Who was James Madison?

James Madison was a Virginia planter and political theorist who is often called the Father of the Constitution because he drafted the Virginia Plan that framed the Constitutional Convention's agenda, kept the only detailed notes of the proceedings, helped write The Federalist Papers, drafted the Bill of Rights, and later served as the fourth President of the United States from March 4, 1809 to March 4, 1817. He was born on March 16, 1751 at Belle Grove Plantation in Port Conway, Virginia, grew up at Montpelier in Orange County, and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1771.

He served in the Virginia legislature, the Second Continental Congress from 1780 to 1783, and again in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he worked with Thomas Jefferson to enact the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. Alarmed by the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, Madison helped organize the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He arrived in Philadelphia early to draft the Virginia Plan, which Edmund Randolph introduced on May 29, 1787. The plan called for a strong national government with a bicameral legislature, an executive, a judiciary, and powers to override state laws, and it dominated the convention's debates.

Madison kept careful daily notes of the proceedings, the most complete record we have of the four month convention from May 25 to September 17, 1787. After signing the Constitution, Madison joined Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 essays published from October 1787 to August 1788 to persuade New York and other states to ratify. Madison's contributions, including Federalist No. 10 on faction and Federalist No. 51 on separation of powers, remain foundational works of political theory.

He represented Virginia in the First Congress beginning in March 1789, where he drafted the 12 amendments that became the Bill of Rights. Ten were ratified by the states by December 15, 1791, including the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments that anchor American civil liberties. Madison served as Jefferson's Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809 and oversaw the Louisiana Purchase.

As President he led the country through the War of 1812 against Britain, lost the burning of Washington in August 1814, and saw the war end with the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814. He retired to Montpelier in 1817 and died there on June 28, 1836 as the last living signer of the Constitution.