United States Department of Defense

U.S. Constitution Course

The Course > Page 4

Imagery:

The Constitution, John Adams, James Madison, U.S. Flag

Narration:

James Madison is generally regarded as “The Father of the Constitution.”

On-Screen Text:

The influences of both James Madison and John Adams are strongly felt in the Constitution.

Want to Know More 1:

In the 1780s, Madison (1751 – 1836) helped convince the contemporary political leaders to call for a convention to replace the ineffective Articles of Confederation. Madison was an outstanding delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and his overall influence at Philadelphia in 1787 has led many historians to call him the "Father of the Constitution." Madison urged a strong central government with a bicameral legislature. When the issue arose of how states would be represented in the new Congress, Madison argued strongly for a system of state representation depending on population.

Want to Know More 2:

A delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, John Adams (1735 – 1826) led the movement for independence. He had served on the committee charged with preparing the Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson, who calls him “the pillar of its support on the floor of Congress.” In 1779, Adams had also drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, which was later to serve as a model for the U.S. Constitution.

More Info, John Adams:

On the Need for a Declaration of Rights [a Bill of Rights] - While in London as a foreign diplomat in 1787, Adams maintained a keen interest in the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention, taking place in Philadelphia during that summer.

Upon receiving a copy of the proposed Constitution, Adams drafted a short letter to Thomas Jefferson, who was in Paris as a treaty-negotiating commissioner. The Constitution seemed admirably calculated to preserve the Union, Adams wrote, but he believed some additions were needed for the document to be complete. “What think you of a Declaration of Rights?” he asked. “Should not such a Thing have preceded the Model?”

Jefferson subsequently pressed James Madison to yield to the anti-federalist demand for the Bill of Rights as a condition for ratifying the proposed Constitution.

To Adams, the need to set out a declaration of rights before laying out the framework of government seemed obvious. It was an error, in his view, to omit a bill of rights from the original Constitution. As a colonial leader through the Revolutionary Era, and as the head of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Adams had fought to preserve certain rights and liberties for his fellow countrymen. In fact, he was one of the first colonial leaders to call for a break with England in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. Adams understood that the last thing Americans wanted was a new government infringing upon their rights.