James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751 - June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He was hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his important role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Born into a large Virginia farming family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War. In the late 1780s, he helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which resulted in a new constitution to replace an ineffective Confederate Article. After the Convention, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, and his collaboration with Alexander Hamilton resulted in The Federalist Papers, among the most important treatises supporting the Constitution.
After the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, Madison won the election to the United States House of Representatives. While simultaneously serving as a close adviser to President George Washington, Madison emerged as one of the most prominent members of the First Congress, helping to pass several bills to establish a new government. For his role in drafting the first ten amendments to the Constitution during the First Congress, Madison was known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights." Although he has played a major role in the enactment of a new constitution that creates a stronger federal government, Madison opposes the centralization of power sought by Finance Minister Alexander Hamilton during the Washington presidency. To oppose Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Madison organized the Democratic Party-Republic, which became one of the first two major political parties in addition to the Federalist Party of Hamilton. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison served as State Minister Jefferson from 1801 to 1809. In this role, Madison oversaw the Louisiana Purchases, which doubled the size of the country.
Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election, and he won reelection in 1812. Following the failure of diplomatic protests and trade embargoes against the British, he led the US into the War of 1812. War was an administrative morass, because the United States lacked a strong army or the financial system. As a result, Madison came to support the stronger national government and the military, as well as the national banks, which he has long resisted. Historians generally rate Madison as above-average president.
Video James Madison
Early life and education
James Madison Jr. born March 16, 1751, (March 5, 1751, Old Style, Julian calendar) at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. He was raised as the eldest of twelve children, with seven brothers and four sisters, though only six of his siblings would live up to the age. His father was a tobacco grower who grew up in a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, which he inherited after his adulthood. He later acquired more property and slaves, and with 5,000 hectares (2,000 hectares), he became the owner of the largest land and a prominent citizen in Piedmont. Mrs. James Jr. was born in Port Conway, the daughter of a prominent grower and tobacco trader. In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved to a newly built house, which they named Montpelier.
From ages 11 to 16, Madison was sent to study under Donald Robertson, a Scottish instructor who served as a teacher to a number of prominent plantation families in the South. Madison studied mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages ​​- he became very proficient in Latin.
At age 16, Madison returned to Montpelier, where he began a two-year study program under Pastor Thomas Martin in preparation for college. Unlike most Virginia people of his day, Madison did not attend College of William and Mary, where lowland Williamsburg climates - more vulnerable to infectious diseases - may have complicated his fragile health. Instead, in 1769, he enrolled at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he became roommates and close friends with poet Philip Freneau.
His studies at Princeton included Latin, Greek, science, geography, mathematics, rhetoric, and philosophy. Great emphasis is placed on speech and debate; Madison helped found the American Whig Society, in direct competition to Aaron Burr's Cliosophic Society fellow student. After a long study that may have endangered his health, Madison graduated in 1771 and remains at Princeton to study Hebrew philosophy and politics under President John Witherspoon. He returned to Montpelier's home in early 1772, still unsure of his future career. His ideas on philosophy and morality were shaped by Witherspoon, who transformed Madison into a philosophy, value, and way of thinking about the Age of Enlightenment. Biographer Terence Ball says that at Princeton:
- He was immersed in the liberalism of the Enlightenment, and turned to eighteenth-century political radicalism. Since then, James Madison's theories will advance the rights of human happiness, and his most active efforts will serve faithfully the cause of civil and political freedom.
Maps James Madison
Military service and early political career
In the early 1770s the relationship between the American and British colonies was worsened by the problem of British taxation, culminating in the American Revolutionary War, which began in 1775. In 1774, Madison took a seat on the local Security Committee, a pro-revolutionary group that oversaw local militias. This is the first step in the life of the public service that facilitated the wealth of his family. In October 1775, he was assigned as a colonel of the Orange County militia, serving as commander of his two fathers until elected as a delegate to the Fifth Virginia Convention, which resulted in Virginia's first constitution. With a short body and often in poor health, Madison never saw combat in war, but he became well-known in Virginia politics as a wartime leader.
At Virginia's constitutional convention, Madison endorsed the Virginia Declaration of Human Rights, although he argued that it must contain a stronger protection for religious freedom. He had previously witnessed the persecution of Baptist preachers in Virginia, who were arrested for preaching without permission from the established Anglican Church. He collaborated with Baptist pastor Elijah Craig to promote the constitutional guarantee for religious freedom in Virginia. With the entry into force of the Virginia constitution, Madison became part of the Virginia House of Delegates. Madison lost re-election to the House of Delegates in April 1777, but the House of Delegates voted him to the country's Board of Governors of Virginia later that year. In that role, he became a close ally of Thomas Jefferson, who served as Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781.
Madison served in the State Council from 1777 to 1779, when he was elected to the Confederate Congress. The country faces tough wars against Great Britain, as well as escaping inflation, financial problems, and lack of cooperation between different levels of government. Madison works to make herself a financial expert, a legislative worker and a master of parliamentary coalition building. Frustrated by the failure of states to supply the requisite demand, Madison proposes to grant Congress the ability to levy tariffs on foreign imports. Madison, General George Washington, Congressman Alexander Hamilton, and other influential leaders supported the amendments to the Confederate Budget, the first constitution of the newly founded nation. However, their amendment proposal to allow Congress to impose a failed tariff to win the ratification required by all thirteen countries. After serving the Congress from 1780 to 1783, Madison won the election to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1784.
Madison served at Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1786. He continued to correspond with Jefferson and befriended Jefferson's protege, Congressman James Monroe. During these years at the House of Delegates, Madison is committed to studying law and political theory, and is strongly influenced by the Enlightenment texts sent by Jefferson of France. He is increasingly frustrated by what he sees as excessive democracy. He criticized the tendency of delegates to fulfill the special interests of their constituents, even if such interests undermine the country at large. In particular, he is plagued by laws that deny diplomatic immunity to ambassadors from other countries, and laws that legalize paper money. He thinks legislators should be "not interested" and act in the interest of their country extensively, even if this is against the wishes of constituents. Madison believes this "excessive democracy" is the cause of the greater social decay that he and others (like Washington) think has returned after the revolution and is nearing a critical point - Shays' Rebellion is an example. He also continues to advocate for religious freedom. Together with Jefferson, he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which guaranteed freedom of religion and abolished the Church of England; amendment was passed in 1786.
Mr. Constitution
Throughout the 1780s, Madison advocated for the reform of the Confederate Articles. He became increasingly concerned about state divisions and the weaknesses of the central government after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. As Madison wrote, "the crisis has come to decisive whether American experimentation will be a blessing to the world, or to blow up forever the hope that the republic has inspired. "He is especially concerned about Congress's inability to competently engage in foreign policy, which threatens American trade and land settlement between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
Madison helped organize the Mount Vernon Conference of 1785, which helped resolve disputes over navigational rights on the Potomac River and also served as a model for future interstate conferences. At the Annapolis Convention of 1786, it supports the calling of other conventions to consider changing the Budget. After winning elections for other terms in Congress, Madison helped convince other congressmen to pass the Philadelphia Convention for the purpose of proposing new amendments. But Madison had believed that the ineffective chapters had to be replaced by a new constitution, and he began preparing a convention that would propose an entirely new constitution. Madison ensures that George Washington, which is popular around the country, and Robert Morris, who is influential in the critical state of Pennsylvania, will widely support Madison's plan to impose a new constitution.
When the quorum was reached for the Philadelphia Convention begins, the 36-year-old Madison writes what is known as the Virginia Plan, an outline for a new constitution. Madison worked with fellow Virginia delegation members, notably Edmund Randolph and George Mason, to create and present plans to the convention. The plan calls for three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial), a population-based bicameral congress, and a Revision Council composed of members of the executive and judicial branches who will have the right to veto legislation passed by Congress. Reflecting the centralization of power imagined by Madison, the Virginia Plan gave the United States Senate the power to overturn laws passed by the state government. Many delegates were shocked to learn that the plan called for the abolition of the Article and the establishment of a new constitution, to be ratified by a special convention in each state rather than by the state legislature. Nevertheless, with the consent of eminent audiences such as Washington and Benjamin Franklin, the delegates entered a secret session to consider a new constitution.
During the convention, Madison spoke more than two hundred times, and his fellow delegates gave him high marks. William Pierce writes that "... every Person seems to recognize his greatness.In the management of every big question, he is proven to lead the Convention... he always appears as the best Man in terms of debate." Madison notes the unofficial minutes of the convention, and this has been the only comprehensive record of what happened. Historian Clinton Rossiter considers Madison's appearance as "a combination of learning, experience, purpose, and imagination that can not even be equaled by Adams or Jefferson."
Although the Virginia Plan is an outline of any possible constitutional draft, and although that has changed considerably during the debate over its use at the convention has led many to refer to Madison as "the Father of the Constitution". Madison hopes that the coalition of Southern countries and the populous North countries will ensure that constitutional approval is largely similar to that proposed in the Virginia Plan. However, delegates from small countries managed to debate greater power for the state government and presented the New Jersey Plan as an alternative. In response, Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut Compromise, which seeks to balance the interests of small and large countries. During the convention, the Revision Council was removed, each country was given equal representation in the Senate, and the state legislature, rather than the House of Representatives, was given the power to elect members of the Senate. Madison was able to convince his fellow delegates to have the Constitution ratified by the ratification convention rather than the state legislature, which he did not believe. He also helps ensure that the President of the United States will have the ability to veto federal law and will be elected independently of Congress through the Electoral College. At the conclusion of the convention, Madison believed that the federal government would be too weak under the proposed constitution but he viewed the document as an improvement on the Confederation Articles.
The main question before the convention, Wood notes, is not how to design a government but whether states should remain sovereign, whether sovereignty should be transferred to a national government, or whether the constitution should settle somewhere in between. Most delegates at the Philadelphia Convention want to empower the federal government to increase revenue and protect property rights. They, like Madison, who think democracy in the state's legislature are redundant and insufficiently "uninterested", want the sovereignty to be transferred to the national government, while those who do not consider this issue, want to improve the Confederate Budget. In fact, many delegations that together with Madison's goals strengthen the central government react strongly to the extreme changes to the status quo imagined in the Virginia Plan. Although Madison lost most of his battles on how to change the Virginia Plan, in the process it further shifted the debate away from the position of pure state sovereignty. Since much of the dispute over what should be included in the constitution is ultimately a dispute over the sovereign balance between state and national governments, Madison's influence is crucial. Wood notes that Madison's primary contribution is not in designing a particular constitutional framework, but in diverting the debate toward a "collective sovereignty" compromise between national and state governments.
The Federalist Papers and the debate debate
The Philadelphia Convention expired in September 1787, and the United States Constitution was granted to each country for ratification. Each country is required to enter into special conventions to negotiate and decide whether or not to ratify the Constitution. Madison returned to New York, where the Confederate Congress was underway. He assured fellow members of Congress to allow every state vote on the Constitution as formulated by the Philadelphia Convention, and remain neutral in the ratification debate. While in New York, Madison was approached by Alexander Hamilton, who asked him to help write The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 newspaper articles published in New York that explain and defend the proposed Constitution. With a pseudonym of Publius, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay wrote 85 essays in a span of six months, with Madison writing 29 essays. The articles are also published in book form and serve as a virtual debate handbook for Constitutional supporters in ratifying conventions. Historian Clinton Rossiter calls the Federalist Papers the "most important work in political science ever written, or perhaps ever written, in the United States." Federalist No. 10, Madison's first contribution to The Federalist Papers , became highly regarded in the 20th century because of her advocacy for representative democracy.
Madison ensured that his writings were presented to Randolph, Mason, and other prominent anti-federalist figures, as those who opposed the ratification of the Constitution were known. The consensus states that if Virginia, the most populous country at the time, did not ratify the Constitution, the new national government would not succeed. When Virginia Ratified the Convention began on June 2, 1788, the Constitution has not been ratified by the nine countries required. New York, the second largest state and anti-federalist camp, will likely not ratify it without Virginia, and Virginia's exclusion from the new government will disqualify George Washington from becoming the first president. Arguably the most prominent anti-federalist, powerful orator Patrick Henry, was a delegate and had followers in the second state after Washington. Initially Madison did not want to stand for the selection of the convention ratified Virginia, but was persuaded to do so because of its anti-federalist powers. At the beginning of the service, Madison knew that most of the delegates had decided to vote, and he focused his efforts on winning support from a small number of delirious delegates.
Although Henry is a much more powerful and dramatic speaker, Madison's expertise on a question he has long questioned to allow him to respond with a rational argument against Henry's emotional appeal. Madison persuaded prominent figures such as Randolph to change their position and support him in the ratifying convention. The Randolph switch might change some anti-federalist sounds. On June 25, 1788, the convention voted 89-79 to ratify the Constitution, making it the tenth state to do so. New York ratified the constitution the following month, and Washington won the country's first presidential election.
Member of Congress
Elections to Congress and advisor to Washington
After Virginia ratified the constitution, Madison returned to New York to resume his duties at the Confederate Congress. At Washington's request, Madison sought a place in the United States Senate, but his election was blocked by Patrick Henry. Madison then decided to run in the United States House of Representatives. By order of Henry, Virginia's legislature created congressional districts designed to reject Madison, and Henry recruited strong challengers to Madison at James Monroe. Locked in a tough race against Monroe, Madison pledged to support a series of constitutional amendments to protect individual freedoms. Madison's appointment pays off, as he wins the election for Congress with 57% of the vote.
Early in his tenure, Madison was President Washington's chief adviser, who saw Madison as the person who understood the constitution best. Madison helped Washington write his first inaugural speech, and also prepared the House's official response to the address. He arranged the legislative agenda of the 1st Congress and helped found and staffed the three departments of the first Cabinet. He also helped arrange the appointment of Thomas Jefferson as the first Secretary of State.
Bill of Rights
Although there is no ratification of the country's constitution on the grounds of rights legislation, several countries are coming closer, and this problem almost prevents the constitution from being ratified. Madison opposes proposals for rights legislation during the ratification process, but when running for Congress he promises to support the bill of rights. In the 1st Congress he led in pressure to pass some constitutional amendments that would shape the Bill of Rights of the United States. Madison fears the states will call for new constitutional conventions if Congress fails to pass the right legislation. He also believes that the constitution does not adequately protect the national government from excessive democracy and parochialism, so he sees the amendment as a mitigation of these issues. On June 8, 1789, Madison introduced the bill proposing an amendment consisting of nine articles comprising up to 20 potential amendments. The House passed most of the amendments, but rejected Madison's idea of ​​putting them in the body of the Constitution. Instead, he adopted 17 amendments to be attached separately and sent this bill to the Senate.
The Senate edited further amendments, made 26 changes of its own, and condensed their numbers to twelve. Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill of Rights to states and the federal government was eliminated, as was his last proposed change to the opening. The House-Senate Conference Committee then convened to settle many differences between the two Bill of Rights proposals. On September 24, 1789, the committee issued its report, which completed 12 Amendments to the Constitution for Parliament and Senate for consideration. This version was approved by the joint resolution of the Congress on 25 September 1789. Of the twelve proposed Amendments, Articles Three through Twelve were ratified in addition to the Constitution on 15 December 1791, numbered one through ten, and became Bill of Rights.. Proposed Article Two became part of the Constitution in 1992 as the Twenty-Seven Amendment, while Article One which was filed technically was pending before the states. Madison is disappointed that the Bill of Rights does not include protection against action by state governments, but part of the document defuses some of the original constitutional criticism and sustains Madison's support in Virginia.
In proposing the Bill of Rights, Madison considers more than two hundred amendments submitted to the Convention which ratifies the state. Although most of the amendments he proposes are taken from these conventions, he is largely responsible for sections of the Bill of Rights that guarantee freedom of the press, property protection from government plunder, and jury trials. He initially introduced an amendment that ensures all citizens are entitled to a jury trial in all civil cases where there is $ 20 or more at stake. While the original amendment failed, a civil jury trial of judicial cases in federal cases was incorporated into the Bill of Rights as the Seventh Amendment.
Established Democratic-Republican Party
As the 1790s progressed, the Washington administration became polarized between the two main factions. One was led by Jefferson and Madison, who broadly represented the interests of the South, and sought close ties with France and its expansion to the west. The other is led by Finance Minister Alexander Hamilton, who broadly represents the financial interests of the North, and prefers close links with Britain. In 1790, Hamilton introduced an ambitious economic program that called for the federal assumption of state debt and debt funding through the issuance of federal securities. Hamilton's plans favor North speculators and harm countries like Virginia who have paid off most of their debt, and Madison emerges as one of Congress's main opponents of the plan. After a prolonged legislative deadlock, Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton agreed on the Compromise of 1790, provided for the enactment of Hamilton's assumption plan through the 1790 Funding Act. In return, Congress passed the Residence Law, which established the federal capital district of Washington, DC on the Potomac River. In 1791, Hamilton introduced a plan calling for the creation of a national bank, which would lend to new industries and oversee the money supply. Madison objected to the bank, arguing that his creations were not permitted by the constitution. After Congress passed the bill to create the First Bank of the United States, Washington carefully considered vetoing the bill, but ultimately chose to sign it in February 1791. With the passage of most of Hamilton's economic programs, Madison feared the powerful influence of North Money's importance, which he believes will dominate the newborn republic under Hamilton's plan. Madison also lost much of its influence in the Washington administration, as Washington increasingly turned to Jefferson and Hamilton for advice.
When Britain and France fought in 1793, the United States was caught in the middle. The 1778 Alliance Agreement with France is still in effect, but most of the new country's trade is with the UK. Madison and Jefferson continued to look favorably at the French Revolution despite its increasingly harsh nature, but Washington proclaimed American neutrality. The war with Britain became imminent in 1794, after the British captured hundreds of American ships trading with the French colonies. Madison believes that the United States is stronger than Britain, and that a trade war with Britain, despite staking real war by the government, might succeed, and allow America to declare their full independence. England, he accused, "has bound us in commercial bondage, and almost defeated the object of our independence." According to Varg, Madison dismissed a stronger British military when the latter declared "his interests could be hurt almost dead, while we are immune." The British West Indies, Madison is defended, can not live without American food, but Americans can easily do without British manufactures. He concluded, "This is our strength, in a very short time, to supply all the tonnage needed for our own trade". Washington avoided a trade war and instead secured a friendly trade relationship with Britain through the Jay Treaty of 1794. Madison's harsh and unsuccessful refusal of the treaty led to a permanent pause with Washington, ending a long-term friendship.
The debate over the Jay Treaty helped establish a growing division between the country's first major political party. Those who oppose Washington's government policies, including many former anti-federalists, take the name "republic," and unite into the Democratic-Republican Party. Those who support government policy take the name of "federalist," and, under Hamilton's leadership, unite into the Federalist Party. With Jefferson out of office after 1793, Madison became the de facto leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. Prior to the presidential election of 1796, Madison helped convince Jefferson to run for president. Madison also laid the groundwork for Jefferson's campaign, building alliances in various countries in the hope of ensuring Jefferson's election. Despite Madison's efforts, Federalist John Adams defeated Jefferson, taking a narrow majority from elections. Refusing to seek re-election, Madison left Congress in 1797 and returned to Montpelier.
Although he left the office, Madison remains a prominent Democratic-Republican leader in opposition to the administration of Adams. In 1798, the United States and France unofficially became combatants in the Quasi War, which involved naval warships and commercial ships fighting in the Caribbean. The Federalist created a standing army and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, directed at French refugees involved in American politics and against Republican editors. In response, Madison and Jefferson secretly drew up the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions which stated that the law was unconstitutional and noted that "states, in opposing irritating law, must 'intervene to withstand the progress of crime.'" The resolution is largely unpopular, even among the republics, as they called on state governments to overturn federal laws. Jefferson goes a step further, urging countries to separate themselves if necessary, although Madison convinces Jefferson to put aside this extreme view. Jefferson searched the president again in the 1800 presidential election, with Madison again acting as Jefferson's campaign manager. In the tightly contested elections that were ultimately decided at the House of Representatives, Jefferson almost won.
Marriage and family
Madison married for the first time at the age of 43; on September 15, 1794, James Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a 26-year-old widow, at Harewood, in what is now Jefferson County, West Virginia. Madison met Dolley Payne while serving in Congress. In May 1794, Madison asked his friend and Dolley's sole friend, Aaron Burr, to arrange a meeting. In August, she has received her marriage proposal. To marry Madison, a non-Quaker, he was expelled from the Society of Friends. Also in 1794 Madison was elected a Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Madison had no children but adopted Todd's surviving son, John Payne Todd (known as Payne), after the wedding.
Dolley Madison put her social gift for use when the couple lived in Washington, beginning when she became Minister for Foreign Affairs. With the White House still under construction, he advises for his furniture and sometimes serves as First Lady for ceremonial functions for President Thomas Jefferson, a widower and friend. When her husband became president, she created the role of First Lady, using her social talent to advance her program. He is credited with increasing his popularity in the office.
Madison's father died in 1801. At the age of 50, Madison inherited the large estates of Montpelier and other possessions, including 108 of his father's slaves. Madison began acting as her father's property manager in 1780.
United States Secretary of State (1801-1809)
Jefferson wanted to ensure that he was in control of his foreign policy, and he chose Madison loyal to the position of Secretary of State despite the lack of foreign policy experience. Together with Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, Madison became one of the two major influences in Jefferson's cabinet. As Napoleon's ascent has dampened the Democratic-Republican enthusiasm for the French struggle, Madison sought a neutral position in the ongoing Coalition War between France and Britain.
Early in the Jefferson presidency, the United States learned that Spain planned to downplay the Louisiana Territory to France, raising fears of French encroachment in the US territory. In 1802, Jefferson and Madison sent James Monroe to France to negotiate the purchase of the city of New Orleans, which controls access to the Mississippi River and is thus important to farmers on the American border. Although Napoleon had briefly hoped to rebuild the French empire in Louisiana and Saint-Domingue, who had rebelled against the French government, he eventually turned his attention back to the European conflict. Rather than just selling New Orleans, the Napoleon government offered to sell the entire Louisiana Territory. Despite the lack of explicit authorization from Jefferson, Monroe and ambassador Robert R. Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchases, in which France sold over 800,000 square miles (2,100,000 square kilometers) of land in exchange for $ 15 million.
Many historians and historians of the past, such as Ron Chernow, noted that Madison and President Jefferson neglected the "strict construction" of the Constitution to exploit purchasing opportunities. Jefferson would prefer a constitutional amendment that validates the purchase, but does not have the time or he does not need to do it. The Senate quickly ratified the agreement provided for purchase. The House of Representatives, in equal harmony, passes the enabling legislation. The Jefferson administration argued that the purchase included West Florida, but France refused to recognize this and Florida remained under Spanish control.
With the war raging in Europe, Madison sought to maintain American neutrality, and insisted on US legal rights as a neutral party under international law. Neither London nor Paris showed any respect, however, and the situation deteriorated during Jefferson's second term. After Napoleon's victory over his enemies on the European continent at the Battle of Austerlitz, he became more aggressive and tried to infuriate Britain with an economically destructive embargo on both sides. Madison and Jefferson also ruled an embargo to punish Britain and France, banning American trade with foreign countries. The embargo failed in the United States as it did in France, and caused great difficulties up and down the coast, which depended on foreign trade. The Federalist made a comeback in the Northeast by attacking the embargo, which allowed it to end when Jefferson left the office.
Selection 1808
Speculation about Madison's potential succession from Madison began in the early days of Jefferson's reign. Madison's status at the party was undermined by his association with the embargo, which was unpopular throughout the country but mainly in the Northeast. With the Federalists collapsing as a national party after 1800, much of the opposition to Madison and the Jefferson administration came from other Democratic-Republican members. Madison was the target of attack by congressman John Randolph, a tertium leader. Randolph criticized what he saw as abuse of Jefferson administration authority and attempted to thwart Madison's potential presidency in favor of Monroe's presidency. Many northerners also hope that Vice President George Clinton can shift Madison in lieu of Jefferson. In spite of this conflict, Madison won his party's presidential nomination in the caucus of congress nomination in January 1808. The Federalist party garnered a bit of strength outside New England, and Madison easily defeated Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. At a height of only five feet, four inches (163 cm), and never weighing more than 100 pounds (45 kg), Madison became the smallest president.
Presidency (1809-1817)
After his inauguration in 1809, Madison immediately faced opposition to his nomination planned by Finance Minister Albert Gallatin as Secretary of State, led by Senator William B. Giles. Madison chose not to fight against Congress for the nomination, but kept Gallatin, who was brought from the Jefferson administration, in the Treasury. Swiss-born gifted Gallatin is Madison's principal advocate, confidante, and policy planner. The Madison cabinet, which included people of mediocre talent, was chosen for national interest and political harmony. Smith in particular will often clash with Madison until he was replaced by Monroe in 1811.
War of 1812
Prevent war
Congress had lifted the embargo just before Madison became president, but problems with Britain and France continued. In addition to US trade with France, the central dispute between Great Britain and the United States is the impression of British sailors. During a long and costly war against France, many Britons were forced by their own governments to join the navy, and many of these conscripts defected to US merchant ships. Unable to tolerate the loss of this workforce, the British seized several US ships and forced captured crew members, some of whom were not in fact not British, to serve in the British navy. Although Americans are angry with this impression, they also refuse to take steps to limit, such as refusing to employ British people. For economic reasons, American traders prefer to give up their right to hire British sailors.
Although initially promising, President Madison's diplomatic efforts to make Britain withdraw Command on the Council were rejected by British Foreign Secretary George Canning in April 1809. In August 1809, diplomatic ties with Britain deteriorated when minister David Erskine was withdrawn and replaced by an ax ". man. "Francis James Jackson, Madison rejected war calls, for he ideologically opposed the debt and taxes necessary for war effort.
After Jackson accuses Madison of duplicity with Erskine, Madison has banned Jackson from the State Department and sent to Boston. In early 1810, Madison began asking Congress for more allocations to improve the Army and Navy in preparation for war with Britain. Congress also passed a law known as Macon's Bill Number 2, an attempt to protect American shipping rights. Seeking to separate America and Britain, Napoleon offered to end France's attack on US shipments as long as the United States punished countries that did not halt trade restrictions. Madison accepted Napoleon's proposal in the hope that it would convince the British to revoke the Order-in-Council, but the British refused to change their policies. Though there is no guarantee otherwise, France also continues to attack American shipping.
As the onslaught of American shipping continues, both Madison and the wider American public are ready to wage war against Britain. Many Americans are calling for a "second war of independence" to restore honor and stature to a new country, and angry public chose Congress's "war of eagles", led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. With Britain in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, many Americans, including Madison, believe that the United States can easily catch Canada, at which point the US can use Canada as a bargain for all other disputes or just maintain control over it. On June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war. The declaration was passed along with party and party lines, with intense opposition from the Federalists and the Northeast, where the economy had suffered during the Jefferson trade embargo.
Madison hastily asks Congress to put the country "into armor and the attitude demanded by the crisis," specifically recommends enlarging troops, preparing militias, completing military academies, stockpiling ammunition, and expanding the navy. Madison faced a severe obstacle - a fragmented cabinet, a disagreeable party, a stubborn Congress, disobedient governors, and incompetent generals, along with militia who refused to fight outside the state they. The most serious problem facing the war effort is the lack of integrated popular support. There is a serious threat from the split from New England, involved in extensive smuggling with Canada and refusing to provide financial or military support. The event in Europe also against the United States. Shortly after the United States declared war, Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia, and the campaign's failures turned waves against France and into England and its allies. In the years before the war, Jefferson and Madison had reduced military size, shut down the Bank of U.S., and lowered taxes. These decisions add to the challenges facing the United States, because by the time the war began, Madison's military forces consisted mostly of less-trained militia members.
Military action
Madison hopes that the war will end in a few months after Canada's capture, but his hopes quickly sped up. Madison believes the state militia will rally to the flag and attack Canada, but the governors of the Northeast fail to cooperate. Their militia waged war or refused to leave their respective countries to act. Senior Command in the War Department and in the field proved incompetent or cowardly - the general in Detroit surrendered to smaller British troops without firing a shot. Gallatin finds that war is almost impossible to finance, as national banks have closed down and big investors in New England refuse to help. Lack of adequate income, and with its demand for loans denied by New England bankers, Madison administration relies heavily on high-interest loans provided by bankers based in New York City and Philadelphia. The American campaign in Canada, led by Henry Dearborn, ended in defeat at the Battle of Stoney Creek. Meanwhile, American Indians armed British, especially some tribes allied with Shawnee's chief, Tecumseh, in an attempt to threaten America's position in the Northwest.
After the start of the War of 1812, Madison accepted the invitation of Russia to mediate the war and sent Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and James Bayard to Europe in the hope of ending the war quickly. While Madison was working to end the war, the US experienced some military successes, especially at sea. The United States has built one of the largest trading fleets in the world, though some have been dismantled under Jefferson and Madison. Madison authorized many of these ships to become privateers in the war, and they captured 1,800 British ships. As part of the war effort, the American naval shipyard was built in Port Sackets, New York, where thousands of people produced twelve warships and others were almost ready by the end of the war. The US naval squadron at Lake Erie manages to defend itself and capture its opponents, paralyzing the supply and strengthening of British military forces in the western theater of war. After the Erie Lake War, General William Henry Harrison defeated the British forces and the Tecumseh Confederation at the Thames River Battle. Tecumseh's death in the battle represents the permanent end of Native American resistance in the Old Northwest. In March 1814, General Andrew Jackson broke the British Muscogee resistance at Old Southwest with his victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Despite this success, the British continued to resist American attempts to invade Canada, and British troops captured Fort Niagara and burned down the city of Buffalo in the United States at the end of 1813. In early 1814, the British agreed to start peace talks in Ghent, an Indian barrier in the Old Northwest as part of a peace treaty.
After the Napoleonic descent after the Battle of Paris in March 1814, the British began to shift troops to North America. Under General George Izard and General Jacob Brown, the United States launched another invasion of Canada in mid-1814. Despite America's victory at the Chippawa Battle, the invasion ceased once again. Meanwhile, Britain increased the size and intensity of their attacks against the Atlantic coast. General William H. Winder attempted to unite concentrated forces to guard against potential attacks to Washington or Baltimore, but his orders were countered by the Armstrong War Secretary. Britain landed a large army from the Chesapeake Bay in August 1814, and British troops approached Washington on August 24. American troops were attacked at the Battle of Bladensburg, and British troops burned Washington's federal buildings. Dolley Madison rescued valuables and documents of the White House shortly before the British burned the White House. The British army subsequently moved to Baltimore, but Britain canceled the attack after the United States repulsed a naval attack on Fort McHenry. Madison returned to Washington before the end of August, and main British troops departed from the region in September. The British attempted an invasion from Canada, but the US victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh on September 18 ended the British hopes of conquering New York.
Anticipating that Britain would attack the next town of New Orleans, the newly installed James Monroe War Secretary ordered General Jackson to prepare for the city's defenses. Meanwhile, the British public began to turn against the war in North America, and British leaders began to seek a swift exit from the conflict. On January 8, 1815, Jackson's troops defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans. More than a month later, Madison learned that his negotiator had reached the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war without major concessions on both sides. In addition, the two sides agreed to establish a commission to resolve Anglo-American border disputes. Madison quickly sent the Treaty of Ghent to the Senate, and the Senate ratified the treaty on 16 February 1815. For most Americans, the rapid turn of events at the end of the war, including the burning of the capital, the New Orleans Battle, and the Treaty of Ghent, appeared as American courage in New Orleans has forced the British to surrender. This view, while inaccurate, greatly contributes to the postwar euphoria that lasted for a decade. It also helps to explain the importance of war, although it is strategically unconvincing. Madison's reputation as president improved and the Americans finally believed that the United States had established itself as a world power. Napoleon's defeat at the June 1815 Waterloo Battle brought the permanent end of the Napoleonic War, which halted the pace of American shipments.
The postwar economy and internal improvement
The postwar period of Madison's second reign saw the transition to the Era of Good Feelings, in which the Federalists ceased to act as effective opposition parties. The Federalists have been severely damaged by the Hartford Convention, in which a group of New England Federalists proposed a second constitutional convention. At the same time, Madison embraces some aspects of the Federalist program he previously opposed, undermining the ideological divide between the Federalist and the Democratic-Republican Party. With the Federalist Party on the decline, Madison's elected successor, James Monroe, will easily defeat Federalist Rufus King in the 1816 presidential election.
Madison had led the end of the First Bank of the United States Charter in 1811. However, the war convinced him of the need for the central bank, which he hoped would help the government in borrowing money and also help curb inflation. In 1816 he signed a bill establishing the Second Bank of the United States. He also approved an effective tax system based on tariffs, established professional military, and some of the internal improvements Clay fought under Clay's American System. In 1816, the retirement extended to orphans and widows from the War of 1812 for a period of 5 years with half the wage rate.
Madison urged the actions he thought were "best carried out under national authority," including federal support for roads and canals that would "tie more closely to the various parts of our extended confederation." However, in his final act before leaving the office, Madison vetoed Bill Bonus 1817, which would have financed more internal repairs of roads, bridges, and canals: "After considering today's bill presented to me... I am limited by the insurmountable difficulties I feel in the reconciliation of this bill with the United States Constitution.... The legislative power given in Congress is determined and mentioned in the Constitution, and it does not appear that the powers proposed to be implemented by the Bill are one of the mentioned powers. "
Indian Policies
After taking office on March 4, 1809, in his first Inaugural Address to the nation, Madison stated that the task of the federal government was to transform the American Indians by "the participation of improvements to which the human mind and behavior are vulnerable in civilized countries". Like Jefferson, Madison has a paternalistic attitude towards American Indians, encouraging people to give up hunting and become farmers. Although there is little detail, Madison often encounters Southeast and West Indians including Creek and Osage. Madison believes that European-style farm adoption will help Creek assimilate British-US values. civilization. When pioneers and settlers moved to the West in large areas of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw territories, Madison ordered the US Army to protect the Indigenous territories from harassment by settlers, to the disappointment of its military commander Andrew Jackson. Jackson wants the President to ignore India's request to stop their land invasion and refuse to carry out presidential orders. In the Northwest Territory after the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, the Indians were driven from their tribal lands and replaced entirely by white settlers. In 1815, with a population of 400,000 European-American settlers in Ohio, India's rights to their lands were effectively null and void.
Next life
When Madison left office in 1817 at the age of 65, he retired to Montpelier, a tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Jefferson's Monticello. Like Washington and Jefferson, Madison left the post of president as a poorer man than when elected. Her plantation suffered a steady financial collapse, due to the continuing decline in tobacco prices and also by the errors of her stepson's management.
In his retirement, Madison was sometimes involved in public affairs, advising Andrew Jackson and other presidents. He remains out of the public debate about Missouri Compromise, though he personally complains about the North's opposition to the extension of slavery. Madison had a warm relationship with all four major candidates in the 1824 presidential election, but, like Jefferson, most remained out of the race. During Jackson's presidency, Madison publicly ruled out the Nullification movement and stated that no country has the right to escape.
Madison helped Jefferson set up the University of Virginia, although the university was primarily a Jefferson initiative. In 1826, after Jefferson's death, Madison was appointed the rector of both universities. He retained his position as rector of college for ten years until his death in 1836.
In 1829, at the age of 78, Madison was elected a representative of the Constitution of the Virginia Constitution to revise the constitution of the Commonwealth. It was his last appearance as a statesman. The most important issue at this convention is division. Western districts in Virginia complain that they are under-represented because the state constitution divides the county by county. The population increase in Piedmont and the western part of the country is not represented proportionately by delegates in the legislature. The Western reformers also wanted to extend the right to vote for all whites, in lieu of the applicable property ownership requirements. Madison tried in vain to make compromises. Finally, voting rights were granted to tenants and landowners, but the eastern farmers refused to adopt the division of citizens' population. They added slaves who held property for the population, to maintain a permanent majority in both legislative assemblies, arguing that there had to be a balance between the population and the property being represented. Madison was disappointed at the failure of the Virginians to solve the problem more fairly.
In his later years, Madison became deeply concerned about his historic heritage. He was forced to modify the letters and other documents he owned, change days and dates, add and delete words and sentences, and move characters. By the time he reached his seventies, this "straightening" was almost an obsession. For example, he edited a letter written to Jefferson who criticized Lafayette - Madison not only marked the original parts, but even faked Jefferson's handwriting as well. Historian Drew R. McCoy says, "During the last six years of his life, amid a sea of ​​personal [financial] problems that threatened to swallow him... At a time of mental agitation that was expelled in physical destruction.For a better part of a year in 1831 and 1832 he is lying in bed, if not silenced... Exactly sick with anxiety, he begins to despair because of his ability to make himself understood by his fellow citizens. "
Madison died in Montpelier on the morning of June 28, 1836. He was buried in a family funeral in Montpelier. He was one of the last leading members of the Revolutionary War generation to die. His will left a significant amount for the American Colonization Society, the University of Virginia, and Princeton, as well as $ 30,000 for his wife, Dolly. Abandoned by a smaller amount than Madison intended, Dolly would suffer financial problems until her own death in 1849.
Political and religious views
Federalism
During his first stint in Congress in the 1780s, Madison agreed to change the Confederate Budget to provide a stronger central government. In the 1790s, he led the opposition to the centralized policies of Hamilton and Alien and Sedition Acts. According to Chernow, Madison's support for the Resolution of Virginia and Kentucky in the 1790s "is an amazing evolution for a man who has appealed to the Constitutional Convention that the federal government should have a veto over state law." The historian Gordon S. Wood says that Lance Banning, as in Sacred Fire of Liberty (1995), is "the only contemporary scholar who maintains that Madison did not change his view in the 1790s. "In claiming this, Banning undermined Madison nationalism in the 1780s During and after the 1812 War, Madison came to support some of the policies he opposed in the 1790s, including national banks, powerful navies, and direct taxes.
Wood notes that many historians struggle to understand Madison, but Wood looks at him in Madison's own days - as a nationalist but one with a different nationalism concept of nationalism. Gary Rosen and Banning use another approach to suggest Madison's consistency.
Religion
Although trained by Presbyterian clergy, the young Madison is a faithful reader of the British deis tractate. As an adult, Madison did not pay much attention to religious matters. Although most historians have found little indication of his religious tendencies after he left college, some scholars indicate he is leaning towards deism. Others argue that Madison accepted the Christian doctrine and shaped his view of life with the Christian worldview. Regardless of his own religious beliefs, Madison believes in religious freedom, and he advocates for the dismantling of Virginia's Anglican Church throughout the 1770s and 1780s. he also opposed the appointment of priests to Congress and the armed forces, arguing that the appointment resulted in religious exclusion and political disharmony.
Slavery
Madison grew up on plantations using forced labor and he viewed the institution as an important part of the Southern economy, although he was troubled by the instability of a society dependent on a large population enslaved. At the Philadelphia Convention, Madison supported the immediate ending of slave imports, although the final document banned Congress to interfere with international slave trade until 1808. He also proposed that the division in the United States Senate be allocated by the number of each state. free population and slave populations, ultimately leading to the application of the Fifth-Fifth Compromise. Madison believed that the former slave could not have managed to integrate into Southern society, and in the late 1780s, he became interested in the African-American idea of ​​building a colony in Africa. In the 1830s, Madison served as president of the American Colonization Society, which established the Liberian settlement for ex-slaves.
Legacy
Historian Garry Wills writes, "Madison's claim to our admiration does not lie in perfect consistency, more than that depending on his presidency.He has another good... As a founder and constitutive of the Constitution, he has no friends.... The best part of the performance Madison as president is his concern for preserving the Constitution.... Nobody can do everything for the state - even Washington, Madison does more than most, and does some things better than enough.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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