James Madison and the Making of America.

• Author: Faber, Michael J.
• Position: Book review

James Madison and the Making of America

By Kevin R. C. Gutzman

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012.

Pp. xxvii, 416. $16.99 paperback.

Although James Madison is by no means a forgotten man among America's founding generation, he is often underappreciated. Much of his work in creating the United States of America was done behind the scenes, and he was often overshadowed by his seemingly more impressive (and invariably much taller) colleagues. The shadow of Jefferson in particular too often leaves Madison less understood than he should be. Kevin R C. Gutzman's biography of America's fourth president aims to shed some additional light on Madison's crucial role in the early development of the United States.

Madison is best known for his work on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and for his service as president, but Gutzman finds Madison's most enduring legacy in his efforts for religious freedom in America. He explores Madison's efforts to shape the Virginia Declaration of Rights in the state's constitutional convention; the young delegate "led the way in enshrining full-throated religious libertarianism" (p. 12) in that document, his first substantial success in shaping the American idea of separating church and state. Gutzman's Madison is first and foremost a champion of personal freedom. That he also owned a plantation worked by slaves was not an inconsistency so much as a nod to practical politics; because complete emancipation was not likely to be achieved, Madison instead fought for liberal policies on manumission.

Madison's service in his state's constitutional convention highlights Gutzman's account of his early life, and his essay Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments looms large in the story of his career in the 1780s. The theme is religious freedom; Gutzman paints Madison as a sort of religious crusader, though generally a muted one because he was never really the crusading type.

This theme of religious liberty moves to the background during the Philadelphia Convention and the ratification debates, where Madison did not push for explicit protection of religion as he had in the state constitution. This central period in Madison's career, which (rightfully) spans half of the book, was something of a departure from his early focus on religious liberty. Nonetheless, Gutzman insists that Madison was consistent throughout the debate over the Constitution, finding protection for personal freedom, including religious...