James Madison's Sagacious, Powerful & Combining Mind

About

Robert Goldwin discusses the extraordinary intellect of James Madison at this symposium celebrating the 250th anniversary of Madison's birth. The story of Madison's leading role in the Constitutional Convention is well known, but the speaker tells the less well-known story of his exploits on behalf of the Constitution subsequent to the Constitutional Convention. Madison was the consummate constitution-maker, outstanding primarily because of his extraordinary combination of theoretical powers and practical political skills. His ability to combine the philosophical and practical aspects of constitution-making and to join seemingly opposing tendencies into a coherent whole, is what made him ultimately so successful, unsurpassed by any of the hundreds of constitution-makers in other nations who have followed in his path in the centuries since. But his unusual powers of analysis did not necessarily smooth the way for him. He often saw problems that he felt compelled to consider but that his fellow politicians could not see. They therefore could not agree with his efforts to resolve what they considered phantom issues.

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress: talks and concerts

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed