90% of the time when we think of the Unites States Constitution, or making a “Constitutional Argument”, we are thinking about the Bill of Rights. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, and not the actual body of the Constitution itself. This includes things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, protesting, right to bear arms, trials and treatments by law enforcement, states’ rights, and the press and media. Read that sentence again. If you notice these are often some of our society’s greatest controversies, and yet biggest protections. I can think of no other document than these 10 simply stated amendments that is so controversial on one hand yet carries so much meaning and weight and truly makes this country what it is today on the other. Our 4th President, James Madison, is often known as the “Father of the Constitution”, and rightfully so. But he is also the “Father of the Bill of Rights”, and that is what we will look at in this article.

10 sentences. As you are reading this you just read 10 sentences. Did James Madison at the time he was drafting the Bill of Rights know how big of an impact those 10 sentences would have for centuries to come? I personally do not believe he did, as he was even opposed to amending the Constitution in the beginning. So, let’s take a look how these 10 amendments came about, and the role Madison played in bringing them to fruition.

If you’ll remember, the United States was first governed under the Articles of Confederation until 1787. In 1787 the Philadelphia Convention met to revise the Articles, and ended up drafting a whole new Constitution, and the one we still have to this day. James Madison, then a representative to the convention from the state of Virginia, set out to create a whole new governing system. Therefore, Madison and his ideas about this new government led him to becoming the chief drafter of our Constitution. As was previously mentioned, he initially opposed bill of individual rights, believing the states could protect individual liberties just fine without help from the national government.

Nine states needed to ratify the new Constitution. And some states, mainly Virginia and Massachusetts were holding out unless amendments were included. This amendment vs. non-amendment months long heated debate really started to convince James Madison that the amendments were needed.

With Madison authoring larges parts of the Constitution that was being amended, he was the natural fit to draft a bill of rights. He did so and presented 9 articles which included around 20 amendments to the House of Representatives for their consideration. Madison was extremely fascinated with history and loved studying various governments. He drew inspiration for his bill of rights from the Magna Carta written in 1215 (right to petition and trial by jury), and the 1689 English Bill of Rights (right to bear arms and no cruel and unusual punishment). States also had constitutions, and Madison leaned on his own governing Virginia’s declaration of rights.

12 of his 20 proposed amendments were decided upon for consideration by the House and Senate. The Senate reviewed the proposal, and the house reviewed the proposal. Finally, they both agreed on one bill, comprised of 10 new amendments. They eliminated amendments 1 and 2, and kept 3-12, giving us the 10 that make up the Bill of Rights.

George Washington had 14 copies of the Bill of Rights made. One for Congress and one for each of the 13 states. Pennsylvania’s copy is still missing. North Carolina’s copy was stolen during the Civil War, and later recovered by the FBI in a sting in 2003 (Nicolas Cage was not a suspect this time). The original copy made for Congress currently sits in the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington D.C. It is displayed next to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (and a copy of the previously mentioned Magna Carta sits nearby). Two of our 3 most famous and founding documents, were penned by our 4th President. If you have never visited the Archives, I urge you too. It is awe inspiring to see. (And FREE!)

Many believe that the Constitution itself was heavily favored, and would have come about eventually with or without James Madison. But few disagree that without James Madison, there would be no Bill of Rights. I think evidence to support that is the 13th amendment wasn’t added on until almost a 100 years after the Bill of Rights. And essentially the Bill of Rights weren’t even used to decide any court cases until 150 years after they were adopted. And no amendment was applied to the states until a freedom of speech case in 1925. The right to bear arms wasn’t even incorporated to the states that they can’t limit firearm ownership until 2010. And finally, the 3rd amendment, which states the government can not quarter soldiers in your home, has never been used in the Supreme Court or incorporated.

Madison would go on to have a somewhat rocky Presidency. He was in office during the brutal War of 1812, which many people hold him responsible for not preventing. Even to the point the British burned down the newly built White House. Madison’s fame is most likely overshadowed by his more famous wife Dolley Madison. Who was essentially the first, First Lady, the first person to have bipartisan dinners in the White House, and bravely helped save the iconic portrait of George Washington from the White House as it was burning down around her. It still hangs in the East Room of the White House to this day. She has been featured in a movie, been placed on US currency, and had a war ship named after her in WWII. Things her husband can not claim. (Maybe I’ll do a famous First Ladies segment after this).

Next week we will explore the teaser from the first article. Who was that man who crossed the Delaware as a teenager with George Washington, featured in that famous painting, and became our 5th President? Find out next week!

It’s midafternoon on April 27th, and eight marines have just completed a 500 mile trek through the Middle Eastern desert from Egypt to Derne, Libya. They are being shot at from the windows and rooftops of homes. You might think this scene was from earlier this week, or today even, but it in fact took place 214 years ago in 1805. Thomas Jefferson was President at the time. The eight Marines and their foreign mercenaries would capture the city, and this would be the first time the America flag would be raised on foreign soil.

Thomas Jefferson was very familiar with the Middle East. And the documents he penned 243 years later are still shaping our foreign policy. The Unites States has often been labeled by the belief that countries around the world should have their governments elected by the people. Ultimately this belief was sprung forth from Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy that self-government would come to the entire world. Nowhere else has this mission been on better display than in the Middle East, and that also started with Jefferson.

Jefferson had a relationship with the Arab world from a young age. Early on he purchased a copy of the Qur’an. Not an easy book to come by, translated into English, in the 1700’s. This Qur’an is in fact still in existence, in the Smithsonian. It was most recently brought out earlier this month to use for the swearing in of one of our first two Muslim congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib. He even purchased Arab grammar books and other documents in an effort to teach himself Arabic. There is no doubt Jefferson knew much more about the Arab world and Islam than many of our current legislators.

To set the stage, during the Revolutionary War French ships would protect American merchant ships who were trading in Europe and the Mediterranean. But shortly after the war this treaty of protection went away. This open the doors for pirates from the Barbary States, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and the Sultanate of Morocco (present day Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco) to seize US merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom.

The first American ship, the Betsey, was seized in 1784. Thomas Jefferson, then US Minister to France, sent envoys to Morocco and Algeria to purchase treaties and the sailors freedoms from Algeria. Morocco would go on to sign that treaty in 1786, and thus a Middle Eastern country became the first country to sign a treaty with the United States. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also traveled to London that year to meet with Tripoli’s ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja. When the US paid Algeria the ransom, they also agreed to pay them $1 million a year for 15 years for the safe travels of American ships.

This piracy, capture, and ransom issue would continue all the way until the time Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801. Hijacking and enslavement of US sailors had been happening so frequently in the Mediterranean that some sailors had been prisoners for over a decade. This all came to a crescendo in 1795 when the US secured the release of 115 sailors for $1 million. This at the time was a staggering 1/6 of the entire US budget that year. 3 years later, the government under John Adams with Jefferson as Vice President created the United States Department of the Navy in order to help prevent further attacks and ransoms in the Middle East.

On the day that Jefferson became President, Pasha Yusuf Karamanli, the leader of Tripoli, demanded a huge sum of money from the United States. Jefferson immediately refused. Which led to two months after Jefferson taking office Tripoli declaring war on the United States. This action would begin the Barbary Coast Wars.

Jefferson sent armed American vessels to the area to seize all ships and goods of Tripoli. Many of the US vessels engaged in battles with Tripolitan vessels. In 1803 Tripoli seized one of the armed US frigates, the USS Philadelphia. They took the entire crew as hostages. In 1805 General William Eaton led his small force of 8 Marines, and 500 Arabs and Greeks all the way from Alexandria, Egypt to Derna, Tripoli (Libya). They captured the city, which was the first US victory on foreign soil, and gave the US enough leverage to secure the release of the hostages. This battle and victory would go on to be memorialized forever in the Marine’s Hymn line “to the shores of Tripoli”, describing the Marines first ever victory. A peace treaty was signed by Tripoli two months later. The Navy and Marines would be permanent fixtures in the US Military and government from this point forward.

Here we end the trend of the President’s Vice President succeeding them as President. Especially with Jefferson’s first Vice President Aaron Burr shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton while he was still Vice President. He would spend Jefferson’s second term in exile after fleeing to Europe. Our next President was the father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the only President besides George Washington to actually sign the Constitution. So stay tuned next week to learn more about the President who drafted our Constitution.

On the cold, late, Boston winter evening of March 5th, 1770, British soldiers would fire into a crowd of Boston citizens, killing 5. This event would go on to be known as the Boston Massacre, and was the spring board that helped launch the American Revolutionary War. So, what happened to lead up to this massacre, and how would this event help set in motion John Adams rising to the Presidency? That’s what we will take a look at in this article.

In 1768, two years prior to the incident, the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonies implementing outrageous import taxes on common goods. The people of Massachusetts were greatly affected, as Boston Harbor was the main harbor where imports would come into the country. The citizens created such an unstable environment in the colony, that Great Britain dispatched several regiments of British troops to secure Boston.

The townspeople were most outraged with the custom collectors, who put ends to the smuggling and collected the taxes. British troops were even assigned to guard the Boston Customs House. On March 2nd, 3 days before the Massacre, an off duty British soldier was seeking extra work. He asked a group of local rope makers if they had any work, and one of the rope makers jokingly replied that there was, that he could “Go clean out my outhouse”. A fist fight broke out as a result, and ended with the soldier fleeing, getting more soldiers, and leading to a larger brawl.

On the infamous night of the 5th, one lone guard stood in front of the Customs House. He got into an argument with a young local boy and ended up hitting him and knocking him to the ground with his gun. Several other young people came to the boy’s defense, and after while the crowd had grown to around 100 people. With the lone guard the only soldier protecting the Customs House.

When a group of 25 sailors showed up, led by a half Indian and half black man named Crispus Attucks, the soldier called for reinforcements. The reinforcements showed up, including Private Matthew Killroy who had been involved on behalf of the British in the rope makers brawl three days prior. By this point the crowd had grown to several hundred and had taken up throwing snow balls at the soldiers. Attucks further riled up the crowd, and they began throwing larger items. One item hit a soldier and knocked him down. He got back up, yelled for the soldiers to fire, and shot and killed Crispus Attucks. He would become the first casualty of the Revolutionary War. As more soldiers fired, 4 other citizens would end up being killed. Among the dead included Samuel Gray, a rope maker who was involved in the brawl earlier in the week.

This event instantly led to Paul Revere and Samuel Adams using it as propaganda in print media to spread the message of a revolution. The soldiers were quickly indicted for murder, but they could find no legal counsel. As no one wanted to represent and defend the men who had killed their fellow countrymen. A young lawyer named John Adams entered the scene and chose to put his name on the line to defend the British soldiers. Adams truly believed that everyone deserved the right to a fair trial, which is seen as common practice now, but was not at the time. He knew that the fate and reaction of this trial could determine his career path for better or worse going forward.

What is interesting, is John Adams actually won the case for the British soldiers! The officer was not convicted, because it couldn’t be proven that he ordered his men to fire. And the soldiers were found innocent of murder, as Adams argued they used self-defense. Only two were convicted of manslaughter, and had their sentences reduced to a branding on their thumb.

This case, and how eloquently John Adams presented himself and defended the soldiers, and his new-found notoriety, led to him being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives just three months later. While in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he would be instrumental in authoring the Massachusetts Constitution, which influenced the United States Constitution which we still use today.

Adams would go on to become our nation’s first Vice President and became our nation’s second President on March 4, 1797. Although, he later stated that his defense of the British Soldiers after the Boston Massacre was “one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country”. Coming from a man who helped write the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, that is quite the statement. In regard to the Boston Massacre itself, he would say that “the foundation of American Independence was laid” on March 5th, 1770.

In keeping with the Vice President becoming President theme, next week we will look at John Adams Vice President, and eventual bitter rival, who would reduce John Adams to one term and take over the Presidency as our 3rd President, double the size of the United States, and send the first U.S. troops to fight in the Middle East.

In 1753 the French Military began to seize the territory that is today Ohio, driving out residents and constructing forts. The problem with this Ohio Country is obviously the British claimed it as their territory and were upset the French were driving out their subjects. At this point the British lieutenant governor of Virginia dispatched a young major in the military to serve as an envoy to go meet with the French in Ohio and direct them to leave the territory. That young major was none other than George Washington

When Washington and six other men reached the Ohio Valley, they found that the French had left the region. He and his men proceeded to meet with an Iroquois Indian tribal leader named Tanacharison. Washington secured the Iroquois’s support against the French, and gained Tanacharison and a few of his warriors to serve as guides through the Ohio wilderness.

Tanacharison soon discovered that the French had moved to a new location in what is now eastern Pennsylvania. He urged Washington to send men and help him attack the French’s new location. Washington immediately set out with 40 men to meet up with Tanacharison and attack the French encampment. Washington and his 40 men and Tanacharison and his eight or nine warriors quickly surrounded and attacked the French encampment and the French surrendered. But Tanacharison killed and scalped the wounded French commander Joseph Coulon de Jumonville and proceeded to eat his brains. Only one of the wounded French soldiers ended up not being scalped.

Therefore, this episode where George Washington ordered the first shots led to both the French and British sending vast numbers of troops into the Ohio and Pennsylvania region which led to both parties declaring war. This would become known as the French and Indian War. Washington would be promoted to colonel and commander-in-chief of the British Virginia Regiment. Later the next year the war became a global conflict when it spread to five continents from the American colonies all the way to European powers fighting for territory as far away as India and the Philippines.

Soon the the most well-known portion of George Washington’s story would continue. Washington would eventually become brigadier general. 1758 he retired from the British Virginia Regiment, but learned valuable leadership and battle skills that would serve him well in later years. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses that same year, beginning his political career.

In 1775 the Revolutionary War began. After becoming very frustrated with how the British were mandating new policies and taxes on the colonies, as well as how he was treated in the military, George Washington supported the revolutionaries and the Second Continental Congress nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Continental Army.

His military career would be best known for his crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Day 1776. You’ve all seen the most famous painting of Revolutionary times, and possibly American history in general, but may not have realized it also depicts an at the time18-year-old future president in the boat with George Washington crossing the Delaware. Who was that future president who also crossed the Delaware? Well that’s for a later article…..

The Revolutionary War would end in 1783, and the British recognized the United States as independent later that year. Washington would go on to be unanimously elected President in 1789 (the only unanimously elected president we’ve ever had) and served two terms. As was mentioned in the teasers, Washington was the only President to never live in the White House, as it wasn’t yet built. Also, not working in the White House was President Washington’s Vice President, John Adams. Adams will be the subject of next week’s article, as he would be the one to become our nation’s second President.