JamEsmadison – fathErofthEConstitution
Senior Counsel Section Chairs : TomHyde – AttorneyatLaw & DonaldSmith – Smith , Tozian , Daniel & Davis , PA
In 1786 , the United States of America was in trouble . The thirteen British American colonies had declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776 . The Revolutionary War had ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783 , and the United States of America now consisted of , not only the thirteen original colonies , but all of the land from the Atlantic Ocean in the east , to the Mississippi River in the west . Struggling to govern this new growing nation , the first Continental Congress established the Articles of Confederation . 1
It soon became clear to James Madison that the government of the Articles was not working . He was worried that under the Articles of Confederation , the government would collapse . No money was being paid into the public treasury , no respect was given to the federal authority , and not a single state had complied with the requisitions . Madison realized it was not possible for a government to last long under these circumstances . 2 But he knew that he had to be prepared . Over the next few months Madison studied books
sent to him by Thomas Jefferson about the history of ancient and modern systems of government . 3 He began to contemplate the problems of ancient Greek confederacies . 4
In 1787 , delegates from several states met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to draft a new plan for the American government . At the time of the Constitutional convention , Madison was only 36 years old . He was not an impressive speaker , and he was only five feet tall and not physically imposing . But he was knowledgeable . He had gone to the College of New Jersey , later called Princeton University , where he studied Latin and Greek . Through his studies and his preparation , Madison arrived in Philadelphia as the “ best-informed man in America on the principles of government .” 5
At the Constitutional Convention , Madison played a key role in drafting a new plan for the government of the United States . He proposed a two-house national
forhiscriticalrolein draftingandpromoting theConstitution , James madisonhasbeen called “ thefatherof theConstitution .”
legislature with the lower house elected by the people . The new government would also have a national executive and a national judiciary . 6 For his critical role in drafting and promoting the Constitution , James Madison has been called the “ Father of the Constitution .” He wrote the document which served as the model for the Constitution . He also drafted the Bill of Rights , the first ten amendments to the Constitution .
The Constitution was finally adopted by the Convention in 1787 when “ we the people ” ordained and established the Constitution to secure the blessings of liberty to “ ourselves and our posterity ”. 7 But it was not over . The Constitution still had to be ratified by at least nine of the thirteen States . So , in the first seven months of 1788 , Madison , along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay , authored the Federalist Papers , a series of
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