James Madison: The Great Pragmatist

From the day he joined the Continental Congress in 1780 through his second term as the fourth President of the United States, James Madison was in the middle of everything. Many patriots contributed to the country’s success, but few, if any, did as much as James Madison. Historian Jay Cost explains.

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Script:

From the time he joined the Continental Congress in 1780 through his second term as the fourth President of the United States, James Madison was in the middle of… everything.

When it came to the Constitution, he understood it better than any single person—because nobody contributed more to its creation.

When it came to selling that document to the American people, he made the most persuasive arguments.

When ten amendments—the Bill of Rights—were needed to seal the deal, he wrote those, too.

Diminutive in stature—he was just over five feet tall—he was a giant in every other respect: as a writer, theorist, and, most importantly, political pragmatist. He was a deep thinker who got things done. And no one ever worked harder to get those things done.

James Madison was born in 1751 to a prosperous family in the Virginia Piedmont. Like his mentor, neighbor, and best friend Thomas Jefferson, he was well educated in the classics and spoke multiple languages. His home state sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780, at the age of 29. There, he saw first-hand how bad a national government could be: slow, corrupt, self-interested.

He resolved to do something about it.

He wasn’t alone. George Washington and others pushed for a new social compact, a document that would truly bind the divergent interests of the various States—no easy feat. Their efforts paid off in May 1787 when a new Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia.

Even though he was one of the younger delegates, Madison took a lead role, not because he was so ambitious, but because he was so knowledgeable. He attended every session, gave more speeches than anyone, took meticulous notes, and drafted the plan that the delegates used as the framework for the new Constitution.

Writing the document was hard enough; selling it to the American people would prove even harder. A group known as the Anti-Federalists began flooding the newspapers with anti-Constitution essays, warning that the plan would destroy liberty rather than save it.

Madison and New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton came to the Constitution’s defense in a series of essays known as the Federalist Papers. The two men were a dynamic duo. Hamilton did the lion’s share of the writing, but Madison’s submissions arguably had the most impact. He carefully explained the system of checks and balances that would define the new government.

The Federalists carried the day—just barely—and the Constitution was ratified.

Madison wasn’t yet 40… And still a bachelor.

That changed when he met Dolley Payne, a lively young widow seventeen years his junior. She transformed the solitary, workaholic Madison into one of the great dinner party hosts of the era. This proved invaluable to his political career.

After serving as Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of state and supervising the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from the French, doubling the size of the United States, Madison was the obvious choice to become the fourth President.

But there was trouble on the horizon. Great Britain, which had never fully reconciled itself to its defeat in the Revolutionary War, continued to harass the new nation at every turn. It seized American goods at sea and even forced American sailors to work for the Royal Navy.

By June 1812, Madison had had enough. He asked Congress to declare war against Great Britain for continued abuses of American rights. So began the War of 1812.

It was a disaster—one of the rare times Madison failed to think through an important policy decision. The United States simply wasn’t prepared for war, certainly not one against the mightiest power on earth.

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