Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/233

JAMES MADISON 189 renown will rest chiefly or entirely upon what he did before the beginning of the 19th century. After the close of his second term in 1817, Mr. Madison retired to his estate at Montpelier, where he spent nearly twenty happy years with books and friends. This sweet and tranquil old age he had well earned by services to his fellow-creatures such as it is given to but few men to render. Among the founders of our nation, his place is beside that of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Marshall; but his part was peculiar. He was pre eminently the scholar, the profound, constructive thinker, and his limitations were such as belong to that character. He was modest, quiet, and reserved in manner, small in stature, neat and refined, cour teous and amiable. In rough party strife there were many who could for the moment outshine him. He was not the sort of hero for whom people throw up their caps and shout themselves hoarse, like Andrew Jackson, for example; but his work was of a kind that will be powerful for good in the world long after the work of the men of Jackson s type shall have been forgotten. The full-page por trait of Madison in this chapter is from a painting by Gilbert Stuart. A satisfactory biography of Madison is still to be desired. His interesting account of the Federal convention is published in Elliot s "Debates on the State Conventions" (4 vols., 8vo, Philadelphia,