James Madison's Studies at Montpelier

While Montpelier was the lifelong home of James Madison, he did spend a lot of time away from home when he was in school and in public service. Four times when Madison returned to Montpelier from exciting and stimulating experiences, he reflected on them and engaged in fruitful study for his next part in public life:

1. 1772-1776:  after three years of engrossing study at Princeton and living in what he called "the free air" of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Madison returned to Montpelier where for four years he ordered and read books, studied, and corresponded about the great public questions of the day which would become his “vocation” for the rest of his life. Observing and opposing religious persecution in Culpeper, Virginia, and pursuing his intense interest in the approaching crisis with Britain, he sought relevant books, pamphlets, and newspapers, corresponded with anti-British college classmates, and compiled notes about these events.  These studies enabled him to take part in the drafting of the Virginia Constitution of 1776. It was also at this time he made his signal contribution to the enlargement of religious liberty in the state with his modification of the language in Virginia’s Declaration of Rights from religious toleration to freedom of religious expression.  At Montpelier, Center for the Constitution participants can think and learn about the constitutional principles associated with religious liberty at the very place where James Madison developed them.

2. 1784-1786: after three years away from Virginia in the Continental Congress, Madison returned home again, already one of the most experienced legislators in the new nation.  Using his own growing library and papers of state and national government he had gathered during his service in Congress, and in eager correspondence with Jefferson about books he could send from Europe, Madison engaged in the intense study that prepared him to both secure important "republicanizing" legislation in Virginia and, most importantly, to attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as its most thoroughly prepared member. Again, Center for the Constitution participants can experience the place where Madison did this study, know the books he used, and study the historic documents he produced there and took to Philadelphia for the Convention.  Montpelier thus affords an unmatched site for absorbing the thinking of the "Father of the Constitution."

3. 1797-1801:  after eight years in the first Congresses under the Constitution, newly married, and deeply troubled about the direction of government and policy in the new nation, Madison resumed his broad studies of political theory and institutions, and of the events of the momentous decade from the French Revolution to the rise of Napoleon.  Particular studies of the place of the states in the federal system, and of the requirements for freedom of expression in the face of the Alien and Sedition Acts, prepared Madison to draft the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 and the Report of 1800 on them.  He also pursued studies of conducting republican government, often in conversation with Jefferson in the rooms and on the portico of the newly enlarged mansion, as they prepared to assume office in 1801.  Once again, Montpelier was the scene of serious study of, and conversation about basic principles of American government, this time beyond the constitutional foundations to actual experience of and plans for the new government.

4. 1817-1836: after eight years as Secretary of State and eight years as President, Madison returned to Montpelier for good. Eagerly and earnestly he resumed his pattern of study and writing having to do with the public affairs of the nation.  It was during this time he compiled the Notes on the Federal Convention and engaged in correspondence about important current events. At Montpelier, Center for the Constitution participants can see the rooms where he did this work, get a sense of the books and pamphlets and public documents and correspondence accumulating there as Madison prepared his papers for posthumous publication.   He also wrote searching and influential letters and papers on nullification, constitutional reform, and other important matters, and he was instrumental in founding the University of Virginia.  He also entertained for days at a time political leaders such as Presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson and Senator Henry Clay and international guests such as Lafayette and Harriet Martineau.  The Montpelier mansion restored to its 1820s condition is the perfect place to sense this final wisdom of "the last of the founders."

Prepared and written by Ralph Ketcham.