Madison - Great Leader

Great Leaders

Madison was a leader of the Jeffersonian republicans and Hamilton was a federalist who believed in a strong central government. James Madison, an American politician, political theorist and fourth President of the United States, was one of the most influential Founding fathers of the United States. As a leader in the House of Representatives, Madison worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government. Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Alexander Hamilton was elected as a representative of New York State to the Congress of the Confederation. Breaking with Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton in 1791, Madison and Thomas Jefferson organized what they called the Republican Party in opposition to key policies of the federalists, especially the national bank and the jay Treaty.

Madison served two terms as president. He declared war on Britain in the war of 1812, suffered the humiliation of the occupation of the nation's capital and the burning of the white house by British forces, and left office with a diminished reputation. Madison joined Alexander Hamilton to write the "The Federalist papers," essays that immediately became the single most important interpretation of the Constitution, and remains so among jurists and scholars. Back in Virginia in 1788, Madison led the fight for ratification of the Constitution at the state's convention. Madison ignored the proposals for structural change of the government, and synthesized the others into a list of proposals for the protection of civil rights, such as free of speech and "habeas corpus." In June 1789 Madison offered a package of twelve proposed amendments to the constitution. By December 1791, the last ten of Madison's proposed amendments were ratified and became the Bill of Rights. The chief characteristics of Madison's time in Congress were his work to limit the power of the federal government. The debate between Hamilton and Jefferson led to the formation of the first political parties in U.S. history. Members of the Federalist Party followed Hamilton and believed in a strong central government.

Hamilton was consulted on a wide range of problems, foreign and considered the leader of the country's first political party. During the war in 1793 against Britain and France Madison, believed that Britain was weak and American's are strong, and that a trade war with Britain probably would succeed, and would allow Americans to assert their independence fully. Madison tried and failed to defeat the treaty, and it became a central issue of the emerging First Party System. All across the country, voters began to divide for and against the Treaty and other issues, and which became Federalist or Republicans. The Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton built a support group that became the Federalist Party, and