James Madison

4th President of the United States

### Vice President

George Clinton (1809–1812); None (1812–1813); Elbridge Gerry (1813–1814); None (1814–1817)

### Birth

March 16, 1751Port Conway, Virginia, British America

### Death

June 28, 1836 (aged 85)Montpelier, Virginia, U.S.

### Parents

James Madison Sr. (father)Nelly Madison (mother)

### Siblings

Francis Taylor Madison (brother), Ambrose Madison (brother), Catlett Madison (brother), Nelly Conway Madison (sister), William Taylor Madison (brother), Sarah Catlett Madison (sister), Unnamed brother, Elizabeth Madison (sister), Unnamed brother, Reuben Madison (brother), Frances Taylor Madison (sister)

### Hair color

Brown

**James Madison**, America’s fourth President (1809-1817), made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.”

*The Presidency of James Madison spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Evolution Era and the War of 1812 including the Burning of Washington. President James Madison represented the Democratic-Republican political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency.*

## Biography

At his inauguration, James Madison, a small, wizened man, appeared old and worn; Washington Irving described him as “but a withered little apple-John.” But whatever his deficiencies in charm, Madison’s … wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety. She was the toast of Washington.

Born in 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.

When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates.

Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison protested that the document was not “the off-spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many hands.”

In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation. Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton’s financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party.

As President Jefferson’s Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law. The protests, John Randolph acidly commented, had the effect of “a shilling pamphlet hurled against eight hundred ships of war.”

Despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their ways but did cause a depression in the United States, Madison was elected President in 1808. Before he took office the Embargo Act was repealed.

During the first year of Madison’s Administration, the United States prohibited trade with both Britain and France; then in May, 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, if either would accept America’s view of neutral rights, to forbid trade with the other nation.

Napoleon pretended to comply. Late in 1810, Madison proclaimed non-intercourse with Great Britain. In Congress a young group including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the “War Hawks,” pressed the President for a more militant policy.

The British impressment of American seamen and the seizure of cargoes impelled Madison to give in to the pressure. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war.

The young Nation was not prepared to fight; its forces took a severe trouncing. The British entered Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capitol.

But a few notable naval and military victories, climaxed by Gen. Andrew Jackson’s triumph at New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful. An upsurge of nationalism resulted. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war–and who had even talked secession–were so thoroughly repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party.

In retirement at Montpelier, his estate in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states’ rights influences that by the 1830’s threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, “The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.”

## Personality

The character traits of President James Madison can be described as shy, intelligent, meticulous, ponderous and firm. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for James Madison is an INTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving). A modest, reserved, stoic character with a preference to work informally with others as equals. James Madison Personality type: Quiet, analytical, impatient and thoughtful.

## Nicknames

* "Father of the Constitution"
* "Father of the Bill of Rights"
* "America's First Graduate Student"
* "The Great Legislator"
* "Withered-Little Apple John"
* "The Sage of Montpelier"

*The nickname of President James Madison provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the nickname Father of the Bill of Rights refers to his role in creating the Constitution and as the main author of the amendments to the Constitution formed the basis of the Bill of Rights. James Madison also had the nicknames of Jimmie or Little Johnny in reference to his small stature.*

## Inaugurations

### First Inauguration

The **first inauguration of James Madison** as the fourth president of the United States was held on Saturday, March 4, 1809, in the chamber of the House of Representatives at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the first four-year term of James Madison as president and the second term of George Clinton as vice president. The presidential oath was administered by Chief Justice John Marshall. The President wore a 100% American-made wool suit, and the first official inaugural ball occurred at Long's Hotel, with ticket prices being $4 (currently about $75). Clinton died 3 years, 47 days into this term, and the office remained vacant for the balance of it. (Prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no constitutional provision existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency.) Clinton was the first vice president to die in office.

### Second Inauguration

The **second inauguration of James Madison** as president of the United States was held on Thursday, March 4, 1813, at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the second four-year term of James Madison as president and the only term of Elbridge Gerry as vice president. The presidential oath was administered by Chief Justice John Marshall. Gerry died 1 year, 264 days into this term, and the office remained vacant for the balance of it. (Prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no constitutional provision existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency.)

## Accomplishments and major events

*The major accomplishments and the famous, main events that occurred during the time that James Madison was president included the War of 1812, Washington DC was burned (1814) and the Second Barbary War (1815). During his presidency the Cumberland Road was constructed and Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner poem after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry.*

**The War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent**

Summary: The War of 1812 (1812-1814), often referred to as the Second War of Independence,  was fought between the United States and Great Britain. The war lasted for 2 years and 8 months and resulted in a stalemate, but it was a turning point for the US who achieved credibility across the world as a powerful new nation. The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 and was signed on December 24, 1814.

**The Burning of Washington DC**

Summary: The Burning of Washington DC by the British occurred on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, in retaliation for the sacking of York and as an attempt to demoralize the American nation. British officers ate dinner at the White House (then referred to as the Executive Mansion) and the British set fire to the White House, the Treasury Department building, the docks and all the public buildings in the capital including the Library of Congress.

**The Star Spangled Banner**

Summary: There was a surge of American Patriotism during the War of 1812 and the Star Spangled Banner was written on September 14, 1814 by Francis Scott Lee following the US victory at the Battle of Baltimore and the Defence of Fort Henry. The lyrics were written following the US victory at the Battle of Baltimore, in the War of 1812.

**The Second Bank of the United States**

Summary: The Second Bank of the United States was granted a charter in 1816 to manage the massive war debt amounted during the War of 1812.

**The Hartford Convention**

Summary: The Hartford Convention was a secret meeting of Federalists in Hartford, Connecticut to express grievances against the administration of President James Madison. The secret convention discredited the Federalist party as the outcome of the War of 1812 was rejoiced by the nation and the Republican party of James Madison gained in popularity with the voters.

**The Second Barbary War**

Summary: The Second Barbary War of 1815 (aka the Algerine War) ended in victory for the Americans against the African Pirates of the Barbary States that consisted of  Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers.

**The Protective Tariff of 1816**

Summary: The Protective Tariff of 1816 was passed in an attempt to persuade Americans to buy home produced goods by  placing a 20-25 % tax on all foreign goods. The tariff was important as it helped American businesses compete with British and European factories.

**The Construction of the Cumberland Road**

Summary: The Construction of the Cumberland Road began in 1811 and ended in 1837 and stretched along 600 miles. It served as a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers in the Northwest Territory.

**The History of the Turnpikes and Toll Roads**

Summary: The process of building roads was very expensive and led to the widespread introduction of Toll Roads, that were called Turnpikes, across the new nation.

## Post Presidency

When Madison left office in 1817 at age 65, he retired to Montpelier, not far from Jefferson's Monticello. As with both Washington and Jefferson, Madison left the presidency a poorer man than when he came in. His plantation experienced a steady financial collapse, due to price declines in tobacco and his stepson's mismanagement. In his retirement, Madison occasionally became involved in public affairs, advising Andrew Jackson and other presidents. He remained out of the public debate over the Missouri Compromise, though he privately complained about the North's opposition to the extension of slavery. Madison had warm relations with all four of the major candidates in the 1824 presidential election, but, like Jefferson, largely stayed out of the race. During Jackson's presidency, Madison publicly disavowed the Nullification movement and argued that no state had the right to secede. Madison also helped Jefferson establish the University of Virginia. In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the second rector of the university. He retained the position as college chancellor for ten years until his death in 1836.

In 1829, at the age of 78, Madison was chosen as a representative to the Virginia Constitutional Convention for revision of the commonwealth's constitution. It was his last appearance as a statesman. Apportionment of adequate representation was the central issue at the convention for the western districts of Virginia. The increased population in the Piedmont and western parts of the state were not proportionately represented in the legislature. Western reformers also wanted to extend suffrage to all white men, in place of the prevailing property ownership requirement. Madison made modest gains but was disappointed at the failure of Virginians to extend suffrage to all white men. In his later years, Madison became highly concerned about his historical legacy. He resorted to modifying letters and other documents in his possession, changing days and dates, and adding and deleting words and sentences. By his late seventies, Madison's self-editing of his own archived letters and older materials had become almost an obsession. As an example, he edited a letter written to Jefferson criticizing Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; Madison not only inked out original passages but in other correspondence he even forged Jefferson's handwriting. Historian Drew R. McCoy wrote that "During the final six years of his life, amid a sea of personal [financial] troubles that were threatening to engulf him ... At times mental agitation issued in physical collapse. For the better part of a year in 1831 and 1832 he was bedridden, if not silenced ... Literally sick with anxiety, he began to despair of his ability to make himself understood by his fellow citizens."

## Death

Madison's health slowly deteriorated through the early-to-mid-1830s. Approaching the Fourth of July, he died of congestive heart failure at Montpelier on the morning of June 28, 1836, at the age of 85. According to one common account of his final moments, he was given his breakfast, which he tried eating but was unable to swallow. His favorite niece, who sat by to keep him company, asked him, "What is the matter, Uncle James?" Madison died immediately after he replied, "Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear." He was buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier. He was one of the last prominent members of the Revolutionary War generation to die. His last will and testament left significant sums to the American Colonization Society, Princeton, and the University of Virginia, as well as $30,000 ($897,000 in 2021) to his wife, Dolley. Left with a smaller sum than James had intended, Dolley suffered financial troubles until her death in 1849. In the 1840s Dolley sold Montpelier, its remaining slaves, and the furnishings to pay off outstanding debts.

## Facts and trivia

* At 5'4' inches tall and weighing only 100 pounds, James Madison is remembered as the smallest U.S. President in American History.
* Madison is credited with coming up with the tree branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, which we still use today.
* Madison was born at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway in the Colony of Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. His family had lived in Virginia since the mid-1600s. Madison grew up as the oldest of twelve children, with seven brothers and four sisters, though only six lived to adulthood.
* Madison's father was a tobacco planter who grew up at a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. With an estimated 100 slaves and a 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) plantation, Madison's father was the largest landowner and a leading citizen in the Piedmont.
* Madison's maternal grandfather was a prominent planter and tobacco merchant.
* In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved into a newly built house that they named Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia.
* From age 11 to 16, Madison studied under Donald Robertson, a Scottish instructor who served as a tutor for several prominent planter families in the South. Madison learned mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages—he became exceptionally proficient in Latin.
* Although baptized as an Anglican and educated by Presbyterian clergymen, young Madison was an avid reader of English deist tracts. As an adult, Madison paid little attention to religious matters. Though most historians have found little indication of his religious leanings after he left college, some scholars indicate he leaned toward deism. Others maintain that Madison accepted Christian tenets and formed his outlook on life with a Christian world view.
* Regardless of his own religious beliefs, Madison believed in religious liberty, and he advocated for Virginia's disestablishment of the Anglican Church throughout the late 1770s and 1780s. He also opposed the appointments of chaplains for Congress and the armed forces, arguing that the appointments produce religious exclusion as well as political disharmony.
* Unlike most college-bound Virginians of his day, Madison did not attend the College of William and Mary, where the lowland Williamsburg climate—thought to be more likely to harbor infectious disease—might have strained his delicate health. Instead, in 1769, he enrolled as an undergraduate at Princeton (then formally named the College of New Jersey). His studies at Princeton included Latin, Greek, theology, and the works of the Enlightenment.
* In 1774, Madison took a seat on the local Committee of Safety, a pro-revolution group that oversaw the local Patriot militia. In October 1775, he was commissioned as the colonel of the Orange County militia, serving as his father's second-in-command until he was elected as a delegate to the Fifth Virginia Convention, which was charged with producing Virginia's first constitution. Of short stature and frequently in poor health, Madison never saw battle in the Revolutionary War, but he rose to prominence in Virginia politics as a wartime leader.
* Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War.
* As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Madison continued to advocate for religious freedom, and, along with Jefferson, drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. That amendment, which guaranteed freedom of religion and disestablished the Church of England, was passed in 1786. Madison also became a land speculator, purchasing land along the Mohawk River in partnership with another Jefferson protégé, James Monroe.
* Madison emerged as an important leader in the House of Representatives and was a close adviser to President George Washington.
* Madison was small in stature, had bright blue eyes, a strong demeanor, and was known to be humorous at small gatherings.
* Madison suffered from serious illnesses, nervousness, and was often exhausted after periods of stress. He often feared for the worst and was a hypochondriac. However, Madison was in good health, while he lived a long life, without the common maladies of his times.
* Madison grew up on a plantation that made use of slave labor and he viewed slavery as a necessary part of the Southern economy, though he was troubled by the instability of a society that depended on a large slave population. Although Madison had supported a republican form of government, he believed that slavery had caused the South to become aristocratic. Madison believed that slaves were human property, while he opposed slavery intellectually.
* Madison was referred to as a "garden-variety slaveholder" by historian Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. Madison abstained from excessive cruelty to slaves, to avoid criticism from peers, but worked his slaves from dawn to dusk, six days a week, allowing Sundays off for rest.
* By 1801, Madison's slave population at Montpelier was slightly over 100. During the 1820s and 1830s, Madison was forced by debts to sell land and slaves. In 1836, at the time of Madison's death, he owned 36 taxable slaves.
* During the early 1790s, Madison opposed the economic program and the accompanying centralization of power favored by Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton and organized the Democratic–Republican Party along with Thomas Jefferson, in opposition to Hamilton's Federalist Party.
* On September 15, 1794, Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a 26-year-old widow of John Todd, a Quaker farmer who died during a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. His Princeton classmate and future Vice President Aaron Burr introduced Madison to her, at his request, after Dolley had stayed in the same boardinghouse as Burr in Philadelphia.
* Madison never had children, but he adopted Dolley's one surviving son, John Payne Todd (known as Payne), after the marriage. Some of his colleagues, such as James Monroe and Aaron Burr, alleged that Madison was infertile and that his lack of offspring weighed on his thoughts, but Madison never spoke of any distress on this matter.
* After Jefferson was elected president, Madison served as his Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. In that position, he supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States, and the Embargo Act of 1807.
* Elected to the presidency in 1808, Madison became the first president to have served in Congress.
* On March 4, 1809, Madison took the oath of office and was inaugurated president. Unlike Jefferson, who enjoyed relatively unified support, Madison faced political opposition from Monroe and Clinton. Additionally, the Federalist Party was resurgent owing to opposition to the embargo.
* Upon becoming president, Madison said the federal government's duty was to convert Native Americans by the "participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state". On September 30, 1809, little more than six months into his first term, Madison agreed to the Treaty of Fort Wayne, negotiated and signed by Indiana Territory's Governor Harrison. The treaty began with "James Madison, President of the United States," on the first sentence of the first paragraph.
* Early in his presidency, Madison sought to continue Jefferson's policies of low taxes and a reduction of the national debt. In 1811, Congress allowed the charter of the First Bank of the United States to lapse after Madison declined to take a strong stance on the issue.
* After diplomatic protests and a trade embargo failed to end British seizures of American shipping, Madison led the United States into the War of 1812. The war was an administrative morass and ended inconclusively, but many Americans saw it as a successful "second war of independence" against Britain.
* The War of 1812 convinced Madison of the necessity of a stronger federal government. He presided over the creation of the Second Bank of the United States and the enactment of the protective Tariff of 1816.
* By treaty or war, Indian tribes were forced to cede 23 million acres of Native American land over to the United States and white Americans, under Madison's presidency.
* In the 1816 presidential election, Madison and Jefferson both favored the candidacy of Secretary of State James Monroe, who defeated Secretary of War William H. Crawford in the party's congressional nominating caucus. As the Federalist Party continued to collapse as a national party, Monroe easily defeated Federalist candidate Rufus King in the 1816 election.
* When Madison left office in 1817 at age 65, he retired to Montpelier, his tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Jefferson's Monticello. As with both Washington and Jefferson, Madison left the presidency a poorer man than when he came in. His plantation experienced a steady financial collapse, due to the continued price declines in tobacco and also due to his stepson's mismanagement.
* Madison left office as a popular president; former president Adams wrote that Madison had "acquired more glory, and established more union, than all his three predecessors, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, put together".
* Like Jefferson and Washington, Madison was a wealthy slave owner who never privately reconciled his republican beliefs with his slave ownership. Forced to pay debts, he never freed his slaves.
* In his retirement, Madison occasionally became involved in public affairs, advising Andrew Jackson and other presidents. He remained out of the public debate over the Missouri Compromise, though he privately complained about the North's opposition to the extension of slavery.
* Madison had warm relations with all four of the major candidates in the 1824 presidential election, but, like Jefferson, largely stayed out of the race.
* During Jackson's presidency, Madison publicly disavowed the Nullification movement and argued that no state had the right to secede.
* Madison helped Jefferson establish the University of Virginia. In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the second rector of the university. He retained the position as college chancellor for ten years until his death in 1836.
* In 1829, at the age of 78, Madison was chosen as a representative to the Virginia Constitutional Convention for revision of the commonwealth's constitution. It was his last appearance as a statesman. Apportionment was the central issue at the convention.
* In his later years, Madison became highly concerned about his historical legacy. He resorted to modifying letters and other documents in his possession, changing days and dates, adding and deleting words and sentences. By his late seventies, Madison's self-editing of his own archived letters and older materials had become almost an obsession.
* Throughout the early-to-mid-1830s, Madison's health slowly deteriorated. By coincidence, the Fourth of July was the day of the year on which former presidents Jefferson, Adams, and Monroe had all died. In his final week, his doctors advised Madison to take stimulants which might prolong his life to July 4, 1836. However, Madison refused.
* Madison died of congestive heart failure at Montpelier on the morning of June 28, 1836, at the age of 85. According to one common account of his final moments, he was given his breakfast, which he tried eating but was unable to swallow. His favorite niece, who sat by to keep him company, asked him, "What is the matter, Uncle James?" Madison died immediately after he replied, "Nothing more than a change of *mind*, my dear."
* Madison was buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier. He was one of the last prominent members of the Revolutionary War generation to die.
* Madison's last will and testament left significant sums to the American Colonization Society, Princeton, and the University of Virginia, as well as $30,000 ($897,000 in 2021) to his wife, Dolley. Left with a smaller sum than Madison had intended, Dolley suffered financial troubles until her death in 1849. After Madison's death, in the 1840s Dolley sold Montpelier, its remaining slaves, and the furnishings to pay off outstanding debts. Paul Jennings, one of Madison's younger slaves, later recalled in his memoir,
* Madison is considered one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians have generally ranked him as an above-average president, although they are critical of how Madison executed the War of 1812.
* Today, Madison's name lives on, including two Navy ships, the state capitol of Wisconsin, and the $5000 dollar bill.
* Montpelier, the Madison family's plantation, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
* The James Madison Memorial Building is part of the United States Library of Congress and serves as the official memorial to Madison.
* Other things named for Madison include Madison Square, James Madison University, and the USS *James Madison*.

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James\_Madison
* https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/james-madison/
* https://www.american-historama.org/presidents-united-states/james-madison.htm
* https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Madison-1