James Madison Short Biography

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James Madison James Madison was born on March 16, 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. He had light blonde hair that turned to gray, with blue eyes and often told he was short. James was a small, wizened man. His nickname was often known as “Little Jimmy” because he was “no bigger than then a piece of soap.” Out of twelve children in his family he was the oldest, raised on his father’s plantation , Montapelier, in Orange County, Virginia. He went to his first school in King and Queen County, Virginia in 1762. Then at the age of 16 he returned to montapelier to continue his education with a tutor. In august of 1769 James began college at the College of New Jersey (know today as Princeton University) soon graduating in the spring of 1771.…show more content…
On may 3, 1787 he arrived in Philadelphia to attend the constitutional convention. Then convention convened to discuss the structure of the U.S. government. James was 36 years old but it didn’t take him long to get and enviable reputation. While serving on the committees that drafted the first constitution of Virginia and the Virginia declaration of rights in 1776 was what gained his attention. He was also an elected representative to the Virginia House of Delegates and the constinential congress. In the 1780’s the revolutionary war gave way to an uneasy peace in the new nation. There were so many problems with the Articles (1781-1788), the United States found itself unable to stabilize the currency, regulate commerce among the states, levy taxes, make capital improvements, pay off war debts, and effectively address individual rights such as religious

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