Paradoxical Heroes

Today is James Madison's birthday. Among our founders he is an enigma. He was the author, for the most part, of the Constitution. Wrote stunningly in the Federalist about the scope and role of government. Yet, he was only a middling president. He grew up as a scrawny kid, complained constantly about various conditions, yet for his times lived a very long life. He is often, among the founders, forgotten. He was arguably Princeton's first graduate student under the tutelage of Scottish Enlightenment philosopher John Witherspoon. Before the Constitutional Convention, he went to the grandest library in the US at the time (in Jefferson's home) and did a six month stint studying the great works on government.

His life, in my mind, was divided into two chapters. The first as a young political intellectual who was the guiding force behind our Constitutional system. The second half of his life was after he was president, where he became a senior statesman. He wrote extensively on a variety of subjects.

When my daughter was thinking about college, we looked at William and Mary and so I drug her to Montpelier, which was his home. Most of the estate is preserved, although when we were there, because the DuPont family had donated the estate to the National Trust, one room preserved the exploits of the woman who donated the property. As we were coming out on the bus, my daughter slyly said "Gee dad, I know how much you like Madison, and even better I now have a better understanding of President DuPont."

But among the founders there are some major gaps in the coverage of his life and times. Washington, Adams, Jefferson have all had major biographies in many genres but Madison deserves some more coverage.