James Madison facts for kids

James Madison Facts For Kids - James Madison is the fourth U.S. president, and played an active role in constructing the constitution. He is even known as the “Father of the Constitution.”

Early Life
Madison was born on March 16th, 1751 in Orange County, Virginia. He was the oldest of 12 children. His father was a tobacco planter, who owned thousands of acres of land. Later acquiring even more land and slaves, he was now in charge of 5,000 acres and was recognized as the largest landowner and well-known citizen of Piedmont. As for James’ mother, Nelly Madison, she was the daughter of a prominent planter and merchant of tobacco.

In 1752 Madison was sent off to a boarding school run by Donald Robertson in King and Queen County, Virginia. Robertson had experience teaching a number of plantation families in the south. From Robertson, Madison learned a variety of different subjects including mathematics, geography and classical languages, becoming especially fluent in Latin. Madison credits a great deal of his education to Robertson. Years later, he was to return to his father’s estate in Orange County, Virginia called Montpelier. Here he would remain home and continue his education through private tutoring due to health concerns. Finally, after two years Madison enrolled in the College of New Jersey in 1769. Here he would study Latin, Greek, science and philosophy among many other subjects. In 1771 Madison graduated, but stayed so that he was able to continue his studies with Reverend John Witherspoon, he was the school’s president. Continue reading below >>>

 

 

Military service and early political career
Upon returning to Virginia in 1772, Madison found himself caught between the rivalry of the colonists and British authorities. In 1774 he was elected to the Orange County Committee of Safety, and the following year joined the Virginia militia as a colonel. Madison could sense that something that could forever change history was afoot. He then joined the Virginia Convention, as an Orange County representative in 1776. It was during this year that he met Thomas Jefferson. Madison was appointed to work on Virginia’s constitution, making special contributions on the language when referring to religious freedom. He went on to serve as one of Virginia’s delegates to Continental Congress in Philadelphia. During 1783 Madison returned to Virginia and the state legislature. Here he able to pass Virginia’s statute of Religious Freedom, which officially made it through in 1786. The following year Madison was about to take on an even more daunting task, the U.S. Constitution.

Father of the Constitution
In 1787, Madison represented Virginia at the Constitutional Convention. He believed in a strong central government and advocated for that belief. In the Virginia Plan, he mentioned the need for three part government system. That included and executive, legislative, and judicial branch. A system of checks and balances was an important aspect of this plan, so that no single governing body would have all the power.

The Constitution itself faced lots of opposition and skepticism. Madison then joined forces with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay on a mission to get the Constitution ratified. Through a series of persuasive letters known as The Federalist papers, they were then able to ratify the Constitution.

U.S. President
Madison won the election in 1808 running on the Democratic-Republican ticket. The largest challenge that he had to face during his presidency was the constant tension between the U.S. and Great Britain. Tensions rose due to the implementation of a new act that reduced trade to only two countries; Great Britain and France. However, American merchants did not follow this rule and decided to trade with other nations regardless, causing their ships to be preyed upon. The U.S. declared war on Britain in 1812, and the war continued into Madison’s second term. In 1815, the two opposing sides decided to cease the conflict through the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.