Passed Presidents - # 4 – James Madison

It’s Presidents Week and time to visit another final resting place of one of the nation’s Chief Executives.

Not 20 miles up the road from Jefferson’s Monticello is Montpelier, the home of James Madison, our fourth president.  Like Washington and Jefferson, Madison was a Virginia plantation owner and is buried on his property.  In 2008, on the last day of the 4900-mile road trip that completed my Dead Presidents Quest, I was able to re-visit both sites to get better pictures with digital equipment.

“Montpelier”, Madison’s home in Montpelier Station, VA (30 June 2008)

Three months after this picture was taken, the five-year, $24 million restoration of the home was completed.  After the president died, his wife, the charming Dolley Madison, was able to keep the property for only eight years before having to sell it in part to pay her ne’er-do-well son’s gambling debts.  One of the DuPont heirs bought it in 1901 and that family bequeathed the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1984.  Every effort has been made to have the house look as it did when the Madison’s lived there.

Mr. Madison’s Temple (30 June 2008)

Off to one side of the house is this decorative feature.  The president 
referred to it as his ‘summer study’.  While we are uncertain 
he used it as such, it would have been the coolest spot around 
because 30 feet below the wooden floorboards was an ice house.

As we look back on the Founding Fathers, it’s a shame that Madison seems to have an image problem.  Washington comes off as this heroic, general/leader/’Father of our Country’ and two-term president.  Jefferson was also an imposing figure and two-term president...the Renaissance man who could do anything.  Ben Franklin was brilliant, witty and bawdy.  Even the grumpy, one-term, presidential mediocrity, John Adams, got a boost from David McCullough’s great book and the HBO mini-series. 

Why does Madison get such short shrift from history?  Maybe that’s it!  He was short.  At 5’4” and a hundred pounds, he was the smallest of our presidents.  Currently, the average height of American males is 5’9”.  I’m certain it was less than that 200 years ago.  Yet, of the 43 men who were elected president, only eleven were shorter than 5’9“. 

Entrance to Madison Family Graveyard, Montpelier Plantation (30 June 2008)

I’d put Madison’s accomplishments against the others.  He is considered the Father of our Constitution.  He drafted the Bill of Rights.  He wrote 29 of the Federalist Papers.  He was Jefferson’s Secretary of State.  Because he saw how his Anglican father participated in the state-sanctioned persecution of other religions, he understood the importance of separating church and state and how removing that interference would ultimately strengthen all religions. 

James Madison’s Grave (30 June 2008)

A most modest inscription with no reference 
to his presidency or accomplishments

On the other hand, it appears he was better at Founding Fatherhood than he was as Commander in Chief.  He got us into the War of 1812, for which we were ill-prepared and which was not well prosecuted.  Most memorably, it was his capitol and White House that were sacked and burned by the British in 1814.  No other president can say he was in charge when the capital city fell to an enemy.  The White House was not called that until after it took all that white paint to cover its scorched remains. 

James Madison

4^th President; Served 1809-1817

Born: March 16, 1751, Port Conway, VA

Died: June 28, 1836, Montpelier Station, VA

Grave Location: Plantation Home – Montpelier, Montpelier Station, VA

Dates Visited: May 5, 2001; June 30, 2008

Here’s to the Little Big Man.  After the war, he was very popular.  He was as responsible as any of his contemporaries for what America is today.  He had smarts, skills and apparently, the charm to win over one of the most vivacious First Ladies we ever had.  Not a bad record.