James Madison

JAMES MADISON - 1884 - CHAPTER I. Paar THE VIRGINIA RX ADISONS . W . . . . l CHAPTER 11. THE YOUNGS TATESMAN . . 1 6 CHAPTER 111. . . W 29 CHAPTER IV. IN TI1E STATEA SSEMBL . Y W 47 CHAPTER V. IN THE VIRGINIALE GISLATURE . W 64 CHAPTER VI. PUBLICD ISTURBANC A E N S D ANXIETIES . . . . 76 CHAPTER VII. TEIE C ONSTITUTIONCAOLN VENTIO . N w e 8 8 CHAPTER VIII. THE C ODIPROMI S ES . . . 98 CHAPTER IX. ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION . CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. THE FIRST CONGRESS . . . . . 128 CHAPTER XI. NATIONAFLI NANCE - S. SLAVERY . . . . 151 CHAPTER XII. FEDERALIST AN S D REPUBLICANS . . . . . 172 CHAPTER XIII. FRENCI P I OLITICS . . . . . 193 CHAPTER XIV. HIS LATESTY EARS I N CONGRESS . . . . 216 CHAPTER XV. AT HOBIE - . RESOLUTION O S F 98 AND 99 . 234 CHAPTER XVI. SECRETAR O Y F STATE . . . . . . . 252 CHAPTER XVII. THE EMBARGO . . . . . . 264 CHAPTER XVIII. MADISON A S PRESIDENT . . . CHAPTER XIS. WAR WITH ENGLAND . 301 CHAPTER XX, . . C a 321 JAMES MADISON. CHAPTER I. THE VIRGINIA MADISONS. JAMES MADISON was born on March 16, 1751, at Port Conway, Virginia he died at Montpellier, in that State, on June 28, 1836. Mr. John Qaincy Adams, recalling, perhaps, the death of his own father and of Jefferson on the same Fourth of July, and that of Monroe on a subsequent anniversary of that day, may possibly have seen a generous propriety in finding some equally appropriate commemoration for the death of another Virginian President. For it was quite possible tbat Virginia might think him capable of an attempt to conceal, what to her mind mould seem to be an obvious intention of Providence that all the children of the Mother of Presidents should be no less distinguished in their deaths than in theirlives - that the other dynasty, which John Randolph was wont to talk about, should no longer pretend to an equality with them, not 1 JAMES IIIADISON. merely in this world, but in the manner of going otit of ik i f i e itny l d sate, he notes the date of Madiioks Ze th, thd twenty-eighth day of June, as, I l. kie F qt l Ebrsbr c . C e r of, the day on which the ratifi bakl oir of ther Cori. ver tion of Virginia in 1788 had affixed the seal of James Madison as the father of the Constitution of the United States, when his earthly part sank without a struggle into the grave, and a spirit, bright as the seraphim that surround the throne of Omnipotence, ascended to the bosom of his God. There can be no doubt of the deep sincerity of this tribute, whatever question there may be of its grammatical construction and its rhetoric, and although the date is erroneous. The ratification of the Constitution of the . United States by the Virginia Convention was on June 25, 12ot on Juile 28. It is the misfortune of our time that we have no living great men held in such universal veneration that their dying on common days like comnlon mortals seems quite impossible. Half a century ago, however, the propriety of such providential arrangements appears to have been recognized almost as one of the institutions. It was the newspaper gossip of that time that a distinguished physician declared that he would have kept a fourth ex-President alive to die on a Fourth of July, had the illustrious sick man been under his treatment. The patient himself, had he been consulted, might, in that case, possibly have declined to have a fatal illness prolonged a week to gratify the public fondness for patriotic coincidence.But Mr...