History Series: James Madison

History of James Madison

Father of the Constitution

James Madison has been correctly called “the Father of the Constitution,” and one might think that the Constitution became active on July 5, 1776, but this is not how it happened.

The American Constitution didn’t go into effect until almost a decade and a half after the Declaration of Independence.

How did this philosopher, diplomat, and Founding Father influence this?

James Madison’s Youth

James Madison was born on March 16, 1751, into a distinguished planter family in Virginia, as had fellow Virginians George Washington and Thomas Jefferson before him. As a boy, his secondary education was conducted by a popular local Scottish tutor who taught him geography, mathematics, and modern and ancient languages. He was excellent at Latin. A local Presbyterian reverend did his college preparatory work. In contrast to other young Virginians, such as Thomas Jefferson, he did not attend college at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. His health was somewhat fragile, and the lowlands of that area would, it was believed, be harmful to his health.

Instead, the shy, quiet, and diminutive Madison — he was 5’4″ to Washington’s 6’4″ — attended…