James Madison

James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 (O.S.

March 5) – June 28, 1836) is an American statesman and political theorist, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817).

He is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights.

He serves as a politician much of his adult life.

Like other Virginia statesmen in the slave society,he is a slaveholder and part of the élite; he has inherited his plantation known as Montpelier, and owns hundreds of slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops.

After the constitution is drafted, Madison becomes one of the leaders in the movement to ratify it.

His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produce the Federalist Papers (1788).

Circulated only in New York at this time, they will later be considered among the most important polemics in support of the Constitution.

He is also a delegate to the Virginia constitutional ratifying convention, and is instrumental to the successful ratification effort in Virginia.

Like most of his contemporaries, Madison changes his political views during his life.

During the drafting and ratification of the constitution, he favors a strong national government, though later he grows to favor stronger state governments, before settling between the two extremes late in his life.

In 1789, Madison becomes a leader in the new House of Representatives, drafting many basic laws.

He is notable for drafting the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and thus is known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights".

Madison works closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government.

Breaking with Hamilton and what becomes the Federalist party in 1791, Madison and Thomas Jefferson organize what they call the Republican Party (later called by historians the Democratic-Republican Party) in opposition to key policies of the Federalists, especially the national bank and the Jay Treaty.

He co-authors, along with Thomas Jefferson, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798 to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts.

As Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801–1809), Madison supervises the Louisiana Purchase, which doubles the nation’s size.

After his election to the presidency, he presides over renewed prosperity for several years.

As president (1809–17), after the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against Great Britain, he leads the nation into the War of 1812.

He is responding to British encroachments on American honor and rights; in addition, he wants to end the influence of the British among their Indian allies, whose resistance blocks United States settlement in the Midwest around the Great Lakes.

Madison finds the war to be an administrative nightmare, as the United States has neither a strong army nor financial system; as a result, he afterward supports a stronger national government and a strong military, as well as the national bank, which he has long opposed.

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