Happy early birthday to James Madison (3/16)

[Terabith]

James Madison, our fourth president, was called “The Father of the Constitution,” I guess because people in the 1700s really sucked at giving nicknames.

 

Really, his importance in shaping the laws that govern our country to this day cannot be overstated. He had one of the sharpest political minds ever, and in a time when political geniuses like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin were just all walking around, hanging out together, competition for genius was pretty darn stiff.

 

He didn’t exactly look presidential. He was a fun sized president, barely five foot four, and soaking wet he barely hit one hundred pounds. His voice was high, squeaky, and so quiet that reporters often couldn’t hear him and would just leave blanks where they missed what he was saying. He was sickly his entire life. He hated crowds and was something like a miniature Thomas Jefferson.

 

He grew up in Virginia, and went to Princeton, where his “accelerated course of study” led to his graduation in only two years, but may have compromised his health. He founded the American Whig Society as a competitor to Aaron Burr’s Cliosophic Society. He returned as Princeton’s first graduate student.

 

After the Revolutionary War and a whole lot of convoluted and really rather boring various proposals and counter proposals for new forms of government, Madison worked out a lot of the details for the new Constitution, spoke over two hundred times during the Convention, working to persuade fellow members to ratify it, kept the minutes which told us what happened during the Convention, and he convinced most attenders to shift focus from states being mostly sovereign to a shared relationship between states and the federal government. James Madison, along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, wrote The Federalist Papers, a series of essays to convince people to ratify the new United States Constitution.

 

James Madison won a seat in the US House of Representatives for Virginia. He served as an advisor on the Constitution to President Washington, and helped Washington write his first inaugural address. Madison set the agenda for the First Congress and helped Washington establish and staff the first three Cabinet departments. While Madison initially opposed any amendments to the Constitution, he eventually decided that they could help mitigate problems that might arise, and he introduced the bill that would propose amendments that eventually became the Bill of Rights.

 

Madison, along with Thomas Jefferson, founded the Democratic-Republican Party, largely in opposition to Alexander Hamilton’s strong Federalist and northern state dominated party and out of fear of Hamilton’s strong economic initiatives.

 

Madison served as Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of State, and then in 1808 became president in his own right, where his wife Dolly became the template for the role of the First Lady, and the two of them served ice cream at many White House parties, including the apparently delicious oyster flavored ice cream. This was a tumultuous time, because Britain and France were at war, a war which eventually spilled over to the United States, called the War of 1812. And while Mr. Madison might have been the shrimpiest man ever to be our commander in chief, he is also the only president who took up arms and personally led men into battle while president.

 

When the British invaded Washington and set fire to the White House, Dolly Madison rescued the portrait of George Washington and James Madison grabbed a set of pistols, ran outside and off to the front lines to try to rally the troops to fight the British. He was almost captured before moving towards the rear, and the British settled down to a nice, leisurely burning of the new nation’s capital, which was fortunately interrupted by….a tornado. Apparently God was on our side that day, I guess?

[Wishes]

Terabith are you getting these from somewhere or writing them yourself? They are quite funny 😄 

[Eos]

7 hours ago, Terabith said:

He was a fun sized president,

You are brilliant, Terabith!

[Terabith]

7 hours ago, Wishes said:

Terabith are you getting these from somewhere or writing them yourself? They are quite funny 😄 

I made an ABC Book of Presidents a few years ago for a class on teaching social studies, based on stuff I did with my kids.  So I am taking these from that document.  

[R828]

I am enjoying these so much!! Thanks for sharing! You should absolutely publish that book if it isn't already! I would buy it! 

[Wishes]

On 3/16/2022 at 8:47 AM, R828 said:

I am enjoying these so much!! Thanks for sharing! You should absolutely publish that book if it isn't already! I would buy it! 

I agree