i just learned that today is my absolute favorite dead president’s birthday! yes, today is the birthday of James Madison. oh, how i loved this man.
from the the writer’s almanac:
It’s the birthday of the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, born in Port Conway, Virginia (1751). He did more than almost any of the founding fathers to help write the United States Constitution, establishing our nation’s federal government, with all its checks and balances. He believed the government needed to be checked and balanced because, he said, “The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
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During the constitutional debates in 1787, James Madison said, “in England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place.”
He continued, “our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation,” putting in place checks and balances in order to “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.”
Those “without property, or the hope of acquiring it, cannot be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its rights.”
Kind of disturbing — basically limiting democracy to protect the rich and maintain the economic status quo.
Anyway, I still think the constitution is a pretty amazing document, and I like Madison fine. But most of those founding father guys were all for democracy and freedom as long as it didn’t threaten their privileged positions.