Founding Fathers: James Madison

James Madison was one of the greatest contributors to creating American government. He was a huge asset in creating what our government is today, as he was one of the main writers of the United States Constitution. Madison was a Federalist, which meant that he supported a large central government, and that is one thing that helped him create the Constitution. He believed that a strong central government would unify the country as one, and not just different states.

Madison originally represented Virginia before the Constitution was created. Eleven years earlier, he helped create Virginia’s Constitution, the “Virginia Plan”. Later, Madison and fifty-six other Constitutional Convention delegates met up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in May 1787 originally to amend the Articles of Confederation. During this meeting, the men ended up coming up with a new Constitution. After the Constitution was created, out of thirteen states, at least two-thirds had to approve, or ratify, the Constitution. The Constitution was sent to each state on September 28th.

Madison contributed to the campaign for the ratification of the Constitution greatly. He co-wrote a series of different essays with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. These essays were also called the “Federalist Papers” and were featured in many different

newspapers in New York, and soon made their way around the states. There were a total of eighty-five essays, and Madison wrote twenty-nine of those.

On June 21st, 1788, New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. This meant that there were enough ratifications to make the Constitution officially the United States law. But this wasn’t enough for Madison, as he went above and beyond to ensure the success of the Constitution. The next year, in 1789, Madison was a member of the newly created House of Representatives. As a member of this, Madison soon introduced the First Amendments, or as we may know them now, the