James Madison, fourth president, is having a revival. The bicentennial of the War of 1812, which he asked Congress to declare, will put him front and center, along with Old Hickory and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Conservatives were already fond of him. He decorates the neckties of the Federalist Society, that incubator of right-leaning lawyers and judges; libertarians and Tea Partiers admire his last act as president — vetoing a federal infrastructure bill on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
But Madison, the little guy with the great mind, is bigger than any party. He created the entire political world in which Americans live.
Madison was called the Father of the Constitution during his lifetime (1751-1836). He earned this title by his diligence. Madison was one of the 39 signers of the Constitution, but he did more than affix his name. At every stage of planning, writing and ratifying, he was a major player. In 1786, he and Alexander Hamilton hijacked a conference on interstate commerce in Annapolis, Md., and issued a call for a constitutional convention the following year. When it met in Philadelphia in May 1787, he was the first out-of-state delegate to arrive; he attended every session and took notes of every speech. After the Constitution was submitted to the states for approval, he led the fight for ratification in his home state, Virginia; and he joined with Hamilton and John Jay to write the Federalist Papers, a series of pro-Constitution op-eds that ran in New York City newspapers. After the Constitution went into effect, he pushed the First Congress to add the Bill of Rights.
Madison’s paternity was also intellectual. He made two arguments for constitutional government that flew in the face of the conventional wisdom of his day. Eighteenth-century Americans thought republics had to be small and simple, like Athens, Rome and other ancient city-states.
But Madison praised size and complexity. The “extend[ed] sphere” of a country that stretched from Maine to Georgia would make it harder for bad factions to take power, while the Rube Goldberg features of the Constitution — president, Congress, judiciary and states all jostling together — would “keep . . . each other in their proper places.”
The Constitution is still marching on more than 220 years later. But Madison had a second child, which is almost as old and equally important: modern American politics. He became the Father of Politics in 1791-92. Madison’s idol, George Washington, was president. His best friend, Thomas Jefferson, was secretary of state, and another friend, Hamilton, was Treasury secretary.
Madison, completing the political Dream Team, was a leader in the House of Representatives.
Hamilton split the team by doing things — servicing the national debt, establishing a national bank — that Madison disliked. Hamilton, the former merchant’s clerk, thought he was building American prosperity; Madison, the Virginia planter, thought Hamilton was enriching speculators.
What’s important here is what Madison did about it. In the summer of 1791, he and Jefferson took a trip to upstate New York and New England, fishing, canoeing, studying wildlife — or at least that was their cover story. Their real purpose was reaching out to New York politicians — Sen. Aaron Burr, Gov. George Clinton — who had their own quarrels with Hamilton. They were laying the groundwork for a national political party — America’s first. In 1792 Madison gave the new party its name: the Republicans.
Madison’s political innovations are as long-lived as his constitutional handiwork. His Republican Party changed its name, in the 1820s, to the name it bears today: the Democrats. (The GOP is a different, later organization.) Madison’s party is the second-oldest in the world, after Britain’s Tories. Madison foresaw our world of permanent campaigns, journalistic warfare and opinion polls; he helped bring it into being.
Madison’s children go together — the Constitution is the rules, politics is the game — but they don’t always look pretty, especially at this point in the election cycle. With Congress and the White House in deadlock as America’s debts soar, with Obama in campaign mode, Republicans scrambling in Iowa and Donald Trump floating over the scene like a blimp, how healthy are constitutionalism and politics these days?
We have to ask: compared to what? The news from Egypt gives us two alternatives. Before the Arab Spring, Egyptians lived with Mubarak and stasis. As they approach the Arab winter, they live with chaos, and the prospect of new authoritarians ahead.
The Constitution generates a lot of gridlock, but so it was designed, to protect liberty. And politics breeds a lot of vulgarity, but that is a side effect of appealing to a mass audience. The Constitution and the political system have steered this crazy, energetic country through two centuries. We have a lot to thank James Madison for.
Richard Brookhiser is the author of the biography “James Madison” (Basic Books), out now.