MADISON, JAMES°

MADISON, JAMES° (1750–1836), fourth president of the United States. The son of a prominent Episcopalian family, Madison graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1771. Because he was then considering a career in the ministry, he spent an additional year studying theology and Hebrew. Throughout his political career, he contended that complete religious liberty was essential for a harmonious society and that religious institutions established by the state engendered "ignorance and corruption." During the Virginia constitutional convention in 1776, he opposed a provision for full religious "toleration," proposing instead that the law declare "the full and free exercise of it (religion) according to the dictates of conscience." In 1784 he successfully led the opposition to a resolution in the Virginia House of Delegates for a tax in "support of the Christian religion, or of some Christian church" and warned that "Instead of holding forth an asylum to the persecuted, it is itself a signal of persecution." As president he vetoed two bills in 1811 which would have granted legal prerogatives to certain churches. While serving as a congressman from 1780 to 1783, Madison borrowed money from the Jewish broker haym salomon , whom he later referred to gratefully in a letter. Writing to mordecai m. noah in 1818, he expressed delight at the blessings conferred upon Jews by religious liberty in America, while in 1820 he wrote to jacob de la motta that while being little known, "the history of the Jews must be forever interesting."   During his presidency he appointed several Jews to government posts, including John hays as collector for the Indian Territory in 1814, Mordecai Noah as consul general at Tunis in 1813, and joel hart as consul at Leith, Scotland, in 1817. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Hunt, The Life of James Madison (1902), 8–12, 77–86; S.K. Padover (ed.), The Complete Madison (1953), 298–312; Kohler, in: AJHSP, 11 (1903), 60–65. (Edward L. Greenstein)