98 Facts About President James Madison

1. President James Madison took careful notes on each confederation's structure and operations, specifically commenting on the deficiencies he perceived in each.

2. President James Madison was one of the primary creators of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

3. President James Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays.

4. President James Madison is widely regarded as one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States.

5. President James Madison believed the adoption of European-style agriculture would help Native Americans assimilate the values of British-US civilization.

6. President James Madison approved federal spending on the Cumberland Road, which provided a link to the country's western lands, but in his last act before leaving office, he blocked further federal spending on internal improvements by vetoing the Bonus Bill of 1817.

7. President James Madison escaped capture in the aftermath of the battle, but the British burned Washington.

8. President James Madison settled on a new strategy designed to pit the British and French against each other, offering to trade with whichever country would end their attacks against American shipping.

9. Early in his presidency, President James Madison sought to continue Jefferson's policies of low taxes and a reduction of the national debt.

10. President James Madison gained another trusted confidant in the Cabinet when he dismissed Secretary of State Robert Smith in 1811, replacing him with Monroe.

11. President James Madison chose not to fight Congress for the nomination but kept Gallatin in the Treasury Department.

12. President James Madison became the target of attacks from Congressman John Randolph, a leader of a faction of the party known as the tertium quids.

13. President James Madison convinced Jefferson to refrain from proposing the amendment, and the administration ultimately submitted the Louisiana Purchase without an accompanying constitutional amendment.

14. At age 50, President James Madison inherited the large plantation of Montpelier and other possessions, including his father's numerous slaves.

15. President James Madison's was widely popular in the capital of Washington, and she excelled at dinners and other important political occasions.

16. President James Madison never had children, but he adopted Dolley's one surviving son, John Payne Todd, after the marriage.

17. President James Madison issued the Report of 1800, which attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional but disregarded Jefferson's theory of nullification.

18. The British West Indies, President James Madison maintained, could not live without American foodstuffs, but Americans could easily do without British manufactures.

19. President James Madison sought to mobilize public opinion by forming a political party based on opposition to Hamilton's policies.

20. President James Madison's proposed amendments were largely adopted by the House of Representatives, but the Senate made several changes.

21. President James Madison played a major role in establishing and staffing the three Cabinet departments, and his influence helped Thomas Jefferson become the inaugural Secretary of State.

22. President James Madison helped Washington write his first inaugural address, and prepared the official House response to Washington's address.

23. At the request of Washington, President James Madison sought a seat in the US Senate, but the state legislature instead elected two Anti-Federalist allies of Patrick Henry.

24. President James Madison helped arrange the 1785 Mount Vernon Conference, which settled disputes regarding navigation rights on the Potomac River and served as a model for future interstate conferences.

25. President James Madison came to believe that the United States could improve upon past republican experiments by virtue of its size; with so many distinct interests competing against each other, Madison hoped to minimize the abuses of majority rule.

26. President James Madison was deeply concerned about the inability of Congress to capably conduct foreign policy, protect American trade, and foster the settlement of the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.

27. President James Madison became a land speculator, purchasing land along the Mohawk River in a partnership with another Jefferson protege, James Monroe.

28. President James Madison served on the Council of State from 1777 to 1779, when he was elected to the Second Continental Congress, the governing body of the United States.

29. President James Madison believed that the British Parliament had overstepped its bounds by imposing taxation on the American colonies, and he sympathized with those who resisted British rule.

30. President James Madison's studies at Princeton included Latin, Greek, theology, and the works of the Enlightenment.

31. President James Madison is generally considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians have generally ranked Madison as an above-average president.

32. President James Madison retired from public office in 1817 and died in 1836.

33. President James Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election.

34. President James Madison 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.

35. President James Madison 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.

36. President James Madison 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.

37. President James Madison died of natural causes in Montpelier, Virginia on June 28, 1836.

38. President James Madison would serve as secretary of state during the presidency of his friend Thomas Jefferson whom he would succeed as the fourth president of the United States in 1809 at the age of 57.

39. President James Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836, at the age of 85.

40. President James Madison was elected to the newly formed US House of Representatives, where he served from 1789 to 1797.

41. President James Madison left Congress in 1797, disgusted by John Jay's treaty with England, which frustrated his program of commercial retaliation against the wartime oppression of US maritime commerce.

42. President James Madison took day-by-day notes of debates at the Constitutional Convention, which furnish the only comprehensive history of the proceedings.

43. President James Madison was born at the home of his maternal grandmother.

44. President James Madison extended the offer that if either nation worked to protect American shipping interests, they would be allowed to trade.

45. President James Madison joined forces with Thomas Jefferson to create the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in opposition to these acts.

46. President James Madison was one of the main proponents ​of the passage of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights.

47. President James Madison went to Congress to ask for a declaration of war against England that started the War of 1812.

48. President James Madison had earlier done extensive scholarly research on various forms of government.

49. Around this time, President James Madison met Thomas Jefferson and the two became lifelong friends.

50. President James Madison studied law; not with an intention to practice but due to his interest in public policy.

51. President James Madison died on June 28, 1836, at the Montpelier estate.

52. President James Madison kept himself busy by running the plantation and serving on a special board to create the University of Virginia, with the help of Thomas Jefferson.

53. President James Madison initiated the War of 1812, and served two terms in the White House with first lady Dolley Madison.

54. President James Madison proposed that apportionment in the United States Senate be allocated by the sum of each state's free population and slave population, eventually leading to the adoption of the Three-Fifths Compromise.

55. At the Philadelphia Convention, President James Madison favored an immediate end to the importation of slaves, though the final document barred Congress from interfering with the international slave trade until 1808.

56. President James Madison was one of the last prominent members of the Revolutionary War generation to die.

57. President James Madison is buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier.

58. President James Madison died at Montpelier on the morning of June 28, 1836.

59. President James Madison helped Jefferson establish the University of Virginia, though the university was primarily Jefferson's initiative.

60. President James Madison believed their adoption of European-style agriculture would help the Creek assimilate the values of British-US civilization.

61. President James Madison approved an effective taxation system based on tariffs, a standing professional military, and some of the internal improvements championed by Clay under Clay's American System.

62. President James Madison had presided over the expiration of the First Bank of the United States's charter in 1811.

63. President James Madison quickly sent the Treaty of Ghent to the Senate, and the Senate ratified the treaty on February 16, 1815.

64. President James Madison authorized many of these ships to become privateers in the war, and they captured 1,800 British ships.

65. President James Madison had believed the state militias would rally to the flag and invade Canada, but the governors in the Northeast failed to cooperate.

66. President James Madison hoped that the war would end in a couple months after the capture of Canada, but his hopes were quickly dashed.

67. President James Madison accepted Napoleon's proposal in the hope that it would convince the British to revoke the Orders-in-Council, but the British refused to change their policies.

68. In early 1810, President James Madison began asking Congress for more appropriations to increase the Army and Navy in preparation for war with Britain.

69. President James Madison resisted calls for war, as he was ideologically opposed to the debt and taxes necessary for a war effort.

70. President James Madison became the target of attacks from Congressman John Randolph, a leader of the tertium quids.

71. President James Madison had begun to act as a steward of his father's properties by 1780.

72. At age 50, President James Madison inherited the large plantation of Montpelier and other possessions, including his father's 108 slaves.

73. President James Madison's is credited with adding to his popularity in office.

74. President James Madison had no children but adopted Todd's one surviving son, John Payne Todd, after the marriage.

75. President James Madison laid the groundwork for Jefferson's campaign, building alliances in various states in hopes of ensuring Jefferson's election.

76. President James Madison lost much of his influence in the Washington administration, as Washington increasingly turned to Jefferson and Hamilton for advice.

77. President James Madison objected to the bank, arguing that its creation was not authorized by the constitution.

78. President James Madison had opposed proposals for a bill of rights throughout the ratification process, but while running for Congress he had pledged to support a bill of rights.

79. President James Madison helped arrange for the appointment of Thomas Jefferson as the inaugural Secretary of State.

80. President James Madison set the legislative agenda of the 1st Congress and helped establish and staff the first three Cabinet departments.

81. President James Madison helped Washington write his first inaugural address, and prepared the official House response to the address.

82. Early in his tenure, President James Madison was a principal adviser of President Washington, who looked to Madison as the person who best understood the constitution.

83. President James Madison persuaded prominent figures such as Randolph to change their position and support it at the ratifying convention.

84. President James Madison ensured that his writings were delivered to Randolph, Mason, and other prominent Virginia anti-federalists, as those opposed to the ratification of the Constitution were known.

85. President James Madison convinced his fellow Congressman to allow each state vote upon the Constitution as formulated by the Philadelphia Convention, and remain neutral in the ratification debate.

86. President James Madison helped ensure that the President of the United States would have the ability to veto federal laws and would be elected independently of Congress through the Electoral College.

87. President James Madison had hoped that a coalition of Southern states and populous Northern states would ensure the approval of a constitution largely similar to the one proposed in the Virginia Plan.

88. President James Madison worked with his fellow members of the Virginia delegation, especially Edmund Randolph and George Mason, to create and present the plan to the convention.

89. President James Madison helped arrange the 1785 Mount Vernon Conference, which helped settle disputes regarding navigation rights on the Potomac River and served as a model for future interstate conferences.

90. President James Madison became increasingly worried about the disunity of the states and the weakness of the central government after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

91. President James Madison served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1786.

92. President James Madison worked to make himself an expert on financial issues, becoming a legislative workhorse and a master of parliamentary coalition building.

93. President James Madison served on the Council of State from 1777 to 1779, when he was elected to the Congress of the Confederation.

94. President James Madison collaborated with the Baptist preacher Elijah Craig to promote constitutional guarantees for religious liberty in Virginia.

95. President James Madison returned home to Montpelier in early 1772, still unsure of his future career.

96. President James Madison learned mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages—he became especially proficient in Latin.

97. President James Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election, and he won re-election in 1812.

98. President James Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.