CHRONOLOGY JAMES MADISON was born at Fort Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751. In 1769 entered Princeton College, from which he was graduated in 1771, whereupon he began the study of law. In 1776 was delegate to the Revolutionary Convention of Virginia. 1780-83, delegate to Congress from Virginia. 1784, elected to the Virginia Legislature, and in 1787 was a member of the Constitutional Convention. Was the leader of the Federalists in the Ratifying Convention of Virginia. 1789-97, a member of the House of Representatives. In 1798 drew up the "Virginia Resolutions." From 1801-09, Secretary of State. 1809-17, President of the United States. 1812, declared war with Great Britain. Upon his retirement from the office of the President, he went to Montpelier, Virginia, where the last twenty years of his life were spent in quiet and leisure. Died at Montpelier, June 28, 1836. JAMES MADISON FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED IN WASHINGTON MARCH 4, 1809 Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the station, to the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion; as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced. The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt, because they have fallen upon us at a moment when national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations, whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivalled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture; in the successful enterprises of commerce; in the progress of manufactures and useful arts; in the increase of the public revenue, and the use made of it in reducing the public debt; and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our land. It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable view, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors, in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligation with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be questioned. Posterity at least will do justice to them. This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced, equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued, in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the |