JAMES MADISON . 1809-1817

At his inauguration, James Madison, a small, wizened man, appeared old and worn. But whatever his deficiencies, Madison's wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety. She was the toast of Washington.

Born on March 16, 1751, Madison was raised in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.

When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took part in the debates. He made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. Years later, when called the "Father of the Constitution," Madison said that the document was not "the off-spring of a single brain," but "the work of many heads and many hands."

In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights. And out of his opposition to Hamilton's financial proposals came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party.

As President Jefferson's Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law. Despite the obvious failings of the Embargo Act of 1807, Madison was elected president in 1808.

The difficulties continued with Britain and France. In Congress a young group called the "War Hawks" pressed the president for a more militant policy. The British impressment of American seamen and the seizure of cargoes impelled Madison to give in to pressure. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war.

The young nation was not prepared to fight. The British set fire to the White House and the Capitol. But a few notable victories, climaxed by General Andrew Jackson's triumph at New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war – and who had talked secession - were so repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party.

In retirement, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states' rights influences that by the 1830s threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."

JAMES MONROE . 1817-1825

Thomas Jefferson reportedly said of James Monroe that he " …was so honest that if you turned his soul inside out there would not be a spot on it."

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on April 28, 1758, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law.

As a youthful politician, he joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention that ratified the Constitution, and in 1790 was elected to the Senate. As minister to France in 1794-1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause. Later, with Robert R. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.

His ambition and energy, together with the backing of President Madison, made him the Republican choice for the presidency in 1816. He easily won re-election in 1820.

Early in his administration, Monroe undertook a goodwill tour. But "goodwill" did not endure. Across the facade of nationalism, ugly sectional cracks appeared. Economic depression increased the dismay of the Missouri Territory in 1819 when its application for admission to the Union as a slave state failed. An amended bill for gradually eliminating slavery in Missouri precipitated two years of bitter debate in Congress. The Missouri Compromise bill resolved the struggle, pairing Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and barring slavery north and west of Missouri forever.

In foreign affairs Monroe proclaimed the policy that bears his name. Responding to the threat that conservative European governments might help Spain win back former Latin American colonies, Monroe did not recognize the young sister republics until he could ascertain that Congress would vote appropriations for diplomatic missions.

Britain also opposed re-conquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States join in proclaiming "hands off." Ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison counseled Monroe to accept the offer, but Secretary of State John Quincy Adams advised that doing so would be "to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war."

Monroe took Adams’ advice. Not only must Latin America be left alone, he warned, but the American continents "by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European Power." Some 20 years after Monroe died in 1831, this became known as the Monroe Doctrine.