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President’s Name: James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836)

Political Party: Democratic-Republican

Terms of Office: (1809-1812) and (1813-1817)

Vice President by Term: George Clinton (1809-1812) and Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814)


 * Clinton died in 1812 and Gerry died in 1814 [no vice president in (1812-1813) and (1814-1817)]

James Madison on March 4, 1809 became the fourth president of the United States. Being the fourth president Madison was handed down problems from the past presidents. The most important problem was the neutrality in time of war which would later create war for Madison. If one was to grade Madison on his presidency they would probably focus on how he handled the country before, during, and after the war of 1812. Madison receives a C because of his goals in office, relationship with congress, his administration’s best and worst decision, on the impact of a decision on future generations, and how the country was after his terms in office.

Madison’s primary goal was to avoid war with the European powers of France and Brittan and stay totally neutral like the presidents before him. He did not achieve this goal because he declared war on Brittan thus creating the war of 1812. His secondary goal was that in the event of a war, he would defend the United States and keep them from being colonized again. He achieved this goal by not losing the war but neither winning it. When the Treaty of Ghent was signed, it was agreed by both Brittan and the U.S. to stop fighting.

Madison’s relationship with congress was reasonable. During his entire presidency the majority party in both the house and senate was the Democratic-Republicans. That played into his favor when he declared war on Brittan with a 79-49 in the house and 19-13 in the senate. Though congress and Madison agreed on some bills, they did on not others because Madison vetoed seven times. For example, in 1817 Madison Vetoed the Federal Public Works Bill which funded improvements to the country such as roads and canals, saying that it was unconstitutional.

Madison’s worst decision was letting congress pass Macon’s Bill #2. Macon’s Bill 2 reopened trade with the rest of the world, but there was a catch. The United States would trade with only one of the two between France and Brittan and embargo the other if the other nation did not agree to the neutral trade. France agreed to the trade while Brittan did not agree to neutral trade, Madison and congress then embargoed Brittan. This Bill and embargo was the end of American neutrality and the cause of the war of 1812.

Madison’s somewhat best decision was declaring war on Brittan. Madison was handed the continued problems with France and Brittan from the past three presidents. They stayed neutral but Madison couldn’t and so he was the one that had to be the solution to the foreign problems. So the only thing Madison could really have done in his situation was to defend the nation and show the rest of the world that the United States was not going to take abuse anymore. There was no clear-cut winner in the war of 1812 when the Ghent Treaty was signed near the end of 1814, but the United States showed the world they could defend themselves and remained independent.

Madison’s Presidency did have an impact on future generations. The world then saw, after the war of 1812, that there was a developing country now emerging and establishing itself. The “democratic experiment” had succeeded in defending its people and showed Brittan that the Revolution was not just a fluke. Now the U.S. and Brittan have total respect for each other as countries and as allies.

After the end of Madison’s terms the country was better off. When he became president and during his presidency the country was facing many problems. Near the end many problems eased and solved themselves. But because Madison had no “true” positive contribution other than squeezing out of the war and his so-so relationship with congress, he does not deserve anything higher than a C. He made costly gambles like the Macon’s Bill 2 and the War of 1812. There was some luck involved and his decisions might not have been the greatest but James Madison was overall not too bad of a president earning a grade of a C.

Bibliography

"James Madison: Veto of federal public works bill, March 3, 1817." Constitution Society Home Page. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. .

Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

"List of United States presidential vetoes -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 24 Sept. 2009. .