Road to War, Part 5: James Madison Embraces the American Cause
In 1774, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which effectively shut down the city of Boston and revoked the historic charter of Massachusetts, replacing it with royal authority. This affront to the liberties of American colonists greatly troubled Madison and pushed him into the camp of American separatists, and it was here that Madison found his true calling and to which he would devote the rest of his life. Madison was elected to the Confederation Congress, where his brilliant mind and extraordinary work ethic soon gained the young Virginian the admiration of his fellow congressmen and made him a leader in the national assembly.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses James Madison’s plan for American governance, and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, World History Encyclopedia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Library of Virginia, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mount Vernon, National Gallery of Art, History, Art & Archives - House of Representatives, National Archives, Wikimedia.
When James Madison graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1771, he was a man in search of a vocation. Madison had enjoyed studying law but did not want to become a lawyer; he had grown up on a plantation but had no desire to become a farmer and detested the slave culture inherent on a southern plantation. Fortunately, his family’s money and support allowed him time to figure it all out. Ultimately, Madison realized that his true calling was the American cause, and, to that end, James Madison devoted the remainder of his life.