James Madison: An overlooked president and environmentalist

 Who are the most important and fascinating presidents in American history? This is a question many may not know how to answer. This topic is one that will produce a great variety of results and opinions yet there seems to be a few names that repeatedly come about as innovators and cultivators of the America we so deeply love today. These men I refer to are the Founding Fathers of the United States of America including George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and the over-looked diamond in the rough, James Madison. It is not unreasonable however as to why James Madison is somewhat in the shadows and glanced over. Madison came to presidency after three of America’s most prominent presidents to this day, attempting to fill shoes of this caliber is a difficult task to achieve, yet one that I believe he achieved with flying colors.

                         

James Madison, although a subtler American president, had his hand in various political reformations and institutions both before his presidency and during, and helped construct the United States while keeping an interest an avid interest in the environment and his beautiful home at Montpelier. The multiplicity of his character astonishes and reminds one of a Jeffersonian type man with an interest for agricultural prosperity along with environmental protection. Madison, a man of the land, would be sure to hold an opinion, either good or bad, of modern society and our treatment of nature and what it gives us. Would he believe we have lost sight of beauty and instead destroy what nature has given us to innovate and build or would Madison see that we have found a new type of beauty in technology and industrial development? In either case what quandary I have found myself in is that since the dawn of human existence, the quality of environment and protection of it has decreased significantly and as time progresses, gets continuously worse. I believe Madison and especially his speech was the first cry for help and the first time a president has externally voiced his opinion, ultimately saving Virginia from collapse.

What Madison is most famous for is his didactic speech in which he described the problems he saw within our society, agriculturally that is. Madison saw what was happening and became disgusted with societies lack of respect for nature. The main topic of concern seemed to be deforestation to provide for greater amounts of livestock. Madison saw it as destructive that we essentially took more from the environment than we gave back and believed this ultimately hurt society and affected us negatively. Issues such as global warming, pollution and oil spills are all things that affect us environmentally today just as deforestation depleted the society in Albemarle and although they are different types of environmental destruction, the one thing they have in common is that humans are involved.    

With his love for agriculture, Madison promoted crop rotation and the horizontal tilling of land, which led to decreased erosion of the land as well as great economic prosperity. Madison also had had an eye for emerging technology and displayed this when he invested in a man named John Stevens, the first American to propose the idea of railroad trade. One of the most important aspects of Madison is realizing that many things he said and did had horticultural meanings behind them. His speech emphasized replacing what we take from the environment through activities such as using manure to fertilize freshly plowed land. To Madison, no tree should be cut down without having another one replanted. With such distaste for lack of respect for the land, it is interesting to wonder what Madison would say about modern environmental problems. We destroy land to build factories, companies, and industries that sustain our nation but at the same time destroy the environment. Our cars emit fumes that destroy the ozone layer while factories consistently pollute both the air and rivers. Madison was not only a man of politics and we can see this because he cared so deeply for the environment and agricultural beauty as a whole.

 Montpelier, Madison's large stately home in Virginia is another prime example of Madison's love for agricultural bliss. He held a special place in his heart for gardens, as did Washington, Jefferson and Adams. His home incorporated natural elements that surrounded the grounds and he purposely built his front porch to face the Blue Ridge mountains and his wheat fields. He wanted his home to have close access to everything, which brings about possibly the biggest issue of Madison's presidency, his slaves. At first glance when you see that his slaves' living quarters were essentially right next to the house one thinks that he deeply cared for his slaves and wanted them to feel like they were close to him not segregated off on his land. At second glance, it appears as though one could play devils advocate and state that Madison built the quarters so close to his house so he could constantly keep watch on his slaves. Either way, it is noted that his slaves were treated far better than slaves of this time, another overlooked quality of James Madison. 

James Madison was in a way a farmer before a president, yet he achieved so much without gaining the recognition the presidents before him received. His agricultural developments were the spark that revolutionized farming methods and still he made time to promote conservation of the environment. I believe James Madison is someone of virtuous character and to place him below the first three presidents of the United States of America is a mistake. Although different, James Madison left a mark on history that everyone should understand. 

Wulf, Andrea. Founding gardeners: the revolutionary generation, nature, and the shaping of the American nation. New York: 2011. Print.

Howsare, Erika. "James Madison, father of environmentalism?." cville. N.p., 11 march 2011. Web. 3 Dec 2013.

Wulf, Andrea. "Gardening as politics: Digging the Founding Gardeners." Los Angeles Times. N.p., 29 Mary 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2013. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/29/opinion/la-oe-wulf-gardens-20110529>.

Clayson, Jane. "America's Founding Gardeners." On Point. N.p., 111 Apr 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2013. <http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/04/18/founding-gardeners>.