Madison and the Environment

The first four presidents of our great nation set the foundation for America. As Wulf begins chapter 9, I felt as though she was in a way combining these first four presidencies to give readers a glimpse of the beauty they each created. The America they strived so hard to create took years of time and dedication but what stood out to me was Madison’s presidency, and the year 1818. Madison based his ideals upon agriculture and felt this was the way to become a strong and prosperous nation. He was a farmer amongst farmers and displayed his passion for agriculture in various ways, making him the man for the job in Albemarle, Virginia. You cannot describe Madison without including the environment, as he was a huge advocate of protecting it.

What Madison is most famous for is his didactic speech in which he described the problems he saw within our society, agriculturally that is. To Madison, protecting the environment was of serious importance and to me he seems simply 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. It is astonishing that environmental problems stemmed this far back and after reading this chapter it makes me wonder if the environment has been deteriorating over time because of our actions as human beings. 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. I believe Madison’s speech was a cry for help to save the environment and its resources, just as people have cried for help today to help stop hurting the environment.

 

Other things stood out to me about Madison’s presidency such as his treatment of his slaves. Clearly this was a time period in which slavery was eminent, but Madison chose to treat his slaves as though they were more than just property. Madison’s slaves lived better than almost any other slave, displaying his ability to think with both his mind and his heart. He was also a huge promoter of crop rotation and discovered methods of farming that prevented erosion, ultimately saving Virginia from collapse.