do. He gained his world, and was wise and virtuous in his
generation according to the vote of a large majority. Whether that
decision still holds good it is not so easy to say; probably it does,
however; for the popular estimate of men often remains unchanged long
after the judgment upon the events which gave them celebrity is
completely reversed. But history, in the long run, weighs with even
scales; and the verdict on Madison's character usually comes with that
pitiful recommendation to mercy from a jury loath to condemn. Admiration
for his great services in the Constitutional Convention and after it,
when its work was presented to the people for their approval, has never
been withheld; upon his official integrity and his high sense of honor
in all his personal relations, except when obligation to party may have
overshadowed it, there rests no cloud; and his intellectual power is
never questioned. One having these recognized qualities, and who for
five and twenty years was generally high in office, must needs be held
in high estimation, especially in a new country where fame, like
everything else, is cheap. Nevertheless, impartial historians, who
venture to believe that nature admits of imperfections in a native of
Virginia, declare their conviction that Mr. Madison either wanted the
strength and courage to resist the influence of those about him, or that
the ambition of the politician was strong enough to overcome any
consideration of principles that might stand in his way.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 14: "I reverence the Constitution," said Fisher Ames in
debate, "and I readily admit that the frequent appeal to that as a
standard proceeds from a respectful attachment to it. So far it is a
source of agreeable reflection. But I feel very different emotions when
I find it almost daily resorted to in questions of little importance.
When by strained and fanciful constructions it is made an instrument of
casuistry, it is to be feared it may lose something in our minds in
point of certainty, and more in point of dignity."]

CHAPTER XIII

FRENCH POLITICS

If any proof were wanting of how completely Madison had gone over to the
opposition, he gave it in the memorable attack upon the secretary of the
treasury in the spring of 1793, within four days of the close of the
second session of the Second Congress. It was hoped by that proceeding
to overwhelm Hamilton with disgrace, and that the President would feel
himself o