James Madison | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

James Madison

Born March 16, 1751
Port Conway, Virginia
Died June 28, 1836
Orange County, Virginia

President of the United States, secretary of state, congressman

James Madison was a wealthy man with a careful but creative mind who gave his whole life to public service. He worked to gain American independence and helped establish the nation's new government. Madison is known as the person most responsible for making the Bill of Rights part of the U.S. Constitution.

James Madison, the first of ten children, was born in 1751 to a wealthy young couple, James and Eleanor Conway Madison. Members of the Madison family were longtime residents of Virginia and owned a great deal of land. Although he was frail and sickly, James Madison was an excellent student. He was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and entered what is now Princeton University in New Jersey in 1769, graduating in a mere two years. While at college, he was a member of a student club that favored colonial resistance to British taxation policies. Ever since the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, colonists had been complaining about British attempts to raise money by taxing them.

After graduation, Madison considered becoming a Protestant minister.

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