James Madison (1751-1836) was the fourth President of the United States and became known as the father of the Constitution because of his influence in planning it and drawing up the Bill of Rights. He was Secretary of State under Jefferson, and his main achievement in this role was the purchase of Louisiana from the French. He lived in Montpelier, Virginia, for eighty-five years, two of which he spent on the governor's council.
He was elected President in 1809 and again in 1812. During his terms in office he worked to abolish slavery, to disestablish the Church and to seek peace, although under his command the war against Britain resulted in a U.S. triumph. Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was born in the West Indies and served during the War of Independence as a captain. His military brilliance was recognized, and he was sent on several important military commissions.
He was George Washington's secretary and aide-de-camp and in 1787 became a Member of the Constitutional Convention. From 1789 to 1795 he was the first Secretary of the Treasury, and in 1801 he held the casting vote against Burr and for Jefferson. He fought a duel with Burr and died the next day. John Jay (1745-1829) served the new nation in both law and diplomacy and established important judicial precedents as first Chief justice of the Supreme Court.
A New York attorney from 1768, he won a wide reputation with The Address to the People of Great Britain, which stated the claims of the colonists. He did not sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but helped to ensure its approval in New York. In 1789 he was appointed the first U.S. Chief justice and shaped the Supreme Court procedures. The Jay Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain made him unpopular, and his hopes of succeeding Washington as President faded.
After a spell as Governor of New York he retired to a farm, where he spent twenty-seven uneventful years. Isaac Kramnick was born in 1938 and educated at Harvard University, where he received a B.A. degree in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1965, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, Yale and Cornell, where he is now Professor of Government. He is married to Miriam Brody Kramnick and lives in Ithaca, New York.
Among his publications are Bolingbroke and His Circle, The Rage of Edmund Burke and numerous articles on eighteenth-century topics. He has edited William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political justice, Thomas Paine's Common Sense and, with Michael Foot, The Thomas Paine Reader for Penguin Classics. He is also the author, with Barry Sheerman, M.P., of Laski: A Life on the Left. His most recent book is The Godless Constitution, co-authored with R.
Laurence Moore (Norton).
