Afterword

The afterword deals briefly with constitutional issues Jefferson and Madison faced after the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were adopted. These included questions involving the need for Senate approval of the removal of an executive official whose appointment required Senate confirmation; Congress’s authority to charter a national bank, enact a protective tariff, or subsidize internal improvements; the allocation between Congress and the president of power over foreign policy; the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts; and the president's authority to execute the Louisiana Purchase. The afterword concludes that during the ratification debate, Madison had represented the Constitution as creating a government of limited and carefully enumerated powers, and that he generally honored those representations. Madison, however, advocated states’ rights less aggressively and less consistently than did Jefferson, and unlike Jefferson, was willing to defer to the Supreme Court in resolving conflicts between state and national authority. In fact, after Jeffeson died in 1826, Madison spent much of the rest of his life combating the nullification theory espoused by John C. Calhoun, who claimed a state could lawfully nullity a federal statute.

Let Us Secure What We Can

This chapter focuses primarily on Madison’s role in the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Madison had initially opposed a bill of rights as unnecessary, unenforceable, and likely to disrupt the ratification process. He also argued that some rights would inevitably be omitted, thus creating a presumption that they were not protected. Jefferson strongly disagreed, telling Madison they ought to “secure what we can,” and providing him with a mechanism to enforce a bill of rights: judicial review. Jefferson seemed confident that the courts would refuse to enforce laws that clearly infringed on rights protected by the Constitution. Under pressure from Jefferson and from Virginia’s Baptists, who wanted a guarantee of religious freedom, Madison agreed, in a spirited congressional race against Anti-Federalist James Monroe, to support the adoption of a bill of rights if elected. Madison won the race and, ironically, almost single-handedly pushed a set of amendments, which became the Bill of Rights, through Congress. Madison emerged as an outspoken champion of additional safeguards for civil liberties after the Constitution was ratified in large part because he believed a bill of rights could be used to reconcile moderate Anti-Federalists to the new government.

Confusion … Must Stifle All Enterprize

As a member of the Virginia assembly, Madison enjoyed considerable success in continuing the process of legal reform Jefferson had begun during the American Revolution, although his efforts to address Congress’s fiscal woes proved unavailing. Defeat of the general assessment bill in Virginia and passage of Jefferson’s Bill for Religious Freedom illustrated to Madison how a multitude of factions, in this case religious denominations, could be exploited to protect liberty. Meanwhile, Jefferson and Madison continued to wrestle with the issue of constitutional reform at the state level, and Jefferson’s ideal of a republic of yeomen farmers, as set forth in his Notes on the State of Virginia, predisposed him to support a central government strong enough to support American trade abroad and American expansion westward. Otherwise, his expectations for Congress were modest. Both men expressed opposition to slavery, but they could do little more than secure adoption of state laws ending the African slave trade and permitting private manumissions.

Opposition Enough to Do Good

In the winter of 1787-1788, Madison was surprised by opposition to the ratification of the Constitution from Anti-Federalists who complained that the Constitution threatened the rights of the states and of individuals by conferring too much power on the central government. Even Jefferson had mixed emotions about the document. His reservations included concerns about the president’s eligibility for reelection and about the absence of a bill of rights. Jefferson proposed that nine states ratify the Constitution--the minimum number needed for it to take effect--and that four states withhold their approval in order to create pressure for amendments. Many of Madison’s twenty-nine Federalist essays addressed issues raised by Jefferson, and they reassured Jefferson on several points. Nevertheless, in order to win ratification of the Constitution in Virginia, its Federalist proponents had to agree to support amendments after the new government began operating, a compromise that Jefferson, who continued to support the addition of a bill of rights, could accept.

A Friendship Was Formed

In this chapter, which among other things, discusses the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, Jefferson and Madison encounter the major political issues confronting the new republic: allocating representation in the national legislature and accounting for America’s enslaved population; resolving state land claims in the West; securing American access to the Mississippi River; and maintaining a stable currency, all while waging a war for independence. Convinced nevertheless that even more important work remained to be done within the individual states, Jefferson embarked on a campaign to reform Virginia’s legal code. Elected governor in June 1779, Jefferson began to form a close friendship with Madison, who served on the governor’s council before being elected to the Continental Congress in December 1779. After entering Congress, Madison soon emerged as a leader of the more nationalistic delegates.

A Happy Talent of Composition

In this chapter, Jefferson and Madison gain their first experience in constitution-writing. Madison served as a delegate to the Virginia convention of 1776 that produced Virginia’s first state constitution. As a novice lawmaker,Madison’s contribution was limited largely to strengthening protections for freedom of conscience. Although Jefferson was serving in the Continental Congress, he submitted a draft constitution of his own to the convention, but it had only a limited impact. At about the same time, Jefferson also drafted the Declaration of Independence, a process the chapter describes. Madison later reconciled the Declaration and the Constitution by describing the former as a statement of basic political principles and the later as a framework for a government that would respect the people’s rights. Although America’s Revolutionary-era Union was weak, Jefferson considered the emotional ties among Americans to be more binding than a formal alliance.

The Coarse and Dry Study of the Law

The first chapter examines the early lives and education of Jefferson and Madison. Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary and studied law under George Wythe. He was also influenced by the writings of John Locke, Obidiah Hulme, Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, and Lord Kames, and developed an essentially optimistic view of human nature. Madison studied under the Presbyterian theologian John Witherspoon at what is today Princeton University. Madison early on became a strong believer in freedom of religion. Meanwhile, Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and produced his first important public paper, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. A Summary View challenged the authority of Parliament in Britain’s American colonies and marked Jefferson’s emergence as a major political figure.

A New Government Must Be Made

In the year leading up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Jefferson, now serving as American minister to France, grew increasingly frustrated with Congress’s inability to retaliate against nations that discriminated against U.S. trade. Madison believed an unfavorable balance of trade drained specie out of the United States and created a demand for debt relief, paper money, and the postponement of tax collections, which left the states unable to support Congress financially. Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts reaffirmed his view that the preservation of republican government required a much stronger central government. At the Philadelphia convention, Madison supported giving Congress broad powers, including the right to veto state laws, and he proposed that representation in Congress be based on population. His fellow delegates rejected the so-called congressional negative, and small state delegates forced Madison to accept the Great, or Connecticut, Compromise in which in the House of Representatives would reflect a state’s population, but each state would have an equal vote in the Senate. When the convention adjourned, Madison feared the new federal government might still be too weak to survive, while Jefferson, viewing events from Paris, worried the Constitution did too little to protect the people’s liberties.

All the World Is Becoming Commercial

In this chapter, Jefferson succeeded Madison in Congress and later accepted a diplomatic assignment in Europe. Meanwhile, Madison returned to the Virginia assembly. Both men were frustrated by the ineffectiveness of Congress under the Articles of Confederation. They were able to negotiate Virginia’s cession of its western lands to the central government, and Congress passed an amended version of Jefferson’s Ordinance of 1784, but they were unable to secure American navigation rights on the Mississippi River. Despite Congress’s financial plight, the states rejected efforts to adopt an impost amendment empowering Congress to tax imports. Jefferson and Madison were also frustrated by British restrictions on American commerce and Congress’s inability to promote U.S. trade. Jefferson abandoned his belief that commercial treaties could be used to strengthen the Union, but the prosperity of Americans, compared to the poverty he had seen in Europe, lessened his interest in constitutional reform.