School Work Sources

lhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/dm4.html
Dolley Payne Todd Madison
For half a century she was the most important woman in the social circles of America. To this day she remains one of the best known and best loved ladies of the White House--though often referred to, mistakenly, as Dorothy or Dorothea.
She always called herself Dolley, and by that name the New Garden Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, in Piedmont, North Carolina, recorded her birth to John and Mary Coles Payne, settlers from Virginia. In 1769 John Payne took his family back to his home colony, and in 1783 he moved them to Philadelphia, city of the Quakers. Dolley grew up in the strict discipline of the Society, but nothing muted her happy personality and her warm heart.
John Todd, Jr., a lawyer, exchanged marriage vows with Dolley in 1790. Just three years later he died in a yellow-fever epidemic, leaving his wife with a small son.
By this time Philadelphia had become the capital city. With her charm and her laughing blue eyes, fair skin, and black curls, the young widow attracted distinguished attention. Before long Dolley was reporting to her best friend that "the great little Madison has asked...to see me this evening."
Although Representative James Madison of Virginia was 17 years her senior, and Episcopalian in background, they were married in September 1794. The marriage, though childless, was notably happy; "our hearts understand each other," she assured him. He could even be patient with Dolley's son, Payne, who mishandled his own affairs--and, eventually, mismanaged Madison's estate.
Discarding the somber Quaker dress after her second marriage, Dolley chose the finest of fashions. Margaret Bayard Smith, chronicler of early Washington social life, wrote: "She looked a Queen...It would be absolutely impossible for any one to behave with more perfect propriety than she did."
Blessed with a desire to please and a willingness to be pleased, Dolley made her home the center of society when Madison began, in 1801, his eight years as Jefferson's Secretary of State. She assisted at the White House when the President asked her help in receiving ladies, and presided at the first inaugural ball in Washington when her husband became Chief Executive in 1809.
Dolley's social graces made her famous. Her political acumen, prized by her husband, is less renowned, though her gracious tact smoothed many a quarrel. Hostile statesmen, difficult envoys from Spain or Tunisia, warrior chiefs from the west, flustered youngsters--she always welcomed everyone. Forced to flee from the White House by a British army during the War of 1812, she returned to find the mansion in ruins. Undaunted by temporary quarters, she entertained as skillfully as ever.
At their plantation Montpelier in Virginia, the Madisons lived in pleasant retirement until he died in 1836. She returned to the capital in the autumn of 1837, and friends found tactful ways to supplement her diminished income. She remained in Washington until her death in 1849, honored and loved by all. The delightful personality of this unusual woman is a cherished part of her country's history.

http://www.holycross.net/anonline.htm

Episcopal Church, The
The official name for the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church welcomes you!
Episcopalian
1. A member of the Episcopal Church. 2.The noun form of the word. Proper grammarians would point out that "episcopal" is an adjective and "episcopalian" is a noun. The title to this online dictionary is grammatically incorrect, and intended to be so.

http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0256610-00&templatename=/article/article.html

Madison, James
Madison, James (1751-1836), 4th president of the United States. Although he served eight years each as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as secretary of state, and as president, Madison's principal contribution to the founding of the United States was as "Father of the Constitution." He played the leading role in formulating the U.S. Constitution, and he was its leading defender and interpreter for 50 years. To a preeminent degree he combined scholarship, a keen intelligence, commitment to republican government, and a realistic understanding of politics in a way that allowed him again and again to move from an idea or a conception to a plan or a policy or a law.
Madison's place among the Founding Fathers reveals the essential qualities of his public career. Not gifted with Washington's imposing presence or instinctive judiciousness, he was more articulate and more creative than the first president. He lacked Franklin's breadth of interest, infectious wit, and unique diplomatic style, but he more profoundly understood the problems of government. John Adams was more learned and more cognizant of the intractable, tragic dilemmas of human life, but Madison was more skilled at fashioning institutions likely to cope in some way with those dilemmas. Jefferson had a superior vision of the potential for life under republican government, a greater capacity for leadership, and a special gift for the memorable phrase, but Madison had a more subtle and incisive political sense. Finally, though Hamilton was more brilliant in argument and more adept at offering comprehensive plans, Madison was more faithful to republican principles and more aware of the constraints that human need and diversity should place on the designs of the nation's leaders.
Although Madison was small and unimpressive physically, he had bright blue eyes, a quiet strength of character, and a lively, humorous way in small groups that made him a welcome and influential colleague in many endeavors. He had some serious illnesses, many bouts of a probably nervous disorder that left him exhausted and prostrate after periods of severe strain, and a hypochondriac tendency to "fear the worst" from sickness. Nevertheless, he lived a long, healthy life free from the common scourges of his day and was capable of sustained, rigorous labors that would have overwhelmed many men who seemingly were more robust. He thoroughly enjoyed both public life and the respites he always needed from it on his farm in Orange county, Va. In fact, his physical and psychic well-being seemed to depend on the satisfying balance he attained in this way.
Early Career
Madison's ancestors, probably all from England, settled in Virginia along the Rappahannock and Mattaponi rivers in the mid-17th century. Tradesmen and farmers at first, they quickly acquired more lands and soon were among the "respectable though not the most opulent class," as Madison himself described them. In moving to Orange county in the Piedmont about 1730, and in speculating in Kentucky lands during the American Revolution, the Madisons marked themselves as frontiersmen, always ready to go west as opportunity beckoned.
James Madison himself, however, lived all his life in Orange county on a 5,000-acre (2,000-hectare) plantation that produced tobacco and grains and was worked by perhaps 100 slaves. Though he abhorred slavery and had no use for the aristocratic airs of Virginia society, he remained a Virginia planter, working within the traditional political system of family-based power and accepting the responsibility this entailed. He also bore the burden of depending all his life on a slave system that he could never square with his republican beliefs.
Madison was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in Port Conway, Va., on March 16, 1751 (March 5, 1750, Old Style). Soon he returned with his mother to their home in Orange county. He received fundamental instruction at home, and then went to preparatory school before entering the College of New Jersey at Princeton. He got a thorough classical education in Latin and Greek studies, and he also learned Christian thought and precepts from his clergymen teachers. He received his bachelor of arts degree in 1771 and remained for six months studying under President John Witherspoon, whose intellectual independence, Scottish practicality, and moral earnestness profoundly influenced him. Madison also read John Locke, Isaac Newton, Jonathan Swift, David Hume, Voltaire, and others who fashioned the Enlightenment world view, which became his own. He considered divinity and law as vocations, but never entered either profession.
First Public Service. Madison's understanding of public affairs developed during the decade of colonial resistance to British measures, 1765 1775. He served on the Orange county Committee of Safety from 1774. In 1776 he was elected to the Virginia convention that declared the colony independent from Britain and drafted a new state constitution. There he strengthened the conventional clause guaranteeing religious "toleration" to proclaim "liberty of conscience for all." Elected to the governor's council in 1777, he lived in Williamsburg for two years, dealing with the routine problems of the Revolutionary War under Governors Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
Madison's skill led to his election in 1780 to the Continental Congress, where he served for nearly four years. During the first year he became one of the leaders of the so-called nationalist group, which saw fulfillment of the Revolution possible only under a strong central government. He supported the French alliance and worked persistently to strengthen the powers of Congress. In 1783, after ratification of the peace treaty and demobilization of the army, Madison ranked as a leading promoter of a stronger national government. When he retired from Congress that year, he had a reputation as an exceedingly well-informed and effective debater and legislator.
The New Government: Founder and Statesman
For three years in the Virginia legislature, Madison worked to enact Jefferson's bill for religious freedom and other reform measures. He also continued to strengthen the national government by securing Virginia's support of it. But he was soon convinced that a new frame of government must replace the Articles of Confederation. His studies, too, showed that weak confederacies were prey to foreign intrigue and domestic instability. He thus took the lead in calling for the Convention of 1787 and arrived in Philadelphia that summer ready to take a prominent role.
The Constitution of the United States. Madison offered the Virginia plan giving taxing and law-enforcement powers to the national government, and he worked with James Wilson and other nationalists to support a strengthened executive, a broadly based House of Representatives, long terms in the Senate, an independent federal judiciary, and other devices to enhance national power.
Madison argued that an enlarged, strengthened national government, far from being the path to despotism its opponents feared, was in fact the surest way to protect freedom and expand the principle of self-government. He held that the multiplicity of interests ("factions") in a large republic would counteract and neutralize each other, thus allowing some sense of the public interest to emerge in the end. His conception was a realistic, yet dynamic, understanding of how government might work under a system of checks and balances. This idea of the Constitution, embedded in virtually every clause, was at the base of Madison's political theory and in fact became the operating principle of American government. Madison's notes on the debates, published posthumously, afford the only full record of the convention's proceedings.
With Alexander Hamilton, Madison formulated strategy for the supporters of the Constitution (Federalists) and wrote portions of The Federalist papers. He also engaged Patrick Henry who did not believe that the Constitution adequately protected Virginia and its people in dramatic and finally successful debate at the Virginia ratifying convention (June 1788). Then, as a member of the first U.S. House of Representatives, Madison proposed new revenue laws, ensured the president's responsibility for the conduct of the executive branch, and sponsored the Bill of Rights. He also drafted Washington's inaugural address and helped the president make the precedent-setting appointments of his first term. Thus, for three years, Madison had led in urging, drafting, ratifying, and establishing a new form of government.
For a further discussion of Madison's part in these historic events, see also Constitution of the United States; Federalist, The.
Opponent of the Federalists. However, in January 1790, Madison opposed Hamilton's financial program because he believed that it gave a privileged position to commerce and wealth. He was especially alarmed when he saw that this power could awe and sometimes control the organs of government. Madison and Jefferson viewed republican government as resting on the virtues of the people, sustained by the self-reliance of an agricultural economy and the benefits of public education, with government itself remaining "mild" and responsive to grass-roots impulses. This attitude became the foundation of the Democratic-Republican party, which was fundamentally at odds with Hamilton's concept of a strong central government.
Madison and Jefferson then seized on widespread public sympathy for France's expansive, revolutionary exploits to promote republican sentiment in the United States. The Federalists, on the other hand, sought renewed commercial bonds with Britain and feared disruptive, entangling involvement with France. Madison bitterly opposed Jay's Treaty, feeling that it made the United States dependent on England and in fact tied America to the corrupt power-politics diplomacy of the Old World. He felt that the ideal republican as well as the realistic path for the new nation was to use world dependence on its trade, and its rapidly growing intrinsic strength, to establish both its national independence and the beginnings of a new, more human system of international relations.
With the final ratification of Jay's Treaty (April 1796), however, Madison felt that a commercial junta that cared very little for the republican character of the nation had gained control. His political discouragement as he retired from Congress in 1797 was balanced by the private joy of having married a charming, vivacious widow, Dolley Payne Todd, in 1794.
The bellicose attitude toward France of President John Adams' administration alarmed Madison. The XYZ Affair brought the United States and France close to war. During the subsequent turmoil in the United States, the administration won passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Madison believed severely threatened free government. In protest he drafted the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and a report defending them in 1800. These papers stated most fully Madison's concern to protect states' rights, but he advocated neither nullification nor secession, as John C. Calhoun and others later asserted. Rather, the resolutions and report represent an important chapter in an evolving constitutional doctrine to defend civil liberties against encroachments by the federal government.
Often, Madison pointed out, it was "to the press alone, chequered as it was with abuses, that the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression." He insisted further that the existence of the Sedition Act at election time, proscribing "false, scandalous and malicious writing" against the officers of government, made the ballot unfair and unfree because the people "will be compelled to make their election between competitors whose pretentions they are not permitted equally to examine, to discuss, and to ascertain." Madison worked persistently and profoundly to think through and act out the meaning of freedom under law and of government by consent.
Secretary of State. During the last of four years spent in Virginia attending to his plantation, enlarging his house, and sitting in the Virginia legislature, Madison worked hard to secure Jefferson's election as president in 1800. Appointed secretary of state in 1801, he and the president and Albert Gallatin, the new secretary of the treasury, made up the Republican triumvirate that guided the nation for eight years. Madison adroitly took advantage of Napoleon's setback in the West Indies to guide negotiations to purchase Louisiana in 1803. He also insisted on American ownership of the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Florida, and he supported suppression of the Barbary pirates by American naval squadrons (1803 1805).
The renewed war between France and Britain, however, became the major crisis, as both powers inflicted heavy damage on American shipping. Britain also engaged in the outrageous impressment of American sailors. "That an officer from a foreign ship should pronounce any person he pleased, on board an American ship on the high seas, not to be an American citizen, but a British subject, and carry his interested decision on the most important of all questions to a free-man into execution on the spot," Madison declared, "is anomalous in principle, grievous in practice, and abominable in abuse."
Finding appeals to international law useless, and lacking power to protect American trade, Madison promoted the Embargo Act (1807), which barred all exports to Europe, a further effort to apply his cherished principle that the United States could protect its rights by commercial policy rather than by resort to war. However, the belligerents were able to replace American trade, and Americans resorted to smuggling and other evasions. The embargo, therefore, had no real force. Consequently, Madison accepted its repeal at the end of Jefferson's administration.
President
Madison's easy election as president in 1808 continued the "Virginia dynasty," though fury over the embargo in New England lost Madison the electoral votes of that region. Madison also had to overcome opposition that favored his friend James Monroe, further foreshadowing political difficulties for his administration. The united devotion of the Republican party to Jefferson, the source of his ability to lead effectively without seeming to violate republican fidelity to legislative supremacy, dissolved under Madison's less charismatic management.
To placate opposition within his party, he appointed ill-qualified secretaries in the War and Navy departments, and a disloyal one in the State Department. Republican opposition in Congress, together with Federalist hostility centering in New England, again and again thwarted administration policies. Only Gallatin's skillful guardianship of the Treasury Department and Madison's own prestige as "father" of both the Constitution and the Republican party prevented total chaos.
This political weakness was especially debilitating and dangerous when Madison sought, following the failure of the embargo, to find other paths to peace with honor as the Napoleonic Wars reached their climax. Unfortunately the belligerents paid little heed to neutral rights or to commercial retaliation, nor did they see any need to respect a distant republic that was both disunited and virtually unarmed. Madison's devotion to republican doctrine prevented him from either grasping emergency powers or building a formidable army and navy in peacetime. Thus neither his diplomacy, lurching from one ineffective commercial policy to another for three years, nor his rhetoric deterred the escalating depredations of France and England.
The War of 1812. Finally, in November 1811, with the support of newly elected "War Hawks" who asserted a mastery over Congress, Madison decided that the nation should move toward war with Britain unless the arrogant and injurious assaults on American ships and seamen were ended. With some defense measures finally pushed through Congress, and no sign of conciliation from England, Madison asked for and received a declaration of war in June 1812. He was at the same time assured of reelection as president over a coalition of dissident Republicans and New England Federalists led by DeWitt Clinton of New York.
Throughout the war, Madison struggled with factions within his own party and a determined opposition in New England that, excited by both preachers and politicians, reached proportions the president regarded as near treasonous. Nevertheless he refused to establish martial law in the region or even seriously restrict civil liberties.
On the battlefield, Madison hoped that American zeal and the vulnerability of Canada would lead to a swift victory. However, the surrender of one American army at Detroit, the defeat of another on the Niagara River frontier, and the disgraceful retreat of yet another before Montreal blasted these hopes. Prospects improved, however, with victories at sea, including the conquest of the Guerrière by the USS Constitution, the 1813 defeat of the British on Lake Erie ("We have met the enemy and they are ours," Commodore Perry reported), and Gen. William Henry Harrison's triumph on the Thames River.
Yet, the chaos in American finance, Napoleon's debacles in Europe, and another fruitless military campaign in New York state left Madison disheartened. His enemies gloated over his nearly fatal illness in June 1813. Attorney General Richard Rush wrote John Adams that the nation "seems to fight for nothing but disaster and defeat; and, I dread to add disgrace. I am sick at heart at the view of our public affairs.""Have we, Sir," Rush asked the old patriot who was a firm supporter of Madison during the war, "ever seen worse times, and survived them?"
The summer of 1814 brought to America thousands of battle-hardened British troops. They fought vastly improved American armies to a standstill on the Niagara frontier and appeared in Chesapeake Bay intent on capturing Washington. Madison unwisely entrusted defense of the city to a petulant, insubordinate secretary of war, John Armstrong, and to a blundering general, William H. Winder. A small but well-disciplined British force defeated the disorganized Americans at Bladensburg as Madison watched from a nearby hillside. His humiliation was complete when he saw flames of the burning Capitol and White House while fleeing across the Potomac River. Dolley Madison, after removing Gilbert Stuart's full-length portrait of Washington from its frame and loading it on a wagon with a few other precious items, also fled the capital but failed to find her husband in 48 hours of confused movements in Virginia and Maryland.
However, when Madison returned to Washington after three days, he was soon cheered by word of the British defeat in Baltimore Harbor, the battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to the national anthem. News also arrived that U.S. forces had repulsed a powerful British army coming down Lake Champlain.
When the Duke of Wellington and other British leaders learned, in late October, of the setbacks, they decided that the American war was not worth the strenuous efforts necessary for victory. They would seek peace. But Madison did not know this, and with a powerful British force menacing New Orleans, he had to prepare his disordered and disunited nation for more war. Sectional strains grew as Federalist leaders denounced the war at the Hartford Convention.
Madison dismissed Armstrong from the War Department and appointed a new secretary of the treasury, Alexander J. Dallas, who managed to partially restore American credit. Madison also hoped that his peace commission in Ghent might now secure respectable terms from Britain. On Christmas Eve, 1814, with both sides tired of war, a peace treaty was signed restoring the pre-war boundaries and ensuring American national independence. Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815, achieved on the battlefield what the treaty makers recognized at Ghent: Britain had lost any remaining hope of dominating its former colonies or of blocking United States expansion into the Mississippi Valley. In early February 1815 the news of both Jackson's victory and the peace treaty reached an anxious capital city and sent it into joyous celebrations. The French minister, who had been close to Madison throughout the war, observed that "three years of warfare have been a trial of the capacity of [American] institutions to sustain a state of war, a question now resolved in their advantage. Finally the war has given the Americans what they substantially lacked, a national character founded on a glory common to all."
Domestic Program. With threats of disunion ended, the path opened for westward expansion, and the nation and its institutions vindicated, Madison's last two years as president were triumphant. Responding to the nationalist mood, he proposed a wide-ranging domestic program in 1815. To guide and stimulate the economy, he recommended a recharter of the National Bank, a moderate tariff to protect "infant" industries, and federal support for roads and canals that would "bind more closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy." He also recommended establishment of a national university and defense measures strong enough to deter potential enemies.
Though in urging a variety of measures "best executed under the national authority" Madison cast aside republican dogma about weak government, he still opposed internal improvement schemes except under a constitutional amendment. He was willing to let a free people use their representative institutions to fulfill national objectives as long as fidelity to limited government under the Constitution was maintained. The public registered its approval of his "national republicanism" as it acclaimed him on his retirement and elected his "heir apparent," James Monroe, overwhelmingly to the presidency.
Retirement
Happily retired to his Virginia farm, Madison practiced scientific agriculture, helped Jefferson found the University of Virginia, advised Monroe on foreign policy, arranged his papers for posthumous publication, and maintained a wide correspondence. He returned officially to public life only to take part in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829, where he sought both to diminish the power of Tidewater slave owners and to extend the franchise. His compromise efforts fell before pressure from proslavery forces. Madison wrote in support of a mildly protective tariff, the National Bank, and, most important, the power of the union against nullification. He stoutly denied that he had advocated nullification in the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. His whole career and most profound political thought rested on securing for the United States the benefits of union.
Madison's health slowly declined, forcing him more and more to be a silent observer. He died on June 28, 1836, the last survivor of the founders of the American Republic.
Ralph Ketcham
Syracuse University
Bibliography
Madison's writings up to 1801 are collected in the 17-vol. Congressional Series of Papers of James Madison, ed. by William Hutchinson et al. (vols. 1 10, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962 1977; vols. 11 17, Univ. of Va. Press, 1977 1991). In progress from the Univ. of Va. Press are a 16-vol. Secretary of State Series (1801 1809), ed. by Robert J. Brugger et al. (1986 ); a 12-vol. Presidential Series (1809 1817), ed. by Robert A. Rutland et al. (1984 ); and a Retirement Series (1817 1836). When complete, this monumental edition will supersede the Writings of James Madison, ed. by Gaillard Hunt in 9 vols. (Putnam 1900 1910). Selected editions include The Complete Madison: His Basic Writings, ed. by Saul K. Padover (1953; reprint, Easton Press 1988), and Writings, ed. by Jack N. Rakove (Lib. of Am. 1999). Themed collections include James Madison: A Biography in His Own Words, ed. by Merrill D. Peterson (Newsweek 1974); The Mind of the Founder: Sources of the Political Thought of James Madison, rev. ed., ed. by Marvin Meyers (Univ. Press of New England 1981); and James Madison on Religious Liberty, ed. by Robert S. Alley (Prometheus Bks. 1985). James Morton Smith edited The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776 1826, in 3 vols. (Norton 1995).
Banning, Lance, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic (Cornell Univ. Press 1995).
Banning, Lance, Jefferson and Madison: Three Conversations from the Founding (Madison House 1995).
Elliot, Ian, ed., James Madison, 1751 1836: Chronology, Documents, Bibliographical Aids (Oceana Pubns. 1969).
Goldwin, Robert A., From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constitution (AEI Press 1997).
Ketcham, Ralph, James Madison, A Biography (1971; reprint, Univ. Press of Va. 1990).
Koch, Adrienne, Jefferson and Madison (1950; reprint, Palladium Press 2000).
Leibiger, Stuart E., Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Univ. Press of Va. 1999).
Matthews, Richard K., If Men Were Angels: James Madison and the Heartless Empire of Reason (Univ. Press of Kans. 1995).
McCoy, Drew R., The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (Cambridge 1989).
Morris, Richard B., Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution (Holt 1985).
Rakove, Jack N., James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, ed. by Oscar Handlin (1990; reprint, Longman 2002).
Read, James H., Power versus Liberty: Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Jefferson (Univ. Press of Va. 2000).
Rosen, Gary, American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding (Univ. Press of Kans. 1999).
Rutland, Robert A., The Presidency of James Madison (Univ. Press of Kans. 1990).
Rutland, Robert A., ed., James Madison and the American Nation: An Encyclopedia (Simon & Schuster 1994).
Rutland, Robert A., James Madison: The Founding Father (1987; reprint, Univ. of Mo. Press 1997).
Sheldon, Garrett W., The Political Philosophy of James Madison (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press 2001).
Sheldon, Garrett W., and Daniel L. Dreisbach, eds., Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson's Virginia (Rowman & Littlefield 2000).
Stagg, John C. A., Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic (Princeton Univ. Press 1983).
Wills, Garry, James Madison, gen. ed., Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Times Bks. 2002) [a volume in the American Presidents series].

http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/jmadison.html

James Madison
4th President of the United States
(March 4, 1809 to March 3, 1817)
Nicknames: "Father of the Constitution"
Born: March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia
Died: June 28, 1836, at Montpelier, Virginia
Father: James Madison
Mother: Nelly Conway Madison
Married: Dolley Payne Todd (1768-1849), on September 15, 1794
Children: None
Religion: Episcopalian
Education: Graduated from College of New Jersey (now Princeton University; 1771)
Occupation: Lawyer
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Other Government Positions:
• Member of Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1776
• Member of Continental Congress, 1780-83
• Member of Virginia Legislature, 1784-86
• Member of Constitutional Convention, 1787
• Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-97
• Secretary of State, 1801-09 (under Jefferson)
Presidential Salary: $25,000/year
Presidential Election Results:
Year Electoral Votes
1808
James Madison
Charles C. Pinckney
George Clinton
(Votes Not Cast) 122
47
6
1

1812
James Madison
DeWitt Clinton
(Votes Not Cast) 128
89
1

Vice Presidents: George Clinton (1809-12); Elbridge Gerry (1813-14)
Cabinet:
Secretary of State
Robert Smith (1809-11)
James Monroe (1811-17)
Secretary of the Treasury
Albert Gallatin (1809-14)
George W. Campbell (1814)
Alexander J. Dallas (1814-16)
William H. Crawford (1816-17)
Secretary of War
William Eustis (1809-12)
John Armstrong (1813-14)
James Monroe (1814-15)
William H. Crawford (1815-16)
Attorney General
Caesar A. Rodney (1809-11)
William Pinkney (1812-14)
Richard Rush (1814-17)
Secretary of the Navy
Paul Hamilton (1809-12)
William Jones (1813-14)
Benjamin W. Crowninshield (1815-17)
Notable Events:
1811
• Madison allows 20-year charter of Bank of the United States to lapse.
•
Willaim Henry Harrison fought Indians led by Chief Tecumseh at Tippecanoe, near Indianapolis, November 7.
1812
• War declared on England on June 18 after England continued to attack U.S. ships headed to France.
• Madison reelected.
1814
• City of Washington captured and burned by British, August 24.
• Francis Scott Key observed flag over Fort McHenry at Baltimore, September 14, inspiring him to write "The Star-Spangled Banner".
• Treaty of Ghent ended War of 1812 on December 24, but fighting continued.
1815
• Andrew Jackson defeated British at New Orleans January 8, after war ended.
1816
• Second Bank of the United States chartered, April 10.
Internet Biographies:
James Madison -- from The Presidents of the United States of America
Compiled by the White House.
James Madison -- from The American Presidency
Grolier Online has created this resource from its collection of print articles in Encyclopedia Americana. Contains a full biography, written by Ralph Ketcham of Syracuse University, along with suggestions for further reading.
James Madison -- from The American President
From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in addition to information on the Presidents themselves, they have first lady and cabinet member biographies, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration.
A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison -- by Paul Jennings
Observations from one of Madison's slaves.
James Madison -- from Heritage by LeftJustified
Biography focusing on Madison's contribution to the Constitution of the United States.
James Madison and Slavery -- by Kenneth M. Clark
Extensive paper with bibliography.
Historical Documents:
First Inaugural Address (1809)
Second Inaugural Address (1813)
Memorial and Remonstrance (1785)
The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 reported by James Madison (1787)
Constitution of the United States (1787)
Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
Other Internet Resources:
James Madison Building
Inscriptions and quotations in the James Madison Building of the Library of Congress.
James Madison Museum
Facts, tourist information, and an online bookstore.
Montpelier
Hours and brief description.
Points of Interest:
• Madison was the first president who had prior service as a congressman.
• Zachary Taylor and Madison were second cousins.
• Madison was the first president to wear long trousers. All previous presidents wore knee breeches.
• During the War of 1812 Madison was under enemy fire. He was the first president to be in that situation.
• At 5 feet, 4 inches and less than 100 pounds, he was the shortest and lightest president.
• Dolley Madison sent the first personal message using the Morse telegraph in 1844.

http://www.montpelier.org/history/james.cfm
Childhood & Education
James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia on March 16, 1751. The oldest child in a family of twelve, James Madison grew up on his father's plantation, Montpelier, in Orange County, Virginia. James Madison went to his first school in 1762, run by a Presbyterian minister named Donald Robertson. The school, located in King and Queen County, was so far from home that he lived there until the age of 16. James returned to Montpelier and continued his education for the next two years with his tutor Thomas Martin. In August of 1769 James began college at the College of New Jersey.
Early Public Life
Madison began his forty-one year political career in December of 1774, when he was appointed to the Orange County Committee of Safety. In 1776 Madison was elected to the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg. This committee drafted Virginia's first state constitution. Over the years, Madison served as a delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates, was elected to the Second Continental Congress, and served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In the spring of 1787 James Madison traveled to Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. Madison's dedication and hard work during the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution earned him the title of "Father of the Constitution" at the age of 36.
Marriage
In the spring of 1794 James was introduced to the Quaker widow Dolley Payne Todd. The summer courtship of James and Dolley was brief and the couple married at Dolley's sister's home on September 15, 1794. James and Dolley were married for 41 years and never had children of their own. Dolley's first marriage had produced 2 children. Dolley's son John Payne Todd was raised as James Madison's son.
The Washington Years
In March of 1801 Madison was appointed Secretary of State under long-time friend and neighbor Thomas Jefferson. James and Dolley left Montpelier to live in Washington for the next 16 years. Madison served two terms as Secretary of State in the Jefferson administration, and then was elected as fourth President of the United States in 1808. During Madison's administration war with Great Britain broke out in 1812. In 1814 British soldiers burned the White House, and the president and first lady made a narrow escape.
Retirement and Death
In 1817 James Madison's second term as president came to an end and he and Dolley retired to Montpelier. In retirement Madison stayed active and interested in politics. In 1819 Madison founded the American Colonization Society dedicated to freeing slaves and transporting them to the West Coast of Africa. Madison served on the board of visitors at the University of Virginia. Madison briefly came out of retirement at the age of 79 to attend the 1829 Virginia Constitutional Convention.

http://www.montpelier.org/history/madisons.cfm

The Madison Family

Montpelier was the lifelong home of James Madison, Jr. "Father of the Constitution," sponsor of the Bill of Rights, and fourth President. But Montpelier also was home to three generations of Madisons—from 1723, when Ambrose Madison, the President's grandfather was deeded the land, until 1844 when the widowed Dolley Madison sold the estate. Like so many others who first came to the Piedmont, the Madison family hailed from the long-settled Tidewater of Virginia. John Madison had immigrated to Virginia in 1653, his grandson Ambrose was a well-established, well-connected member of the gentry class. He held several significant public offices, married very well, and owned thousands of acres in both the Tidewater and Piedmont.

In 1723, Ambrose Madison and brother-in-law Thomas Chew patented 4,675 acres in the newly opened Piedmont of Virginia. In order to receive final title to a land patent, the owner had three years to make certain improvements to the property. Such improvements included erecting a house and clearing land. At the end of three years there would be an inspection and certification by neighbors. When his land was viewed in 1726, the record shows that Ambrose was one of the wealthiest men in the Virginia Piedmont.

It was not until 1732, that Ambrose and his wife, Frances Taylor Madison, along with their three children, moved to the Montpelier estate then called Mount Pleasant. Less than six months later, Ambrose was dead. Sometime in early summer, probably in June or early July, Ambrose fell ill, apparently the victim of poisoning. As historian Ann L. Miller has written, the poison "did not kill him outright but rather caused sufficient damage to his system to condemn him to a slow death over several months." As Ambrose lingered near death, three slaves were arrested and charged with "conspiring" his death. On August 27, Ambrose died—apparently the first murder victim in the region—leaving his wife Frances to run the Mount Pleasant plantation. The three slaves were convicted of his murder.

Frances then ran the plantation with notable success, and continued to co-manage it along with their only son, James Madison, once he came of age in 1741. In 1749, Col. Madison, as he would be known, married Nelly Conway and in 1751 she gave birth to the first of their 12 children, James Madison, Jr., at her mother's home in Port Conway, Virginia. A few months later young James was brought home to Mount Pleasant, and there he spent the first nine years of his life. It was there that his grandmother Frances began the education of the future President.

Around 1760, for reasons yet unknown, Col. Madison built a new plantation complex, including a new house, about half a mile southeast of Mount Pleasant. It is possible that James and Nelly, who had been living with his mother, needed more space since by 1760 the family included four children. When the new house was finished, it was the most elaborate structure in the county. The precise date of construction is unknown, but in writing his memoirs, James, Jr. recollected that he helped move lighter pieces of furniture to the new house when he was nine years old.

Col. Madison was a man of great talent and enterprise. He not only ran a prosperous farm, but also established several businesses, including a distillery, a contracting business and an ironworks. He, like his father, was a prominent public figure, serving as a vestryman, a justice of the Orange County Court, a road surveyor and a colonel in the militia.

Education and books clearly played an important role in the Madison family. When Ambrose died, his 1733 inventory lists 18 books: a "Great Bible," five prayer books and twelve "other books." This is an unusual number for a "frontier" plantation. As witnessed by tutoring her grandson, Frances Taylor Madison was also educated, and later, when her son was acting as a merchant, he ordered books for her including several volumes of the London magazines, the Tatler and the Spectator, religious books such as Stanhope's Epistles and Brevint on Sacrament, and a medical book, Quincey's Dispensatory.

Madison, Sr. established a library, most likely founded on his father's and later augmented by his mother's. By the time of his death in 1801, the library numbered 91 volumes and sets. Although the lack of titles in the inventory makes it difficult to tell, it is likely that the "1 Large old Bible" and "3 Common Prayer" books were Ambrose's. In the case of his mother, the aforementioned Brevint and Quincey appear in James's inventory. His collection covered a range of topics including law, medicine, history, theology, agriculture and miscellaneous works such as Athenian Sports and Clark's Farriery.

It wasn't until 1801, at the age of 50, that James Madison, Jr., inherited Montpelier, and it wasn't until 1817 that he and Dolley returned there full time. Despite this long delay in inheriting, there was apparently no friction between his father and he, and indeed surviving correspondence implies a cordial and respectful relationship.

Less is known about how he related to his mother, who lived until 1829, (age 98), but again, there is no hint of friction between them. She always lived at Montpelier and in later years kept her own household, including her own staff, kitchen, and garden.

http://www.jmu.edu/madison/center/main_pages/madison_archives/quotes/great/constitution.htm

[The Constitution of the United States] was not, like the fable Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.
Letter to Revd William Cogswell, March 10, 1834 (Madison, 1865, IV, pages 341-342)

I think myself that it will be expedient…to lay the foundation of the new system in such a ratification by the people themselves of the several States as will render it clearly paramount to their Legislative authorities.
Letter to Thomas Jefferson, March 19, 1787 (Madison, 1865, I, page 285)

To give the new system its proper validity and energy, a ratification must be obtained from the people, and not merely from the ordinary authority of the Legislatures.
Letter to George Washington, April 16, 1787 (Madison, 1865, I, page 290)

http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=70
James Madison and Religion in Public

by David Barton
In recent days, Michael Newdow - infamous for his successful initiation of the ruling striking down “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance - has broadened his efforts and has filed suit against the use of chaplains in the U. S. House and Senate. In his public appearances defending this newest pursuit, Newdow cites James Madison’s quotes from his “Detached Memoranda” as his authority in opposing chaplains. Did Madison actually oppose chaplains in Congress? Yes, and no.
Madison’s religious views and activities are numerous, as are his writings on religion. They are at times self-contradictory, and his statements about religion are such that opposing positions can each invoke Madison as its authority. An understanding of Madison’s religious views is complicated by the fact that his early actions were at direct variance with his later opinions. Consider six examples of his early actions.
First, Madison was publicly outspoken about his personal Christian beliefs and convictions. For example, he encouraged his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:
[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.[1]
Madison even desired that all public officials - including Bradford - would declare openly and publicly their Christian beliefs and testimony:
I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way. [2]
Second, Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:
It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other. [3] (emphasis added)
Third, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities. His proposal declared:
The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established. [4] (emphasis added)
(Madison reemphasized that position throughout the debates. [5])
Fourth, in 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains. [6]
Fifth, in 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible. [7]
Sixth, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving. [8]
These were the early actions of Madison. In later life Madison retreated from many of these positions, even declaring in his “Detached Memoranda” his belief that having paid chaplains and issuing presidential prayer proclamations were unconstitutional. Recent Courts have made a point of citing Madison’s “Detached Memoranda” in arguing against public religious expressions. [9]
Significantly, the “Detached Memoranda” was “discovered” in 1946 in the papers of Madison biographer William Cabell Rives and was first published more than a century after Madison’s death by Elizabeth Fleet in the October 1946 WILLIAM & MARY QUARTERLY. In that work, Madison expressed his opposition to many of his own earlier beliefs and practices and set forth a new set of beliefs formerly unknown even to his closest friends. Since Madison never made public or shared with his peers his sentiments found in the “Detached Memoranda,” and since his own public actions were at direct variance with this later writing, it is difficult to argue that it reflects the Founders’ intent toward religion.

http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0256600-00&templatename=/article/article.html
Madison, Dolley
Madison, Dolley (1768-1849), wife of President James Madison. She was born Dolley Payne, in Guilford county, N.C., on May 20, 1768. Her family moved to Virginia when she was an infant, and she spent the first 15 years of her life there. In 1783 her Quaker parents moved to Philadelphia, where, in 1790, she married Quaker lawyer John Todd, Jr. They had two children: one died in 1793 during the same yellow-fever epidemic that took her husband's life; the other was John Payne Todd.
She married Congressman James Madison, 17 years her senior, on Sept. 15, 1794. The marriage, though childless, was apparently a very happy one. Dolley Madison first served as "unofficial first lady" during the rather spartan presidency of Thomas Jefferson, a widower. During her husband's presidency (1809 1817), she became the unquestioned center of Washington society. She was best known for her Wednesday evening receptions, where politicians, diplomats, and the general public gathered. These gatherings helped to soothe some of the tensions between Federalists and Republicans in a time of intense party rivalries. Her correspondence indicates, moreover, that not only was she an effective counterbalance to her husband's rather colorless public personality, but her influence on Madison's political decisions was not insignificant.
The Madisons retired to Virginia in 1817 and continued to entertain lavishly and support the profligate habits of Dolley's son. After her husband's death in 1836, Dolley Madison returned to Washington, where her house again became a center of social life. She made her last public appearance at a ball for President Polk in 1848. She died in Washington on July 12, 1849.

~Corbs