How did James Madison prepare for the Constitutional Convention?
The phrase 'laboratories of democracy' is attributed to Tocqueville, but it is usually credited to Justice Louis Brandeis. The attribution was not tested.
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The speaker describes James Madison as a careful scholar who, more than anyone, thought through how to make the American experiment in self-government work. Before the Constitutional Convention, Madison studied the problems under the Articles of Confederation, wrote notes on the 'vices' of the political system, and researched ancient and modern confederacies. He wanted a stronger union but also wanted to keep the states, because state and local governments are where citizens learn to govern themselves.
You'll be able to
- describe how Madison prepared for the Constitutional Convention.
- explain why Madison wanted a stronger central government.
- explain why Madison still wanted to keep strong state and local governments.
Key words
- Articles of Confederation
- The first agreement joining the 13 states, which created a weak central government.
- republic
- A government where the people choose representatives to make decisions for them.
- faction
- A group of people united by a shared interest that may work against others or the common good.
- common good
- What benefits the whole community, not just one person or group.
- confederacy
- A loose union of separate states or groups that keep most of their own power.
Transcript
Madison was younger than Jefferson. Jefferson was born in 1743, Madison 1751. They were friends, but obviously, there was a certain deference that Madison showed Jefferson being the elder and the elder statesman and the author of the Declaration of Independence. But as her friendship grew and solidified, Madison wasn't afraid to disagree with Jefferson about certain things. I went to college, and I studied Jefferson, and then I started reading some Hamilton, and the more I read of Jefferson, the more I would read his correspondence with Madison. I saw that Madison was the more thoughtful in my view. Jefferson thought about things. He was very creative. He was brilliant. But he wouldn't think things through to the end. It
was almost like he would get a little bored and go on to the next thing. Whereas, Madison was a real scholar. I think even more than a politician or a statesman Madison was a scholar. That was his calling. He was the one more than anybody who thought through how to make the American experiment work. That was his life's project. That's what he devoted himself how to establish in America a genuinely free republic that could last through the ages.
If you ever take a tour of Montpelier, Madison's home, you get to go up into a study, and you look at this huge window over the rolling green hills of the valley, and that's where he sat for months and worked. On thinking about what's going wrong in America after the revolution, under the Articles of Confederation, and what can we do about it. He read a lot. He read a tremendous amount. What he was really looking at in particular, he thought part of the problem was that we hadn't built a strong enough union. We needed to have a stronger central government.
It just wasn't working economically, politically. Federalist Teddy, talks about all these problems that are going on? The rage for paper money and the inflation that's going on, and the factions, the multiplicity of state laws, the injustice, confusion, chaise rebellion.
He's looking at all these things. He writes a piece, some notes that he calls vices of the political system of the United States. In other words, what's wrong, and what do we need to do about this? He wants a stronger union, but still wants the states to be in place. I think it's really important to see why. Historically, yeah, I mean they're there, and it's part of our heritage, and they're not going to have it any other way. Rhode Island with Washington called Rhode Island.
They didn't even send anybody to the convention because they weren't too keen on this changing things anyway in the beginning. But Madison wants the states there because if there's any chance for the people actually to govern themselves. We have to learn how to do that. There have to be state and local governments where we participate. Participation isn't just showing up. It's that, but it's much more. It's that we actually engage with our fellow citizens. There's going to be differences of opinion, and when you put those differences of opinion up against each other, you express your views, but you also have to listen to others. You might even learn something from that, because oftentimes, we don't have it 100 percent right ourselves. In that clash of political ideas
and political interests and political concerns, we learned more about what we ought to be doing, and we learned more about others and caring for others, caring for not just our own rights, but the rights of others and the common good. States and localities are critical to that enterprise, what Toko will call the laboratories of democracy. It's where it happens. Those are the things Madison is thinking about as he prepares for the convention. He's reading everything you can get his hands on. But he's reading Montesquieu on the Confederacy of Lycia. He's going through ancient and modern confederacies and studying them. How did they organize a government that's divided into parts? Where did they place the power? Was it proportionate representation or representation
by units? He's thinking through all of those questions to figure out what's best for America.
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