[Mr. Blonde]

Ummm, The Constitution? Granted most on here wouldn't say college is the place to find truth in our history, but in a class I took on the Constitution, the professor made it very clear that Madison was running the show. He came in prepared to scrap the confederation, and had been studying every book he could get his hands on to do so. The original plan (Virginia?) was his although it was introduced by someone else, and he directed most of the discussion at the convention.

[jla]

So are you telling me that you believe we today are, more or less, living according to the Constitution as envisioned by Madison?

[AntiBurr]

I believe that Madison patterned his proposals on a proposed constitution for Virginia (not adopted) written by Jefferson. They were close, personally and politically for many years. There is no reason to doubt that Madison was familiar with Jefferson's work.
The reason Jefferson was not involved in the Constitutional Convention was that he was ambassador to France at the time.