Banning (History/Univ. of Kentucky; Jefferson and Madison: Three
Conversations from the Founding, 1995, etc.) offers a dry-as-dust
intellectual history of James Madison's evolution from ardent
Federalist to partisan opponent of the Washington administration.
Banning starts with the riddle that has puzzled Madison biographers
through the years: How could the "father of the Constitution,"
coauthor of The Federalist, and draftsman of the Bill of Rights,
who started his public life by favoring strong central government
and extensive protection against majority oppression, have become
the leader of an ideologically populist party? Banning argues that
while Madison's thought evolved with changing circumstances, his
Federalism and his defense of democracy and local interests were
more consistent than is generally thought. In Madison's view, the
author asserts, the democratic and revolutionary promise of the
Declaration of Independence and the pragmatic checks and balances
of the Constitution were both parts of the legacy of the American
Revolution. Madison came to Congress in 1780, when the Articles of
Confederation were brand-new and the outcome of the Revolution in
doubt. He became convinced that the Confederation government was
weak and that this weakness was endangering the Revolution.
Although many viewed the Constitution's provision for a strong
central government and use of checks and balances to restrain the
excesses of the popularly elected legislature as compromises of the
democratic ideals of the Revolution, Banning demonstrates that
Madison viewed them as protections of personal liberty. However,
once the Constitution was ratified, Madison became an advocate of
liberty in another sense - as democracy. By 1792, he was a national
leader of the Democratic-Republican party, and his ideological
orientation was set for the rest of his public life. Hobbled by a
sometimes turgid prose style, Banning's discussion of Madison's
ideas never sufficiently renders him a flesh-and-blood person.
(Kirkus Reviews)
James Madison was the finest democratic theorist that the United
States has ever produced. His was the pivotal philosophical role in
framing the Constitution and establishing the principles on which a
wholly new form of government was to be based. Yet this widely
informed and profoundly original thinker has been considered by
most scholars to be an intellectual pragmatist who reacted variably
and inconsistently to the changing circumstances of the Revolution
and the Confederation. Lance Banning's powerful and persuasive
reexamination of Madison's thought at the critical early and
central stages of his career now changes that presumption, and
provides a new base from which thinking about Madison and the
Founding must start. The Sacred Fire of Liberty follows Madison
from his appearance on the national stage (in Congress in 1780)
through the end of 1792. By the end of this period, he had achieved
his mature understanding of the Constitution, and his collision
with many of the other Federalists of 1788 had made him a leader of
the opposition to the administration of George Washington. Banning
convinces the reader, through his meticulous research and deeply
contextualized presentation of the shifting issues of the period,
that Madison indeed held to consistent principles: he was at once a
more committed democrat and a less eager nationalist than usually
has been thought. The thinking that had underpinned his actions at
the great convention, his numbers of The Federalist, and the
supposed reversal of positions represented by his joining with
Thomas Jefferson to form the first Republican party had firmed by
1792 into the understandings that would guide the rest of his
career.
General
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