As I write, it is Presidents Day, a holiday. Is it disrespectful to work on such a day? So far as I know, no president ever skipped work on that day. And so, I will write on Presidents Day – about a president.
James Madison, the fourth man to occupy that office (1809-1817), brought us through the War of 1812 successfully. But he is best known for his work at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, for which he is sometimes called the Father of the Constitution, and for his work assembling and securing passage of the Bill of Rights.
Born in 1751 in Virginia, Madison’s devotion to liberty began as a child, for he recalled walking home from school and hearing Baptist pastors preaching from the jail, imprisoned for preaching without a license from the Church of England. There were “not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in close Gaol [jail] for publishing their religious Sentiments which are in the main very orthodox,” he later wrote.
He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and stayed a semester after graduation to learn Hebrew under Scottish Presbyterian Pastor John Witherspoon. There he learned of the Higher Law of God and the depravity of human nature, and therefore of the need to restrain government power so it does not become tyrannical and oppressive, principles that would underlie the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. As he later wrote in Federalist No. 51:
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. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.
Before the 1787 Constitutional Convention began, Madison met with other Virginia delegates to draft a set of propositions call the “Virginia Resolves” which became the agenda for the Convention. He spoke 161 times during the Convention, exceeded by only Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson. “[H]e always comes forward as the best informed Man of any point in debate,” Georgia delegate William Pierce said of Madison.
After the Convention, Madison joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing “The Federalist Papers,”newspaper editorials explaining the Constitution and urging the states to ratify it. He played a major role at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, promising that if the Constitution were ratified, he and others would immediately work on a Bill of Rights. After ratification, he served in Congress and took over 200 suggested amendments, reducing them to 12, then shepherding 10 of them to ratification. Even today, his “Notes” are the most reliable sources of information regarding the Convention.
As President Jefferson’s Secretary of State, Madison secured the Louisiana Purchase and was elected president to succeed Jefferson in 1809. Despite frail health, he led the nation through the War of 1812 and continued America’s westward expansion.
Madison could well be called an “originalist” in constitutional interpretation, believing the Constitution should be interpreted strictly according to the intent of those who drafted and ratified it. “[If] the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the Nation … be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a … faithful exercise of its powers,” he wrote. Insisting that the “general welfare” clause of Article I, Section 8 does not by itself convey authority to spend the taxpayers’ dollars, Madison opposed a 1794 bill to spend money on aid for French refugees, saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” If Congress and the Supreme Court followed Madison’s interpretation of the General Welfare Clause, America would have much lower taxes, lower spending, and lower debt.
One of the youngest delegates (age 36) to the Convention, Madison was the last to die (1836, age 85). Always a defender of constitutional republicanism and an opponent of unbridled democracy, he wrote, “There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore more needs elucidation than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.”
As we look back upon Presidents Day, let us remember Madison, a fine president and a chief architect of the United States Constitution.
Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law, and as Chairman of the Board of the Plymouth Rock Foundation (plymrock.org). He and his wife Marleen live in rural Pike Road, Ala. He may be contacted for speaking engagements at [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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