Lecture Date: March 10, 2015
The Davenport & Company Lecture
To reach his lifelong goal of building a self-governing constitutional republic, Madison blended his remarkable talents with those of five key partners. It was Madison who led the drive for the Constitutional Convention and pressed for an effective new government as his patron George Washington lent the effort legitimacy; Madison who wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton to secure the Constitution’s ratification; Madison who joined Thomas Jefferson to found the nation’s first political party and move the nation toward broad democratic principles; Madison, with James Monroe, who guided the new nation through its first war in 1812, and who delivered the reins of the government safely into the last of the Founders. But it was his partnership with Dolley that allowed Madison to conquer his natural reserve and reach the greatest heights. Their partnership was a love story, one that sustained Madison through his political rise, his presidency, and a fruitful retirement.
Lecture Photos
Speaker: David Stewart
David O. Stewart is an award-winning author of several acclaimed histories, including The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, as well as Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy, and American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America. Stewart’s first novel was The Lincoln Deception, from which he drew for his 2014 Great Lives lecture on John Wilkes Booth. His most recent work is Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America. Long a distinguished attorney in Washington D.C., he is also president of the Washington Independent Review of Books, www.wirobooks.com