James Madison is called the so-called "Father of the Constitution" in that he is given credit for doing more than anyone else to bring the Constitution into existence. For sure he did more than anyone else to push the Bill of Rights thru Congress. The irony is that Madison saw no idea for a BOR coming out of the Constitutional Convention. It was the only the agitation of the opponents to the new Constitution that Madison saw a need for a Bill of Rights to seal the deal and forestall an additional convention which might have doomed the document.
Brookhiser's book is better than Cheney's. His treatment is what we would call "balanced" as he gives both praise and criticism to Madison. I am impressed with Brookhiser.
The author plays up Madison's fight for religious freedom in his native state of Virginia. This is most laudable of Madison.
He doesn't shy away from pointing out that Madison was disappointed that much of his "Virginia Plan" like proportional representation in the Senate and a federal "negative" of state laws was rejected by the convention. Though disappointed by the final product, Madison, like Hamilton and the others, got behind ratification and it seems that Madison made the difference in Virginia's ratification.
In the preface Brookhiser plays up an episode of Madison's bravery during the War of 1812. Okay, we have to give him that.
Madison had the family background, an education from what ultimately became Princeton University, and the interest in politics to move to the center of national affairs. P. 35.
I don't see how anyone can deny that seeking a new Constitution was both a national necessity and a personal desire of the participants. P. 45
Federalist #54 is a slippery effort to justify the 3/5 rule. P. 66
"All this was rather dry, but Madison was working toward a great point. He had written that extending the sphere of government would frustrate unjust majorities. What about unjust government? Is it enough, he asks, in (Federalist) #48, to rely on 'parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power?' Any ruler, or body of rulers, will aggrandize himself or itself if given the chance ---even elected rulers. Madison quotes a line of Jefferson's, written several years earlier: 'An elected despotism was not the government we fought for.' " P. 68
Patrick Henry spoke as Homer wrote. P. 72
Madison, more than most, was driven by the events of his time. He came to see a Bill of Rights as a good thing though perhaps he never gave up his doubts. P. 76-77
Later in his career, he claimed to have unsuccessfully supported a Bill of Rights at the convention. Not true! P. 79
After Washington's inaugural address which Madison wrote, Madison wrote the House's response. P. 79
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