James Madison

What You Have in Common

Like Madison, you are

thoughtful and analytical—you are good at spotting errors
someone who thinks before they speak
skilled at finding compromise
good at turning ideas into action

Twenty-First-Century Perspective

James Madison was patient and insightful. He studied the best way to build a government. Modern Americans value Madison’s contributions to republican democracy and good governance, but find these values hard to reconcile with his status as a slaveholder. Today’s equivalent visionaries are intellectuals, activists, and attorneys who protect civil liberties.

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Problem Solver • Delegate to Continental Congress

1751–1836

Virginia

James Madison focused on the crucial matter of how to protect rights. The first step would be American independence from the rights-squashing British king. To that end, Madison joined his local committee of safety and militia. He was selected for the Fifth Virginia Convention and the Continental Congress.

Madison protected the American Revolution's gains by stabilizing the federal government. He helped draft the US Constitution, and then fought for its ratification with the Federalist Papers. One of his most important essays explains why a separation of powers would ward off an oppressive central government. Madison also advocated for the Bill of Rights.

Madison worried that slavery conflicted with republican government but was not an abolitionist. At the time of his death, Madison enslaved thirty-six people, including Paul Jennings, his valet. Jennings later wrote a memoir of Madison and his presidency, published in 1865.

“Equal laws protecting equal rights are . . . the best guarantee of loyalty & love of country.”

James Madison to Jacob De La Motta, August 1820. Image: James Madison by James Vanderlyn, 1816. White House Historical Association.

“[Madison] had often intimated his intention, long before he avowed his determination to me, to emancipate them [enslaved people]. . . . He has now died without having freed one.”

Edward Coles to Sarah Coles Stevenson, November 21, 1836. Image: Edward Coles by John Henry Brown, 1852. Winterthur Museum Collection.