After the Constitution was written in the summer of 1787 and the Confederation Congress forwarded it to the states, delegates at many of the ratifying conventions became alarmed by the planned transfer of power to the new federal government.  They worried that the states would no longer exist as independent sovereignties and would instead become subservient to a potentially oppressive and unaccountable central government.

By June 1788, enough state conventions had approved the Constitution to launch the new government.  But the bare minimum needed for ratification was not enough.  Virginia, the largest state and politically powerful, and New York, fifth in population but of immense commercial importance, would have to join the union or it was doomed. 

Imagine now what might have been:

After three weeks of passionate and intense debate, Virginia delegates at the ratifying convention in Richmond narrowly rejected the Constitution.  Led by Patrick Henry, George Mason, and other Anti-Federalists, opponents of the Constitution demanded that a second constitutional convention be held immediately to propose amendments to return power to the states where the rights of citizens would be better protected.

Couriers rushed to the New York ratifying convention with the news that Virginia had refused to approve the plan.  That gave opponents of the Constitution the momentum they needed to prevent ratification there. 

Word quickly spread around the country that with Virginia out of the new republic, its most prominent citizen, George Washington, would be ineligible for the presidency.  Because so many people had agreed to the new plan only because Washington would become the first chief executive, support for the Constitution quickly eroded.

Six months later, a chaotic second constitutional convention was held.  Anti-Federalists, who outnumbered supporters of the Constitution at the convention, dominated the proceedings.

The delegates could not decide what to do.  Some tried to limit the convention to considering amendments to alter the structure of government and add protection for individual rights, while others wanted to start fresh with a new Constitution.

Unlike the first convention in Philadelphia where delegates were able to compromise, the members of the second assembly had been instructed by their state legislatures not to negotiate on important issues.  With the convention hopelessly stalemated, the delegates returned home to tell state officials that adding amendments or writing a new plan of government was impossible in the current climate.

With no viable federal government in place, states formed regional alliances and established ties to foreign nations.  Northern states joined together and sided with England.  Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia created a southern confederacy aligned with France.  Citizens in the West banded together and chose Spain as their ally so they were guaranteed access to the Mississippi River.

Instead of a unified, affluent nation, America became a land of regional confederacies, each jealously guarding its independence, endlessly bickering with neighboring states, and threatening to use the military power of its foreign partner.

*     *     *

What stood between this scenario and the nation’s eventual history was a five-foot-four, 100-pound, shy intellectual with a quiet voice, who worried almost constantly about his health and mortality.  James Madison was a most unlikely candidate for this daunting task.  Yet he played an indispensable role at the most important events that shaped the nation’s founding period, including the Constitutional Convention, the Virginia Ratifying Convention, and the First Congress where he worked tirelessly to see the Bill of Rights approved.  Without Madison, those ten amendments, which became the foundation for individual liberty, may not have become part of the Constitution then or perhaps ever. 

This book tells the story of how Madison helped lead the republic at its infancy away from a potentially bleak future toward the democratic society that he knew could exist and that the nation has become today.