Scribd
Upload
14 views2 pages

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751

James Madison Jr. was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He played a pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the fifth United States secretary of State from 1801 to 1809, he supervised the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the size of the country. Madison succeeded Thomas Jefferson as president and led the country into the War of 1812 against Britain, which helped convince him of the need for a stronger federal government.

Uploaded by

alexandra.oprea
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
14 views2 pages

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751

James Madison Jr. was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He played a pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the fifth United States secretary of State from 1801 to 1809, he supervised the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the size of the country. Madison succeeded Thomas Jefferson as president and led the country into the War of 1812 against Britain, which helped convince him of the need for a stronger federal government.

Uploaded by

alexandra.oprea
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 2

James Madison Jr.

(March 16, 1751[b] – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, lawyer,
diplomat, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United
States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in
drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights. He also
co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, and served as the
fifth United States secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.
Born into a prominent Virginia planter family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of
Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War. He
became dissatisfied with the weak national government established by the Articles of
Confederation and helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new
constitution to supplant the Articles of Confederation. Madison's Virginia Plan served as the basis for
the Constitutional Convention's deliberations, and he was one of the most influential individuals at
the convention. Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, and
he joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing The Federalist Papers, a series of pro-
ratification essays that is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of political
science in American history.
After the ratification of the Constitution, Madison emerged as an important leader in the United
States House of Representatives and served as a close adviser to President George Washington.
He was the main force behind the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights, which enshrines
guarantees of personal freedoms and rights within the Constitution. During the early 1790s, Madison
came to oppose the economic program and accompanying centralization of power favored
by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison organized
the Democratic-Republican Party, which was, alongside Hamilton's Federalist Party, one of the
nation's first major political parties. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison
served as secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. In that position, he supervised the Louisiana
Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.
Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election. After diplomatic
protests and a trade embargo failed to end British attacks against American shipping, he led the
United States into the War of 1812. The war was an administrative morass and ended
inconclusively, but many Americans saw it as a successful "second war of independence" against
Britain. The war convinced Madison of the necessity of a stronger federal government, and he
presided over the creation of the Second Bank of the United States and the enactment of
the protective Tariff of 1816. He retired from public office in 1817 and died in 1836. Madison is
considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians
have generally ranked him as an above-average president.

You might also like