James Madison: Profile of a President
At 36, James Madison came to Philadelphia with a plan for a new national government. Two years later he stood up in the first Congress and introduced the amendments that became the Bill of Rights. This profile follows his contributions and the legacy they left: a Constitution that was built, limited and kept standing. James Madison wrote the plan that shaped the Constitution. He then introduced the Bill of Rights, the list that tells the government what it may not do. As president he led the country through the War of 1812. British troops burned the Capitol. The government did not fall. Those three facts are the profile: he helped build the state, he helped limit it, and he kept it standing in a war. Early life Madison was born in 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. He grew up at Montpelier. He studied at the College of New Jersey, the school now called Princeton, and entered Virginia politics during the Revolution. Montpelier was also a plantation. Enslaved people lived and worked ...