S CHAPTER V. JAMES MADISON. FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. O rich was the character and so valuable is the example of James Madison that the opening sentence of this sketch of his career must express the regret that so little can be given of him for want of space. The fineness and finish of his character, the harmony, intelligence and elevated moral tone of the man were such as put him among the choice spirits who have so lived as to bless their kind in simply living. Simply to be such a man as he is to leave a benediction behind as a legacy for after years. He was the fourth president; he had been much associated with the three who had gone before him; had affiliated more or less with them all; was the personal friend of all, yet was a new character in the exalted position of chief magistrate of a great nation, and brought a new personality and spirit to adorn and honor the dignified place. No human position can give honor to such a man. He is himself honorable above all offices or places. He honors the highest place more than it honors him. ANCESTRY, YOUTH AND EDUCATION. Like the other great Virginians of his time, James Madison was of good English stock. He was a descendant of John Madison, an Englishman, who settled in Virginia in 1635, twentysix years after the settlement of Jamestown, and fifteen years after the landing on Plymouth Rock. His father was James Madison, of Orange, a planter of a large estate and ample fortune. His mother's maiden name was Eleanor Conway. James Madison, the president, was born March 16, 1751, at King George, Virginia. He was the eldest of seven children. His boyhood was spent on his father's estate, in the midst of the cares, duties, joys and business of such a family so environed. He was born into good educational surroundings for such a boy. Being sensitive, impressible, quick of mind, tender of heart, conscientious, he was quick to take the lessons of such a home. and its affairs. It was a school to him from the beginning. His father's home was at Montpelier, in Orange county, which became his in due time, and his permanent home. The school education of the boy was such as he could get in the rude schools of his time, till he began to be specially prepared for college at a school in Kings and Queens county, taught by a Scotchman by the name of Robertson. A portion of the time he had a private tutor in his home. In 1769, his eighteenth year, he entered Princeton college, New Jersey, presided over by Doctor Witherspoon, for whom young Madison conceived a strong interest, and by whom he was much quickened and benefited. He always retained many of the wise sayings and fine thoughts of his college president. It is one of those cases in which the student absorbs from the teacher much of his mental and moral life, to be improved upon and reflected through another life. He never tired of quoting Doctor Witherspoon. He graduated in 1772, taking the degree of A.B. in his twenty-first year. He was but two years at college, indicating that he was so thoroughly fitted as to have entered an advanced class, or that the course of study was not so thorough as in all good colleges now. His biographers all speak, however, of the intensity of his devotion to his studies while in college, for he allowed himself only three hours sleep out of every twenty-four, at least for a portion of the time. This heavy work and little rest, even in two years, so impaired his health that for the most of his after life he suffered from the strain and over-taxation. It doubtless did much to subdue and restrain his native powers, |