[Vigilanteman]

For the sake of discussion, I would list James Madison as #6 in my list of top ten presidents, the full list being as follows:

1. Washington
   
2. Jefferson
   
3. Reagan
   
4. Lincoln
   
5. Monroe
   
6. Madison
   
7. Grover Cleveland
   
8. Teddy
   
9. Millard Fillmore
   
10. Calvin Coolidge

Historians love to hate the last two. But I will rank them way ahead of either FDR or Andrew Jackson, whom they love to include.

[laplata]

No one will ever equal or surpass George Washington.

[Sivad]

The thing that endears Madison most to me is his
Federalist #46 in which he gloats about the private
ownership of firearms by Americans.

Happy Birthday Jim!

[mrsmel]

No probably to it, Washington was without a doubt our greatest President.

Though I have a personal great fondness for Coolidge.

[McBuff]

On a tour to Montpelier a couple of years ago, the Madison estate. . I took these shots of the mansion and the view from the front porch.

Truly, God's country!!

[Oratam]

Aye, laddy. Happy Birthday, Wee Jemmy!

[DoughtyOne]

[pepsi_junkie]

I recently read a kindle book called "A Tempest at Dawn" which was a novelization of the constitutional convention, focused on Madison as the personification of the southern / big state faction and Roger Sherman of Connecticut as the personification of the yankee / small state faction.

He did a nice job giving the founders realistic personalities of men who sometimes didn't see eye to eye at all but who found a way to make it work in spite of their differences.

In the book Roger Sherman was a weary, older man who saw that the different factions would never get all that they wanted and he set out to forge a compromise path. Madison he portrayed as an idealistic youth opposed to compromise as he felt his plan already was the fairest possible compromise available. The rest of the book is the story of all the back and forth and how each man came to appreciate the gifts of the other. I really enjoyed it.

If you have Kindle Unlimited you can read it for free. I bought during a one-day giveaway; maybe it will be one again someday.

[jmacusa]

Thanks to “Little Jim’’ as he was known we have a Second Amendment.