He retired from public office in 1817 and died in 1836. Madison was never able to privately reconcile his Republican beliefs and his slave ownership. Madison is considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians have generally ranked him as an above-average president. James Madison Jr. was born on March 16, 1751, (March 5, 1750, Old Style) at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. His family had lived in Virginia since the mid-1600s. Madison issued the Report of 1800, which attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional but disregarded Jefferson's theory of nullification. The Report of 1800 held that Congress was limited to legislating on its enumerated powers, and that punishment for sedition violated freedom of speech and freedom of the press.