James Madison
(March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836)
4th President of the United States
(1809–1817)

was the fourth (1809–1817) President of the United States. Known as the "Father of the Constitution," he played a leading role in the creation of the United States Constitution in 1787 and, with Alexander Hamilton, was the chief expounder of its meaning in the Federalist Papers (1788). Working closely with Thomas Jefferson, he created the Democratic-Republican Party in the mid-1790s and built a movement of grass roots political activism that was victorious in the "Revolution of 1800." As Jefferson's Secretary of State he handled the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the nation's size, and tried to avoid war with Britain and France. As president he declared war on Britain, the War of 1812. The war started poorly but ended on a high note in 1815 as a new spirit of nationalism swept the country.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war, is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded. Political Observations, April 20, 1795, (Madison, IV, page 491)

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. Constitutional Convention, June 29, 1787

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. Speech in the Virginia Convention, June 16, 1788

Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions. Federalist No. 10

A people armed and free forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.

Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust their people with arms.

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.

There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle in religion. It's least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.

Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.