What Did James Madison Say About Putting All Power in the Same Hands?

The topic of discussion for the Constitution Monday comes from James Madison, as Michael Freund explained in his article published in The Daily Signal. 

James Madison never heard of the EPA, the SEC, or the FTC.

But as one of the Founding Fathers, he understood the danger of allowing the same institution to make rules, enforce them, and then sit in judgment over the people accused of breaking them.

In Federalist No. 47, Madison wrote that “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands” could “justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Madison meant it as a principle of constitutional design.

Indeed, the Constitution he helped craft divided federal authority among three branches: Congress, the president, and the courts. The branches would overlap at certain points, but none was supposed to swallow the essential functions of the others.

As Federalist No. 51 famously put it: “Ambition must be made to countered ambition.” The Founding Fathers did not assume that public officials would always restrain themselves from seeking to expand their powers, so they built restraints into the structure of government.

But now, over 200 years later, the federal government has created institutions that blur those lines.

Modern regulatory agencies write binding regulations under laws passed by Congress. They investigate alleged violations and bring enforcement actions. Many also operate their own administrative courts to hear disputes arising from those actions. In other words, they can act as rulemaker, judge, and enforcer.

Chief Justice John Roberts described the problem in his 2013 dissent in City of Arlington v. FCC. “As a practical matter,” he wrote, modern agencies exercise “legislative power,” “executive power,” and “judicial power.” That accumulation, he added, “is not an occasional or isolated exception to the constitutional plan; it is a central feature of modern American government.”

What makes the concern more than theoretical is the sheer scale of the system that has grown up within the federal government.

A Government Accountability Office report found that federal agencies published more than 27,000 rules between Jan. 20, 2013, and Jan. 20, 2025.

In 2024 alone, federal agencies issued 3,248 final rules, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s analysis of Federal Register data. The Federal Register – the daily repository for federal rules, proposed rules, notices and other government documents – reached a record 106,109 pages that year.

And regulation is only part of the burden. Federal paperwork requirements consumed an estimated 10.5 billion hours in fiscal year 2023.

Those figures do not tell us whether any particular regulation is wise. But they do show how much federal policy is now shaped and implemented through administrative agencies rather than through Congress acting on each individual rule.

Defenders of the system argue that modern government oversees securities markets, pharmaceuticals, communications, aviation, energy, and other highly technical fields. Congress cannot possibly write every detail into law, they say, and agencies possess expertise legislators often lack. Their actions are also constrained by statutes, administrative procedures, and judicial review.

But the issue is not whether agencies may exercise discretion. It is whether the concentration of so many functions in the same institutions has gone too far.

The Supreme Court has recently begun confronting that question more directly.

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in 2024, the court overturned the Chevron doctrine, holding that judges must exercise their own independent judgment when interpreting statutes rather than defer to an agency merely because the law is ambiguous.

A day earlier, in SEC v. Jarkesy, the court held that when the Securities and Exchange Commission seeks civil penalties for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.

Together, those decisions reinforced the role of the courts in independently interpreting the law and, in certain enforcement cases, preserving the right to have claims decided by a jury rather than an administrative tribunal.

In Federalist No. 48, Madison warned that mere “parchment barriers” would not be enough to keep the branches within their proper bounds. Written limits, by themselves, could not prevent power from accumulating.

That is what makes Madison’s warning so relevant today.

His concern was never bureaucratic organization for its own sake. It was what happens to liberty when too much government power accumulates in the same hands.

More than two centuries later, the question is whether the concentration of power Madison warned against has now become a defining feature of the government he helped create.

Who Is James Madison?

My VIP for this week is Founding Father James Madison. Donald J. Kochan posted an article at The Daily Signal saying that James Madison was the “OG” of DOGE. He explained as follows.

[Last] week in 1788, Madison’s Federalist No. 62 was published in The [New York] Independent Journal.

The essays we know collectively today as The Federalist Papers, each authored under the pseudonym Publius by Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, have stood the test of time as not only fundamental to our interpretation of the Constitution, but also to identify the evils it was designed to guard against.

Federalist No. 62 was directed at a defense of the proposed Senate composition, election process, and term length.

Madison explained that the features of the Senate would guard against too voluminous and too frequently changing laws. While discussing the utility of six-year terms as a way to incentivize legislators to have a long, reflective view, Madison explained the extended term would inject stability in the production of law.

It would minimize the inevitable mutability of laws historically exhibited in systems that the Founders studied with too constant and frequent change in the personality of the legislature.

Most importantly for today is the complementary lesson from the essay on what that means for the rule of law.

Put simply, Madison in Federalist No. 62 recognized that the creation of voluminous laws and regulations, a primary effect of a too mutable set of legislators, “poisons the blessing of liberty itself.”

And here is where his warnings in 1788 mirror our concerns with the regulatory state today: Reflecting on history and prescient about the nature of humans and their institutions, Madison’s critical enduring paragraph in Federalist No. 62 explains the danger.

He wrote: “It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?”

The "laws” we have today and how they might apply are little known to Americans when they are buried in an avalanche of millions of pages of often incoherent regulatory jargon in the Federal Register that cannot be understood….

Father of Constitution

                    James Madison is known as the "Father of the United States Constitution" because he had the basic idea for the Constitution before the Framers of the Constitution even met to discuss it.  Madison came to the Convention with knowledge of ancient republics and the political theories down through the ages and a plan for a new government based on that knowledge.  During the Convention, he kept detailed notes, notes that allow us to know the inner workings of the meeting.

                    After the Constitution was written and signed, James Madisn joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to write the Federalist, a series of papers intended to educate the people as to why the Constitution should be ratified.  The Federalist  included some of the phrases associated with but not actually in the Constitution, such as federalism, checks and balances, and separation of powers. 

Thomas Jefferson considered the Federalist to be "the best commentary on the principles of government, which ever was written."  Madison himself wrote, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."  He also wrote, "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men … you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."

James Madison served in Congress after the new Constitution was ratified and activated.  There he had the opportunity to be the principle author of the Bill of Rights.  "This position enabled him to look after a cause dear to him throughout his political career - religious liberty.  Madison's original draft of the First Amendment read: `the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship… nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed…'  though somewhat less expansive in its protections, the final version bears Madison's mark:  `Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'  Joe Loconte argues that thanks `largely to Madison, free exercise replaced toleration as the national standard for protecting religious liberty.'"

George Washington (Father of our Country), Thomas Jefferson (Father of the Declaration of Independence), and Abraham Lincoln all have marble monuments to help us remember their greatness.  Madison does not have a marble memorial, but his legacy is the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  He deserves the title of "Father of the Constitution."

Dolley Madison

 Dolley Payne was her parents' first daughter when she was born on May 20, 1768, in the Quaker settlement of New Garden, Guillford County, North Carolina, to John Payne and Mary Coles Payne.  The family eventually included four boys (Walter, William Temple, Isaac, and John) and four girls (Dolley, Lucy, Anna, and Mary).  

                    Dolley descended from Irish, Scottish, French, and English ancestors.  Her maternal grandfather William Coles was born in 1703 in Enniscarthy, Ireland; he immigrated to Virginia and died there in 1781.  Her paternal great-great grandfather John Fleming was born in Scotland in 1627; he immigrated to Virginia and died there in 1686.  Her paternal great-great-great grandfather John Payne was born in 1615 in England; he immigrated to Virginia and died there in 1690.  Her paternal great-great-great grandparents Cornelius Dabney (born 1640) and Susanna Swan (born 1644) were born in France; they immigrated to Virginia and died there.

                    John Payne was born in 1736 in Goochland County, Virginia, and Mary Coles was born in 1745.  Mary was a Quaker, and John was an Episcopalian when they married in 1761 in Hanover County, Virginia.  In 1764 John applied for membership in Mary's meeting house and was accepted.  They moved to North Carolina in 1766 with other Quaker families but returned to Virginia in 1769 where they lived close to and became attached to Mary's family.  Dolley grew up on her parents' plantation in rural eastern Virginia.

                    Dolley's father was a planter until he emancipated his slaves in 1783 after the American Revolutionary War ended.  Quakers apparently did not believe in owning slaves and had encouraged manumission.  Other people were freeing their slaves because they were inspired by the ideals of the revolution.  More than 30,000 blacks were freed between 1782 and 1810.  Payne moved his family to Philadelphia in 1783 where he was opened a small business making laundry starch; the business failed by 1789.  He died on October 24, 1792.

                    After the death of John Payne, Mary Coles Payne opened her home to boarders for a brief time.  One of her boarders was Congressman Aaron Burr of New York.  In 1793 the Widow Payne moved to the home of her daughter Lucy Washington [She married George Washington's nephew George Steptoe Washington.] of Berkeley Springs in western Virginia [or West Virginia] and took her two youngest children (Mary and John) with her.  She died at the home of Mary Jackson in October 1807.

                    Dolley Payne was described as being 5 feet 6 1/2 inches tall with black hair and blue eyes.   There are no records of any formal schooling for Dolley.  Her church in Philadelphia offered class instructions for both girls and boys, but Dolley Payne was fifteen years old when she moved to Philadelphia and past the usual age for school.

Dolley Payne was 21 years old when she married John Todd, a Quaker lawyer, in Philadelphia on January 7, 1790.  Two sons were born to this couple:  John Payne Todd (1792-1852) and William Isaac Todd (1793).  A yellow fever epidemic broke out in Philadelphia in the fall of 1793 due to poor water sanitation.  More than 4,000 people died during the epidemic because doctors did not know how to treat the disease.  John Todd (age 29) and William Todd (age three months) died on October 14, 1793; John's parents also died in the epidemic.  Dolley was left a young widow at age 25 with a small child to support.

Dolley Payne Todd and James Madison (a delegate to the Continental Congress) were probably in the same social circles in Philadelphia.  In May 1794, Madison, (43 years old and long-time bachelor) asked his friend, Aaron Burn, to introduce him to the young widow.  Even though Madison was 17 years older than Dolley, they soon began courting; they were engaged by August and married on September 15, 1794.  They lived in Philadelphia for the next three years, and Dolly was expelled from the Quaker faith after her marriage to a non-Quaker.  They had no children together, but apparently James adopted Dolley's surviving son from her first marriage.

James served for eight years in the House of Representatives before retiring in 1797 to return to the Madison family plantation in Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia.  They added to the house, settled in, and expected to live quietly in the country as planters.

When their friend, Thomas Jefferson, was elected as the third President of the United States in 1800, he asked James Madison to serve as his Secretary of State.  The Madison family, including Dolley's sister Anna Payne, moved to Washington, D.C., where they arranged for a house large enough for entertaining.  Since Jefferson was a friend as well as a widower, Dolley occasionally acted as White House hostess to fulfill the ceremonial functions usually associated with the wife of the President.

Dolley was such a popular hostess in Washington that she contributed to her husband's political success, particularly with those members of Congress who were instrumental in choosing the next President.    Madison's opponents attacked Mrs. Madison's character by implying that she had an affair with President Jefferson; their attack did not work and her popularity helped Madison to win the election. 

The first presidential "inaugural ball" took place with a formal dinner and dance on March 4, 1809, at Long's Hotel on Capital Hill with 400 guests in attendance.  The ball opened with the playing of "Jefferson's March" and the entrance of the former President.  This was followed by "Madison's March" and the entrance of the new President and his wife.  Dolley made a dramatic impression in her buff-colored velvet gown, pearls, and a turban with large plumes.

Dolley had an enthusiasm for public life possessed by neither Martha Washington nor Abigail Adams, and she believed that she had a responsibility to the American citizens as the wife of the President.  She forged the role of First Lady and became the standard for all her successors were held until the mid-20th century.  Through her role as White House hostess, her social skills and friendly personality, she helped not only her husband's political fortunes but those of the United States.

Dolley Madison was the first First Lady to sponsor a specific public project.  She helped to found a home for young orphaned girls in Washington, D.C., and worked as a fundraiser, supporter and board member for the home.  She also assisted and formed a lifelong association with the nuns from a local Catholic school.

Dolley became legendary for her patriotism in the hours just preceding the burning of Washington by British troops during the War of 1812.  Legend tells us that she refused to leave the White House before knowing that the large portrait of George Washington had been removed from the wall and taken to safety.  Legend also says that Dolley was instrumental in saving the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

Undocumented legend says that Dolley sponsored an egg-rolling contest for children, convinced President Madison to permit Francis Scott Key to board a truce ship to try to rescue a captured friend, and to keep Washington as the capital city rather than have it move back to Philadelphia.  We do know that Key was aboard an enemy ship and witnessed the firing on Fort McHenry; afterwards he wrote the Star Spangled Banner, which later became our national anthem.

After leaving the White House on April 6, 1817, James and Dolley Madison returned to the Montpelier plantation in Orange County, Virginia.  James died there on June 28, 1836, and was buried at Montpelier.  Dolley stayed on the plantation for a year; during this time she organized and copied her husband's papers.  Congress authorized $30,000 in 1837 as the first installment of the Madison papers.  In the fall of 1837, Dolley decided to move back to Washington and leave the care of the plantation to Todd.

                    Due to alcoholism and related illnesses, Todd was unable to manage the plantation.  Dolley tried to raise money by selling the rest of Madison's papers.  She could not find a buyer for them and sold the whole plantation - land, slaves, and furnishings - to pay off outstanding debts.  There are reports that she at times lived in absolute poverty before dying at her Washington home on July 12, 1849, at age 81.  She was interred in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. but was later re-interred next to her husband at Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia.

Greatness of James Madison

                    James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16, 1751, at the Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, apparently the home of his maternal grandparents.  He was the oldest of twelve children - eight boys and four girls - born to Nelly and James Madison, Sr. Two boys died as infants and one was stillborn.  If that were not sad enough, another son and daughter died as young children in a dysentery epidemic.  [My parents also had twelve children - eight girls and four boys, but all of us grew to adulthood.] 

                    James, Sr. was a tobacco planter who inherited the plantation - Mount Pleasant, in Orange County, Virginia - where he grew up.  He became the largest landowner in the county when he acquired more property, owning approximately 5,000 acres.  Nelly Conway Madison was the daughter of another prominent tobacco planter and merchant.  James, Jr. inherited his plantation, Montpelier, at age 50 upon the death of his father.  He also inherited 108 slaves to work the tobacco fields and fields of other crops.  According to a former slave, Madison treated his slaves kindly and earned their respect.  He never struck a slave or allowed others to do so.  He thought freed slaves and blacks should be returned to Africa, but his slaves wanted to stay in the United States and resisted repatriation.

                    James, Jr. was small in stature and delicate in health, but he had a brilliant mind.  He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1771; there he studied Latin, Greek, science, geography, mathematics, rhetoric, and philosophy and placed great emphasis on speech and debate.  After graduation, he remained at the university to study Hebrew and political philosophy.  He became quite fluent in Hebrew.  He studied law because of his interest in public policy and not because he wanted to become an attorney.

                    On September 15, 1794, Madison (age 43) married Dolley Payne Todd, a widow, and adopted her one surviving son, John Payne Todd after the marriage.  James and Dolley had at least one child together - a son named James.  The marriage was a happy one from all reports, and Dolley is credited with increasing James' popularity as President.

                    James, Jr. is known as the "Father of the Constitution" because he was instrumental in its drafting 1787.  After the Constitution was written, Madison collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to produce the Federalist Papers (1788) to convince the people to ratify the Constitution.  He was a member of the Virginia convention that met to ratify the Constitution. 

As a leader in the new House of Representatives in 1789, Madison drafted many basic laws.  He drafted the first ten amendments to the Constitution and is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights."  He worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government.  As Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.

Our nation enjoyed renewed prosperity for a few years during the Madison Administration.  When diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against Great Britain failed to keep the British from terrorizing Americans, Madison led the nation into the War of 1812.  The War of 1812 ended in 1815, but the United States almost immediately entered the Second Barbary War.  Pirates from the North African states in the Mediterranean had been extracting large sums of money as tribute for safe passage of our ships on the seas since the days of Washington.  Under Madison, the United States took the fight to the pirates and ended the age of piracy.

James and Dolley Madison left the White House in 1817 and retired to Montpelier; he was 65 years old and Dolley was 49.  James left the White House a poorer man than when he entered it - just as Washington and Jefferson had done before him. 

After the death of Thomas Jefferson in 1826, Madison took his place as Rector (or President) of the University of Virginia and held the position until his own death ten years later.  In addition, Madison was chosen in 1829 (at age 78) as a representative to the constitutional convention to revise the Virginia state constitution.

Madison's financial health - as well as his physical and mental health - continued to deteriorate.  To make up for losses on his plantation between 1834 and 1835, he sold 25% of his slaves. 

Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836, and was buried in the Madison Family Cemetery at Montpelier.  He was the last of the Founding Fathers.

The mansion at Montpelier was sold in 1842, and the plantation lands were sold in 1844.  Half of the slaves were leased to the new owner and half were inherited by Dolley Madison, John Payne Todd, and James Madison, Jr.  Todd continued to sell slaves until he had only 15 at his home.  The Montpelier plantation was a "ghost of its former self" by 1850.

                    If you are not yet convinced that James Madison was a great man, here are some of his quotes.  It is obvious to see why we have such a wonderful document as the Constitution!

                    "A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both."  [I am sure that Madison would not have approved of the way our lame stream media keeps information from the American people or distorts it when they do give it.]

                    "A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person."  [This is why we have a Republic and not a democracy!]

"A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.  [The "Father of the Constitution" worked diligently to give us a government that would last forever!]

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free county."  [He obviously believed that the general populace had the right to keep and bear arms!]

"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."  [In order to be "well-instructed" we must learn true history and determine the truth in our current events.]

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."  [How true!]

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."  [This statement tells us that our current anti-gun people do not trust us with guns.  What are they doing that they don't trust us?]

I believe that James Madison can be considered one of the greatest Americans of all time.  We are certainly indebted to him for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which protect us from overzealous politicians and other people who want to "fundamentally change" our nation.

Brush Fires of Freedom

“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men” (Samuel Adams).

The tea party movement began with a few groups of American citizens who were concerned by the government bailouts of banks and corporations and who thought they were Taxed Enough Already (TEA). The movement continued to grow as the government ran up trillions of dollars in national debt, nationalized health care and failed to secure our borders. Politicians saw and heard their complaints – and then ignored them. The movement now includes millions of patriot conservatives who are clamoring for the rule of law.

Ken Buck, candidate for a Colorado seat in the United States Senate, clearly articulated why freedom-loving Americans are standing up and fighting to take our country back. Check out his comments here. His conclusion: we have a choice; we can either repeat history or make history that will make our posterity proud.

The influence of the tea party is being felt across the nation as many incumbents in the US House of Representatives and US Senate are fighting for their political lives. Conservatives nationwide are telling politicians to stand on constitutional principles and keep their sacred oaths to support and defend our Constitution – or be replaced. The tea party marches are part of a non-violent revolution. Hopefully, we can keep our nation from being “fundamentally transformed” in front of our eyes without this peaceful revolution becoming a bloody and violent revolution.

The words of Thomas Jefferson ring loudly in my ears: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I believe that only our Second Amendment “Right to Keep and Bear Arms” will save our Republic from total destruction and this is why liberals and progressives want to take away gun rights.

James Madison apparently had a similar belief when he said, “[T]he advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.”

Samuel Adams said, “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
I hope that you love liberty more than wealth and will join the cause for liberty along with the tea party movement. This patriotic movement is not going to go away so you might as well join us and add your voice in this fight for freedom. United we stand! Please join the effort to set “brush fires of freedom” in the minds of our countrymen.

War of 1812

Some people consider the War of 1812 as the strangest war in the history of the United States. The chief reason for the war was that Britain was stopping American ships at sea, removing British-born sailors, and forcing them back into British naval service. The United States was very much against this practice. Britain was trying to regain the hundreds of British sailors who deserted the British navy and found work on American ships. They went too far and "impressed" many native-born Americans into the British navy.

Another reason for the war was that Britain was fighting France. Before 1806, American ships took goods to both Great Britain and France, and Americans were getting rich on the European war. Napoleon tried to destroy British trade by stopping all British trade with Europe. Great Britain issued orders to blockade all French ports and ports in Europe under French control. To keep from being seized by Britain, American ships bound for French ports had to first go to a British port for inspection and payment of fees. Napoleon issued orders telling all neutral ships to not stop at British ports for inspection or the French navy would seize their ships. America was caught in the crossfire between Great Britain and France.

The United States made several attempts to convince England to change their policy towards neutral shipping and impressments, and Great Britain finally decided to repeal their laws. Speedy methods of communication might have prevented the War of 1812 because Congress declared war on England two days after Great Britain repealed their laws - long before news of the repealed laws reached America.

The war was fought for freedom of the seas, but it started with an invasion of Canada on a three-prong attack. American forces started from Detroit, from the Niagara River, and from the foot of Lake Champlain. The first attempt to invade Canada failed because American forces were either captured or turned back. In the campaigns of 1813, an American army moving towards Detroit was defeated and captured.

Several months later, United States troops captured York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, burned some of the buildings and held the city for a short time. The British fleet on Lake Erie was destroyed, forcing the British to leave Detroit and much of the Michigan territory. General William Henry Harrison took his army across the lake and defeated the retreating British at the Battle of the Thames. Later in the year Britain captured Fort Niagara and burned Buffalo, New York, and neighboring villages.

By 1814 Napoleon had been defeated in Europe, and Britain was concentrating on the war with America. By this time America had a well-trained and disciplined army that crossed into Canada and held Fort Erie for several months before crossing back into America. This was the last attempt to invade Canada.

Meanwhile, another British army, escorted by a fleet to Chesapeake Bay, occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings. The British army and the British fleet were repelled at Baltimore. Bombs bursting in the air over Fort McHenry during the attack on Baltimore inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The final battle of the war was the Battle of New Orleans. This battle started on January 8, 1815 - a full 15 days AFTER a treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, Belgium, on December 24, 1814. General Andrew Jackson was the hero of this battle, a battle that might have been prevented with better communication.

The peace treaty was ratified by Congress on February 17, 1815, a month after this battle was fought. According to the peace treaty, all land captured by either side was to be returned. Nothing was said in the treaty about impressments or blockades, although they were supposedly the reason for the war.

The War of 1812 was called "Mr. Madison's War" because he requested Congress to declare war on England. William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson won military fame during the war, which helped them in their respective presidential campaigns. Information and facts for this blog post came from an article by Reginald Horsman, World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 21, pp. 28-33.

James Madison

James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth President of the United States, is better known as the Father of the Constitution. As a leading player at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he helped design the system of checks and balances that operate among Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court. He also was instrumental in creating the United States federal system, which divides the power between the central government and the various states.

Madison was born on March 16, 1751, in the home of his maternal grandparents located about 12 miles from Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was the eldest of twelve children. His ancestors on both sides of his family settled in Virginia during the 1600s. The Madison plantation, Montpelier, was located near present-day Orange, Virginia, and was worked by many slaves.

Madison was sickly and frail as a child. He studied with private tutors as well as attended school. He entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) at age 18 and had an active interest in politics. He completed his college work in two years and graduated in 1771. He spent the next six months studying Hebrew, philosophy and other subjects searching for answers to his religious questions. He had a weak speaking voice, which kept him from becoming a preacher. He entered politics in 1774 as a member of the Committee of Safety in Orange, Virginia. In 1776 he helped to draft a new constitution for Virginia and the Virginia Declaration of Rights. These documents were used as patterns by other colonies.

Madison met Thomas Jefferson in 1776 while serving in Virginia's revolutionary assembly, and they became friends for life. In 1779 Madison was elected to the Continental Congress. Madison represented Virginia at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 at age 36. He fought for a stronger central government and drafted the Virginia Plan, which is also called the Randolph Plan. This plan foreshadowed the Constitution that was adopted.

Madison was knowledgeable about political history and knew of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the basic law replaced by the Constitution. Of all the people at the convention, Madison kept the most complete record of the debates there. Madison next served as a member of Virginia convention called to consider ratifying the new Constitution. He also joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing the Federalist, a series of letters to newspapers encouraging ratification. These letters are still considered the best explanation of the constitutional system in America.

Madison lost an election for a seat in the first United States Senate in 1788. The next year he defeated James Monroe in an election for the United States House of Representative. There he proposed ideas for organizing the Departments of State, Treasury and War, drafted most of the first tariff act, and helped draft the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which became the Bill of Rights.

Madison met and married a young widow named Dolley Payne Todd in Philadelphia in 1794. The couple had no children but raised Dolley's son from her first marriage. [Mrs. Madison gave lavish parties in the White House and is said to have saved national treasures from burning when the British burned the White House during the War of 1812.]

Thomas Jefferson appointed his friend James Madison as secretary of state. Together they achieved the most important success in foreign relations in Jefferson's presidency - the Louisiana Purchase. They failed to force England and France to respect the rights of American ships at sea. Jefferson favored Madison to succeed him as President.

The War of 1812 was known as "Mr. Madison's War." Madison knew that America was not prepared for war, but he also knew that the United States could not tolerate further insults from Great Britain. He recommended war with England, and Congress approved it on June 18, 1812. The war ended with the Treaty of Ghent, which went into effect in February 1815. The war preserved American territorial integrity, but it didn't settle any of the causes for the war. The war ended without a victory for either side.

Other historical events of President Madison's time were: 1) In 1811 the National Road, which went from Maryland to Illinois, was started and became a major route to the West. 2) Also in 1811, the steam-powered printing press, invented by a German printer, made newspapers cheaper to print in large numbers. 3) During the War of 1812, British troops captured Washington, D.C. and burned the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings. 4) Jane Austen's novels established her as a great writer of English literature. Her novels included Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). 5) "The Star-Spangled Banner," which became our national anthem, was written by Francis Scott Key after watching the British attack Baltimore during the War of 1812. 6) Napoleon was defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, ending his plans to rule Europe. 7) The stethoscope, used to listen to the heart, etc, was invented by a French doctor in 1816. Facts and information in this blog post are from an article by Robert J. Brugger, World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 13, pp. 32-36.