The 4th U.S " James Madison ", President of The United States

James Madison: At its inception in office, James Madison, a small and spellbinding man, appeared to be old and worn; Washington Irving described him as "an apple a bit wilted." But any deficiency in his charm, his exuberant wife Dolley compensated with the warmth and grace. She was the celebrity of Washington. Born in 1751, Madison was raised in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton University (by then called the College of New Jersey). Student of history and government, well versed in law, participated in the formation of the Constitution of Virginia in 1776, he served in the Continental Congress, and was leader of the Assembly of Virginia. When delegated to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, Madison 36 years old took frequent part in discussions and emphatically. Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the "father of the Constitution," Madison protested that the document was "the offspring of a single brain," but rather "the work of many heads and many hands." In Congress, he helped in the creation of Charter rights and decreed the first revenue legislation. His leadership in opposition to the financial offers of Hamilton, he felt unduly granted wealth and power to the financierosnorteños, came the development of the Republican Party, or Jeffersonian party.

As Secretary of State under President Jefferson, Madison protested to warring France and Britain to the seizure of American ships was contrary to international law. Protests, John Randolph said acidly, had the effect of "discrediting a brochure launched against ochocienta warships". Despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their minds but which if caused a depression in the United States, Madison was elected president in 1808. Before he took the job was done, the Embargo Act was eliminated. During the first year of the administration of Madison, the United States banned trade with Britain and France; Then in May 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, that whatever was to accept the opinion of America on neutral rights, to forbid trade with another nation. Napoleon pretended to comply. Later in 1810, Madison proclaimed not have any trade with Britain. In Congress a young group including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the "War Hawks," pressed the President for a more militant policy. British impression of American sailors and the siege of the cargeros urged Madison to give in to the pressure. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war.

The young nation was not prepared to fight; forces obtained a severe defeat. The British entered Washington and set fire to the White House and Capitol Hill. But a few notable naval and military victories, culminated by the victory of Gen. Andrew Jackson in New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful. A resurgence of nationalism resulted. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war, and had even talked of separation, were so strongly repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party. In retirement at Montpelier, his land in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke against the influences of the rights of disruptive states that by the 1830's threatened to break the Federal Union. In an open letter after his death in 1836, he said, "The advice nearest to my heart and from the depths of my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."