1 88 JAMES MADISON 



actual work of making the Constitution. If you con- 

 sult a set of Hamilton's writings, you observe that one 

 volume is the " Federalist." That is quite right, but 

 it need not make us forget that one-third of the volume 

 was written by Madison. The work of Hamilton was 

 in itself so great that there is no need for a Hamilton 

 legend in which the attributes and achievements of 

 other heroes are added to his own. Let us now pass 

 in review some points in Madison's career. 



His earliest paternal ancestor in Virginia seems to 

 have been John Madison, who in 1653 took out a 

 patent for land between the North and York rivers on 

 Chesapeake Bay. There was a Captain Isaac Madison 

 in Virginia as early as 1623, but his relationship to 

 John is matter of doubt. John's grandson, Ambrose 

 Madison, married Frances Taylor, one of whose 

 brothers, named Zachary, was grandfather of President 

 Zachary Taylor. The eldest child of Ambrose and 

 Frances was James Madison, who was married in 

 1 749 to Nelly Conway, of Port Conway. Their eldest 

 child, James, was born at Port Conway on the i6th of 

 March, 1751, so that he was eight years younger than 

 Jefferson and six years older than Hamilton. He was 

 the first of twelve children. His ancestors, as he says 

 himself in a note furnished to my old friend Dr. Lyman 

 Draper in 1834, "were not among the most wealthy 

 of the country, but in independent and comfortable 

 circumstances." Their position and training were 

 those of the well-educated and liberal country squire. 

 James's education was begun at an excellent school 

 kept by a Scotchman named Donald Robertson, and 

 his studies preparatory for college were completed at 

 home under the care of the clergyman of the parish. 



