The life of a great American

According to Student Resource Center – Gold, James Madison was born March 16th, 1751 in the lovely King George County, Virginia. This county is located at the bottom of the Blue Ridge Moutains in Virgiania. He lived on the plantaion he was born on for life.The plantation was known as the Montpelier plantation. Montpelier produced tobacco and grain on four to five thousand acres with just about one hundred slaves. He was named after his father, James, and his mother was named Nelly. James was the oldest of seven, surviving children. As a young boy James favored reading over any outdoors activity and had a peculiar interest in the west. This made sense because Madison was small child and only grew to 5’4 and 100 pounds as an adult. When James was young he heard many bloody war stories about the Indians in the French and Indian war. Theese stories made Madison predjudice against American Indians for a lifetime. James was homeschooled till age twelve when he was sent to the school of Donald Robertson, a well known teacher. In his schooling days James learned Greek, Latin, French, mathematics, and furthered his reading. As a young man he graduated from Princeton University. During his college days James had a strong intreset in John Locke a religious rights advocator. Though he had a good college education after leaving Princeton James was still not sure of his career. Madison worked with Revolutionary war polotics, because he could not fight in battle due to poor health. James was elected a member of the Virginia convention. Soon after the convention James met a lifelong friend, Thomas Jefferson. Madison had an open mind in polotics which made him a worthy candidate for the Virginia Council. After the Virginia council Madison was elected as a state representative and wrote the bill of rights. Madison became president later in his life, but it wasn’t the high point of his career. Madison was more of an intellectual person than a leader. James married Dolley Todd at age 43. Dolley served as a hoostest for many whitehouse ocassions.While in office James lead America to the War of 1812. Madison died on June 28, 1836. James Madison had many years in politcs, is known as the father of the constituition, and the author of the bill of rights. James Madison is one of the greatest Americans ever and I truly don’t know where we would be without him.

The words of Madison causing the freedoms of many

The revolutionary war caused the economy of America to weaken delegates formed the constitutional convention. James Madison was very well prepared for the long process of the constitutional convention. He researched other governments to see their weaknesses strengths and downfalls. He concluded that the downfall of most governments was their weak national government. He discussed his research with George Washington and George Mason. From this discussion came the Virginia plan which was partially used in the constitution. The Virginia plan was merged with other ideas to form the great compromise. Madison worked as an unofficial secretary who took notes during the constitutional convention. Madison worked to make a new constitution with stronger central government but still maintaing checks and balances between other branches of government. While working to create a new constitution Madison stole ideas from the French about government. After the constitution was signed he worked hard for the people to agree with it. He explained all of its major principles and why it would work. All the trials and success of James Madison has earned him the title of Father of the Constitution.

Madison's year long trial for a lifetime of freedom

Madison was and advocate for many individual rights. While serving in the House of Represnetatives James got to share his thoughts on basic rights by writing the first amendments of the constitution. Madison wrote nineteen basic rights in the original draft of the first amendment. The states only approved ten of the basic rights James drafted. The ten rights becames the first amendment also known as the bill of rights is what protects all the basic rights you have that the government can’t control. Madison made and passed the bill of rights in one year, which is amazing because most amendments take much longer to pass. Though only a year was used to make and pass it, the bill of rights will protect you forever.

Did you know?

There are many interesting facts about James Madison. One thing would be that there is a university named after him. Madison lived in one house for his entire lifetime, he never moved. James knew three foreign languages. James was against slavery but he never freed his personal slaves. Madison was congress’s youngest member at age 29. Madison was engaged twice, but married once, because his first fiancé, Kitty, changed her mind. James graduated from Princeton University in only two years, back then it took most three years to graduate. Dolley gave up her Quaker religion to marry James, a non- Quaker. Madison didn’t miss a single day of the constitutional convention. James fought taxing the people to support the Christian churches, because it undermined religious freedom. Madison originally wrote 19 amendments for the bill of rights, but only ten got published.

Question1

How many amendments were published out of the ninteen James Madison wrote? Why do you think this is?

Question 2

Was James Madison's presidency the high point of his career? If not what do you think was?

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Work cited

Works Cited
Boyer, Candace. "Father of the Constitution (James Madison)." Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale, 9 Dec. 2007. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.
"Madison, James (1751-1836)." Student Resource Center - Gold. 2003. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.
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Photograph. Wordpress.com. Haysville Library, Aug. 2007. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.
Photograph. Www.questgarden.com. Questgarden.com. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
Triber, Jayne. "Madison, James (1751-1836)." Student Resource Center - Gold. 1997. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.