James Madison: Virginia Resolutions

About the Author

Although James Madison served two terms as president of the United States, he is historically better known for his role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, for drafting the Bill of Rights, and for helping to form and lead the Democratic-Republican Party. Born in Port Conway, Virginia, in 1751, James Madison, Jr., was the eldest of twelve children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. His parents were James Madison, Sr., and Eleanor Rose Conway, prominent slaveholding landowners in Orange County, where Madison, Sr., was a justice of the peace.

In his early teens, Madison was tutored at a nearby plantation by Donald Robertson, from Scotland, and then by Thomas Martin, a local clergyman. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and studied under President John Witherspoon, also from Scotland, who distinguished himself as the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Madison returned to Virginia after his college studies and was shocked to find that the nearby city of Culpeper had imprisoned Baptist ministers for their beliefs. He soon became caught up in the calls for revolution against Great Britain, and he was appointed to the committee that George Mason headed to draw up the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Madison insisted that a moderate proposal for toleration of religion be strengthened so as to provide for its “free exercise,” language later reflected in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Madison was elected to the Continental Congress and later to the Virginia legislature. His experiences in both bodies convinced him that the nation needed a stronger national government that would be able to resist inflationary and other schemes that states were promoting to gain popular favor. Madison was a key figure in the Annapolis convention of September 1786, which issued the call for a constitutional convention. In Philadelphia, at the Constitutional Convention, he exercised major influence in the development of the Virginia Plan, which opened the convention's proceedings. Rather than simple revision of the existing Articles of Confederation, the plan proposed an entirely new form of government, with a bicameral congress to replace the unicameral one and with three independent branches of the national government instead of one. Madison also proposed granting Congress a veto over state legislation. In addition to being one of the most prominent debaters during the Constitutional Convention, Madison served as a self-appointed secretary. Although his notes were not published until after his death, they remain the best single source for information about the convention's proceedings.

At the end of the Philadelphia convention, Madison actively worked for the adoption of the Constitution. Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, he authored The Federalist, a series of eighty-five essays published originally in New York newspapers and subsequently in book form. He also led efforts for ratification in Virginia, where his reasoned arguments eventually overcame the more bombastic opposition of Patrick Henry. Initially tepid toward a bill of rights, Madison eventually agreed to work for such an addition after the U.S. Constitution was ratified. He led this fight as a member of the new House of Representatives in the nation's first Congress.

Although he had advocated a stronger national government at the Philadelphia convention, Madison became convinced that Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, of George Washington's administration, was seeking a central government that was too strong. Madison thus opposed Hamilton's proposals for establishing a national bank and for broad executive powers. In time, Madison joined his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson in forming the Democratic-Republican Party. When the Federalists adopted the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, Madison authored the Virginia Resolutions, opposing the laws both on the ground of states' rights and because they violated the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and press. When Jefferson was elected president, he chose Madison as his secretary of state. During his service, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France and imposed an embargo on shipping to Britain.

Madison was elected to succeed Jefferson, and he served two terms. During this time, the United States engaged in a war with Great Britain—the War of 1812—that resulted in a surge of nationalism. Madison prided himself on waging the war without imposing the restraints on speech that Adams had imposed during the nation's earlier Quasi War with France. Overall, Madison was a far weaker president than Jefferson, even though Madison's wife, Dolley, helped to smooth personal conflicts that partisanship often stirred.

Madison retired to his estate, Montpelier, in Virginia after being succeeded by James Monroe, who had served as his secretary of state. He served on the University of Virginia's board of visitors; took part in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1830; and warned, in posthumously circulated advice, of the increasing dangers of disunion.