How Did James Madison Influence America

836 Words4 Pages

James Madison was in some of the most influential government position during some of the most decisive times of American history with in turn had a lasting effect on the future of America. James Madison grew up in Virginia and attended Princeton University with a degree in law, government, and history. He was a political person who wrote the constitution, was secretary of state, and was later president. James Madison is most well know for his work on the Constitution, but was also the secretary of state and the president in times that had the most impact of America as we know it.
James Madison is most well known for being the main creator of the Constitution Before James madison became famous, he was researching successful governments in order …show more content…

After the constitution was created there were many roles that had to be filled. One of those roles was fulfilled by James Madison. In the 1801 election Madison was a campaign leader for Hamilton. After a successful election for Hamilton, Hamilton hired his friend James Madison as the Secretary of State. Along with the new term, there were many new problems and without Madison the out come of those problems would have been very different. One of the greater ways that Madison had an influence on America was the Louisiana Purchase. Madison as secretary of the state sent a representative to France after France had expressed interest in selling the section of America then referred to as Louisiana. Madison had sent the representative to France and was able to get all of Louisiana which now makes up half of the United States for 3 cents an acer. During the rest of Madison’s time as secretary of state, he was mainly involved in foreign affairs until American sailors started being impressed into the British military to help fight the French. Madison did an investigation, and then he and Hamilton created and put in place the embargo act. Restricting the Americans from trading with outside ports so that they would not be pressed into the British military. Overall, Madison had a great influence over America as secretary of the state under …show more content…

During that presidency, he was most well known for participating in the war of 1812. When the British were impressing the American sailors, Madison helped pass the embargo act but when that did not help, He tried to talk to the British which a man named John Randolph said that talking to the French was a affective as "a shilling pamphlet hurled against eight hundred ships of war.” So talking did not help the situation so congress met to decide what to do. In Congress, a small group of the members called the war hawks tried to convince the members to go to war. This group slowly had an effect on the rest of the congress and so congress declared war on Britain. At the end of the war, America won which resulted in the British not impressing the Americas and also Madison receiving more fame for taking a good risk. Overall when Madison was president he was able to stop the impressment of Americans and win the war of 1812.
James Madison was a political figure who was the main writer of the constitution, Secretary of state, and the president. Without Madison, America would be much different than it is today. He was truly a gift from God when he led America to war with Britain and though the writing of the constitution. Not only was he a political figure who was most remembered for his part in writing the constitution, but he was more than that, he was secretary of state and president during times in which had

Open Document