Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/199

Rh MADISON, James, fourth president of the United States, b. in Port Conwuy, Va., 10 March, 1751 ; d. at Montpelicr, Orange "co., Va., 28 June, 1836. His earliest paternal ancestor in Virginia seems to have been John Madison, who, in 1653,"took out a patent for land between the North and York rivers on Chesapeake bay. There was a Capt. Isaac Madison in Virginia in 1023-'o, but his relation- ship to John Madison is matter of doubt. John's son, named also John, was father of Ambrose Madison, who married, 24 Aug., 1721, Frances, daughter of James Taylor, of Orange county, Va. Frances had four brothers, one of whom, Zachary, was grandfather of Zachary Taylor, twelfth presi- dent of the United States". The eldest child of Ambrose and Frances was James Madison, b. 27 March, 1723, who married, 15 Sept., 1749, Nelly Conway, of Port Conway. The eldest child of James and Nelly was James, the subject of this article, who was the first of twelve children. His ancestors, as he says himself in a note furnished to Dr. Lyman C. Draper in 1834. "were not among the most wealthy of the country, but in independ- ent and comfortable circumstances." James's edu- cation was begun at an excellent school kept by a Scotchman named Donald Robertson, and his studies, preparatory for college, were completed at home under the care of the Rev. Thomas Martin, clergyman of the parish. He was graduated at Princeton in 1772, and remained there another year, devoting himself to the study of Hebrew. On returning home, he occupied himself with his- tory, law, and theology, while teaching his broth- ers and sisters. Of the details of his youthful studies little is known, but his industry must have been very great ; for, in spite of the early age at which he became absorbed in the duties of public life, the range and solidity of his acquirements were extraordinary. For minute and thorough knowledge of ancient and modern history and of constitutional law he was unequalled among the Americans of the Revolutionary period ; only Hamilton, and perhaps Ellsworth and Marshall, approached him in this regard. For precocity of mental development he resembled Hamilton and the younger Pitt, and, like Washington, he was distinguished in youth for soundness of judgment, keenness of perception, • and rare capacity for work. Along with these admirable qualities, his lofty integrity and his warm interest in public af- fairs were well known to the people of Orange, so that when, in the autumn of 1774, it was thought necessary to appoint a committee of safety, Madi- son was its youngest member. Early in 1776 he was chosen a delegate to the State convention, which met at Williamsburg in May. The first business of the convention was to instruct the Virginia delegation in the Continental congress with regard to an immediate declaration of inde- pendence. Next came the work of making a con- stitution for the state, and Madison was one of the special committee appointed to deal with this problem. Plere one of his first acts was highly characteristic. Religious liberty was a matter that strongly enlisted his feelings. When it was pro- posed that, under the new constitution, " all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience," Madison pointed out that this provision did not go to the root of the matter. The free exercise of re- ligion, according to the dictates of conscience, is something which every man may demand as a right, not something for which he must ask as a privilege. To grant to the state the power of tol- erating is implicitly to grant it to the power of prohibiting, whereas Madison would deny to it any jurisdiction whatever in the matter of religion, The clause in the bill of rights, as finally adopted at his suggestion, accordingly declares that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of re- ligion, according to the dictates of conscience." The incident illustrates not only Madison's liber- ality of spirit, but also his precision and fore- thought in so drawing up an instrument as to make it mean all that it was intended to mean. In his later career these qualities were especially brilliant and useful. Madison was elected a member of the first legislature under the new state constitution, but he failed of re-election because he refused to solicit votes or to furnish whiskey for thirsty voters. The new legislature then elected him a member of the governor's council, and in 1780 he was sent as delegate to the Continental congress. The high consideration in which he was held showed itself in the number of important commit- tees to which he was appointed. As chairman of a committee for drawing up instructions for John Jay, then minister at the court of Madrid, he in- sisted that, in making a treaty with Spain, our right to the free navigation of the Mississippi river should on no account be surrendered. Mr. Jay was instructed accordingly, but toward the end of 1780 the pressure of the war upon the southern states increased the desire for an alliance with Spain to such a point that they seemed ready to purchase it at any price. Virginia, therefore, proposed that the surrender of our rights upon the Mississippi should be offered to Spain as the con- dition of an offensive and defensive alliance. Such a proposal was no douVjt ill-advised. Since Spain was already, on her own account and to the best of her ability, waging war upon Great Britain in the West Indies and Florida, to say nothing of Gib- raltar, it is doubtful if she could have done much more for the United States, even if we had offered her the whole Mississippi valley. The offer of a permanent and invaluable right in exchange for a temporary and questionable advantage seemed to Mr. Madison very unwise ; but as it was then gen- erally held that in such matters representatives must be bound by the wishes of their constituents, he yielded, though under protest. But hardly had the fresh instructions been despatched to Mr. Jay when the overthrow of Comwallis again turned the scale, and Spain was informed that, as con- cerned the IMississippi question, congress was im- movable. The foresight and sound judgment shown by Mr. Madison in this discussion added much to his reputation.

His next prominent action related to the impost law proposed in 1783. This was, in some respects, the most important question of the day. The chief source of the weakness of the United States during the Revolutionary war had been the im- possibility of raising money by means of Federal taxation. As long as money could be raised only through requisitions upon the state governments, and the different states could not be brought to agree upon any method of enforcing the requisi- tions, the state governments were sure to prove delinquent. Finding it impossible to obtain money for carrying on the war. congress had resorted to the issue of large quantities of inconvertible paper, with the natural results. There had been a rapid inflation of values, followed by sudden liankruptcy and the prostration of national credit, in 1783 it had become difficult to obtain foreign loans, and at home the government could not raise nearly enough money to defray its current expenses. To remedy the evil a tariff of five per cent, upon sun-