From the time he joined the Continental Congress in 1780, through his second term as the fourth

president of the United States, James Madison was in the middle of everything. When it came to the

Constitution, he understood it better than any single person, because nobody contributed more to

its creation. When it came to selling that document to the American people, he made the most

persuasive arguments. When Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights, were needed to seal the deal,

he wrote those two. Dominative in stature, he was just over five feet tall. He was a giant in

every other respect, as a writer, theorist, and most importantly, political pragmatist. He was a

deep thinker who got things done, and no one worked harder to get those things done.

James Madison was born in 1751 to a prosperous family in the Virginia Piedmont. Like his mentor,

neighbor, and best friend Thomas Jefferson, he was well educated in the classics and spoke multiple

languages. His home state sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780 at the age of 29.

There he saw firsthand how bad a national government could be. Slow, corrupt, self-interested.

He resolved to do something about it. He wasn't alone. George Washington and others pushed for a new

social compact, a document that would truly bind the divergent interests of the various states.

No easy feat. Their efforts paid off in May 1787 when a new constitutional convention was

convened in Philadelphia. Even though he was one of the younger delegates, Madison took a lead role.

Not because he was so ambitious, but because he was so knowledgeable. He attended every session,

gave more speeches than anyone, took meticulous notes, and drafted the plan that the delegates used

as the framework for the new constitution. Writing the document was hard enough.

Selling it to the American people would prove even harder. A group known as the Anti-Federalist

began flooding the newspapers with anti-constitution essays warning that the plan would destroy

liberty rather than save it. Madison and New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton came to the Constitution's

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