James Madison (1751-1836) played a key role in the founding of America. James Madison was extremely intelligent. He knew that men have inalienable rights and there should be a government to protect those rights and establish legitimacy.
After the Revolutionary War, each of the states were independent entities. James Madison believed that there should be a central government to hold the states together and handle national matters bigger than the states.
In the summer of 1787 a convention of the states was called together in Philadelphia. Here many founding fathers served as delegates and drafted the Constitution. Madison was such a vital part in writing the document that from then on, he was known as the “Father of the Constitution.”
Following the Constitutional convention, Madison was elected to the House of Representatives in 1789 until 1797 and led the fight to implement a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. Madison was then appointed by Thomas Jefferson in 1801 to be Secretary of State, and later on after Jefferson retired he served on the Republican ticket as the 4th president of the United States from 1809-1817.
James Madison is best known for:
- Helping to write the Constitution
- Implementing the Bill of Rights
- Writing the Federalist Essays
- Making a peace treaty in 1815 to end the War of 1812
- Serving in the Continental Congress
- Being on the $5,000 bill
- Introducing the Virginia Plan
James Madison believed in:
- Separation of church and state
- Congress should have veto power
- A central, republic form of government
- A system of checks and balances
- Factions / political parties could cause sectionalism and animosity
- Anti-Slavery; found slavery to be a “moral dilemma” and that “…all men are created equal”
Madison’s concepts directly relate to our American government. Because of James Madison’s influence, there is religious freedom, a central government, and a system of checks and balances. Although Madison advocated for anti-slavery and absence of factions, slavery was not abolished until later, and political factions organized soon after the fact.
Source 1
- Blassingame, Wyatt. “The Look-It-Up Book of Presidents.” Random House, Inc., Published in 1996. Book. Accessed August 26, 2018
Source 2
- “James Madison and Executive Power.” Center for Civic Education. http://www.civiced.org/resources/curriculum/madison. Web. Accessed August 27, 2018.
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