1751=1836.

James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born at Port Conway, Virginia, and was a graduate of Princeton, where he was a profound and excellent student. He and Jefferson were always friends; yet they differed in some political opinions, for Madison was a Federalist, and he contributed many papers to the periodical of that name.

In 1794 he married Mrs. Dorothy Payne Todd, a lady of extraordinary beauty and rare accomplishments; and the reign of Mrs. Dolly Madison at the White House is esteemed its most brilliant period. “Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison,” by her grand-niece, published in 1887 at Boston, is a most interesting book.

President Madison died at his home “Montpelier,” Orange County, Virginia. See his Life, by W.C. Rives, and by Gay.

WORKS.

Madison Papers (3 vols.), [Debates of the Convention, 1789].
Unpublished Writings.
29 Papers in the “Federalist.”

Professor Fiske says of Madison: “Among the founders of our nation, his place is beside that of Washington, Jefferson, and Marshall; but his part was peculiar. He was pre-eminently the scholar, the profound constructive thinker, and his limitations were such as belong to that character.”

OPINION OF LAFAYETTE, (IN LETTERS TO JEFFERSON).

(From Rives’ Life of Madison.[4])

(17 Oct., 1784.)—The time I have lately passed with the Marquis has given me a pretty thorough insight into his character. With great natural frankness of temper, he unites much address and very considerable talents. In his politics, he says his three hobby-horses are the alliance between France and the United States, the union of the latter, and the manumission of the slaves. The two former are the dearer to him, as they are connected with his personal glory........ (20 August, 1785.)—Subsequent to the date of mine in which I gave my idea of Lafayette, I had other opportunities of penetrating his character. Though his foibles did not disappear, all the favorable traits presented themselves in a stronger light, on closer inspection. He certainly possesses talents which might figure in any line. If he is ambitious, it is rather of the praise which virtue dedicates to merit than of the homage which fear renders to power. His disposition is naturally warm and affectionate, and his attachment to the United States unquestionable. Unless I am grossly deceived, you will find his zeal sincere and useful, whenever it can be employed on behalf of the United States without opposition to the essential interests of France.

PLEA FOR A REPUBLIC, ALTHOUGH A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

(From the “Federalist,” 14th No.)

But why is the experiment of an extended Republic to be rejected, merely because it may comprise what is new? Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous improvements displayed on the American theatre in favor of private rights and public happiness. Had no important step been taken by the leaders of the Revolution for which a precedent could not be discovered; no government established of which an exact model did not present itself,—the people of the United States might, at this moment, have been numbered among the melancholy victims of misguided counsels; must, at best, have been laboring under the weight of some of those forms which have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind. Happily for America,—happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of government, which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder at the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the Union, this was the work most difficult to be executed; this is the work which has been new-modelled by the act of your convention; and it is that act on which you are now to deliberate and decide.

CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON.

(“drawn by Mr. Madison, amid the tranquil scenes of his own final retirement; and intended.... for his family and friends.”)

The strength of his character lay in his integrity, his love of justice, his fortitude, the soundness of his judgment, and his remarkable prudence; to which he joined an elevated sense of patriotic duty, and a reliance on the enlightened and impartial world as the tribunal by which a lasting sentence on his career would be pronounced. Nor was he without the advantage of a stature and figure which, however insignificant when separated from greatness of character, do not fail, when combined with it, to aid the attraction. What particularly distinguished him was a modest dignity, which at once commanded the highest respect and inspired the purest attachment.

Although not idolizing public opinion, no man could be more attentive to the means of ascertaining it. In comparing the candidates for office, he was particularly inquisitive as to their standing with the public, and the opinion entertained of them by men of public weight. On the important questions to be decided by him, he spared no pains to gain information from all quarters; freely asking from all whom he held in esteem, and who were intimate with him, a free communication of their sentiments; receiving with great attention the arguments and opinions offered to him; and making up his own judgment with all the leisure that was permitted.