Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Printer's errors have been corrected and are listed at the end of the book. All other inconsistencies are as in the original.

Giants of America

The Founding Fathers

[Illustration: James Madison]

JAMES MADISON

by

SYDNEY HOWARD GAY

[Illustration: _The Home of James Madison_]

ARLINGTON HOUSE _New Rochelle, N.Y._

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE VIRGINIA MADISONS 1

II. THE YOUNG STATESMAN 15

III. IN CONGRESS 28

IV. IN THE STATE ASSEMBLY 45

V. IN THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE 61

VI. PUBLIC DISTURBANCES AND ANXIETIES 73

VII. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 84

VIII. "THE COMPROMISES" 94

IX. ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 110

X. THE FIRST CONGRESS 122

XI. NATIONAL FINANCES--SLAVERY 144

XII. FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS 164

XIII. FRENCH POLITICS 185

XIV. HIS LATEST YEARS IN CONGRESS 207

XV. AT HOME--"RESOLUTIONS OF '98 AND '99" 225

XVI. SECRETARY OF STATE 242

XVII. THE EMBARGO 254

XVIII. MADISON AS PRESIDENT 272

XIX. WAR WITH ENGLAND 290

XX. CONCLUSION 309

INDEX 325

ILLUSTRATIONS

JAMES MADISON _Frontispiece_

From the painting by Sully in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.

Autograph from a MS. in the New York Public Library, Lenox Building.

The vignette of "Montpelier," Madison's home at Montpelier, Va., is from a photograph. Page

CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY _facing_ 98

From the original painting by Gilbert Stuart in the possession of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D. D., LL. D., Charleston, S. C.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: James Madison by Sydney Howard Gay
• 2: Autograph from the Chamberlain Collection
• 3: Is to be regretted from the Rives point of view
• 4: Rives knew nothing of these Records
• 5: Of the name of Donald Robertson
• 6: But in Virginia history nothing is impossible
• 7: The daughter of John Catlett and Gaines
• 8: According to the dictates of conscience
• 9: And these expedients generating new difficulties
• 10: In the paper currency or certificates of the States
• 11: It is to be hoped it came without further chiding
• 12: A further loan had been asked of France in 1782
• 13: Madison is conspicuous conspicuous without being obtrusive
• 14: An impost law of five per cent
• 15: If included in the basis of taxation
• 16: But if slaves were enumerated as a basis of representation
• 17: A daughter of General William Floyd of Long Island
• 18: A great grandson of General William Floyd
• 19: It would then be easy enough to enforce imposts
• 20: It was becoming plainer and plainer every day that
• 21: While this was going on in Maryland
• 22: And the report of the Potomac commissioners
• 23: They appointed Annapolis as the place
• 24: At each of the three sessions of the legislature
• 25: Madison saw that the proposed remedy would be to give
• 26: Jefferson writes him of a new invention
• 27: Madison had only just heard of this discovery
• 28: Madison again took a seat in Congress
• 29: What else could that be but a monarchy
• 30: Rather exasperated than pacified by such a proposition
• 31: Jay's project for shutting the Mississippi
• 32: The recommendation from Annapolis
• 33: Madison is called the Father of the Constitution
• 34: Preserved equality of suffrage in the equality of States
• 35: Might be avoided by concessions
• 36: But to their great interest every non slaveholder was
• 37: And Pinckney nothing to be alarmed at
• 38: Lay with slavery and its consequences
• 39: What enriches a part enriches the whole
• 40: Like most of the Southern delegates north of the Carolinas
• 41: Slavery was precisely that one which was not adjusted
• 42: Madison wrote a month after it adjourned
• 43: The anxiety of the Federalists grew
• 44: Warville Brissot has just arrived here
• 45: And a change of five more votes would have elected Madison
• 46: CHAPTER XTHE FIRST CONGRESS The confederate Congress
• 47: Madison would have been certain to know it
• 48: The distilleries would be shut up
• 49: If the imported negroes were goods
• 50: Madison proposed to make it still larger
• 51: The impost bill secured the means to work with
• 52: The South wanted the capital on the Potomac
• 53: What the fortuitous coincidence was he does not explain
• 54: Notwithstanding the law to put an end to importation in 1808
• 55: Was this ostensible creditor the sole creditor
• 56: To pay both classes of creditors
• 57: 000 of Massachusetts and South Carolina
• 58: Madison said in one of his letters
• 59: Slavery was quite safe under the Constitution
• 60: And we adopted them with their Quakers
• 61: This was the burden of the argument of the Federalists
• 62: Those who opposed the Federalists
• 63: Madison in the consequences imputable to it
• 64: Freneau was one of his college friends
• 65: The appointment of Freneau to office at Madison's request
• 66: Nor did the Federalists deny it
• 67: But the Federalists believed that Madison
• 68: Madison had given his allegiance
• 69: As by the expostulations themselves
• 70: This unhappy condition of affairs
• 71: Giles offered another set of resolutions
• 72: Not whether the revolutionists ought to be
• 73: By endeavoring to maintain a strict neutrality
• 74: Having only a provisional government
• 75: When Genet arrived in Philadelphia
• 76: That I should interpose in some way with Freneau
• 77: And it seems hardly likely that Madison
• 78: At least so the Federalists thought
• 79: They detested England for her own sake
• 80: These were the principles of the Federalists
• 81: Madison leading the opposition
• 82: James Monroe had been received in Paris as American minister
• 83: He was in very constant correspondence with Monroe
• 84: When Madison married her she was Mrs
• 85: Madison built his house at Montpellier
• 86: And the promise could hardly be fairer that the Federalists
• 87: A nullification of the act is the rightful remedy
• 88: Nullification and Secession he denounces as twin heresies
• 89: A nullification of the act is the rightful remedy
• 90: Madison entered upon another sphere of duty
• 91: Where this may be truly said of popular political enthusiasm
• 92: The plea of the general welfare
• 93: Permitted to bring slaves imported previous to 1798
• 94: Jefferson found himself in troubled waters
• 95: For the merchant ships of any belligerent
• 96: Madison wrote in the autumn of 1805
• 97: This had always been a favorite policy with Madison
• 98: Commodore Barron could do nothing else but surrender
• 99: Especially in the attack upon the Chesapeake
• 100: Napoleon proclaimed a new decree from Milan
• 101: He had quietly conferred with Erskine
• 102: As Erskine chose to present them
• 103: Touching the arrangement with Erskine
• 104: The patriotic fishermen of Marblehead
• 105: Embargo and non intercourse he was still confident would
• 106: Issued at Rambouillet in March
• 107: To recall specifically this blockade of 1806
• 108: Madison preserved his equanimity
• 109: Three weeks later he writes to Barlow at Paris
• 110: And Madison had two formidable rivals in James Monroe
• 111: There is no allusion whatever to the Henry disclosures
• 112: And that there was no talk of disunion
• 113: By the Eastern Junto is meant the Federal party
• 114: For this recent assertion of Bassano
• 115: In protecting naval interests by naval means
• 116: Madison had known how to turn it to advantage
• 117: Madison was not a good war President
• 118: We do not apprehend invasion by land
• 119: He agreed with his party was the true policy
• 120: Much as he wrote upon questions of an earlier period
• 121: Madison escaped from the White House
• 122: Causes conditional revocation of decrees
• 123: Candidate for presidential nomination
• 124: Its power over slavery defined by Madison and Gerry
• 125: Statements of Madison concerning
• 126: Real attitude of Federalists toward
• 127: Displays ante dated revocation
• 128: Anticipated by Henry in device of gerrymandering
• 129: Influences Madison to abandon Federalist party
• 130: Describes Washington's anger at Freneau
• 131: Interview of Jefferson and Madison with
• 132: Statement of Madison concerning
• 133: Disapproves proposal for a second convention
• 134: Accused by Hamilton of complicity with Freneau
• 135: Later admits failure of embargo
• 136: Recommends a sixty day embargo
• 137: Navigates Potomac concurrently with Virginia
• 138: Correspondence of Madison with
• 139: Sends delegates to Annapolis Convention
• 140: Opinions of Madison concerning
• 141: His generous conduct toward Madison
• 142: His message condemned by Madison