President James Madison (JAMES
SR.5, AMBROSE4, SHERIFF JOHN JR.3, JOHN SR.2, ISAAC1 MADDESON) was born March
16, 1750/51 in King George County, VA, and died June 28, 1836 in Montpelier,
VA. He married DOLLEY PAYNE TODD September 1794, daughter of JOHN PAYNE
and MARY COLES. She was born May 20, 1768 in Guilford Co, NC, and died July 12,
1849 in Wahington, D.C.
James Madison was my second cousin, 8 times removed.
Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution.
He was the fourth president of the United States, 1809-1816
Quotes
"The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."
"Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrants."
"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty"
"The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." - The Federalist, No. 46
"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country...." - Annals of Congress 434 [June 8, 1789]
"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. "
Biography
Growing up on Montpelier, 30 miles from Monticello, his father's talk of resisting the Stamp Act of 1765 may have started young Madison thinking about revolution.
Attended College of New Jersey (now Princeton), 1769. He took active part in the American Whig Society, a student club that stood for resistance to British rule. In a little over two years he completed the four-year course in 1771.
Although considering a career in the ministry, in 1774 he became a member of the Orange County Committee for Public Safety, his first public office. In 1776 Madison was a member of the Virginia Convention, a group which turned the colony into a state. He helped draft the state constitution and the Virginia Bill of Rights. He then served in the Virginia House of Delegates, but was not re-elected. He was defeated by a tavern keeper who alledgedly bought votes with free drinks. This experience of corruption led to Madison's lifelong rejection of pure democracy.
The following year he was appointed to the Privy Council, or Council of State, the governor's official cabinet. He worked closely with Jefferson and Patrick Henry for the independence of the new state. Here began his lifelong friendship with Jefferson.
In 1779 he was elected to the Continental Congress, quickly becoming a leader there. He opposed the issue of paper money by individual states; he fought for the right of Congress to tax imports; he supported alliance with France which Ben Franklin fostered; and he battled to keep the nation's right to sail on the Mississippi. He worked hard to strengthen the feeble powers of the central government.
After his term in the Continental Congress, Madison was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, 1784. At the Alexandria Conference, a meeting of representatives from PA, MD, DE and VA he proposed the Annapolis Convention of 1786 to ammend the Articles of Confederation. At that convention, Madison and Hamilton proposed a convention of all the states to revise the Articles of Confederation, this became the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
The convention met in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. Within a week it was clear that a Constitution would be written to replace the Articles. Madison presented his Virginia Plan of union and defended it through heated sessions. Madison also came equipped with a notebook of his analyses of all of history's republics. The Virginia Plan finally became the basis for the Constitution, which turned out to be a bundle of compromises of the various plans presented. Madison participated in debates more often than any other delegate. Madison is said to have guided the flow of discussion and kept progress going at the convention. He is known as the "Father of the Constitution".
Madison persuaded the other Virginia delegates to stand by the Constitution during its adoption by the convention. On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constiturion was signed by 39 members. It now went to the individual states for ratification.
To meet objections raised all over the country, he joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing 'The Federalist', a series of 85 papers explaining the Constitution. (Madison wrote 29 of the 85.) With John Marshall and George Washington, Madison fought for ratification of the Constitution in the Virginia convention which was done on June 25, 1788.
Madison was elected to the House of Representatives 1789-1797. He served during the eight years of George Washington's administration. Jefferson urged Madison that a bill of rights needed to be added to the Constitution and the common people also called for one. Madison then drafted 12 such articles. The articles were modeled after the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason, as was the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. In 1791, ten of the twelve articles were ratified by the states, becoming the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the.Bill of Rights.
Madison had entered office as a supporter of Federalism, Alexander Hamilton's policy of a strong central government, but soon swung over to the anti-Federalist side. In 1791, breaking with the Washington administration he formed the Democratic-Republican Party with Jefferson and Monroe. He led the work of forming the Departments of State, Treasury, and War.
In 1794 Madison met a young widow, Dolley Payne Todd. They were soon married and "Dolly" Madison took a leading place in Washington society. They had no children, but Dolly had a son, Payne Todd, by her first marriage.
In 1798, Madison authored the Virginia Resolutions in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Like Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions these were a assertion of State's rights and individuals rights. In 1799 he was a Va. state legislator.
Madison was appointed Secretary of State in 1801 by his old friend President Thomas Jefferson. He held this office for the eight years of Jefferson's presidency (1801-09), and they worked closely together.
Their great joint achievement was the Louisiana Purchase. For 15 million dollars they doubled the size of the U.S. by peaceful purchase. The Barbary pirates of North Africa were put down by swift, decisive naval action.
Madison was elected President in 1808 to succeed Jefferson, with George Clinton of New York as vice-president. . Jefferson's Embargo Act had been repealed as he left office. In its place Congress passed an act agreeing to resume trade with both Britain and France, then at war. The act further stated that if one nation agreed to respect American shipping, the United States would cease trade with the other. Emperor Napoleon agreed, the U.S. stopped trade with Britain, but France continued to violate its agreement.
The British continued to attack American shipping and to impress American sailors. There were also threats of Indian wars in the Northwest. American westerners, with Henry Clay as their spokesman in Congress, were eager to fight. Madison finally recommended war with Britain. On June 18, 1812, Congress voted to make war . Madison was reelected in 1812. Elbridge Gerry, former governor of Massachusetts, was vice-president.
At one time the British actually invaded Washington, D.C., burning the Capitol and the White House. The Madisons fled the White House when this occurred. Peace was finally made through the Treaty of Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814. About the same time the New England Federalists met secretly in the Hartford Convention. They were suspected of plotting New England's secession from the Union. With peace declared, the charge of disloyalty caused the death of the Federalist party.
Madison's Democratic-Republican party favored states' rights and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Despite its stand, however, a new nationalism began to develop. This was shown in the new protective tariff law and in the charter of the second Bank of the United States, both passed in 1816. Louisiana was admitted as a state in 1812, and Indiana in 1816. Improved roads, new canals, and a better land allotment method helped develop the West. A series of Supreme Court decisions on constitutional law broadened national powers and limited those of the states. The "era of good feeling" was starting.
In 1817 Madison was succeeded by James Monroe. Madison retired to Montpelier
and ran his estate. He followed 
Thomas Jefferson as rector of the
University of Virginia.
He was President of the American Colonization Society. The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1817 to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the United States. In 1822, the society established on the west coast of Africa a colony that in 1847 became the independent nation of Liberia. By 1867, the society had sent more than 13,000 emigrants.
The last political activity in which he took part was as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. The resulting constitution was a disappointment for Madison as it lacked any of the protections for slaves that he sought.
He died in Montpelier on June 28, 1836. He was the last living signer of the Constitution.
The 27th amendment was ratified in 1992, 203 years after James Madison had introduced it. It restrains Congressional salaries by barring Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.
Madison was on the $5000 bill.
"Mr. Madison, I think, was one of the best men that ever lived. I
never saw him in a passion, and never knew him to strike a slave, although he
had over one hundred; neither would he allow an overseer to do it."
"He often told the story, that one day riding home from court with
old Tom Barbour (father of Governor Barbour), they met a colored man, who took
off his hat. Mr. M. raised his, to the surprise of old Tom; to whom Mr. M.
replied, "I never allow a Negro to excel me in politeness."
----Paul Jennings, a slave of James Madison
http://www.jmu.edu/madison/jenning.htm