James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski, Oxford UP '06, $28, 336 pages, ISBN #0-19-518105-0. Index, source notes, no bibliography, b&w images sprinkled through text.
Victory has a thousand fathers, John F. Kennedy is said to have commented, but defeat is an orphan. The Bill of Rights wasn't designed to occupy the iconic role in American government that it now does, so it's understandable that legions want to take credit for its creation. The latest is James Madison, and historian Richard Labunski makes a persuasive case for the Virginian's contribution to that document. His book is part of Oxford University Press's Pivotal Moments in American History series.
A new book has emerged this season arguing that physical height is a frequent predictor of success and effectiveness in life. The author evidently never met 5' 6" James Madison. Labunski has us on the edge of our seats as he dramatizes the battle to ratify the new U.S. Constitution, which many feared would put individual liberties in danger. Madison's home state would be vital in passage of the Constitution, and for three weeks, the future president traded punch for verbal punch with Patrick Henry, an anti-Constitutionalist, in a sweltering Richmond theater debating its merits.
Madison knew that if the Virginia vote failed, New York might reject the document also, in which case the fight would be lost and, with it, George Washington's chance to be president. Only by promising to append a bill of rights to the Constitution as a sop to the anti-federalists could Madison win enough votes to insure victory. Labunski follows Madison trekking through snow and enduring frostbite in the Virginia Piedmont, in a last ditch effort to cobble together a majority. And who says the Founding Fathers are boring?
