James Madison's Role In American History

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As “The Father of The Constitution”, James Madison was obviously one of the most important people in American history, though no one would have ever suspected it due to his sickly, “momma’s boy” demeanor (Stagg. LBP). Although Madison acted this way as a child, he grew to be one of the most influential people in the history of the United States. Madison is important to the study of American history because he drafted and sponsored some of the greatest documents that America still uses today, he, along with Thomas Jefferson, founded the Democratic- Republican party, and he was the fourth president of the United States. (James Madison Biography, totallyhistory.com, history.com, Frank Freidel) James Madison drafted the first copy of the Constitution. However, the …show more content…

James Madison under the pen name “The Federalist”, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote 85 anonymous essays called the Federalist Papers to defend their opinions about the Constitution. Madison wrote 29 of the essays, which outlined his support of the document in hopes that it would persuade others to see the why ratifying the Constitution was necessary. Madison had many setbacks and many people working against him. One of these people was Patrick Henry (James Madison Biography). Henry- who believed in state support of religion- was trying to tax civilians in support of the Christian religion, and Madison disagreed on these taxes. Madison was eventually able to out maneuver Henry, which helped pave the way for progression on the Constitution to continue (James Madison: Life After…). Even with the trying setbacks, Madison’s hard work paid off, and the Constitution became the new functioning government in 1789. Following the ratification of the Constitution, James Madison was elected into the U.S. House of Representatives. Here, Madison worked on