JAMES MADISON 



THE CONSTRUCTIVE STATESMAN 



IN the work of constructing our national govern- 

 ment and putting it into operation there were five men 

 distinguished above all others. In an especial sense 

 they deserve to be called the five founders of the 

 American Union. Naming them chronologically, in 

 the order of the times at which the influence of each 

 was most powerfully felt, they come as follows : George 

 Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, 

 Thomas Jefferson, and John Marshall. But for Wash- 

 ington it is very doubtful if independence would have 

 been won, and it is probable that the federal Consti- 

 tution would not have been adopted. The fact that 

 the experiment of the new government could be tried 

 under his guidance made quite enough votes for it to 

 turn the scales in its favour. His weight of authority 

 was also needed to secure the adoption of Hamilton's 

 measures and to prevent the half-formed nation from 

 being drawn into the vortex of European war. As for 

 Madison, he was the constructive thinker who played 

 the foremost part among the men who made the Con- 

 stitution, besides contributing powerfully with tongue 

 and pen to the arguments which secured its ratifica- 

 tion. In this work of advocacy Hamilton reenforced 

 and surpassed Madison, and then in the work of prac- 



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