16 March: James Madison

James Madison, the 4^th US President, elected in 1809 was born on this date in 1751. 10 facts about him:

1. James Madison was born in Virginia. His father owned a Tobacco plantation.

2. He attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). He’s considered to be the university’s first graduate student, having completed his four year course in half the allotted time. Spending all his time studying and sleeping for just four hours a night didn’t leave much time to think about what he was going to do after graduation and so he ended up staying another year and studying some more. While Madison wasn’t awarded an advanced degree, the University now considers him its original graduate student.

3. He wasn’t exactly an imposing figure at just 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 100 pounds. His health wasn’t great and he had difficulty projecting his voice when making speeches. Despite his intelligence, his critics made much of his smallness and weakness. Washington Irving described him as “but a withered little apple-John.”

4. He was, by all accounts, a bit of a nerd. His hobbies consisted of playing Chess and reading Latin and Greek literature in their original languages.

5. His wife, Dolley, however, was a social butterfly and is said to have defined the role of First Lady as we know it today. She was a young widow when Madison first noticed her and asked Aaron Burr to introduce them. They married after just four months of courtship. He was 43, she was 26. Dolley hosted the first ever Inaugural Ball, and was also known for her work with an orphanage for young girls, thus beginning the tradition of first ladies taking on a public outreach project.

6. Despite his poor health, James Madison outlived two Vice-Presidents. His original VP George Clinton died in 1812, and Clinton’s successor Elbridge Gerry later suffered a fatal haemorrhage in 1814. Madison didn’t appoint another VP after that (or maybe nobody wanted the job, perhaps seeing it as a death sentence!) and finished his presidential term without one.

7. James Madison is known for writing, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, a series of essays called The Federalist Papers, which made a major contribution to the ratification of the US Constitution. Hence he became known as the “Father of the Constitution.” To which he asserted that the document was not “the off-spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many hands.”

8. He once lost an election because he didn’t give alcohol to voters. When seeking election to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777, he refused to adhere to the custom of “swilling the planters with bumbo,” or giving voters free booze on election day.

9. When British forces marched on Washington DC during the War of 1812, Madison, despite being weak and nerdy, didn’t run away. Instead, he borrowed a pair of duelling pistols and set off to the lines to help rally his troops. Sadly, the Americans still lost and the White House had to be evacuated, with Dolley overseeing the rescue of a portrait of George Washington. Hence James Madison is one of only two presidents to actually be present at a military engagement, the other being Abraham Lincoln at the Battle of Fort Stevens during the Civil War.

10. He died on 28 June 1836 at the age of 85, of heart failure, having refused medication that would keep him alive until 4 July so he could die on Independence Day like Jefferson, John Adams and James Monroe had done. He was the last surviving signer of the Constitution.