ly 4th death date with John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe. But Madison was young at the time of the Declaration of Independence, so I think the Constitution was more important to him than the Declaration and July 4th. Sadly but interestingly enough, Senator Robert Byrd also died this morning, June 28th. Senator Byrd was the longest serving Senator in U.S. history. He was elected for a record 9 terms (remember Senators' term lengths are 6 years long!!). Senator Byrd also played a key role in establishing Constitution Day on September 17th every year. He was a big supporter of educating citizens about the Constitution. Beth Taylor, who lectured about Paul Jennings, said that had he known he was going to die today, she thinks Robert Byrd would have gotten a kick out of dying on the same day as James Madison, Father of the Constitution.
Posted by JENNIFER MITNICK at 6/27/2010 10:00:00 PM
I am now at Montpelier! It has been a very long day, but I wanted to be sure to write a short blog entry so you (my students) can stay up-to-date with what I've already begun learning here. My drive down to Virginia from Pittsburgh was long, but easy. On the way I passed two roads named "Lover's Lane" and "Dirt Road" (I'm not making this up!). I thought you'd find that funny. The whole drive down I had bright, sunny weather. Literally, the moment I turned into the drive of Montpelier, the rain began and a huge summer downpour commenced. Before the rain, it was 96 degrees outside and then the rain brought the temperature down into the 80s. Montpelier, the name of James Madison's house and estate, is located in Orange County, Virginia. Orange County was named after Prince William III of Orange, a famous Protestant King of Great Britain and Ireland. However, the name is quite appropriate because the soil here has a distinctly bright orange color (almost like the color of rust, but bright orange). I'll try to take a picture of it to show you tomorrow if it's sunny. After dinner, we heard two short lectures - one by Will Harris, 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 -- 