict proved less useful in his See also:day than they have since been in inter-national disputes. AurlloxlrIEs.—Madison's See also:personality is perplexingly vague; the See also:biographies of him are little more than histories of the See also:period, and the best history of the later period in which he was before the public, Henry Adams's History of the United States from r8or to 1817 (1889–1890), gives the clearest See also:sketch and best See also:criticism of him. The lives of Madison are: J. Q. Adams's (See also:Boston, 1850); W. C.

See also:

Rives's (Boston, 1859-1869, 3 vols.), covering the period previous to 1797; S. H. See also:Gay's (Boston, 1884) in the " American Statesmen Series "; and See also:Gaillard See also:Hunt's (New York, 1902). Madison's Writings (7 vols., New York, 1900–1906) were edited by Hunt, who also edited The See also:Journal of the Debates in the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, as Recorded by James Madison (2 vols., New York, 1908). See also Mrs Madison's See also:Memoirs and Letters (Boston, 1887) and Maud Wilder See also:Goodwin, Dolly Madison (New York, 1897).

End of Article: MADISON, JAMES (1751–1836)

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