Virginia - Day 23 - James Madison's Montpelier

Small Country Campground
Saturday, 23 March 2019

today's route

Madison's home is 25 miles north of Charlottesville and made for a pleasant drive on a sunny Saturday morning.

The weeping willows are budding now - that gorgeous green that comes in the spring.  So pretty.

The drive picked up a wonderful view of bucolic fields bounded by the blue Blue Ridge Mountains.  Such beauty.

Pres. Zachary Taylor
On the way I passed a historical marker in front of the home where Pres. Zachary Taylor was born.  He grew up in Kentucky and that's where he's buried.  I found several online references that say he's the only president from Louisiana and is in the LA Hall of Fame, but I have no idea why.  I can't see that he ever lived there, though he was stationed there during military campaigns.  Weird.

He earned hero status during his 40 years in the military, and forgettable status during his 15 months in the presidency.

He was apparently a principled man for, despite his thoroughly southern background, he opposed the expansion of slavery to the west, saying it wasn't needed because they weren't growing labor-intensive crops like cotton there.  It's speculated he'd have vetoed the Compromise of 1850 for that reason.  But he died suddenly at age 65 and it was only when his body was exhumed in the 1980s on suspicion of poisoning that they learned he likely died from being over-treated by 1850s medical methods.  He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

Pres. James Madison

He was actually born near Port Conway at Belle Grove Plantation, near Washington's and Monroe's birthplaces.  But except for his first few weeks, he spent his entire life here at Montpelier. 

They offer several different tours here, from very different points of view.  I chose the one that focused on Madison's influence on the US Constitution.  It lasted only an hour and I'll bet every one of us wished it had been longer.  The guide said it was originally a 2 hour tour, and was shortened to 90 minutes, and then to 1 hour - and he crammed 2 hours of information into that hour.

looking up at Montpelier

the Blue Ridge Mtns. from the front porch

Again, if early American history isn't your interest, skip over all of today, because that's what I learned about.

•  Madison was born in 1751.  At that time, the Blue Ridge Mountains were the equivalent of the state's border, and you can see how close the family lived to them.  They were essentially on the frontier.  
• By the time he was 10, Madison had already read his father's entire library.  He was sent to a boarding school and then to what became Princeton.  In those days, Princeton was like 1960s Berkeley as being in the forefront of radical thinking, and Madison enjoyed it.  Meanwhile, he learned 7 languages and got a traditional education in the classics.  He was taught to make up his own mind about things and to use reason above all.
• In the 1700s Virginia had a state religion (Anglican) and citizens were required to pay taxes to support the church.  Members of other denominations had to register as dissenters.  In 1774-75, Madison witnessed the arrest of some Baptists, and he was so upset about it that it influenced him into becoming political.
• At the age of 25, he was elected from this area to help write the Virginia Constitution.  At first the other delegates weren't impressed with him (too young), but George Mason quickly recognized his brilliant mind and put him in charge of writing the part about religion.  Mason wanted it to say the government is "tolerant of all religions."  Madison disagreed, seeing this as implying government could be intolerant of religion (he should have been an lawyer).  He left out all mention of religion.
• George Washington said he never saw so much mind in so little matter: Madison's supporters said he was 5'6" and his detractors said he was 5'2" - our nation's shortest president.
• Madison was sickly much of his life and often was forced to retreat to Montpelier for rest.  During one of these periods, he wrote to Jefferson in France asking him to find some books that he didn't have.  Jefferson ignored him for months and then finally sent him hundreds - all in their original languages.  (But, no problem for the man who knows 7 of them.)  Madison used those books to formulate the plan for government that is eventually written into our Constituion.  He had 4,000 books when he died, a library second only to Jefferson's.

These photos are Madison's library, where he spent a year learning about the world's governments and political philosophies.  It was here he formulated what became the Virginia Plan.

The Constitutional Convention, summer of 1787:

• Most delegates arrived thinking they were there to try to improve the Articles of Confederation.  They were quite surprised to discover that Madison and Hamilton and others wanted to discuss an entirely new system.
• This summer was the hottest on record up to that point.  The delegates' first decision was to nail all the windows shut and post armed guards at the doors.  They were serious about security.
• Their second decision was to elect George Washington as president of the convention.  He made a speech on the first day and then didn't say another word until the very last day.
• Madison had written what was known as the Virginia Plan, which became the framework for the Constitution.  It included a bicameral congress with representation in the House based on population, and senators elected by the House.  He included no president.
• Hamilton preferred the British system, and wanted a king that would be elected and serve for life.
• There was the bicameral Connecticut Plan with House membership based on population and 1 senator/state.  They compromised on 2/state.
• The southern states wanted to count the enslaved people as property and therefore not taxed as citizens, but also to count as people for purposes of determining seats in the House.  That's where the 3/5 of a person compromise came from.
• Each day Madison took copious notes.  His reading had taught him that when other governments had been formed, no record had been kept explaining how they were formed.  He wanted ours to be documented, though he kept them under tight secrecty at the time.  His notes are now in the Library of Congress.

When the delegates had finally come up with a finished plan, not everyone was happy with it and many were hesitant to sign it.

• Benjamin Franklin was 81 and not in good health.  He could no longer walk and was taken to the meetings every day in a sedan chair carried by prisoners from the nearby jail.  He also could no longer speak and wrote what he had to say for another delegate to read aloud.  On the last day, he wrote that he'd wanted a unicameral body, but he realized he wouldn't be able to have his choice.  Still, he said, he thought they'd come up with a framework that would work, said he was willing to sign it and encouraged others to do the same.
• At this point, George Washington spoke for the 2nd time and asked the delegates to sign it as a personal favor to him.  That tipped the scales.  He was revered by all of them.

Of course, it still had to be approved by the various state legislatures, which was another set of battles.  To achieve this, Madison and Hamilton and John Jay together wrote what were essentially letters to the editor, and were published in newspapers.  They became known as the Federalist Papers and were designed to convince the public that this was a good plan.

The biggest hurdle they ran into was the lack of a Bill of Rights.  Madison and Hamilton didn't want one, but when it became clear the Constitution wouldn't be adopted without one, Madison gave his word he'd come up with one.  His word was apparently considered good and it convinced Virginia to adopt it, with a margin of 10 votes.  I think New York's margin was only 3 votes.  Rogue Island (as it was called) didn't bother to vote and came in later.

Ours is the first written constitution in the history of the world that's been sustained over a long period of time.

All of this happened before he married Dolley, in 1794.  The tour I chose didn't include a lot of information about her or their marriage or their daily lives.  She was very likely instrumental in helping get him elected president, as she was very well-liked and gave legendary dinner parties.  She was 17 years younger than he.

The guide knew a whole lot more than he had time to tell us and could answer a whole range of questions from Dolley's favorite color (red) and Madison's opinion on slavery (unshakeable, even by earnest arguments from his friend Lafayette) to the reason Madison and Hamilton had such a falling out (I didn't know they did, but maybe the tour member who asked had been to see Hamilton) (it was because Madison thought Hamilton was trying to establish an oligarchy).

I didn't stay to look around the grounds and other exhibits.  We could wander or take one of the other tours for more in-depth information.  I did enjoy the signs of spring, though.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the forsythia seemed so exuberant.