Eve or Anam (Co-founders of Alinea) (12:54)

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Newt Gingrich (13:14)

Drive more app downloads only on TikTok. Head over to get started.TikTok.com TikTok ads. Once the Constitution was presented to the states for ratification, Madison, along with Jefferson and Jay, published a series of newspaper essays, and Madison, Jay and Hamilton wrote the Federalist Papers. Writing under the pseudonym Publius, Madison authored 29 of the essays published between October 1787 and May 1788. In his 29 essays, Madison argued the case for a strong central government with checks and balances. And I want to emphasize this. The Founding Fathers were as concerned about government being too powerful as they were concerned about government being too weak. And they wanted to protect you from the very government that they'd set up to protect the nation. In Federalist paper number 51, Madison wrote, and this is the very famous quote, if men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls in government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this. You must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself. And I would argue that that is the central crisis of the American system today. There is none of the sense of balance that Madison and Jefferson believed in so deeply. After the ratification of the Constitution, Madison attempted to run for the Senate. But Patrick Henry, who had been opposed to the constitution and wanted a strong Virginia, successfully worked against it. Instead, Madison won the election to the U.S. house of Representatives in 1789, ironically over James Monroe, who later on would become president following Madison. Madison served in the U.S. house until 1797, at a time of enormous initial creation of all the principles of the house. So he's there as somebody very widely respected, very well known, and at first he doesn't want a Bill of Rights. He argues that, quote, the government can only exert the power specified by the Constitution. But his friend Jefferson was adamantly in favor of a bill of rights, thought the Constitution was too strong and would become a danger to freedom. Jefferson's view was spreading throughout the states, and there was a real danger that the Constitution could only be ratified with a bill of rights. So Madison, accepting reality, compiles a list of 19 proposals out of hundreds of suggestions they got from the state's ratification debates. In his notes for speech in Congress, written around June 1789, Madison outlined his reasons for urging the amendments. These included, first, to prove that federalists are the friends to liberty, second, to remove any remaining worries, third, to bring in North Carolina and Rhode island, and fourth, to improve the Constitution. Notice the practicality. It's North Carolina and Rhode island that won't come in. Therefore you have to have some kind of compromise. In these notes, Madison wrote that the Bill of rights was useful, not essential. And that's because he actually thought the constitution that he had helped draft already limited government. But people like Jefferson wanted a little extra guarantee, if you will, that even a bad government would be restricted. And most of the time, the supreme court has interpreted the Bill of rights to, in fact, restrict government. The Bill of Rights was the rights of individuals against government. Something we tend to forget that our founding fathers were as much afraid of strong central government as they felt the need to have government strong enough to defend us from foreigners. The congress looked at the 19 proposals, ultimately adopted 12 of them as amendments. On October 2, 1789, President George Washington sent copies of these 12amendments to states. And by December 15, 1791, 3/4 of states ratified 10 of them, and they became what we call the Bill of rights. While in the house, Representatives Madison worked with president Washington and Thomas Jefferson. But in 1791 and 1792, Madison disagreed with secretary of treasury Hamilton's proposal to establish a national bank. He further broke with the federalist party over the support of Great Britain during its war with France. Remember, we'd Just been fighting with Britain a decade earlier for our freedom, and here we were now siding with Britain against the French Revolution. Madison, with Jefferson and some anti Federalists, founded the Democratic Republican Party. Madison spoke often on the idea of political parties. In a speech to the Constitutional Convention on the right of suffrage in August 1787, he said, quote, no free country has ever been without parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom. A generation later, in a June 25, 1824 letter to Henry Lee, he wrote, the Constitution itself, whether written or prescriptive, influenced as its exposition and administration will be by those causes, must be an unfailing source of party distinctions and the very peculiarity which gives preeminent value to that of the United States. The partition of power between different governments, as well as between different departments of government, opens a new door for controversies in parties. So Madison understands the reality that in a free society, people will organize themselves into parties. And his study of political systems over the ages had convinced him that it was almost a natural evolution, something which Washington wished would not have happened. But in fact, Madison knew it would inevitably happen. In 1799, Madison returned to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he campaigned for Thomas Jefferson to be the third president of the United States. And when Jefferson won, Madison became Secretary of State and stayed there until his own election to the presidency in 1808. As Secretary of State, Madison helped to persuade Congress to ratify and fund the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country. Look at a map sometime and realize that when the French decided they couldn't defend their control of what had been Spanish territory, starting with New Orleans, and that they would sell the United States, the Mississippi and all of its tributaries, which includes the Missouri, they were literally for $15 million, giving up half of a continent. And it's an enormous moment. And Madison was one of the people who convinced Congress to pay for it. In a July 29, 1803 letter to Robert Livingston, Madison wrote, it will be of great importance to take the regulation and settlement of that territory out of other hands, into those the United States will be able to manage both for the general interest and conveniency. Despite their efforts, Jefferson and Madison could not convince the Spanish to sell West Florida. Had they not bought the Louisiana Purchase, and had either the French or the Spanish or some other country maintained it, the United States would have been truncated, stopping at the Mississippi River. That's how big a decision it was. As it is, they went all the way to the Pacific. In line with what Washington had done. Thomas Jefferson refused to to run for A third term, endorsing Madison instead. The Federalist Party candidate, Charles Coatsworth Pinckney unsuccessfully ran for president in the election of 1804, losing to Jefferson almost immediately. Anti Madison newspapers published across the country with cartoons ridiculing Madison's small stature and Jefferson's embargo of all trade with England and France. The Federalist Party charged with that. Madison supported the embargo to build up domestic manufacturing at the expense of foreign trade. One critic asked, why is the embargo like sickness? Because it weakens us. It was not just the Federalist Party that was against Madison. A small group of Democratic Republicans were also against Madison as a candidate. Fearing that Madison's quiet nature meant he was a Hamiltonian Federalist in disguise. Jefferson stood up for his friend and convinced some members of the Democratic Republican party to vote for Madison. George Clinton, Jefferson's vice president, was among these, and he, after accepting the vice presidential nomination with Madison, announced his own candidacy for president. But Madison won by a landslide of 122 electoral votes against Pickney's 47. Clinton managed to squeeze six electoral votes from his home state. Madison carried 12 states to pink these five, which means, of course, four of the first five presidents were in fact from the state of Virginia. After Madison was elected, but before Jefferson left office, Congress passed the Non Intercourse act of 1809, replacing Jefferson's embargo. This allowed world trade, except for Britain and France, to resume. The bill also said that if England and France removed their trade restrictions, the President could resume trade. However, when neither country responded to the request to remove restrictions, Congress passed Mason's bill number two, a bill that removed their trade restrictions for three months, stating that if just one of them removed their restrictions on American trade by March 3, 1811, and the other one failed to do so within three months, the president would reinstate the restrictions on the other country. France decided to remove their restrictions through the cadoret letter of August 1810, leading Madison to implement Macon's Bill no. 2 in two stages, first in November of 1810 and then in March 1811. The British insisted that American ships would continue to be seized until France lifted their restriction on British trade, thus treating US Exports as part of their war strategy. Congress responded by voting for military preparations and in April 1812, a 90 day embargo. Madison came before Congress with his list of complaints against the British, including the arming of Indians and trade restrictions. The House voted for war on June 4, 1812. However, the Senate debated for more than two weeks and would not vote for war until June 17. For Madison, this issue of war provided the opportunity to seize Canada and drive the Spanish from West Florida, which they unsuccessfully tried to obtain during the Jefferson administration. Madison and the pro war members wanted a land invasion of Canada. Their plan was to separate Upper Canada around modern day Ontario from the northwest part, cutting off the pro British Indian tribes from British colonies which supported them. This plan ended in a disaster and by the fall of 1812, one American force surrendered at Detroit, another was defeated near Niagara Falls, and a third never made it across the Niagara River. In just a few months, much of the Northwest territory fell to British forces. In the spring of 1813, things were looking up when Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British fleet on the southwestern tip of of Lake Erie, followed by a sacking of the Canadian capital of York, which is the present day Toronto. This allowed for Madison to send a force commanded by future president William Henry Harrison against the Native American leader Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames in western Ontario. They beat the Indians badly and of course that set the stage for Harrison to become a hero and eventually President. However, things went back against the United States in late spring 1814 as the British, who had now defeated Napoleon, shifted their resources against the Americans and went on the offensive. British troops raided American ports from Georgia to Maine and they occupied half of Maine. British troops then targeted the nation's capital. In Washington D.C. the American government fell with British troops torching the White House and many other federal buildings in retaliation for burning the Canadian Parliament buildings the year earlier. In fact, in my entire congressional career I kept going up and down a very curvy stone stairway which is called the British Stairway because that's what they ran up with the torches in order to burn down the Capitol. The British were stalled in Baltimore, they were unable to get past Fort McHenry and actually it was a great ironic moment. They had taken Francis Scott Key on board the British ship and were holding him because they thought he knew some secrets and they didn't want him to reveal them in terms of where the British were going to land. So he's watching the night long battle in which the British try to bombard Fort McHenry and force it to surrender. Francis Scott Key writes a poem, the Star Spangled Banner. It's attached to a British drinking song and becomes the national anthem, but it's based on real history, which is this night where he really could see the Star Spangled Banner still waving. Despite all the effort of the British bombardment, however, the British then turned their sights to New Orleans and wanted to use that city in the coming peace negotiations. They thought if they could seize New Orleans, that would give them a bargaining chip. About 6,000 British soldiers moved against the city. These were professional soldiers who had done very well on the peninsula campaign, had stood up against the French army. By any reasonable projection, they were going to win. New Orleans was protected by 4,000American soldiers commanded by Andrew Jackson, and with new Orleans citizens rallying to the cause. Now, this was one of those cases where the British didn't understand that Americans had lived a lifetime with rifles. Because the Americans almost universally had been involved in hunting and because they had rifles which fired much longer than muskets, and because they were basically protecting themselves behind cotton bales, the British were just going to get slaughtered. And they didn't get it as something they would never have done against Napoleon. They charged across the field because they had contempt for the Americans. Of the 6,000 British soldiers, about 2,000 died within a few minutes. The remaining British soldiers were demoralized, Threw down their weapons, and surrendered immediately. For 2,000 British dead, about 70Americans died. However, the peace treaty had already been made about two weeks earlier, but because of communications, nobody knew it. So what happened was, in an unnecessary battle, the British were both defeated and lost a number of very fine soldiers. The Americans won a great victory, and frankly, from the standpoint of American history, it is winning in New Orleans the that launches Andrew Jackson into a career which becomes one of the most powerful in the first half of the 19th century at changing America and creating a more populous nation. While the war ultimately failed, the few victories did return Madison to a high point of popularity around the country. Throughout the war, many new england merchants ignored trade embargoes, Traded freely with both France and Britain during the War of 1812, and some Federalists talked about seceding from the union. As far as they were concerned, their future was in the atlantic ocean dealing with the British, not dealing with Washington, D.C. and Virginians. However, the federalists ultimately understood that the country was going to survive. And many Americans came to the conclusion that the federalists were sort of traitors or unpatriotic. There was already a party that had been weakened by Jefferson and Madison, and it collapsed after this effort to talk about secession. You know, during Madison's presidency of the War of 1812, international affairs took up a lot of his time. But the one domestic issue the country dealt with was the rechartering of the bank of the United states, whose charter was set to expire in 1812. Remember, the charter of the original bank had been Alexander Hamilton's great effort to create a national financial system that would enable the economy to grow. Now the rechartering of the bank had three different camps in Congress. Democratic Republicans who thought the bank was unconstitutional, State backing interests that were tired of having a federal bank and anti British Federalist who objected to stock in the bank held by Britons. So The War of 1812 started without a national bank that could support war loans. In 1816, with Madison's support, which was a switch from his opposition against Hamilton a Generation earlier, the second bank was chartered with a 20 year term. Critics of Madison claimed that his support of a national bank revealed he was really a Federalist. And it's interesting that Madison, I think partly because of his style, being quiet, being studious, being intellectual, he didn't feel like the kind of populist that Jefferson and the Jeffersonians were the most comfortable with. But in fact he was probably their best thinker as a Jeffersonian. Madison's nomination for second term came 15 days before the announcement of the War of 1812. Madison won the endorsement of Congress, but about one third of the Democratic Republican legislators boycotted the nominating caucus altogether. For second place the caucus chose John Langdon of New Hampshire. However, Langdon declined and they then chose Eldridge Geary, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. Remember, it is Elbridge Gehry who ultimately draws a map in 1812 in Massachusetts which had a congressional district that looked really weird and somebody said that looks like a salamander. And somebody said no, no, that's a gerrymander. And that's where the term gerrymander comes from. A group of New York Democratic Republicans who participated in the boycott supported DeWitt Clinton, the nephew of former Vice President George Clinton who had died during Madison's term. They were hoping to form a coalition opposed to Madison for not moving decisively towards war and American citizens who wanted almost anyone in office but Madison. These Democratic Republicans met with the Federalist Party to discuss a unification strategy. And Clinton was nominated for president for the Federalist Party with Jared Ingersoll for Vice president. Clinton, who unlike Madison, was only a New York mayor and had no national claim, chose to tailor their election against Madison saying, quote, one thing to war Democratic Republicans, another to peace Democratic Republicans and something else again to anti war Federalists. Their message actually turned Federalist John Quincy Adams against his party and he decided to endorse Madison. Madison easily won, carrying 128 electoral votes to Clinton's 89. Madison chose not to run for a third time, which reinforced George Washington's precedent and in fact, up until Franklin Delano Roosevelt, nobody would run beyond two terms. Madison goes back home to his plantation, Montpelier, to live out the rest of his life. While he was retired, he was a real strong supporter of Jefferson's University of Virginia, serving on its board, succeeding Jefferson as head of the university in 1826. Three years later, Madison served again as a delegate at the Virginia Constitutional Convention, negotiating compromises between the large slaveholding plantations and Western farmers. While delegate, he denounced the right of states to declare federal laws unconstitutional when they went against state interest. He was also a founding member of the American Colonization Society, which favored the gradual abolition of slavery and resetting slaves and free blacks back to Africa. On June 28, 1836, after being bed bound for chronic rheumatism and liver dysfunction for six months, Madison died. His family hoped he would make it to the 4th of July because he wanted him to die on that day. Like President Jefferson, President Adams, and President Monroe, all of whom had managed to die on our national holiday. I think it's important to recognize that Madison shapes so much of our politics. He shapes the Constitution. He shapes the Bill of Rights. He really shapes the way the house functions as an institution. He is a perennial figure who over a period of almost 40 years, is decisively involved in creating the America that we know live in. And I think that Madison in that sense clearly is an immortal.

Narrator/Host (34:17)

Thank you for listening to Founding Fathers Week on Newts World. You can learn more about James Madison on our show page@newtsworld.com Newts World is produced by Gingrich360 and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Garnesey Sloan and.

Newt Gingrich (34:32)

Our researcher is Rachel Peterson.

Narrator/Host (34:35)

The artwork for the show was created by Steve Pendley.

Newt Gingrich (34:39)

Special thanks to the team at Gingrich 360.

Narrator/Host (34:43)

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Newt Gingrich (35:17)

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