James Madison is often a forgotten President. Folks tend to wash him out of their memory when it comes to his contributions to our country. Part of the problem is that there is not a lot of emphasis on him in school – Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc. tend to steal all the thunder. But, Madison was the first President to weather an actual war waged on the US, the last President who was present at the signing of the Constitution, and one of the brightest: he completed his collegiate education in two years and was known to keep records and have a keen wit. Perhaps his small stature is why we overlook him: he was about five feet six inches tall and weighed about one hundred pounds.
Concerning his achievements, he is the reason there is a Bill of Rights at all in our Constitution. The oddest part of that fact, however, is that he did not really believe we needed one. In fact, many were on the same page as him. They thought: “Nah, these are understood rights. Why should we write them down?” But, I’m glad he did. In fact, several states would not even consider joining the new American Union if these rights were not in written form. Madison considered the written Bill of Rights weak: a paper barrier of sorts with no real power. Interestingly, he thought there was only one way to make sure peoples’ rights were protected - through the power of the federal government. He thought the best way to protect those rights was through a “legislative vote.” In other words, he thought the federal government should have the power to overturn any law a state made that was adverse to these rights. His idea was put to a vote several times, with various wordings, and almost did pass a couple of times. His thinking was that there was enough diversity from the states represented in the federal government that it would balance out any potential abuses. He also did not think that the concept of judicial review was the ultimate answer to safeguarding rights, either. He thought it an exercise in backwards logic: why wait until a bad law is passed before striking it down?
At any rate, I am glad the Bill of Rights is written in our Constitution and I don’t know if giving the federal government more power than it already has is a good idea in this age, but Madison was one of those rare Presidents who had the power of foresight and is worth reading about. And, considering most adults can only name eight Presidents on average (Madison is usually not one of them), it may be more important to find a good book about him than ever.
Have a great week folks!
