On Jefferson's advice, President Adams considered appointing Madison to an American delegation charged with ending French attacks on American shipping, but Adams's Cabinet members strongly opposed the idea. After a diplomatic incident between France and the United States known as the XYZ Affair took place, the two countries engaged in an undeclared naval war known as the Quasi-War. Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election. 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.
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