T.J. and the Liberties: Jimmy Madison

Thomas Jefferson made his views on religion abundantly clear in his writings. If you're curious and have the time, look up his correspondence with Joseph Priestly, an English scientist credited with "discovering" oxygen, and Unitarian minister. 

James Madison, on the other hand, can be a little harder to pin down. He associated with Jefferson, who could properly be called Madison's mentor, sought Jefferson's advice, acted as a stand-in for Jefferson and succeeded Jefferson in the presidency, in no small part because of Jefferson's support.

He was baptised as an infant in an Anglican church and was married by an Episcopal minister. He seems to have attended church regularly when at home, but was not so faithful while away attending legislative session. As a president, though, he attended worship at a local congregation and with a group that met in the House of Representatives. Some have ascribed political motives or social convention to this attendance. 

He didn't write as much about his beliefs as his friend. As a result you can find descriptions of him from biographers that differ widely. One describes him as a model of orthodoxy and another as being a deist. Another biographer described him as a lay theologian, while yet another called him a man of humble faith, with a "deep personal attachment to some general aspects of Christian belief." Note the use of the word some.

At one point during his college education, he seemed to be leaning toward a life in ministry. By the time he completed college, he had completely set that notion aside.

James Huston, of the Library of Congress, in a monograph titled, James Madison and the Social Utility of Religion: Risks vs. Rewards quotes contemporary accounts to demonstrate the problems with trying to pin Madison down. 

The Reverend Alexander Balmaine, the husband of one of Madison's favorite cousins and the Episcopal priest who officiated at his marriage to Dolly Paine Todd wrote that his opponents said he "... was better suited to the pulpit than to the legislative hall. His religious feeling, however, seems to have been short-lived. His political associations were those of infidel principles, of whom there were many in his day, if they did not actually change his creed, yet subjected him to a general suspicion of it."

The Episcopal Bishop of Virginia, William Meade, wrote of meeting Madison once and described their conversation:

"I was never at Mr. Madison's but once, and then our conversation took such a turn -- though not designed on my part -- as to call forth some expressions and arguments which left the impression on my mind that his creed was not strictly regulated by the Bible."

And an unnamed Bostonian claimed he had a dinner table conversation with Madison in 1815 in which, "He talked of religious sects and parties and was curious to know how the cause of liberal Christianity stood with us, and if the Athanasian creed was well received by our Episcopalians. He pretty distinctly intimated to me his own regard for the Unitarian doctrines."

But he was passionate about religious liberty, in part from having seen Baptist ministers in Virginia being treated poorly for their beliefs, required to register as being a minister of a church other than the state's sanctioned church -- the Anglican/Episcopalian Church. Those who failed to register but held religious services anyway were subject to fines. And everyone had to pay a "general assessment" -- a tax by another name -- for the support of the sanctioned church, which nettled Madison and would eventually put him squarely in the frame of the struggle for religious liberty in Virginia and, later, in the new nation.

Note: I mentioned last time that Sharon is distantly related to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's wife, Dolly, and that this was not intended to be a brag, humble or otherwise, but a jumping off point into their involvement in religious liberty issues. Truth to tell, if your ancestors have any connection to England you may be distantly related to them as well.

Image: James Madison, 1816 portrait by James Vandelryn, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, listed as public domain.