1836
Former President James Madison Dies
On this day in 1836, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution,
recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the “Federalist Papers”
and fourth president of the United States, dies on his tobacco plantation in
Virginia.
Madison first distinguished himself as a student at the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he successfully completed a
four-year course of study in two years and, in 1769, helped found the American
Whig Society, the second literary and debate society at Princeton (and the
world), to rival the previously established Cliosophic Society.
Madison returned to Virginia with intellectual accolades but
poor health in 1771. By 1776, he was sufficiently recovered to serve for three
years in the legislature of the new state of Virginia, where he came to know
and admire Thomas Jefferson. In this capacity, he assisted with the drafting of
the Virginia Declaration of Religious Freedom and the critical decision for
Virginia to cede its western claims to the Continental Congress.
Madison is best remembered for his critical role in the
Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he presented the Virginia Plan to the
assembled delegates in Philadelphia and oversaw the difficult process of
negotiation and compromise that led to the drafting of the final Constitution.
Madison’s published “Notes on the Convention” are considered the most detailed
and accurate account of what occurred in the closed-session debates. (Madison
forbade the publishing of his notes until all the participants were deceased.)
After the Constitution was submitted to the people for ratification, Madison
collaborated with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton on “The Federalist Papers,” a
series of pamphlets that argued for the acceptance of the new government.
Madison penned the most famous of the pamphlets, “Federalist No. 10,” which
made an incisive argument for the ability of a large federation to preserve
individual rights.
In 1794, Madison married a young widow, Dolley Payne Todd, who
would prove to be Washington, D.C.’s finest hostess during Madison’s years as
secretary of state to the widowed Thomas Jefferson and then as the fourth
president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Dolley Madison earned a
special place in the nation’s memory for saving a portrait of George Washington
before fleeing the burning White House during the War of 1812.
The War of 1812 tested Madison’s presidency. The Federalists
staunchly opposed Madison’s declaration of war against the British and
threatened to secede from the Union during the Harford Convention. When the new
nation managed to muster a tenuous victory, the Federalist Party was destroyed
as America’s status as a nation apart from Britain was secured.
After retiring from official political positions, Madison served
Thomas Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia first as a member of the
board of visitors and then as rector. In 1938, the State Teachers College at
Harrisonburg, Virginia, was renamed in Madison’s honor as Madison College; in
1976, it became James Madison University.