James Madison

James Madison
4th President of the United States
Term of office March 4, 1809 - March 4, 1817
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Vice Presidents	George Clinton (1809-1812) None (1812-1813) Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814) None (1814-1817)
Preceded by	Thomas Jefferson
Succeeded by	James Monroe
Born	March 16, 1751 Port Conway, Virginia
Died	June 28, 1836 Montpelier, Virginia
Spouse	Dolly Todd Madison
Religion	Episcopalian

James Madison was the 4th President of the United States of America, serving from 1809-1817. Madison took copious notes at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and, contrary to the promise of secrecy, did not destroy them as everyone else did. The records reflect that virtually every one of Madison's suggestions at the convention was rejected. Nevertheless, liberals like to call Madison the "Father of the Constitution," perhaps because Madison was more critical of religion in government than the other Founding Fathers.

Madison was born in March 16, 1751 on the estate of Blue Ridge in Virginia. He is responsible for writing and proposing the Virginia Plan which would later become part of the Constitution. He died June 28, 1836 in Montpelier, Virginia at age 86.

Views on Federalism and the Right to Bear Arms

Madison was a strong proponent of powerful local governments to prevent the usurpation of power by the new federal government. In the course of his explanation of that in the Federalist Papers, he described how essential the right to bear arms (later embodied in the Second Amendment) is to overall freedom from tyranny:

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it.

The War of 1812

Madison is considered to have been an inadequate President. He failed to resole diplomatically the continuing British seizure of American ships. Instead, he pushed for an unnecessary war, and the U.S. eventually invaded Canada (then still a British colony), in what became known as the War of 1812. That war saw the seizing of Detroit by Canada, and the burning of Washington, D.C. by the British. Madison's wife, Dolly, is famously remembered for saving a portrait of George Washington just before the British burned the White House. In hindsight, the War of 1812 is viewed as a needless mistake, but at the time the Federalist Party's opposition to the war (and to Madison's Democratic-Republican Party) led to the Federalists being viewed as "unpatriotic" and "anti-American," and the party disbanded soon after the next election year.

Madison on Religion and Government

Madison, along with his fellow Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, were less tolerant of religion in government than all the other Founding Fathers. George Washington, for instance, in his Farewell Address advocated the importance of having moral religious men in government.

In the 1780s, when the U.S. Constitution was drafted and ratified, Madison was a complete supporter of religion in government:

"Religion is the basis and Foundation of Government.... We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." June 20, 1785

Decades later, long after the Constitution was ratified and after Madison largely failed as a president, he wrote letters reflecting less of an embrace of religion. The letters may have been written with the opinions of the recipients in mind:

"The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity."

"Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom? In the strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the U. S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion. The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship for the national representatives, to be performed by Ministers of religion, elected by a majority of them; and these are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does not this involve the principle of a national establishment, applicable to a provision for a religious worship for the Constituent as well as of the representative Body, approved by the majority, and conducted by Ministers of religion paid by the entire nation?"

"In the papal system, Government and Religion are in a manner consolidated, and that is found to be the worst of Government."

Sources

• White House biography