s, who is the Founding Director and Principal Scholar of the Center for the Constitution at Montpelier. The other lecture was by Ralph Ketcham, Professor Emeritus (meaning he's retired) of Syracuse University and author of a 600 page biography of James Madison that we were supposed to read before we got here. Let's just say, I did my best, but I have a bit more to read. The lectures were very interesting. Professor Ketcham discussed James Madison's intellectual and political preparation. Madison was fortunate enough to study under John Witherspoon at the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton. Back then, you had to know Latin and Greek fluently in order to get into college! When Madison arrived, he took the freshman year exam immediately and passed it, so he actually started as a sophomore. While at Princeton, Madison studied the history of lots of ancient civilizations and read the works of many classic and modern philosophers. He was such a dedicated student, he actually made himself physically ill by studying so much. He often got only 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Madison's knowledge of ancient civilizations and forms of government served him well when he was preparing for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. You should remember from what I taught you that the Articles of Confederation wasn't working. Right before the Constitutional Convention, Madison wrote a very famous essay. In it, he lists and explains all of the problems the new country was having. He also analyzed what he learned from studying ancient and modern civilizations and forms of government. Madison believed in an idea of Aristotle's that governments can be ruled by one person, by a few people, or by many people. All of these forms of government can be good governments or bad governments - that is, they can be serving the public good and not be corrupt, or they can be corrupt, selfish, and partisan. Madison called his essay "The Vices of the Political System of the United States." "Vices" are bad things in a person's character -- in this case, the character of the government (especially the various state governments) of the United States. He referred to the political "system" because he believed that the Articles of Confederation and the Constitutions of each of the states were supposed to work together. In his essay, he explains all of the problems with the Articles of Confederation, but most significantly, he explains the problems with the state governments. The "political system" could only work well if the state governments were good too. Madison wrote that the failure of the state governments to function successfully calls into question the "fundamental principle of republican Government, that the majority who rule in such governments, are the safest Guardians of both the public Good and of private rights." In other words, if the political system collapses and the new country fails, that would
mean that the idea of rule by the people -- by the consent of the
governed -- would fail. Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to more interesting lectures (yes, your teacher is a big civics geek -- just like James Madison! ..... hmmmm). We're also going to get a tour of his house. I am really looking forward to this tour because I saw the house in 2002, before the restoration. I also saw the house in 2008, during the restoration. The restoration (to what the house looked like when James Madison owned it) is now complete, so I'll be able to see the finished product while still having a picture in my mind of what it looked like before! We can't take pictures inside the house, unfortunately, but I'll definitely take a picture of the outside of the house and post it in my next blog!
Posted by JENNIFER MITNICK at 6/20/2010 10:00:00 PM
In one week, I will get to visit James Madison's house, Montpelier, as part of a week-long teacher workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. James Madison was the genius behind the design of our Constitution, so there isn't a more perfect place for a Civics teacher to visit. At the workshop, which will