James Madison was the fourth president of the United States of America. He was a political theorist. He was born on March 16, 1751 at Port Conway, Virgina. He died on June 28,1836 on his tobacco plantation in Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia. His father is James Madison Sr. He was a successful planter and owned more than 3,000 acres of land and dozens of slaves. In addition, he was an influential figure in county affairs. He acquired wealth by inheritance and by his marriage to the daughter of a rich tobacco merchant. Madison’s mother is Eleanor Rose Conway; she was born into a rich family. Madison was the eldest of 12 children.
His siblings are Francis Madison (1753-1800), Ambrose Madison (1755-1793), Catlett Madison (1758-1758), Nelly Conway Madison (1760-1802), William Madison (1762-1843), Sarah Catlett Madison (1764-1843), infant son Madison (1766-1766), Elizabeth Madison (1768-1775), Infant son Madison (1770-1770), Reuben Madison (1771-1775) and Frances Taylor Madison (1774-1823). In 1762. Madison was sent to a boarding school run by Donald Robertson in king and Queen County, Virginia. He then returned to his father’s estate in Orange County, Virginia. His father made him stay home and receive private tutoring because he was concerned about Madison’s health.
Thoughout Madison’s life his health wasn’t too good. Two years later, Madison finally went to college in 1769. He attended the College of New Jersey which is now known as Princeton University. Some of the subjects Madison studied there are Latin, Greek,science, and philosophy. He successfully completed a four-year course of study in two years. He graduated in 1771. In 1772 Madison returned to Virginia and caught himself up in the tensions between the colonists and the British authority but he was then elected to the Orange County Committee of Safety in December of 1774.
He joined the Virginia militia as a colonel the following year. In 1776, he became a member of Virginia Constitutional Convention, as Orange County’s representative. Around that time, he met Thomas Jefferson not knowing they would become lifelong friends. Madison was in charge of writing Virginia’s constitution, he worked with George Mason on the draft and he reworked some of the language about religious freedom. In 1777 when he lost his bid for a seat in the Virginia Assembly, he was appointed to the Governor’s Council. He was a strong supporter of the American-French association during the revolution.
In 1780, he went to Philadelphia to serve as a member of Continental Congress, and became the youngest member there. Madison came up with the idea of the Virginia plan by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. He produced a separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The plan also proposed that the legislative branch should consist of two houses. In the two houses, each of the states are represented according to their population size. Larger states would have more representatives than smaller ones, but smaller states did not find this appealing.
Madison was the first to advocate the granting of additional powers to Congress. He that Congress should forbid the states to issue more paper money. He introduced the idea of checks and balances, that no one person or part of the government should have all political power intrined in them. This occurred when the confederation was almost in a state of collapse because of the failure of the states to respond to requisitions of Congress for supplies for the federal treasury. In 1781, he favored an amendment of the Articles of Confederation giving Congress power to enforce its requisitions.
In November 1783, Madison’s term in Congress expired, and he went back to Virginia and began to study law. In 1878, he presented the Virginia Plan to delegates in Philadelphia and found a solution to the difficult process of negotiation. This led to the drafting of the final Constitution. In 1789, he became a member of the House of Representatives. As a representative of Virginia, he introduced his intention to a resolution to create the bill of rights. Madison was supposed to introduce the legislation for the amendments on May25,1789 but when the day came Madison decided to postpone his introduction for two weeks.
Unfortunatelly he was unsuccessful in his first attempt to have the House acknowledge and take into consideration the bill of rights at that time so Madison changed his introductie and instead he changed the amendments to resoltuions. The state legisltures approves 10 of the 12 amendments passed by Congress in September 1789. Those 10 amendments known as resolutions are now known as the Bill of Rights. The ratification by the required three-quarters of the states occurred on December 15, 1791. He then married Dolley Payne Todd on September 15,1794, a widow who had one child.
Her son known as John Payne Todd became Madison’s stepson. In 1801, he became Secretary of State under Jefferson. Madison worked with Jefferson to form the Democratic Republican Party. Madison then won presidency and was the first Secretary of State to go on to serve two presidential tersm. His first term began in 1809-1813. During his presidency he led the U. S. into the controversial War of 1812 against Great Britain. Unfortuanetlely when Madison issues a war proclamation against Britain , America was not ready for a war and congress did not adequately fund or prepare an army. Not everyone agreed and wanted to go to war either.
Aside from this American forces decided to attempt to fight off and attack British forces. The U. S Navy had 17 ships and great Britain had 1,000. The war didn’t stop until the British burned Washington DC to the ground in 1815. Eventually we won our independence and the National Anthem was written thanks to Francis Scott Key’s experience during the war and what he seen while watching the flag and his country fight for independence. Madison died of natural cause on June 28, 1836 in Montpelier, Virginia. His last words were, “I always talk better lying down. ” James Madison is buried in the Madison Family Cemetery at Montpelier.
James Monroe. https://www. whitehouse. gov/1600/presidents/jamesmonroe James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States of America. He was born on April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father is Spence Monroe and was a planter who also practiced carpentry. He lived from 1727 to 1774. His mother Elizabeth Jones was well educated for her time and married Spence Monroe in 1752 and had 6 children. Madison’s parents died when he was a teenager. He had four brothers, Elliott Monroe, Elizabeth Buckner, Joseph Jones Monroe, Spence Monroe, Andrew Augustine Monroe and Jane Monroe.
Monroe was tutored by his mother at home at the age of 11-16. He studied at Campbell town Academy, a school run by Reverend Archibald Campbell of Washington Parish. There he succeeded and progressed through Latin and mathematics faster than most boys. He went to The College of William and Mary. He was a lawyer, farmer and planter. Monroe dropped out of college and joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army His background as a college student and the son of a well known planter helped him obtain an officers commission.
He also practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Monroe married Elizabeth Monroe when she was 17 and he was 27. He joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention and in 1790 was elected United States Senator. Although he almost lost a congressional election to James Madison in 1790, the Virginia state legislature appointed him. In 1794 Monroe was sent to Paris by Washington as U. S minister to France. He was then recalled in 1797 because his actions as minister angered the Federalists. in 1799 , he was elected governor of Virginia and he served three one year terms.
Jefferson then sent him back to France to help negotiate the Lousiana Purchaсce. When he returned home , Republicans nominated him to oppose James Madison for the Democratic Repub;ican presidential nomination in 1808. But Monroe didn’t take the challenge serious and Madison won the election easily. Monroe was elected governor of Virginia in January 1811 again but he went back to Washington, D. C, when President Madison named him secretary of state. He was also secretary of war, until 1817. Monroe eventually became a candidate for the Democaratic-Repub;icans and won presidency.
At the beginning of Monroe’s presidency, the nation had declared victory in the War of 1812 and the economy was booming. So he focused on domestic issues. The government adopted many Federalist programs, uncluding protective tariffs and a national bank. But Madison was more interested in reaching out to all the regions of the country. Monroe’s first crisis as president was the Panic of 1819 when there was high unemployment, increased foreclosures and bankruptcies. Some people criticized him because of the way he responded to him but he thought it was normal for a meaturing economy.
He couldn’t really do much to alleviate their short-term effects. His second crisis came the same year, the entrance of Missouri to the Union as a slave state was threatening the legislative balance between North and South. Congress negotiated a compromise in which Massaachusetts allowes its northermmost counties to apply for admission to the Union as the new free state of Maine. Monroe supported the compromise and after making sure everything was constiituional he signed the bill. Time went by and Monroe returned to private life deeply in deby and spent many of his years trying to find a solution to his financial problems.
After his wife died in 1830, Monroe moved to New York City to live with his daughter and he died there on July 4,1831. Who would be a better President today? James Monroe would be a better President today because of everything he experienced and all of the things he accomplished while being president and the things he accomploished throughout his life. Monroe would be able to better address todays issues on domestic and foreign policy because Monroe was an ambitious an of action and he was one of Madison;s most valuable cabinet members. Before Monroe even became president he served in the Revolutionary War and in the Continental Congres.
He served in the U. S senate. He was a successful politician. As President he helped turn away from European affairs and focused on domestic affairs, which is why today he would be a better president to address domesic issues. He was also extremely successful in negotiations with forign affairs including acwusdition of florida, and with issues in Britain. He also held one of the most successful cabinet meetings. He had a distinguished public career as a soldier, diplomat, governor , senator, and cabinet official. Today he would be the better President in addressing today’s issues on domestic and forign policy and many more topics.