James Madison - Legacy

Legacy

The historian Garry Wills wrote:

Madison's claim on our admiration does not rest on a perfect consistency, any more than it rests on his presidency. He has other virtues.... As a framer and defender of the Constitution he had no peer.... The finest part of Madison's performance as president was his concern for the preserving of the Constitution.... No man could do everything for the country – not even Washington. Madison did more than most, and did some things better than any. That was quite enough.

George F. Will once wrote that if we truly believed that the pen is mightier than the sword, our nation’s capital would have been called “Madison, D.C.”, instead of Washington, D.C.

Madison's writings are studied for the debate over human rights among different classes of citizens in the 21st century. Madison appears to have anticipated the danger of a strong majority imposing its will on a weaker minority by popular vote. Madison in The Federalist Papers, No. 51, wrote:

It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part... In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger.

• Montpelier, his family's plantation and his home in Orange, Virginia, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
• Many counties, several towns, cities, educational institutions, a mountain range and a river are named after Madison.
  • Madison County – lists counties named for him
  • Cities: e.g. Madison, Wisconsin
  • Named in his honor were the James Madison College of public policy at Michigan State University; and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia; the James Madison Institute honors his contributions to the Constitution.
  • The Madison Range was named in honor of the then U.S. Secretary of State by Meriwether Lewis as the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through Montana in 1805. The Madison River in southwestern Montana, was named in 1805 by Lewis & Clark.
  • Mount Madison in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains in New Hampshire is named for him.
  • Two U.S. Navy ships have been named USS James Madison and three as USS Madison.
  • Madison's portrait was on the U.S. $5000 bill.

Madison Cottage in New York City was named in his honor shortly after his death. It later became Madison Square, the center of numerous landmarks.

James Madison was honored on a Postage Issue of 1894 "Madison Cottage" on the site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel at Madison Square, New York City, 1852 Auction of books of James Madison's library, Orange County, Virginia, 1854 Presidential Dollar of James Madison