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The Contributions Of James Madison

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James Madison was born into a prominent family in 1751 and was raised in Orange County, Virginia. In his life, he was a member of the Second Continental Congress, secretary of state, the president of the United States, an ally of Thomas Jefferson in forming the Democratic-Republican Party, and he helped write the United States Constitution. He went to the College of New Jersey, which is present-day Princeton University. In 1772, Madison was, as he later said, “under very early and strong impressions in favor of liberty both civil and religious.” He was elected by Orange County to the Virginia convention in Williamsburg, and Madison supported Virginia’s declaration of independence there. He became a member of the committee to organize a…show more content…
He referred to himself as a federalist, which was someone who supported the Constitution. Madison, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, helped produce the Federalist Papers. He eventually won a seat in the House of Representatives, and he proposed the adoption of a bill of rights in 1789.
James Madison owned a plantation, Montpelier in Orange, Virginia, that had slaves. Although he owned slaves, he felt conflicted over the thought of slavery. He believed that slavery was evil, but he thought that the emancipation of slavery should be gradual. Madison was a member (and later, in 1833, president) of the American Colonization Society (ACS), and the goal of the society was to free slaves and transport free blacks to Africa—Liberia specifically. He thought that American colonists and African-Americans could not co-exist, and he did not want slaves to join white society as free citizens, so he wanted slaves to be freed and relocated to Africa or the American west. He wrote to abolitionist Frances Wright that it was the “physical peculiarities” of slaves that would prevent their integration into Anglo-American society. More reasons for not wanting to immediately free slaves included Madison’s bad financial situation due to poor crops, loss of government income, debt, etc., the wellbeing of his wife, Dolley, and comfort in the future, the community ties of his slaves and the slaves in neighboring plantations,
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