James Madison has been called the "Father of Our Constitution". That is a weighty title, but one that is well deserved, for James Madison worked harder than any other to bring the Constitution into fruition.
Before the Constitution could become law, it had to be ratified by two-thirds of the thirteen states. James Madison campaigned hard for it's ratification and co-authored a series of essays with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton under the pseudonym of Plubius. A total of eighty-five articles, known as "The Federalist Papers" which began to appear in the New York journal served as a way to persuade convention voters and ultimately the general public that the current government under the Confederation of the Articles was defective and a proposed Constitution with three branches of government should replace it. In 1789, as a member and leading voice in the House of Representatives, Madison also introduced a series of constitutional amendments that would later become foundation for the Bill of Rights.
Even prior to campaigning for the Constitution, Madison was hard at work preparing for Constitutional Convention. In May of 1877, 55 delegates were off to gather in Philadelphia for the Convention . Travel was very slow, members arrived days apart from each other. Some didn't arrive until the convention was already in session for two months. James Madison was actually the first to arrive and while waiting for others, he began drafting a blueprint known as the Virginia plan. The Virginia plan was a proposal by the Virginia delegates that proposed a bicameral (two branches) legislative system and played an important role in creating the idea behind representation according to the population. The Virginia Plan allowed the convention to get off to a good start.
Thus, it was Madison's hard work preparing for the convention, campaigning for the constitution and co-authoring the Federalist papers which gave him the nickname "Father of the Constitution". And if that wasn't enough, Madison took the most detailed notes of all the founding fathers. Historians know most of what the do about what took place at the convention because of Madison's meticulous note taking during each of the 100 days of the convention. So, it is quite fitting that Madison ended his final State of the Union Address with an admiration of the Constitution. America was celebrating it's 40th year as a new nation, and the Constitution had proved itself. The "federate and elective principles", that is a strong federal government that was representative of the population had succeeded. The constitution balanced public strength with "individual liberty" (perhaps a reference to the Bill of Rights) and national defense with security against wars of ambition. Madison held out faith in the constitution that it would endure and be found "capable, without losing its vital energies" of serving a country that was destined to be a vast nation over a spacious territory.
"Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources, which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the American people have reached in safety and success their 40th year as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have had experience of their present Constitution, the off-spring of their undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances; to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national power for the defense of national rights with a security against wars of injustice, of ambition, and vain-glory in the fundamental provision which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion of the community for whose benefit it was established."
For more information on the Federalist Papers. Please visit TaraRoss.com. Tara Ross does a wonderful job of summarizing each paper, and explaining it's purpose and impact on our nation.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29458
The Federalist Papers (Edited By Benjamin F. Wright) Introduction.
http://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/james-madison-father-the-constitution
https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/james-madison/
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