Jeff Broadwater - Jefferson, Madison, and the Making of the Constitution

This book was published with the assistance of the Thornton H. Brooks Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.

2019 The University of North Carolina Press

Designed by Jamison Cockerham
Set in Arno, Cutright, Dear Sarah, and Telmoss
by codeMantra, Inc.

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Jacket and pp. iivi illustrations: portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale (1800), portrait of James Madison by Gilbert Stuart (ca. 18051807), and the Constitution of the United States from Wikimedia Commons.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Broadwater, Jeff, author.
Title: Jefferson, Madison, and the making of the Constitution / Jeff Broadwater.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018049278| ISBN 9781469651019 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469651026 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States. Constitution. | Constitutional historyUnited States. | Jefferson, Thomas, 17431826Political and social views. | Madison, James, 17511836Political and social views.
Classification: LCC KF 4520 .B76 2019 | DDC 342.7302/9dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018049278

TO
JACK,
ANDREW,
GEORGIA,
MALLORY,
and
LIZA BENNETT.

SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF Charles A. Beards An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States in 1913, historians have debated the extent to which the Constitution should be seen as a conservative retreat from the supposedly egalitarian ideals of the American Revolution. Some historians have seen a conflict between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence, with its affirmation, for example, of human equality, and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution, which, by way of contrast, includes provisions countenancing chattel slavery. To complicate the possible paradox, Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration, and James Madison, remembered by history as the Father of the Constitution, enjoyed a lifelong friendship and an unshakable political alliance despite the ostensible tension between the two documents with which they are most closely associated.

We can go a long way toward unraveling that paradox by considering together the evolution of Jeffersons and Madisons constitutional thought from roughly the adoption of the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution and the passage of the Bill of Rights. Admittedly, Jefferson and Madison were only two among the many people who played a part in the American founding, but no other two had larger roles in the events that unfolded between 1776 and 1789. As John Quincy Adams, who knew both men, once observed, The mutual influence of these mighty minds upon each other is a phenomenon, like the invisible and mysterious movements of the magnet. In their relationship, Adams predicted, the future historian may discover the solution of much of our national history not otherwise accountable.

Viewed from the perspective of the Jefferson and Madison partnership, the conflicts between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution seem more apparent than real, in part because the two documents served different purposes. The Declaration articulated broad principles; unlike the Constitution, it did not create a framework for a new government.

Jefferson and Madison, moreover, had much in common. Both Virginians favored a central government vigorous enough to promote American trade overseas, to support westward expansion, and to preserve the union. Both believed an agrarian society fostered most naturally the civic virtue necessary to sustain a republican government. Both men sought to reconcile majority rule with individual liberty. Jeffersons and Madisons constitutional views were the product of similar and extensive reading in history, law, and political philosophy, along with years of experience in politics and government, where they often worked in tandem.

They had their differences. They disagreed in their assessment of human nature, more markedly in their reaction to social unrest and most fundamentally in their faith in the capacity of a national government to protect minority interests. Although Madison recognized that in a republic, the people must ultimately rule, he viewed them with considerable skepticism and mistrusted their representatives in the state legislatures. Jeffersons and Madisons experiences in the 1780s help explain their differing perspectives. On a diplomatic assignment in France, Jefferson saw how well-off most white Americans were compared with the average European. Sweeping constitutional reform at home seemed less urgent to him. Madison, meanwhile, divided his time between service in a parochial state assembly and in an ineffectual national legislature; for him, reform seemed essential to the survival of the republic. Madison came to believe that a properly constructed national government could better maintain law and order and protect individual liberties from oppressive majorities than could the states. Less fearful of the masses and less disillusioned with state governments, Jefferson saw centralized political power as almost inevitably dangerous and wanted as many decisions as possible to be made at the local level.

Yet in at least one case, Jeffersons optimism helped preserve their friendship. Although Jefferson had serious reservations about the Constitution that Madison had helped to write, Jeffersons faith in the people and in the future would not allow him to become an Anti-Federalist. If the people supported the Constitution, as Jefferson thought they did, he felt confident they could make it work and repair its defects once they became apparent.

Constitution-making did not come easily. The federal Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights of 1789 reflected years of study and practical legal and political experience. The new government was not a product of mere self-interest or psychological anxieties or ideology. Although the political Neither Jefferson nor Madison got the Constitution he really wanted. By 1789, however, they had found a viable middle ground between the High Federalism of Alexander Hamilton and the locally oriented Anti-Federalism of Patrick Henry. It might be called small-government nationalism.