The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread which deals with James Madison. There is also a separate thread in the Presidential Series folder.



James Madison Jr. (March 16 [O.S. March 5], 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He 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.

Born into a prominent Virginia planting family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War. In the late 1780s, he helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution to supplant the ineffective Articles of Confederation. After the Convention, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, and his collaboration with Alexander Hamilton produced The Federalist Papers, among the most important treatises in support of the Constitution.

After the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, Madison won election to the United States House of Representatives. While simultaneously serving as a close adviser to President George Washington, Madison emerged as one of the most prominent members of the 1st Congress, helping to pass several bills establishing the new government. For his role in drafting the first ten amendments to the Constitution during the 1st Congress, Madison is known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights." Though he had played a major role in the enactment of a new constitution that created a stronger federal government, Madison opposed the centralization of power sought by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during Washington's presidency. To oppose Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party, which became one of the nation's two first major political parties alongside Hamilton's Federalist Party. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison served as Jefferson's Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. In this role, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation's size.

Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election, and he won re-election in 1812. After the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against the United Kingdom, he led the U.S. into the War of 1812. The war was an administrative morass, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, Madison came to support a stronger national government and military, as well as the national bank, which he had long opposed. Historians have generally ranked Madison as an above-average president.

Remainder of article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M...

Source: Wikipedia

Here is another installment of the Hillsdale Federalist Papers videos:

"The Improved Science of Politics"
Overview

Publius argued that the “science of politics . . . has received great improvement” in his own day. These improvements include separation of powers, legislative checks and balances, judges who serve a life term during good behavior, and what he called “the ENLARGEMENT of the ORBIT” of government. Contrary to the practice of previous republics, Publius argued that a republic had a much greater chance of achieving success if it is spread out over a large or extended territory, rather than a small or contracted one.

Link to Video: https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/...

And Q&A:
https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/...

David Hume had an effect on the three Federalist Essayists.


David Hume, oil on canvas by Allan Ramsay, 1766; in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Who was he:

David Hume, (born May 7 [April 26, Old Style], 1711, Edinburgh, Scotland—died August 25, 1776, Edinburgh), Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism.

Hume conceived of philosophy as the inductive, experimental science of human nature. Taking the scientific method of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton as his model and building on the epistemology of the English philosopher John Locke, Hume tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring what is called knowledge. He concluded that no theory of reality is possible; there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience. Despite the enduring impact of his theory of knowledge, Hume seems to have considered himself chiefly as a moralist.

Remainder of article:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/...

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica


Title page of the first edition of the first volume of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, London, England, 1739


David Hume, statue in Edinburgh.


Portrait of Scottish philosopher David Hume, by David Martin, 1770; in a private collection

by David Hume

The Federalist Papers and reading them was discussed on the Senate floor three days ago:

See article and video:

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...

Excerpt:

“Congress is supposed to be a separate, equal branch of government,” he said.

“Read the Constitution. Read the Federalist Papers,” Schumer said.

“One of the main purposes of Congress was to check the power of the executive branch,” he said. “Our Founding Fathers feared an overreaching executive branch, as I know my friend from Nebraska knows, because he cites these things. That responsibility doesn’t fall only on one party. It falls on all of us.”

James Madison and the Constitution

Video on C-Span - James Madison and the Constitution
https://www.c-span.org/video/?315028-...

Source: C-Span

James Madison
An introduction to James Madison by historian Joe Ellis

In this video, historian Joe Ellis and Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson discuss James Madison and his involvement in the founding of the United States of America. Created by Aspen Institute.

Link: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-c...

Source: Khan Academy