MADISON, JAItEs, American statesman, and fourth president of the United States, was b. at King Georg-e,Va., Mar. 16, 1751. His father, James Madison, of Orange, was of English ancestry. He graduated at Princeton, N. J., in 1771, and studied law. In 1776 he was a member of the Virginia convention, and though too modest for an orator, his life from this time was devoted to politics, and he became one of the most eininent, accomplished, and respected of American statesmen. He was elected to the federal congress in 1779; in 1784 to the legislature of Virginia, in which he supported the meas ures of Mr. Jefferson in the revision of the laws, and placing all religious denominations on an equality of freedom without state support. As a member of "the convention of 1787, which framed the federal constitution, 111r. Madison acted with Jay and Hamil ton, and with them wrote the Federalist. He did as much as any man, perhaps, to secure the adoption of the constitution, but opposed the financial policy of Hamilton, and became a leader of the republican or Jeffersonian party. He declined the mission to France, and the office of secretary of state, but in 1792 became the leader of the republi can party in congress, and wrote the Kentucky resolutions of 1798, which contain 'the basis of the state-rights doctrines. Virginia, in the adoption of the constitution,
.declared her right to withdraw from the confederation, and at this early period estab lished two state arsenals and made other preparations to resist the encroachments of a centralizing power. In 1801, Mr. Jefferson haying been elected President, Mr. Madi son was made secretary of state, which post he held during the eight years of his administration. In 1809 he was elected president. The European wars of that period, with their blockades and orders in council, were destructive of American commerce, The claim of the English government to impress seamen from American vessels was violently resisted. Mr. Madison vainly endeavored to avoid a war with England, which was declared in 1812, and continued for two years, at a cost of 30,000 lives and 4100,000,000. He was one of the four presidents. elected for a second term, during which he approved the establishment of a national bank as a financial necessity—a measure he had opposed and vetoed. In .1817 he retired to his seat at Montpelier, Va., where he continued to serve his •country as a rector of the university of Vir ginia, and a promoter of agriculture and public improvements. -Without being a brilliant man, he was a statesman of eminent ability and purity of character. He died .at Montpelier, Jan. 28, 1836.