what did james madison wrote?
The Invasion of Canada The great little Madison American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding The War of 1812 James Madison: Writings James Madison: The American Presidents James Madison and the creation of the American Republic The Life Of James Madison Sailor of fortune The flag maker
entailment
 John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document , which Congress would edit to produce the final version . The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain , more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War . The next day , July 3 , John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail : " The Second Day of July 1776 , will be the most memorable Epocha , in the History of America . " But the national birthday , Independence Day , is celebrated on July 4 , the date that the Declaration of Independence was signed . 

entailment
 Madison wrote this in 1799 , when he was in a dispute about the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws , which was legislation enacted in 1798 by President John Adams ' Federalist Party to ban seditious libel . Madison believed that legislation to be unconstitutional , and his adversaries in that dispute , such as John Marshall , advocated the narrow freedom of speech that had existed in the English common law . 

contradiction
 Congress ordered that the draft " lie on the table " . For two days Congress methodically edited Jefferson 's primary document , shortening it by a fourth , removing unnecessary wording , and improving sentence structure . Congress removed Jefferson 's assertion that Britain had forced slavery on the colonies , in order to moderate the document and appease persons in Britain who supported the Revolution . Although Jefferson wrote that Congress had " mangled " his draft version , the Declaration that was finally produced , according to his biographer John Ferling , was " the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity . " 

entailment
 Madison intended this language to replace Article Three , Section Two , Clause Three , rather than be appended to the Constitution . The Committee of Eleven of the House amended Madison 's language as follows : 

neutral
 The book was popular in the Thirteen Colonies of America , and its appeal survived the American War of Independence , copies being owned by Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and George Washington . 
