Donald Dewey & Barbara Bennett Peterson 
James Madison 
Defender of the American Republic

This book follows the life of James Madison, our 4th president, who at the tender age of twenty-five was thrust into significant politics as an elected member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Even in his first venture into statesmanship, Madison took notes on constitutional deliberations, a practice that he would continue in the Federal Convention that proposed the United States Constitution and throughout much of his legislative career whether in Philadelphia, New York City, or Williamsburg, Virginia. Just as most of our knowledge of the framing of the U.S. Constitution is provided by Madison’s painstaking notes of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, much of our knowledge of George Mason’s many contributions to the Virginia Constitution of 1776 are also known through Madison’s efforts.