Rom the gaithersburg book festival, now a look l. A. Of James Madison. Michael signer is the author. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Welcome to the sixth annual gaithersburg book festival. I am the gaithersburg city attorney. Gaithersburg is a wonderful city that proudly support the arts and humanities. We are pleased to bring you the fabulous event as part of a generous support of our sponsors and volunteers. When you seasons please say thanks. A few announcements. For everyones consideration this morning please silence all of your devices. If you are tweeting today please use the hash tag cbs15. We need your feedback and surveys are available outside the table in the back. Also on our web site and our mobile apps by submitting the survey you are entered into a drawing for an ipad so please participate. Michael signer, the author today will sign books immediately after his presentation and copies of his book are for sale in the politics and prose tent. A quick word about buying the books. Even though this is a free event and we want to keep it that way it does tell book festival by buying public. The more books we sell more publishers will want to send their authors here to speak with us. Purchasing a book to my partner politics and prose does benefit the local economy supports local jobs and supports the book festival. Please enjoy the program. If you are in a position to buy a book please do so. The book we are talking about today becoming madison, the extraordinary origins of the least likely founding father, is Michael Signers second book. His first book, demagogue, the fight to save democracy from its worst enemies focus on the importance of constitutionalism, becoming madison examines concepts of leadership and statesmanship. Michael signer is a practicing attorney in virginia as well as an author advocate and the arrest. Here is his undergraduate degree from princeton university. He has a phd in Political Science from the university of california and a doctorate degree from the university of Virginia School of law. He has taught political theory and government at the university of virginia, Virginia Tech and also the university of california. In addition he was council to Virginia Governor mark warner. Senior policy adviser at the center for American Progress and candidate for Lieutenant Governor of regina in 2009. If that is not enough in addition to that his writings have appeared in the washington post, the new republic, usa today, and a book for the daily beast. For this book Michael Signer was inspired by what seemed like a loss of leadership in our current Political Climate and in examining this, he was drawn to the story of our fourth president , James Madison. Madisons role in crafting the u. S. Constitution advocating for adoption. And madison a man who was uncomfortable on the public stage, also on man who was brilliant and powerful be driven. At madisons true passion as a true statesman. And as a lawyer and public servant, found this a terrific, if those of us who aspire to serve in public office. Madison advocated what he thought was right and was best and not his selfserving interests. The message was a lot of politicians today need to hear an is an Important Message so please welcome Michael Signer. [applause] thank you for that kind introduction, thank you for being here and thanks to the gaithersburg book festival for this Public Service about books. It is wonderful to see so many people out celebrating books and i wholeheartedly agree with the injunction to buy them. Okay. I started this book off with a hypothesis. Many people have this picture of James Madison as the cool and calculating and somewhat removed character, may be more like a calculator than a live flesh and blood human beings. One book along those lines was titled James Madison and the hardness empire of reason. I started off with hypophysis. I think i thought James Madison just must have been more fierce and tenacious and passionate to have achieved his stunning impact on history and forged the very tight, warm friendships and the lionss that he did and i thought by examining his youth in close detail in the story of his coming of age we might at last be able to discover the of flesh and blood and beneath the myth. One early title of the book that i used was the passion of James Madison but i quickly was replaced by a much better title that my wife came up with which was becoming madison. As often happens in Book Research in the process of exploring that hypophysis i stumbled onto one hell of a story. The story goes back to the simplest archetype we have of stories which is an underdog phasing down and overboard or more simply than that david versus goliath. The story of James Madisons confrontation with Patrick Henry, david versus goliath of revolutionary and constitutional america also contains clues for the most classic problem leaders anywhere have in any organization not just politics how can reason defeat prejudice . How can complex longterm solutions effort retail over shortterm fiers . In a democracy how can the statesman defeat the demagogue . Beckoning back to my first book. Lets start in the new academy on richmond in 1788, this was the scene of vas convention called to ratify the constitution that emerged from philadelphia the year before. The new academy is the new building its cornerstone had been laid two years earlier. The auditorium still smells of freshly cut would and whig is and sweat and horses. Everything had a feeling of newness in this location in richmond. The auditoriums at a couple blocks away from vas new Capital Building which is under construction at this time. 170 delegates were roaming the womb. They fell into two camps, the federalist and anti federalist and they had the feel of armies preparing for battle. The federalists were led by an unlikely figure. James madison, who stood 5 foot 4 inches tall and weighed 100 pounds. I recently on a speech at James Madison university stood next to a lifesize statue of James Madison cast in bronze. I am bitterly twice his size. Madison had a week speaking police and a nervous and feverish manner but he had a quick sense of humor and surprising warmth that in deer him quickly to allies and friends, people he wanted to know him. Politics out of all professions and the young man could have chosen was the least likely. A close friend of his head once subjected to a plan Thomas Jefferson had cooked up for madison to run for governor of virginia, madisons soul was replete with good gentleness, humanity and every social virtue end he was too amiable in his dispositions to bear against the torrents of abuse. Madison was also raised by a father of strong but repressed emotions would describe vanity once as a vice i have always despised. His paternal grandfather was a slave master and a quite enterprising one and he was later at the height of his career setting of a realestate empire in a plantation empire, he was murdered by a three slave, two of whom he owned in a conspiracy of poisoning scheme. In punishment for that plot the two slaves his grandfather owned were not put to death. I argue in the book i suggest that that may have been the joy shall systems recognition of the brutality of his grandfather. This is part of what madison was raised in, recognize the brutality and inhumanity of some systems that came before him that he lived in. His mother was nurturing and smothering and left him with his grandmother to be raised for two of his earliest years. He was the eldest of seven siblings two of whom died from dysentery after madison returned home from college which madison feared would also kill him as well. This makes of experiences made madison despite his small stature and introversion and emotionally us to and strong leader with an intuitive grasp of the suffering of others. I was fascinated by an episode when he was serving as the new congressman in philadelphia in congress and he was financially dependent on his father and ran out of money and his father wasnt giving him more. He needed to resort to the services of the jewish moneylender and philadelphia at the time. Madisons friend Edmund Randolph and many others to use the services of solomon resorted to crude antisemitic stereotypes to talking about him but madison pointedly took the track to made friends with solomon, they be printed each other, he talked about him as his little friend. You wonder how little he was. It was interesting that he would have empathized with somebody who was really at the bottom of Philadelphia Society at the time. To the new academy the anti federalists looking at a federalists are generally a older and grayer. Patrick henry they included George Mason Benjamin harrison the governor of virginia, Patrick Henry, their leader was a robust 52 years old, lantern jaw and heavy brow and 6 feet tall and imposing. He walked with kind of a pronouncedst as if bearing a heavy load that he wanted everyone to know about. He had been famous for at least 13 years, probably longer, since he first made his mark in the debate in the virginia General Assembly about whether or not va should support more independence to the colony of jamaica. That somewhat obscure topic the year before the declaration of independence, then delegate Patrick Henry saw an opportunity to advance a more militant version of colonial freedom. He is sitting in the General Assembly and directly stands and introduces a resolutions declaring the right of virginians to a regulated militia and asking the conventions of the va to an immediate state of defense. Those resolutions sparked a firestorm in the chamber among the other delegates. The tory delegates rose and shouted that henrys ideas were too provocative for the british. Heroes in response and sarcastically asked, listen to this what have we to oppose them . Shall we try arguments . We have been trying that for the last ten years. So in that breath henry is attacking recent itself in politics. That is important for what comes later with madison. Gentleman may cry peace, peace but there is no peace. I know not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. That statement and the fame that would follow earned henry the title of the father of the american revolution. The question sitting at vas ratifying convention in 1788 was whether he could be father of the constitution as well. Many people were deeply concerned about how the revolutionary country could become a constitutional nation and they were worried about Patrick Henrys role in that quest. Thomas jefferson for instance, a great fan of america making this transition did not like Patrick Henry. The two men had been opposing lawyers in Central Virginia courts for several years, he knew him well and when the courts adjourned for winter jefferson satirically recalled that henry would make up a party of 4 hunters of his neighborhood and go off with them to declining woods and has weeks hunting deer of which he was passionately fond, sleeping under a tent before a fire wearing the same shirt the whole time and covering all the dirt of his dress with a hunting shirt. Jefferson found this everyman populist posed in authentic and egregiously so. Henry was deeply familiar with the lead Virginia Society even if he chose not to join it. Henrys father was a prosperous plantation owner and a colonel in the local militia beat tutored his son at home in latin, shakespeare, ancient history and mythology henry read vergil in latin when he was 15 years old, decades later he could read nero in his speeches wishy gradually adopted a severe persona. Contemporary describe his appearance as grave, penetrating and mark klystron liniments of deep reflection, one biographer said he had a rogan cast with piercing blue eyes that could change to a d gray, a high straight forehead, heavy brow long black eyelashes that made his eyes seem especially penetrating. He had the ability to hone in on peoples passions he could talk a jury into anything. One friend describes perfect command of a strong and musical voice which he raised or lowered at pleasure and modulated so as to fall with any given court of the human heart. Madison actually talked one time about how when henry would appear he would adjust his eyeglasses, cleared his throat and in that moment he had half of the room. Once a man watching henrys performance from an upper gallery became so much in shanty with his eloquence he accidentally spurted tobacco juice on the heads of the members of the house below. After henrys death jefferson would say i think he was the best humored man in society i almost ever knew and the greatest orator that ever lived and jeffersons view was henrys consummate knowledge of the human heart that about and to attain a degree of popularity with the people at the large never perhaps equal but even after death jefferson, this is conflicted, derided henry as avaricious and rotten hearted and possessed of two great passions the love of money and the love of fame. So the adversaries of this formidable american character in the new academy was James Madison who all said to be fair at this point was a celebrity in his own right. She achieved prominence in National Politics that was shocking considering the abilities he faced. Part of that stemmed from the extraordinary power of conscience that he unleashed in his home life in Public Service and parts of that went back to john witherspoon. John witherspoon was president of princeton, madison was a student there which is a key part of my book. You cant really tell , Asheville Green you can still the story of revolutionary america without talking about this man who was a scottish cleric who was a presbyterian and recruited across the atlantic to serve as president of princeton at this king motion in the notions history. One of the most bold decisions James Madisons father did was sending madison away to famously free thinking princeton as opposed to going to the Anglican College of william and mary. I argue in the book that that was really an investment because his parents saw madisons gift at a very wikipedia and wanted him to be a free thinker as well. The fifth president set about witherspoon, he had more of a quality presence he quality powerfully felt but not to be described in any other individual with whom the writer has ever known, washington accepted. As a young student witherspoon was described as having a disagreeable temper and awkward manner but also very sensible and shrewd. Also as a young cleric in scotland he despised bonnie prince charlies attempt to restore the monarchy in scotland and raised a militia of his known and tried once but failed to fight a battle. The next year he tried again and was awarded with imprisonment. There was an escape attempt at the castle where he and his helper four putin successfully climbed a row of knotted blankets to the ground. The fifth fell 70 feet and died. With this in remain in the castle, probably the right choice but was tortured and. She had severe anxiety attacks for years afterward and felt the need to keep the strictest check on himself. Another commonality with his Young Students of madison studied with with this unjust after arriving, tells witherspoon he wants to finish the standard three year curriculum in two years which would require taking early exams. He needed to hire horse, cicero, and passes the exam that approach is another student with a plan, they would Work Together to compress all that study. Witherspoon approved this plan and they begin to work over ten hours a day together studying. This was the first sign of madisons signal intensity. His ability to disappear totally in a task before him. 60 years later when he is writing an autobiography he recounted the experience in almost masochistic terms. His indiscrete experiment of the minimum of sleep and a maximum of application was a test of which the constitution, meaning his, would bear. He was always sleeping five hours a night for several weeks on end and the result was very in term health. What did madison actually learn while he was in the aging in this unique kind of study . The first was the passion. He taught his students the difference the twin selfish and benevolent passion. The selfish passion stemmed from gratification whereas the benevolent one came from the happiness of others. This went back to with distinction drawn thousands of years ago by aristotle between the general good and the private good which aristotle used to distinguish between pure and perverse regimes, an example being if you had the rule of the few, and aristocracy if they cared about the common good that would be an aristocracy, if they care about themselves that would be an oligarchy. He talked about the difference between public versus private passion, the public ones where fame, power and pleasure, private ones were family, friendship and patriotism. He taught that the noblest passions were those that were benevolent and public. That meant he wanted his students to and join up, grand ambition to the common good and for those brave souls had been willing to sacrifice their life. Was no clinton and almost all of his students went on to become revolutionary soldiers. With madison also learning about moral philosophy from witherspoon, he taught the students that conscience was a field which it was a rea