Gary Rose is a professor of politics and Scholar in Residence at Sacred Heart University.
As a college instructor for close to five decades, Rose has authored and edited fourteen books about presidential politics, constitutional law and Connecticut government.
His latest is James Madison, Public Servant: A Biography, published by Academica Press.
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with Gary Rose about his book and what attracted him to write a biography of the country’s fourth president.
ROSE: I really felt drawn to James Madison. The more and more I started to read about the history of the Constitution, the more I taught constitutional law, and I felt it was necessary to really spend some time and and learn about him and and in the end, I started compiling all of my notes about him, and then I said, I'm going to write a book, and it's time to really tell the story about this man.
WSHU: What did you learn, telling this story, because I've just read the book, and it's fascinating. As you ended the book, you said, it relates a lot to the political issues we're dealing with right now. What did you learn, I
ROSE: I would say, his tremendous commitment to public service, and that's why you know the title of the book is public servant, and that Madison, he had principles, yet at the same time, what also I learned was how at times, he had to compromise them to get to where he wanted to go and to what he wanted to accomplish.
WSHU: Madison, shortly after graduating, runs for office and loses. And he loses because his opponent was giving away free shots of whiskey.
ROSE: Unfortunately for him, I know when he ran for the Virginia State Legislature, he was up against an opponent who owned a tavern, and that's how that gentleman won the election. And everybody who was supporting him, you know, he was promising them shots of whiskey, and that's how he won. And Madison learned the hard way on
WSHU: So the next time he's running for office, he's running for Congress, and he's running against someone who's a big states' rights person.
ROSE: James Monroe.
WSHU: Yes, James Monroe. He (Madison) runs as a Federalist and supports strong federal power. Now, could you just tell us about that? This is a person that we've noted in history as the father of the Bill of Rights, and he was running against Monroe, who was pushing for the Bill of Rights.
ROSE: Yeah, it was an interesting story there. Madison was not initially in favor of the Bill of Rights. Initially, you know, at the Constitutional Convention, there were those individuals who, like George Mason and others, decided not to vote for the Constitution. Monroe did not vote for the Constitution. Elbridge Gerry did not. Patrick Henry, they weren't all at the convention, but nevertheless, they were opponents of the Constitution because no bill of rights was really a key issue to them. And so Madison, when he does run for Congress, is up against James Monroe, a very strong proponent of the Bill of Rights. And I think he learned very quickly that if I win this election and get a seat in Congress, I will have to support a bill of rights. And so during that campaign, he really outflanked Monroe strategically in the debates they had. But you know, that's another thing too. I should point out that today's debates are very, very, you know, cantankerous and contain a lot of acerbic statements. But notice I mentioned in the book that Madison said the debates were very, very cordial and very collegial, but nevertheless, he was able to defeat Monroe, largely by doing a better job of campaigning for the Bill of Rights, which initially he was opposed to. So again, that's what you asked me what I learned about Madison, I think in many ways, he was also a very practical politician,
WSHU: A very analytical person.
ROSE: Oh, God, he was brilliant. Yeah, that's another thing too, which we haven't mentioned, is that all began with his education, which, you know, I spend time in the book on, you know, studying at the College of New Jersey, which became Princeton, under John Witherspoon, the Reverend Witherspoon, and and all that he was turned on to by Witherspoon. And even before that, in the prep school that he went to, and his private tutor as well, he was, you know, well-versed in Greek philosophy and models of government, Roman history, the Roman Republic, different models of government everywhere, the Netherlands, and so forth. And he spoke different languages. He just really was a very brilliant, and to use your term, analytical, very theoretical, philosophical person,
WSHU: But Gary, what was your takeaway as far as his relationship with the institution of slavery?
ROSE: Yeah, which was a very big issue at that time. I wish I could tell you that. Yes, he had major reservations about it, but quite frankly, he didn't. I think he felt that, at the time, if you were a plantation owner in Virginia and elsewhere, then slaves were a necessity.
WSHU: And he actually went to college with a slave as a servant.
ROSE: Actually, this slave went with him. Yeah, and isn't that amazing to think of that? I wonder what students who were unfamiliar with slavery thought, you know, here's this guy showing up in the College of New Jersey, from Virginia, from a plantation with a slave in tow. James Madison was not opposed to slavery. In fact, at the end, you know, he was chosen president of the Colonization Society to try to send newly freed slaves over to Africa to create Liberia.
WSHU: Well, thank you so much, Gary Rose, for writing this book.
ROSE: Oh yeah, he's the father of the Constitution, and that Constitution has survived. You know, this has not been a perfect country, but what has ultimately prevented this country from undergoing a revolution and an overthrow, as we've seen in European history, is that constitution. And, you know, that's Madison, in a big way, that's Madison.
To celebrate Constitution Day, Dr. Rose will host a talk on his book James Madison, Public Servant: A Biography.
It will be at the Dr. Michelle C. Loris ’70 Forum in the Frank and Marisa Martire Center for the Liberal Arts at Sacred Heart University, 5401 Park Avenue, Fairfield, on Tuesday, September 16, at 7 p.m.
