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Giants of America

The Founding Fathers

[Illustration: James Madison]


JAMES MADISON

by

SYDNEY HOWARD GAY







[Illustration: _The Home of James Madison_]


ARLINGTON HOUSE _New Rochelle, N.Y._




CONTENTS

    CHAP.                                            PAGE

       I. THE VIRGINIA MADISONS                         1

      II. THE YOUNG STATESMAN                          15

     III. IN CONGRESS                                  28

      IV. IN THE STATE ASSEMBLY                        45

       V. IN THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE                  61

      VI. PUBLIC DISTURBANCES AND ANXIETIES            73

     VII. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION                84

    VIII. "THE COMPROMISES"                            94

      IX. ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION                110

       X. THE FIRST CONGRESS                          122

      XI. NATIONAL FINANCES--SLAVERY                  144

     XII. FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS                 164

    XIII. FRENCH POLITICS                             185

     XIV. HIS LATEST YEARS IN CONGRESS                207

      XV. AT HOME--"RESOLUTIONS OF '98 AND '99"       225

     XVI. SECRETARY OF STATE                          242

    XVII. THE EMBARGO                                 254

   XVIII. MADISON AS PRESIDENT                        272

     XIX. WAR WITH ENGLAND                            290

      XX. CONCLUSION                                  309

   INDEX                                              325




ILLUSTRATIONS

   JAMES MADISON                                          _Frontispiece_

   From the painting by Sully in the Corcoran Gallery of
   Art, Washington, D. C.

   Autograph from a MS. in the New York Public Library,
   Lenox Building.

   The vignette of "Montpelier," Madison's home at
   Montpelier, Va., is from a photograph.                           Page

   CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY                               _facing_ 98

   From the original painting by Gilbert Stuart in the possession
   of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D. D., LL. D.,
   Charleston, S. C.

   Autograph from a MS. in the New York Public Library,
   Lenox Building.

   FISHER AMES                                              _facing_ 162

   From the miniature painted by John Trumbull in 1792,
   now in the Art Gallery of Yale University.

   Autograph from the Chamberlain Collection, Boston
   Public Library.

   DOLLY P. MADISON                                         _facing_ 222

   From a miniature in the possession of Dr. H. M. Cutts,
   Brookline, Mass.

   Autograph from a letter kindly loaned by Dr. Cutts.

   BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE                                      _facing_ 310

   From the painting by W. H. Powell in the Capitol at
   Washington.




JAMES MADISON




CHAPTER I

THE VIRGINIA MADISONS


James Madison was born on March 16, 1751, at Port Conway, Virginia; he
died at Montpellier, in that State, on June 28, 1836. Mr. John Quincy
Adams, recalling, perhaps, the death of his own father and of Jefferson
on the same Fourth of July, and that of Monroe on a subsequent
anniversary of that day, may possibly have seen a generous propriety in
finding some equally appropriate commemoration for the death of another
Virginian President. For it was quite possible that Virginia might think
him capable of an attempt to conceal, what to her mind would seem to be
an obvious intention of Providence: that all the children of the "Mother
of Presidents" should be no less distinguished in their deaths than in
their lives--that the "other dynasty," which John Randolph was wont to
talk about, should no longer pretend to an equality with them, not
merely in this world, but in the manner of going out of it. At any
rate, he notes the date of Madison's death, the twenty-eighth day of
June, as "the anniversary of the day on which the ratification of the
Convention of Virginia in 1788 had affixed the seal of James Madison as
the father of the Constitution of the United States, when his earthly
part sank without a struggle into the grave, and a spirit, bright as the
seraphim that surround the throne of Omnipotence, ascended to the bosom
of his God." There can be no doubt of the deep sincerity of this
tribute, whatever question there may be of its grammatical construction
and its rhetoric, and although the date is erroneous. The ratification
of the Constitution of the