james madison

james madison

James Madison was born on March 16, 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia.   Madison’s home was a busy plantation with acres of wheat and tobacco.   He had four siblings.   When he was ten, his family moved into a new house.   The name of this house is Montpelier.   When young James was eleven, he went to school where he learned Latin, French, Greek, Logic and Algebra.   He could read Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew.   He went to college at Princeton University.   He married Dolley Payne in 1794.
James Madison first served his home state at the Virginia Convention of 1776 where Virginia declared its independence from England.   While there, Madison learned from great men like Patrick Henry and George Mason.   Later, as a member of the Virginia Legislature, Madison opposed Henry and sided with Thomas Jefferson to help establish freedom of religion and abolition of a church tax in Virginia.  
In 1778, Madison was sent to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress.   One of his first jobs as a member of the Continental Congress was to write to a Naval Officer and say that Congress did not have enough money to send bread to the sailors.   While there, he also fought to have the war bills shared among the colonies in a fair manner.
James Madison is remembered as the father of the Constitution because his ideas were so important in shaping our government.   After the end of the Revolutionary War, Madison was chosen to participate in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.   He went with a plan for a strong central government with three branches to rule over all the states and keep them together.   He favored a strong central government but wanted to design a government that wouldn’t become too strong.   Most accepted this idea but some were afraid the President would have too much power.   Others, led by William Paterson of Rhode Island, were afraid the large states would have too much influence because representatives would be based on population....