James Madison Dies: Last Founding Father and Constitution's Author
He was five feet four and weighed about a hundred pounds. James Madison stood up in the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and out-argued, out-prepared, and out-maneuvered every larger man in the room to produce a document that has governed the United States for 235 years. He wrote the Bill of Rights afterward, partly to get the Constitution ratified. He co-wrote the Federalist Papers with Hamilton and Jay — 85 essays produced in eight months explaining why the Constitution would work. He died in June 1836, the last surviving member of the Constitutional Convention, the country that document created still intact.
June 28, 1836
190 years ago
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