approve of Baptist teachings but he supported Baptists right to practice their beliefs In letters to a friend he argued that the colony should not have an official religion at all Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise he wrote in 1774 His passion about religious freedom inspired him to study law Madison believed that a diversity of ideas in religion and politics alike would help prevent corruption Many competing voices would prevent one voice from becoming too powerful in society or in government Early Career Before Madison could make headway on the issue of religious freedom he became involved in a larger fight In the 1770s the American colonies were still under British rule The British government had imposed several taxes on the colonists to pay debts from the French and Indian War 1754 1763 Many colonists objected to being taxed by Britain when they had no representatives in the British government No taxation without representation became their rallying cry By 1774 colonial protests had grown louder larger and increasingly hostile Madison supported resistance to British rule Hoping to enter politics the twenty-three-year-old started studying governance He was especially interested in writings on limited government religious freedom and natural rights freedoms he believed all people should possess Madison also joined his county’s Committee of Safety a group that oversaw the local militia and enforced a boycott of British goods It was Madison’s first experience in public service The militias groups of private citizens who volunteered emergency military service began to train There will by the spring I expect be thousands of well-trained high-spirited men ready to meet danger whenever it appears Madison wrote of their preparation 12
In the 1770s American colonists were growing more angry about taxes they had to pay to Great Britain Protesters in Boston threw tea into the harbor in a protest known as the Boston Tea Party By spring in fact the American Revolution 1775 1783 had broken out between colonists and British forces As the hostilities continued the colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776 The same year Madison was appointed to the Virginia Convention the body that would draft the new state’s constitution The twenty-five-year-old Madison argued for a stronger protection of religious freedom in Virginia His position was that religious freedom was a natural right one that should not be limited by government He wanted to change the wording in Article XVI from All men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion to a stronger protection All men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion Aware of his youth and inexperience Madison did not present the amendment himself He enlisted the help of Patrick Henry a politician known for his skilled oratory and Edmund Pendleton an active member of the Church of England who Madison 13
hoped could win the support of other devout Anglicans It was Madison’s first foray into politics and his talent for strategizing and picking the right allies proved successful The amendment passed becoming a landmark model for religious freedom In 1777 Madison ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates He lost the election but soon accepted a position on the Virginia Council of State which oversaw Virginia’s participation in the war In 1779 three years after the colonies declared independence Madison finally got his wish to participate in national politics He was appointed as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia beginning his three-year term in 1780 Since 1775 this group of delegates representing the thirteen colonies had served as a provisional government Its members authored the Articles of Confederation which became the country’s first constitution after the states ratified it in 1781 It formalized powers the Congress had already been exercising such as borrowing money and creating a national navy When the Articles were ratified the Second Continental Congress became known as the Confederation Congress Madison was the Congress’s youngest member but quickly earned respect for his intelligence and well-researched ideas Charles Wilson Peale painted this portrait of Madison in 1783 14
Almost as soon as the Articles of Confederation had been ratified Madison began to argue that a stronger governmental document was needed The Articles gave the Congress the power to regulate foreign affairs appoint military officers regulate currency and borrow funds However it could not force states to contribute money or troops to the federal government which hindered the war effort and gave the young country no way to pay off its rising debts Madison pushed for laws that would give the Congress the power to collect and enforce federal taxes which he thought would be necessary to achieve victory But many of the delegates opposed Madison’s ideas They feared replacing British rule with yet another powerful government became the first constitution of the The Articles of Confederation young United States Madison argued that a central government that was too weak would have difficulty managing the war Before Madison’s term started the Congress had given states the authority to raise house and pay the army As soldiers went unpaid Madison tried to secure a federal funding source He and fellow representative Alexander Hamilton again proposed giving the federal government the power to raise and distribute funds so that it could pay its soldiers and its debts The idea of erecting our national independence on the ruins of public faith and national honor must be horrid to every mind which retained either 15
