James Madison

Family records and political disputes give Sydney Howard Gay two ways of examining James Madison's public reputation. The biography opens in Virginia, testing accounts of Madison's ancestry and his mother's name against correspondence and a family genealogy. Gay also questions the elaborate tributes surrounding a president's death, correcting a mistaken anniversary used to celebrate Madison's constitutional role. His attention to documents makes the opening an exercise in weighing historical claims as well as an account of family origins.

The contents trace Madison through the Virginia legislature, Congress, the Constitutional Convention and the presidency. In the discussion of foreign affairs, arguments over payments to France reveal tensions between Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton. Sympathy for the French Revolution shapes their disagreements about public debt and the recognition of governments. Readers interested in early American politics will find a biography that connects individual standing with party conflict, financial decisions and foreign affairs.