(March 16, 1751–June 28, 1836), was the 4th President of the United States, 1809–17; Commander in Chief during the War of 1812, having to flee the White House, with his wife Dolly, before it was captured and burned by the British; Rector of the University of Virginia, 1826–36; Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, 1801–09, where he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, 1803; U.S. Representative, 1789–1801; married Dorothy “Dolly” Payne Todd, 1794; original author and promoter of the Bill of Rights, 1789; penned many of The Federalist Papers, 1788, which were instrumental in convincing the States to ratify the U.S. Constitution; member of the Constitutional Convention, 1787, where he exerted such influence that he became known as the “Chief Architect of the Constitution”; attended the Continental Congress, 1780–83; a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, where he helped to write the Constitution of Virginia, 1776; graduated from Princeton University, 1771, under the direction of Reverend John Witherspoon, one of the nation’s premier theologians and legal scholars; and was home-schooled as a child under Reverend Thomas Martin.
Princeton University, during the period James Madison attended, had declared:
Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.1356
On November 9, 1772, James Madison, who outlived all of the other 54 founders of the American Republic, wrote to his close college friend, William Bradford:
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.
[Ill health has] intimated to me not to expect a long or healthy life, yet it may be better with me after some time tho I hardly dare expect it and therefore have little spirit and alacrity to set about any thing that is difficult in acquiring and useless in possessing after one has exchanged Time for Eternity.1357
On September 25, 1773, James Madison wrote again to William Bradford:
My advice [is] … that you would always keep the Ministry obliquely in View whatever your profession be. …
I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of Religion or against temporal Enjoyments even the most rational and manly than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent Advocates in the cause of Christ, & I wish you may give in your Evidence in this way.1358
James Madison, known to regularly lead his household in the observance of family devotions,1359 was an adamant defender of religious liberty. His strong position of defending religious freedom began when, as a youth, he stood with his father outside a jail in the village of Orange and listened to several Baptists preach from their cell windows, having been imprisoned for their religious opinions.1360 On January 24, 1774, Madison disapproved of this to his friend William Bradford:
There are at this [time] in the adjacent [Culpepper] County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in close Goal [jail] for publishing their religious Sentiments which in the main are very orthodox.1361
James Madison is attributed with having made the following observation in 1778:
We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.1362
In Federalist Paper #39, James Madison stated:
That honourable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.1363
In November of 1784, James Madison made abbreviated notes of what he believed would result if a bill for government support of religion were passed in Virginia:
v. Probable effects of the Bill,
1. limited
2. in particular.
3. What is Xnty? Courts of law to Judge.
4. What edition: Hebrew, Septuagint, or Vulgate? What copy? What translation?
5. What books canonical, what apocryphal? the papists holding to be the former what protestants the latter, the Lutherans the latter what the protestants & papists ye former.
6. In what light are they to be viewed, as dictated every letter by inspiration, or the essential parts only? Or the matter in general not the words?
7. What sense the true one for if some doctrines be essential to Xnty those who reject these, whatever name they take are no Xn in Society.
8. Is it Trinitarianism, Arianism, Socinianism? Is it salvation by faith or works also, by free grace or by will, &c, &c.
9. What clue is to guide (a) Judge thro’ this labyrinth when ye question come before them whether any particular society is a Cn society?
10. Ends in what is orthodoxy, what heresy,. Dishonors christianity. panegyric on it, on our side. Decl. Rights.1364
In the 1785 session of the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, James Madison reasoned that a bill instituting a tax “for the support of the Christian religion” would put civil judges into the position of having to decide what constituted Christianity, a function for which they were totally unqualified for. On June 20, 1785, in his address entitled Religious Freedom—A Memorial and Remonstrance, James Madison stated:
It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to Him. This duty is precedent both in order of time, and degree of obligation, to the claims of civil society.
Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.1365
Much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man’s right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance.1366
The policy of the bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first wish of those who ought to enjoy this precious gift, ought to be, that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind.
Compare the number of those who have as yet received it, with the number still remaining under the dominions of false religions, and how small is the former! Does the policy of the bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages those who are strangers to the light of Truth, from coming into the regions of it.1367
Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.1368
Earnestly praying, as we are in duty bound, that the Supreme Lawgiver of the Universe by illuminating those to whom it is addressed, may, on the one hand, turn their councils from every act which would affront His holy prerogative, or violate the trust committed to them; and, on the other, guide them into every measure which may be worthy of His blessing.1369
“The equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion according to the dictates of his conscience” is held by the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weight its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consult the “Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of government,” it is enumerated with equal solemnity.1370
In response to an essay by Reverend Jasper Adams, James Madison stated:
Waiving the rights of conscience, not included in the surrender implied by the social state, & more or less invaded by all Religious establishments, the simple question to be decided, is whether a support of the best & purest religion, the Christian religion itself ought not, so far at least as pecuniary means are involved, to be provided for by the Government, rather than be left to the voluntary provisions of those who profess it.1371
On October 31, 1785, James Madison introduced legislation in the Virginia Legislature entitled, “Bill for Punishing Disturbers of Religious Worship and Sabbath Breakers,” which was passed in 1789:
If any person on Sunday shall himself be found laboring at his own or any other trade or calling, or shall employ the apprentices, servants or slaves in labor, or other business, except it be in the ordinary household offices of daily necessity, or other work of necessity or charity, he shall forfeit the sum of ten shillings for every such offense, deeming every apprentice, servant, or slave so employed, and every day he shall be so employed as constituting a distinct offense.1372
On October 31, 1785, James Madison introduced a bill in the Virginia Legislature entitled, “For Appointing Days of Public Fasting and Thanksgiving,” which included:
Forfeiting fifty pounds for every failure, not having a reasonable excuse.1373
James Madison, who was only 36 years old at the time, was an instrumental member of the United States Constitutional Convention, speaking 161 times, (more than any other founder except Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson). His records of the debates in the Constitutional Convention are the most accurate and detailed that exist. In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, James Madison made the statement:
All men having power ought to be distrusted.1374
It was James Madison who made the motion, which was seconded by Roger Sherman, that Benjamin Franklin’s appeal for prayer at the Constitutional Convention be enacted.1375 James Madison authored 29 of the 85 Federalist Papers, which argued successfully in favor of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In The Federalist No. 51, Madison wrote:
But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others.
The provisions for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.
But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.1376
On June 12, 1788, James Madison entered in his journal:
There is not a shadow of right in the general [federal] government to intermeddle with religion … The subject is, for the honor of America, perfectly free and unshackled. The government has no jurisdiction over it.1377
On October 15, 1788, James Madison wrote:
As the courts are generally the last in making the decision [on laws], it results to them, by refusing or not refusing to execute a law, to stamp it with its final character. This makes the Judiciary dept paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended, and can never be proper.1378
On June 7, 1789, with the experience fresh on his mind of the Anglican Church being the officially enforced denomination by the British in the colony of Virginia, James Madison introduced a proposal in the U.S. Congress for an amendment with the wording:
The Civil Rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, nor on any pretext infringed.1379
James Madison, who had studied for the ministry before he took up the study of law, said:
Religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence;
and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, unless under color of religion any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or safety of society, and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other.1380
In 1792, James Madison wrote in regards to property rights:
Government is instituted to protect property of every sort. … This being the end of government. … That is NOT a just government … nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has … is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.1381
Property. … in the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandise, or money, is called his property. In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them. …
He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties, and free choice of the objects on which to employ them. In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.1382
On Saturday, March 4, 1809, in his First Inaugural Address, President James Madison stated:
To support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system; to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the function of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction … as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me. …
But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the other departments associated in the care of the national interests.
In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.1383
On November 29, 1809, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same Omnipotent Source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to be undertaken for the welfare of our beloved country.1384
On October 27, 1810, in a Proclamation that the United States should take possession of the Territory south of the Mississippi Territory and eastward of the Mississippi River extending to the Perdido River, President James Madison stated:
The good people inhabiting the same are invited and enjoined … to be obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to cherish harmony, and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceful citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.1385
On December 5, 1810, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
Among the commercial abuses still committed … it appears that … citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance to those of their country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil. …
I close the present by expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the judgement and patriotism which will guide your measures.1386
On November 5, 1811, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful zeal with which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country.1387
On March 9, 1812, in a message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
The British Government, through its public minister here, a secret agent of that Government was employed in certain States … in fomenting disaffection to the constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws, and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union. …
In addition to the effect which the discovery of such a procedure ought to have on the public councils, it will not fail to render more dear to the hearts of all good citizens that happy union of these States which, under Divine Providence, is the guaranty of their liberties, their safety, their tranquillity, and their prosperity.1388
On June 1, 1812, in a message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war against the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace toward Great Britain. Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force in defense of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events.1389
On June 19, 1812, in a Proclamation of War between Great Britain and the United States, President James Madison stated:
I do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love their country, as they value the precious heritage derived from the virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and as they consult the best means under the blessing of Divine Providence of abridging its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving order.1390
On Thursday, July 9, 1812, President James Madison issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Public Humiliation and Prayer:
Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity, as a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
Whereas such a recommendation will enable the several religious denominations and societies so disposed, to offer, at one and the same time, their common vows and adorations to Almighty God, on the solemn occasion produced by the war in which He has been pleased to permit the injustice of a foreign Power to involve these United States;
I do therefore recommend the third Thursday of August next, as a convenient day, to be set apart for the devout purpose of rendering the Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of mankind the public homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure; of seeking His merciful forgiveness, and His assistance in the great duties of repentance and amendment; and especially of offering fervent supplications that in the present season of calamity and war He would take the American people under His peculiar care and protection; that He would guide their public councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow His blessing on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a love of justice and of concord, and with a reverence for the unerring precept of our holy religion, to do to others as they would require that others should do to them; and, finally, that, turning the hearts of our enemies from the violence and injustice which sway their councils against us, He would hasten a restoration of the blessings of peace.
Given at Washington, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twelve. James Madison.
By the President: James Monroe, Secretary of State.1391
On November 4, 1812, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to the Providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. …
The war in which we are actually engaged in … was preceded by a patience without example under wrongs accumulating without end, and it was finally not declared until every hope of averting it was extinguished … through the British envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime independence would not be revoked. …
It was at this moment and with such an alternative that war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity of it, and called for it. The appeal was accordingly made, in a just cause, to the Just and All-powerful Being who holds in His hand the chain of events and the destiny of nations. It remains only that, faithful to ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels and with the ample faculties of the nation until peace be so obtained and as the only means under the Divine blessing of speedily obtaining it.1392
On February 24, 1813, in a message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
The Government of Great Britain had already introduced into her commerce during the war a system which, at once violating the rights of other nations and resting on a mass of forgery and perjury unknown to other times, was making an unfortunate progress in undermining those principles of morality and religion which are the best foundation of national happiness. … The general tendency of these demoralizing and disorganizing contrivances will be reprobated by the civilized and Christian world.1393
On Thursday, March 4, 1813, in his Second Inaugural Address, President James Madison stated:
From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination.1394
On May 25, 1813, in a Special Session Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals for its support to every motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened people—to the love of country; the pride of liberty … and, finally, to the sacred obligation of transmitting entire to future generations that precious patrimony of national rights and independence which is held in trust by the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.1395
On July 23, 1813, President James Madison issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Public Humiliation and Prayer:
Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hands are the welfare and the destiny of nations:
I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the labors employed in this cultivation and improvement; that He is now blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest from them the rights and priviledges to which they were entitled in common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like manner to bestow His blessings on our arms in resisting the hostile and persevering efforts of all, from rights and immunities belonging and essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful enterprise.
If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy of the favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice, by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences; and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason, to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices propitiate.
Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnites therein recommended.
Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813. James Madison.1396
On December 7, 1813, in his Fifth Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
The best encouragement is derived from the success with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the land and on the water. … On Lake Erie, the squadron under the command of Captain Perry having met the British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. …
It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the numerous blessings with which our beloved country continues to be favored; for the abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and the stability of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light of Divine truth. …
In tine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a flourishing, and a powerful nation. … In contending for these we behold a subject for our congratulations in the daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.1397
On September 1, 1814, in a National Proclamation after the British had invaded the Capitol, President James Madison stated:
Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in invading the capitol of the nation, defended at the moment by troops less numerous than their own and almost entirely of the militia, during their possession of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly destroyed the public edifices. …
On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud feelings and patriotic devotion of the American people none will forget what they owe to themselves, what they owe to their country and the high destinies which await it, what to the glory acquired by their fathers in establishing the independence which is now to be maintained by their sons with the augmented strength and resources with which time and Heaven had blessed them.1398
On September 20, 1814, in his Sixth Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added the capture of nearly a thousand American vessels and the impressment of thousands of American seafaring citizens, and until a final declaration had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile orders against our commerce would not be revoked … our beloved country, in still opposing to his persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished disposition toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry with it the good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of support from an Omnipotent and Kind Providence.1399
On November 16, 1814, President James Madison issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer:
The two Houses of the National Legislature having by a joint resolution expressed their desire that in the present time of public calamity and war a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and of prayer to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessing on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace, I have deemed it proper by this proclamation to recommend that Thursday, the 12th of January next, be set apart as a day on which all may have an opportunity of voluntarily offering at the same time in their respective religious assemblies their humble adoration to the Great Sovereign of the Universe, of confessing their sins and transgressions, and of strengthening their vows of repentance and amendment. They will be invited by the same solemn occasion to call to mind the distinguished favors conferred on the American people in the general health which has been enjoyed, in the abundant fruits of the season, in the progress of the arts instrumental to their comfort, their prosperity, and their security, and in the victories which have so powerfully contributed to the defense and protection of our country, a devout thankfulness for all which ought to be mingled with their supplications to the Beneficent Parent of the Human Race that He would be graciously pleased to pardon all their offenses against Him; to support and animate them in the discharge of their respective duties; to continue to them the precious advantages flowing from political institutions so auspicious to their liberties, civil and religious; and that He would in a special manner preside over the nation in its public councils and constituted authorities, giving wisdom to its measures and success to its arms in maintaining its rights and in overcoming all hostile designs and attempts against it; and, finally, that by inspiring the enemy with dispositions favorable to a just and reasonable peace its blessings may be speedily and happily restored.
Given at the city of Washington, the 16th day of November, 1814, and of the Independence of the United States the thirty-eighth. James Madison.1400
On February 18, 1815, in a message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
I lay before Congress copies of the treaty of peace and amity between the United States and His Britannic Majesty, which was signed by the commissioners of both parties at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814. …
My sanguine hope that the peace which has been just declared will not only be the foundation of the most friendly intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, but that it will also be productive of happiness and harmony in every section of our beloved country. The influence of your precepts and example must be everywhere powerful, and while we accord in grateful acknowledgments for the protection which Providence has bestowed upon us, let us never cease to inculcate obedience to the laws and fidelity to the Union as constituting the palladium of the national independence and prosperity.1401
On March 4, 1815, President James Madison issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving:
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace.
No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign interposition. During the interval which succeeded He reared them into the strength and endowed them with the resources which have enabled them to assert their national rights and to enhance their national character in another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a peace and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those priviledges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now recommend that the second Thursday in April next be set apart as a day on which the people of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.
Given at the city of Washington on the fourth of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and of the independence of the United States the thirty-ninth. James Madison.1402
On December 5, 1815, in his Seventh Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility, in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the goodness of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for it. …
It remains for the guardians of the public welfare … to cherish institutions which guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious.1403
On December 3, 1816, in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress, President James Madison stated:
Our thankfulness is due to Providence for what is far more than a compensation, in the remarkable health which has distinguished the present year. …
The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing their citizens participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified at the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a general suppression of so great an evil. …
Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions—that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man. These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the institutions under which it is enjoyed.1404
On March 2, 1819, in a letter to Robert Walsh, James Madison wrote:
That there has been an increase of religious instruction since the revolution can admit of no question. The English church was originally the established religion; … Of other sects there were but few adherents, except the Presbyterians who predominated on the west side of the Blue Mountains. A little time previous to the Revolutionary struggle, the Baptists sprang up, and made very rapid progress.
Among the early acts of the Republican Legislature, were those abolishing the Religious establishment, and putting all Sects at full liberty and on a perfect level.
At present the population is divided, with small exceptions, among the Protestant Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Methodists … I conjecture the Presbyterians and Baptists to form each about a third, and the two other sects together of which the Methodists are much the smallest, to make up the remaining third. …
Among the other sects, Meeting Houses have multiplied and continue to multiply …
Religious instruction is now diffused throughout the Community by preachers of every sect with almost equal zeal … The qualifications of the Preachers, too among the new sects where there is the greatest deficiency, are understood to be improving.
On a general comparison of the present and former times, the balance is certainly and vastly on the side of the present, as to the number of religious teachers the zeal which actuates them, the purity of their lives and the attendance of the people on their instructions.1405
In 1823, James Madison wrote in a letter to Edward Everett:
The settled question here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Government and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both; that there are causes in the human breast, which ensure the perpetuity of religion without the aid of the law; that rival sects, with equal rights, exercise mutual censorship in favor of good morals; that if new sects arise with absurd opinions or overheated maginiations, the proper remedies lie in time, forbearance and example;
that a legal establishment of religion without a toleration could not be thought of, and with toleration, is no security for public quiet & harmony, but rather a source itself of discord & animosity; and finally that these opinions are supported by experience, which has shewn that every relaxation of the alliance between Law & religion, from the partial example in Holland, to its consummation in Pennsylvania, Delaware, N.J., &c, has been found as safe in practice as it is sound in theory.
Prior to the Revolution, the Episcopal Church was established by law in this State. On the Declaration of Independence it was left with all other sects, to a self-support. And no doubt exists that there is much more of religion among us now that there ever was before the change; and particularly in the Sect which enjoyed the legal patronage. This proves rather more than, that the law is not necessary to the support of religion.1406
On April 7, 1824, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, of which James Madison was a member, approved the regulations prepared by Thomas Jefferson, Rector of the University, which stated:
Should the religious sects of this State, or any of them, according to the invitation held out to them, establish within or adjacent to, the precincts of the University, schools for instruction in the religion of their sect, the students of the University will be free, and expected to attend religious worship at the establishment of their respective sects, in the morning, and in time to meet their school in the University at its stated hour. …
The students of such religious school, if they attend any school of the University, shall be considered as students of the University, subject to the same regulations, and entitled to the same priviledges. …
The upper circular room of the rotunda shall be reserved for a library. One of its larger elliptical rooms on its middle floor shall be used for annual examinations, or lectures to such schools as are too numerous for their ordinary school room, and for religious worship, under the regulations to be prescribed by law.1407
On June 25, 1824, in a letter to Henry Lee, James Madison stated:
I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of its powers. … What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense.1408
On November 20, 1825, James Madison stated in a letter to Frederick Beasley:
The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the World and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities to be impressed with it.1409
In 1833, James Madison expressed to Rev. Jasper Adams in a letter:
I must admit … that it may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation, between the rights of the religious and the civil authority, with such distinctness, as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points!1410
James Madison, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church, included in his personal library not only the Holy Bible, but the Book of Common Prayer, Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, and the Life of Man in the Soul of God.1411 In his personal Bible he made copious notes, of which were:
Acts Chapter 19
Holy Ghost. have ye recd. the Holy Ghost since ye Believed. The Apostle does not mean in its Sanctifying operations, but in its miraculous Gifts v. 2d.
Spirit of Prophecy, departed (as the Jews believe) from Israel after the Death of Haggai, Zachariah & Malachi. v. 2d.
Apostles did greater Miracles than Christ, in the matter, not manner, of them v. 11
Evil Spirits, none were, that we read of in the old Testament, bodily possessed of, but many in the New, v. 13
Saints fall, intimated by Alexander the Copper Smith turning Apostate. v 33
Ch. 20
Sunday, why kept by the Christians for the Sabbath v. 7
Sleepers under Gods word (at a Sermon), their wretched contempt of it. v. 9
St. Paul’s travelling on foot from Troas to A-sos: an happy example for all the Ministers of Christ. v. 13 &c.
Tempt. to neglect the means for our own preservation is to Tempt God: and to trust to them is to neglect Him v. 3 &c. Ch. 27. v. 31
Humility, the better any man is, the lower thoughts he has of himself v. 19
Ministers to take heed to themselves & their flock. v. 28
Believers who are in a State of Grace, have need of the word of God for their Edification and Building up therefore implies a possibility of falling. v. 32
Grace, it is the free gift of God. Luke. 12. 32–v. 32.
Giver more blessed than the Receiver. v. 35.
Gospels.
Mat. Ch 1st
Jesus is an Hebrew name and Signifies a Saviour v. 1.
Christ is a Greek name and signifies Anointed. v. 1
Pollution. Christ did by the power of his Godhead purify our nature from all the pollution of our Ancestors v. 5 &c.
Until signifies in Scripture as much as never. v 25.
Virgin Mary had no other Child (probably) but our Saviour. v. 25.1412
Among his manuscripts on the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, James Madison commended the Bereans as more noble than the Thessalonians, describing them:
As a noble example for all succeeding Christians to imitate.1413
In another place James Madison stated:
It is not the talking but the walking and working person that is the true Christian.1414
Christ’s Divinity appears by St. John, chapter xx, 2: ‘And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God!’ Resurrection testified to and witnessed by the Apostles, Acts iv, 33: ‘And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.’1415
James Madison was raised being close friends with many slaves, especially a young man named Billy.1416 In regards to slavery, Madison wrote:
The whole Bible is against negro slavery; but that the clergy do not preach this, and the people do not see it.1417
When a slave greeted Mr. Madison by removing his hat, Mr. Madison greeted him back by removing his own hat. When question on this practice, Madison replied:
I never allow a negro to excel me in politeness.1418
On July 9, 1836, on the occasion of the death of James Madison, President Andrew Jackson sent a letter to Mrs. Dorothy “Dolly” Payne Madison at Montpelier, Virginia:
Madam: It appearing to have been the intention of Congress to make me the organ of assuring you of the profound respect entertained by both its branches for your person and character, and of their sincere condolence in the late afflicting dispensation of Providence, which has at once deprived you of a beloved companion and your country of one of its most valued citizens, I perform that duty by transmitting the documents herewith enclosed.1419
On August 20, 1836, Mrs. Dorothy “Dolly” Payne Madison answered President Andrew Jackson, delivering to him her husband’s records of the early Congress:
The best return I can make for the sympathy of my country is to fulfill the sacred trust his confidence reposed in me, that of placing before it and the world what his pen prepared for their use—a legacy of the importance of which is deeply impressed on my mind.1420