Founding Fathers

Elinor Marrs

American Government

October 7, 2015

Founding Fathers

        Many men have made contributions to the establishment and writing of the Constitution, but the man who arguably made the most substantial contribution to the writing of this historic document was James Madison.

He created “The Virginia Plan” which would serve as the basis of the Constitution. Being the representative from Virginia he had the experience of creating the “Virginia Plan” eleven years before the first Constitutional Convention. He was also appointed as the chief recorder of information, which meant he heard all the opinions given about the new Constitution and he could filter through the opinions to find the best ideas to put into the U.S. Constitution.

He also introduced amendments to the Constitution that would later be known as the Bill of Rights and he also penned a number of influential essays (mainly on the separation of church and state), which gave him inspiration for writing the Bill of Rights. Without these amendments, many of the policies and laws that are in place today would not exist at all. He was very influential to the writing and amending of the Constitution of the United States.

He also campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution by the states by co-authoring a series of essays with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton that appeared in various New York newspapers and then circulated around the states. These essays, of which he wrote 29, were called the “Federalist Papers”. He was very important in the effort to convince the states to ratify the new Constitution, and without his efforts along with the work of John Jay and Alexander Hamilton the Constitution might have never been ratified and established in the United States.

         James Madison was a very influential part of the writing, ratifying, and establishment of the United States Constitution. All his efforts to further the Constitution have earned him the title “Father of the Constitution”. No other delegate was better prepared for the Federal Convention of 1787, and no one contributed more than Madison to shaping the ideas and basis of the historical document than James Madison.

Bibliography

"James Madison's Contribution to the Constitution." James Madison's Contribution to the Constitution. America's Library, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2015. .