U.S. President #4: James Madison (Part II)

Secretary of State (1801–1809)

Despite lacking foreign policy experience, Madison was appointed as Secretary of State by Jefferson.  Along with Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, Madison became one of the two major influences in Jefferson's Cabinet.  As the ascent of Napoleon in France had dulled Democratic-Republican enthusiasm for the French cause, Madison sought a neutral position in the ongoing Coalition Wars between France and Britain. Domestically, the Jefferson administration and the Democratic-Republican Congress rolled back many Federalist policies; Congress quickly repealed the Alien and Sedition Act, abolished internal taxes, and reduced the size of the army and navy.  Gallatin did, however, convince Jefferson to retain the First Bank of the United States.  Though the Federalists were rapidly fading away at the national level, Chief Justice John Marshall ensured that Federalist ideology retained an important presence in the judiciary. In the case of Marbury v. Madison, Marshall simultaneously ruled that Madison had unjustly refused to deliver federal commissions to individuals who had been appointed to federal positions by President Adams but who had not yet taken office, but that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over the case. Most importantly, Marshall's opinion established the principle of judicial review.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase totaled 827,987 square miles (2,144,480 square kilometers), doubling the size of the United States.
By the time Jefferson took office, Americans had settled as far west as the Mississippi River, though vast pockets of American land remained vacant or inhabited only by Native Americans. Jefferson believed that western expansion played an important role in furthering his vision of a republic of yeoman farmers, and he hoped to acquire the Spanish territory of Louisiana, which was located to the west of the Mississippi River.  Early in Jefferson's presidency, the administration learned that Spain planned to retrocede the Louisiana to France, raising fears of French encroachment on U.S. territory.   In 1802, Jefferson and Madison dispatched James Monroe to France to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans, which controlled access to the Mississippi River and thus was immensely important to the farmers of the American frontier. Rather than selling merely New Orleans, Napoleon's government, having already given up on plans to establish a new French empire in the Americas, offered to sell the entire Territory of Louisiana. Despite lacking explicit authorization from Jefferson, Monroe and ambassador Robert R. Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, in which France sold over 800,000 square miles (2,100,000 square kilometers) of land in exchange for $15 million.
Despite the time-sensitive nature of negotiations with the French, Jefferson was concerned about the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase, and he privately favored introducing a constitutional amendment explicitly authorizing Congress to acquire new territories. Madison convinced Jefferson to refrain from proposing the amendment, and the administration ultimately submitted the Louisiana Purchase without an accompanying constitutional amendment.  Unlike Jefferson, Madison was not seriously concerned with the Louisiana Purchase's constitutionality. He believed that the circumstances did not warrant a strict interpretation of the Constitution because the expansion was in the country's best interest.  The Senate quickly ratified the treaty providing for the purchase, and the House, with equal alacrity, passed enabling legislation.  The Jefferson administration argued that the purchase had included the Spanish territory of West Florida, but France and Spain both held that West Florida was not included in the purchase.  Monroe attempted to purchase clear title to West Florida and East Florida from Spain, but the Spanish, outraged by Jefferson's claims to West Florida, refused to negotiate.
Early in his tenure, Jefferson was able to maintain cordial relations with both France and Britain, but relations with Britain deteriorated after 1805.  The British ended their policy of tolerance towards American shipping and began seizing American goods headed for French ports.  They also impressed American sailors, some of whom had originally defected from the British navy, and some of whom had never been British subjects. In response to the attacks, Congress passed the Non-importation Act, which restricted many, but not all, British imports.  Tensions with Britain heightened due to the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, a June 1807 naval confrontation between American and British naval forces, while the French also began attacking American shipping.  Madison believed that economic pressure could force the British to end attacks on American shipping, and he and Jefferson convinced Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807, which totally banned all exports to foreign nations.  The embargo proved ineffective, unpopular, and difficult to enforce, especially in New England.  In March 1809, Congress replaced the embargo with the Non-Intercourse Act, which allowed trade with nations other than Britain and France.
Presidential election of 1808
Speculation regarding Madison's potential succession of Jefferson commenced early in Jefferson's first term. Madison's status in the party was damaged by his association with the embargo, which was unpopular throughout the country and especially in the Northeast.  With the Federalists collapsing as a national party after 1800, the chief opposition to Madison's candidacy came from other members of the Democratic-Republican Party.  Madison became the target of attacks from Congressman John Randolph, a leader of a faction of the party known as the tertium quids.  Randolph recruited James Monroe, who had felt betrayed by the administration's rejection of the proposed Monroe–Pinkney Treaty with Britain, to challenge Madison for leadership of the party.  Many Northerners, meanwhile, hoped that Vice President George Clinton could unseat Madison as Jefferson's successor.  Despite this opposition, Madison won his party's presidential nomination at the January 1808 congressional nominating caucus.  The Federalist Party mustered little strength outside New England, and Madison easily defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.  At a height of only five feet, four inches (163 cm), and never weighing more than 100 pounds (45 kg), Madison became the most diminutive president.
Presidency (1809–1817)
On March 4, 1809 Madison took the oath of office and was inaugurated President of the United States. Unlike Jefferson, who enjoyed political unity and support, Madison faced political opposition from his rival and friend, James Monroe, and by Vice President George Clinton. Additionally, the Federalist Party had resurged, under opposition to the embargo. Madison's Cabinet was very weak.
Madison immediately faced opposition to his planned nomination of Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin as Secretary of State. Madison chose not to fight Congress for the nomination but kept Gallatin in the Treasury Department.  With Gallatin's nomination declined by the Senate, Madison settled for Robert Smith, the brother of Maryland Senator Samuel Smith, to be Secretary of State.  For the next two years, Madison did most of the job of Secretary of State, due to Robert Smith's incompetence. After bitter party contention, Madison finally replaced Smith with Monroe in April 2011.
The remaining members of Madison's Cabinet were chosen for the purposes of national interest and political harmony, and were largely unremarkable or incompetent.  With a Cabinet full of those he distrusted, Madison rarely called Cabinet meetings and instead frequently consulted with Gallatin alone.  Early in his presidency, Madison sought to continue Jefferson's policies of low taxes and a reduction of the national debt.  In 1811, Congress allowed the charter of the First Bank of the United States to lapse after Madison declined to take a strong stance on the issue.
War of 1812
Congress had repealed the embargo shortly before Madison became president, but troubles with the British and French continued.  Madison settled on a new strategy designed to pit the British and French against each other, offering to trade with whichever country would end their attacks against American shipping. The gambit almost succeeded, but negotiations with the British collapsed in mid-1809.  Seeking to split the Americans and British, Napoleon offered to end French attacks on American shipping so long as the United States punished any countries that did not similarly end restrictions on trade.  Madison accepted Napoleon's proposal in the hope that it would convince the British to finally end their policy of commercial warfare, but the British refused to change their policies, and the French reneged on their promise and continued to attack American shipping.
With sanctions and other policies having failed, Madison determined that war with Britain was the only remaining option.  Many Americans called for a "second war of independence" to restore honor and stature to the new nation, and an angry public elected a "war hawk" Congress, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.  With Britain in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, many Americans, Madison included, believed that the United States could easily capture Canada, at which point the U.S. could use Canada as a bargaining chip for all other disputes or simply retain control of it.  On June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war, stating that the United States could no longer tolerate Britain's "state of war against the United States." The declaration of war was passed along sectional and party lines, with opposition to the declaration coming from Federalists and from some Democratic-Republicans in the Northeast.  In the years prior to the war, Jefferson and Madison had reduced the size of the military, leaving the country with a military force consisting mostly of poorly trained militia members.  Madison asked Congress to quickly put the country "into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis," specifically recommending expansion of the army and navy.
Military action
Madison and his advisers initially believed the war would be a speedy American victory, while the British were occupied fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.  Madison ordered an invasion of Canada at Detroit, designed to defeat British control around American held Fort Niagara and destroy the British supply lines from Montreal. These actions would give leverage for British concessions on the Atlantic high seas.  Madison believed state militias would rally to the flag and invade Canada, but the governors in the Northeast failed to cooperate, and the militias either sat out the war or refused to leave their respective states.  As a result, Madison's first Canadian campaign ended in dismal failure. On August 16, Major General William Hull surrendered to British and Native American forces at Detroit.  On October 13, a separate U.S. force was defeated at Queenton Heights.  Commanding General Henry Dearborn, hampered by mutinous New England infantry, retreated to winter quarters near Albany, after failing to destroy Montreal's vulnerable British supply lines.
Lacking adequate revenue to fund the war, the Madison administration was forced to rely on high-interest loans furnished by bankers based in New York City and Philadelphia.  In the 1812 presidential election, held during the early stages of the War of 1812, Madison faced a challenge from DeWitt Clinton, who led a coalition of Federalists and disaffected Democratic-Republicans. Clinton won most of the Northeast, but Madison won the election by sweeping the South and the West and winning the key state of Pennsylvania.
The British set ablaze the U.S. Capital on August 24, 1814.
After the disastrous start to the War of 1812, Madison accepted Russia's invitation to arbitrate the war, and he sent a delegation led by Gallatin and John Quincy Adams to Europe to negotiate a peace treaty.  While Madison worked to end the war, the U.S. experienced some impressive naval successes, boosting American morale, by the USS Constitution, and other warships.  With a victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, the U.S. crippled the supply and reinforcement of British military forces in the western theater of the war.  In the aftermath of the Battle of Lake Erie, General William Henry Harrison defeated the forces of the British and of Tecumseh's Confederacy at the Battle of the Thames. The death of Tecumseh in that battle marked the permanent end of armed Native American resistance in the Old Northwest.  In March 1814, General Andrew Jackson broke the resistance of the British-allied Muscogee in the Old Southwest with his victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  Despite those successes, the British continued to repel American attempts to invade Canada, and a British force captured Fort Niagara and burned the American city of Buffalo in late 1813.
The British agreed to begin peace negotiations in the town of Ghent in early 1814, but at the same time, they shifted soldiers to North America following Napoleon's defeat in the Battle of Paris.  Under General George Izard and General Jacob Brown, the U.S. launched another invasion of Canada in mid-1814. Despite an American victory at the Battle of Chippawa, the invasion stalled once again.
Battle of New Orleans 1815
Making matters worse, Madison had failed to muster his new Secretary of War John Armstrong to fortify Washington D.C., while Madison had put in command, to stop an impending British invasion, an "inexperienced and incompetent" Brig. General William Winder.  In August 1814, the British landed a large force off the Chesapeake Bay and routed Winder's army at the Battle of Bladensburg.  The Madisons escaped capture, fleeing to Virginia by horseback, in the aftermath of the battle, but the British burned Washington and other buildings.  The charred remains of the capital by the British were a humiliating defeat for Madison and America.  The British army next moved on Baltimore, but the U.S. repelled the British attack in the Battle of Baltimore, and the British army departed from the Chesapeake region in September.  That same month, U.S. forces repelled a British invasion from Canada with a victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh. The British public began to turn against the war in North America, and British leaders began to look for a quick exit from the conflict.
In January 1815, an American force under General Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans.  Just over a month later, Madison learned that his negotiators had reached the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war without major concessions by either side. Madison quickly sent the Treaty of Ghent to the Senate, and the Senate ratified the treaty on February 16, 1815.  To most Americans, the quick succession of events at the end of the war, including the burning of the capital, the Battle of New Orleans, and the Treaty of Ghent, appeared as though American valor at New Orleans had forced the British to surrender. This view, while inaccurate, strongly contributed to a feeling of post-war euphoria that bolstered Madison's reputation as president. Napoleon's defeat at the June 1815 Battle of Waterloo brought a final close to the Napoleonic Wars, ending the danger of attacks on American shipping by British and French forces.
Postwar period
The postwar period of Madison's second term saw the transition into the "Era of Good Feelings," as the Federalists ceased to act as an effective opposition party.  During the war, delegates from the states of New England held the Hartford Convention, where the delegates asked for several amendments to the Constitution.  Though the Hartford Convention did not explicitly call for the secession of New England, the Hartford Convention became a political millstone around the Federalist Party as Americans celebrated what they saw as a successful "second war of independence" from Britain.  Madison hastened the decline of the Federalists by adopting several programs he had previously opposed, weakening the ideological divisions between the two major parties.
Recognizing the difficulties of financing the war and the necessity of an institution to regulate the currency, Madison proposed the re-establishment of a national bank. He also called for increased spending on the army and the navy, a tariff designed to protect American goods from foreign competition, and a constitutional amendment authorizing the federal government to fund the construction of internal improvements such as roads and canals. His initiatives were opposed by strict constructionists such as John Randolph, who stated that Madison's proposals "out-Hamiltons Alexander Hamilton."  Responding to Madison's proposals, the 14th Congress compiled one of the most productive legislative records up to that point in history.  Congress granted the Second Bank of the United States a twenty-five-year charter and passed the Tariff of 1816, which set high import duties for all goods that were produced in the United States.  Madison approved federal spending on the Cumberland Road, which provided a link to the country's western lands, but in his last act before leaving office, he blocked further federal spending on internal improvements by vetoing the Bonus Bill of 1817. In making the veto, Madison argued that the General Welfare Clause did not broadly authorize federal spending on internal improvements.
Native American policy
Battle of Tippecanoe-November 7, 1811
Upon becoming president, Madison said the federal government's duty was to convert the American Indians by the "participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state".  Within six months of his first term of office, on September 30, 1809, Madison, by Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison, agreed to the Treaty of Fort Wayne. The treaty began with "James Madison, President of the United States," on the first sentence of the first paragraph.  The American Indian tribes were compensated $5,200 ($109,121.79 for year 2020) in goods and $500 and $250 annual subsidies to the various tribes, for 3 million acres of land.  The treaty angered Shawnee leader Tecumseh, who said, "Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth?"  William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, responded that the Miami tribe was the owner of the land and could sell to whom the Miami tribe wished.
Like Jefferson, Madison had a paternalistic attitude toward American Indians, encouraging the men to give up hunting and become farmers.  Madison believed the adoption of European-style agriculture would help Native Americans assimilate the values of British-U.S. civilization. As pioneers and settlers moved West into large tracts of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw territory, Madison ordered the U.S. Army to protect Native lands from intrusion by settlers, to the chagrin of his military commander Andrew Jackson, who wanted Madison to ignore Indian pleas to stop the invasion of their lands.  Tensions mounted between the United States and Temcuseh over the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne, that ultimately led to Tecumseh's alliance with the British and the Battle of Tippecanoe, on November 7, 1811, in the Northwest Territory.  Tecumseh was defeated and Indians were pushed off their tribal lands, replaced entirely by white settlers.
In addition to the Battle of the Thames and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, other American Indian battles took place, including the Peoria War, and the Creek War. Settled by General Jackson, the Creek War added 20 million acres of land to the United States, in Georgia and Alabama, by the Treaty of Fort Jackson on August 9, 1814.
Privately, Madison did not believe American Indians could be civilized. Madison believed that American Indians were unwilling to "transition from the hunter, or even the herdsman state, to the agriculture."  Madison viewed that American Indians were in a "savage state", characterized by "complete liberty", absent of any cohesive bonds, obligations, or public duties.  Madison believed settlers who comingled with American Indians were attracted to the American Indian lifestyle. In March 1816, Madison's Secretary of War William Crawford advocated that Congress encourage intermarriages between American Indians and whites. This prompted public outrage, including hostile letters sent to Madison, who remained publicly silent. During Madison's presidency, white Americans became more hostile to American Indians.
General Wilkinson misconduct
General James Wilkinson-Peale 1797
In 1810, the House investigated Commanding General James Wilkinson for misconduct over his ties with Spain.  Wilkinson was a hold-over of the Jefferson Administration, who at that time in 1806, Jefferson was told Wilkinson was under a financial retainer with Spain. Wilkinson had also been rumored to have been tied with Spain during both the Washington and Adams administrations. Jefferson removed Wilkinson from his position of Governor of the Louisiana territory in 1807, for his ties with the Burr conspiracy.   The 1810 House investigation was not a formal report but documents incriminating Wilkinson were given to Madison. Wilkinson's military request for a court-martial was denied by Madison. Wilkinson then asked for 14 officers to testify on his behalf, in Washington, but Madison refused, in essence, clearing Wilkinson of malfeasance.
Later in 1810 the House investigated Wilkinson's public record, and charged him with a high casualty rate among soldiers. Wilkinson was cleared again. However, in 1811, Madison launched a formal court-martial of Wilkinson, that suspended Wilkinson of active duty. The military court in December 1811, cleared Wilkinson of misconduct. Madison approved of the Wilkinson's acquittal, and restored Wilkinson to active duty.   After Wilkinson failed a command during the War of 1812, Madison dismissed Wilkinson from command of the Army for incompetence. Madison, however, retained Wilkinson in the Army, but replaced Wilkinson with Henry Dearborn, as Commander of the Army. Not until 1815, when Wilkinson was court-martialed and acquitted again, did Madison finally remove him from the Army.  Historical evidence brought forth later in the Twentieth Century proved Wilkinson was under the pay of Spain.
Election of 1816
In the 1816 presidential election, Madison and Jefferson both favored the candidacy of Secretary of State James Monroe. With the support of Madison and Jefferson, Monroe defeated Secretary of War William H. Crawford in the party's congressional nominating caucus. As the Federalist Party continued to collapse as a national party, Monroe easily defeated Federalist candidate Rufus King in the 1816 election.  Madison left office as a popular president; former president Adams wrote that Madison had "acquired more glory, and established more union, than all his three predecessors, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, put together."
Retirement, national leader, and elder statesman
When Madison left office in 1817 at age 65, he retired to Montpelier, his tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia, not far from Jefferson's Monticello. As with both Washington and Jefferson, Madison left the presidency a poorer man than when elected. His plantation experienced a steady financial collapse, due to the continued price declines in tobacco and also due to his stepson's mismanagement
In his retirement, Madison occasionally became involved in public affairs, advising Andrew Jackson and other presidents.  He remained out of the public debate over the Missouri Compromise, though he privately complained about the North's opposition to the extension of slavery.  Madison had warm relations with all four of the major candidates in the 1824 presidential election, but, like Jefferson, largely stayed out of the race.  During Jackson's presidency, Madison publicly disavowed the Nullification movement and argued that no state had the right to secede.
Madison helped Jefferson establish the University of Virginia, though the university was primarily Jefferson's initiative.  In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the second rector of the university. He retained the position as college chancellor for ten years until his death in 1836.
In 1829, at the age of 78, Madison was chosen as a representative to the Virginia Constitutional Convention for revision of the commonwealth's constitution. It was his last appearance as a statesman. The issue of greatest importance at this convention was apportionment. The western districts of Virginia complained that they were underrepresented because the state constitution apportioned voting districts by county. The increased population in the Piedmont and western parts of the state were not proportionately represented by delegates in the legislature. Western reformers also wanted to extend suffrage to all white men, in place of the prevailing property ownership requirement. Madison tried in vain to effect a compromise. Eventually, suffrage rights were extended to renters as well as landowners, but the eastern planters refused to adopt citizen population apportionment. They added slaves held as property to the population count, to maintain a permanent majority in both houses of the legislature, arguing that there must be a balance between population and property represented. Madison was disappointed at the failure of Virginians to resolve the issue more equitably.
In his later years, Madison became highly concerned about his historic legacy. He resorted to modifying letters and other documents in his possession, changing days and dates, adding and deleting words and sentences, and shifting characters. By the time he had reached his late seventies, this "straightening out" had become almost an obsession. As an example, he edited a letter written to Jefferson criticizing Lafayette—Madison not only inked out original passages, but even forged Jefferson's handwriting as well.  Historian Drew R. McCoy writes that, "During the final six years of his life, amid a sea of personal [financial] troubles that were threatening to engulf him ... At times mental agitation issued in physical collapse. For the better part of a year in 1831 and 1832 he was bedridden, if not silenced ... Literally sick with anxiety, he began to despair of his ability to make himself understood by his fellow citizens."
Madison's tombstone, Montpelier
Madison's health slowly deteriorated. He died of congestive heart failure at Montpelier on the morning of June 28, 1836, at the age of 85.  By one common account of his final moments, he was given his breakfast, which he tried eating but was unable to swallow. His favorite niece, who sat by to keep him company, asked him, "What is the matter, Uncle James?" Madison died immediately after he replied, "Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear."  He is buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier.  He was one of the last prominent members of the Revolutionary War generation to die. ] His will left significant sums to the American Colonization Society, the University of Virginia, and Princeton, as well as $30,000 to his wife, Dolley. Left with a smaller sum than Madison had intended, Dolley suffered financial troubles until her own death in 1849.
Political and religious views
Federalism
During his first stint in Congress in the 1780s, Madison came to favor amending the Articles of Confederation to provide for a stronger central government.  In the 1790s, he led the opposition to Hamilton's centralizing policies and the Alien and Sedition Acts.  According to Chernow, Madison's support of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in the 1790s "was a breathtaking evolution for a man who had pleaded at the Constitutional Convention that the federal government should possess a veto over state laws."  The historian Gordon S. Wood says that Lance Banning, as in his Sacred Fire of Liberty (1995), is the "only present-day scholar to maintain that Madison did not change his views in the 1790s."  During and after the War of 1812, Madison came to support several policies he had opposed in the 1790s, including the national bank, a strong navy, and direct taxes.
Wood notes that many historians struggle to understand Madison, but Wood looks at him in the terms of Madison's own times—as a nationalist but one with a different conception of nationalism from that of the Federalists.  Gary Rosen and Banning use other approaches to suggest Madison's consistency.
Religion
Although baptized as an Anglican and educated by Presbyterian clergymen, young Madison was an avid reader of English deist tracts. As an adult, Madison paid little attention to religious matters. Though most historians have found little indication of his religious leanings after he left college, some scholars indicate he leaned toward deism.  Others maintain that Madison accepted Christian tenets and formed his outlook on life with a Christian world view.
Regardless of his own religious beliefs, Madison believed in religious liberty, and he advocated for Virginia's disestablishment of the Anglican Church throughout the late 1770s and 1780s.  He also opposed the appointments of chaplains for Congress and the armed forces, arguing that the appointments produce religious exclusion as well as political disharmony.  In 1819, Madison said, "The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State."
Slavery
Madison grew up on a plantation that made use of slave labor and he viewed the institution as a necessary part of the Southern economy, though he was troubled by the instability of a society that depended on a large enslaved population.  At the Philadelphia Convention, Madison favored an immediate end to the importation of slaves, though the final document barred Congress from interfering with the international slave trade until 1808.  (The domestic trade in slaves was expressly permitted by the constitution.)  He also proposed that apportionment in the United States Senate be allocated by the sum of each state's free population and slave population, eventually leading to the adoption of the Three-Fifths Compromise.  Madison supported the extension of slavery into the West during the Missouri crisis of 1819–1821.  Madison believed that former slaves were unlikely to successfully integrate into Southern society, and in the late 1780s, he became interested in the idea of African-Americans establishing colonies in Africa.  Madison was president of the American Colonization Society, which founded the settlement of Liberia for former slaves.
Madison was unable to separate himself from the institution of domestic slavery. Although Madison had championed a Republican form of government, he believed that slavery had caused the South to become aristocratic. Madison believed that slaves were human property, while he opposed slavery intellectually.  Along with his colonization plan for blacks, Madison, believed that slavery would naturally diffuse with western expansion. Madison's political views landed somewhere between John C. Calhoun's separation nullification and Daniel Webster's nationalism consolidation. Madison's Virginian "legatees" including Edward Coles, Nicolas P. Trist, and William Cabel Rives promoted Madison's moderate views on slavery into the 1840s and 1850s, but their campaign failed due to sectionalism, economic, and abolitionism forces.  Madison was never able to reconcile his advocacy of Republican government and his lifelong reliance on the slave system.
Madison's treatment of his enslaved people was known to be moderate. In 1790, Madison ordered an overseer to treat slaves with "all the humanity and kindness of consistent with their necessary subordination and work." Visitors noted slaves were well housed and fed. According to Paul Jennings, one of Madison's younger slaves, Madison never lost his temper or had his slaves whipped, preferring to reprimand.  One slave, Billey, attempted to escape Madison while in Philadelphia during the American Revolution, but was caught. Rather than free him, or return him to Virginia, Madison sold Billey in Philadelphia, under a gradual emancipation law adopted in Pennsylvania. Billey soon earned his freedom and worked for a Philadelphia merchant. Billey, however, was drowned on a voyage to New Orleans. Madison never outwardly expressed blacks were inferior, but he presumably held such a belief. He tended to express open-mindedness on the question of race.
By 1801, Madison's slave population at Montpelier was slightly over 100. During the 1820s and 1830s, Madison was forced to sell land and slaves, caused by debts. In 1836, at the time of Madison's death, Madison owned 36 taxable slaves.  Madison's conservatism prevailed, due to finances, while he failed to free any of his slaves either during his lifetime or in his will.  Upon Madison's death, he left his remaining slaves to his wife Dolley, asking her only to sell her slaves with their consent. However, Dolley, sold many of her slaves without their consent. The remaining slaves, after Dolley's death, were given to her son, Payne Todd, who freed them upon his death. However, Todd had debts, and likely only a few slaves were actually freed.
Physical characteristics and health
Madison was small in stature, had bright blue eyes, a strong demeanor, and was known to be humorous at small gatherings. Madison suffered from serious illnesses, nervousness, and was often exhausted after periods of stress. Madison often feared for the worst and was a hypochondriac. However, Madison was in good health, while he lived a long life, without the common maladies of his times.
Legacy
Historical reputation
Madison is widely regarded as one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States. Historian J.C.A. Stagg writes that "in some ways—because he was on the winning side of every important issue facing the young nation from 1776 to 1816—Madison was the most successful and possibly the most influential of all the Founding Fathers."  Though he helped found a major political party and served as the fourth president of the United States, his legacy has largely been defined by his contributions to the Constitution; even in his own life he was hailed as the "Father of the Constitution."  Law professor Noah Feldman writes that Madison "invented and theorized the modern ideal of an expanded, federal constitution that combines local self-government with an overarching national order." Feldman adds that Madison's "model of liberty-protecting constitutional government" is "the most influential American idea in global political history."
Polls of historians and political scientists tend to rank Madison as an above average president. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Madison as the twelfth best president.  Wood commends Madison for his steady leadership during the war and resolve to avoid expanding the president's power, noting one contemporary's observation that the war was conducted "without one trial for treason, or even one prosecution for libel."  Nonetheless, many historians have criticized Madison's tenure as president.  Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris in 1968 said the conventional view of Madison was as an "incapable President" who "mismanaged an unnecessary war."  A 2006 poll of historians ranked Madison's failure to prevent the War of 1812 as the sixth-worst mistake made by a sitting president.
The historian Garry Wills wrote, "Madison's claim on our admiration does not rest on a perfect consistency, any more than it rests on his presidency. He has other virtues. ... As a framer and defender of the Constitution he had no peer. ... The finest part of Madison's performance as president was his concern for the preserving of the Constitution. ... No man could do everything for the country—not even Washington. Madison did more than most, and did some things better than any. That was quite enough."
In 2002, historian Ralph Ketcham was critical of Madison as a wartime President during the War of 1812. Ketchum blamed Madison for the events that led up to the burning of the nation's capital by the British.  Ketchum said: "The events of the summer of 1814 illustrate all too well the inadequacy in wartime of Madison's habitual caution and tendency to let complexities remain unresolved...Although such inclinations are ordinarily virtues, in crisis they are calamitous."  Ketchum said "it was, ironically, Madison's very republican virtue that in part unsuited him to be a wartime president."
In 1974, historian James Banner criticized Madison for his protection of a corrupt General James Wilkinson in the Army. Wilkinson had been involved in the Aaron Burr Conspiracy during the Jefferson Administration, was on retainer of Spain, and had a high mortality rate among soldiers. Wilkinson had also botched a campaign during the War of 1812. Madison finally mustered Wilkinson out of the Army in 1815.
1894 postage stamp honoring Madison
2007 Presidential Dollar of James Madison
Madison appears on various U.S. Revenue stamps
Memorials
Montpelier, his family's plantation, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The James Madison Memorial Building is a building of the United States Library of Congress and serves as the official memorial to Madison. In 1986, Congress created the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation as part of the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution. Several counties and communities have been named for Madison, including Madison County, Alabama and Madison, Wisconsin. Other things named for Madison include Madison Square, James Madison University, and the USS James Madison.