The Presidency of James Madison

James Madison assumed office in 1809 under a cloud of diplomatic uncertainty. Great Britain and France were both openly hostile to the United States, and Madison was forced to navigate this messy international situation. He blundered into war with Britain in 1812 and in the process transformed American politics. Madison helped create the American Whig Party, not directly, but through his wartime policies. The War of 1812 shifted American perspectives on nationalism and the American economy, led to greater interest in a standing army, and intensified sectional antagonisms.

The War of 1812 should be covered more thoroughly in American education. This class provides that detail.

James Madison might be called the "Father of the Constitution", but his administration did more to enhance the "loose construction" school of constitutional theory than his participation in the Virginia Resolutions did to strengthen the compact fact of the Constitution.