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SHORT, FAT AND THIN: PRESIDENTS ARE HUMAN, TOO! (PART I) - Page 2

© William

In an era that valued robust looks, James Madison would not rank high. Standing five feet, four inches tall, prematurely bald, weighing between 85 and 100 pounds, and with a squeaky voice, Madison’s physical appearance belied a brilliant mind.

Born on March 16, 1751, Madison was taught how to read and write by his mother. His father, a wealthy Virginia planter and justice of the peace, imparted upon “Young Jemmy” a strong sense of duty and obligation to one’s community.

A gifted and dedicated student, Madison enrolled in the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1769. Upon his graduation in 1771, he was still unsure of his career plans, and toyed with the idea of becoming a minister. He stayed in Princeton for an additional year, where he studied Hebrew and ethics. When he returned home to Virginia, he was still unsure of his future plans. He found reading law to be boring. He seemed destined to follow in his father’s footsteps as a member of the Virginia planter aristocracy. His weakened physical condition and his deteriorated health left him tense, depressed and without enthusiasm for plantation life. “The shot heard round the world” at Lexington and Concord forever changed Madison’s life.

At age 25, Madison, through his family connections, was elected a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1776, which within a month’s time, declared for independence and drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which established fundamental guarantees of personal liberty and later became the model for the Bill of Rights.

Madison was instrumental in changing the wording in one key passage. While the original draft called for toleration of religious dissent, Madison prevailed upon his fellow delegates to broaden the passage’s reach by declaring that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." This change had a profound change on the final document.

Unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, Madison was the youngest member of the Continental Congress, which carried on the war effort, and in 1781, established the Articles of Confederation a government for the United States of America. Under its provisions, there was no national judiciary or executive officer. Congress was the sole branch with any muscle. Madison was keenly aware that the Articles were imperfect, but they served as a stopgap measure until the war was won and peace established. The Articles provided for no real leadership, and yielded the power to tax, regulate commerce and raise armies to the states. The national treasury was bare, foreign debts unpaid, and the fledging republic’s future looked bleak. Madison realized that the Articles of Confederation had to be replaced with a national government that had the power to tax and provide a financial system for the growing nation.

President James Madison (1809-1817)

President William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

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