Elijah Cummings: “Mr. Speaker, James Madison, a young aristocrat who began his public career in public service at age 23, would become…”

“Mr. Speaker, James Madison, a young aristocrat who began his public career in public service at age 23, would become indelibly linked to three great works of American democracy: the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights. In 1776, Madison was a member of the Virginia constitutional committee, a body that drafted Virginia's first constitution and a bill of rights which later would become a model for the Bill of Rights appended to the United States Constitution. When Madison was elected to the United States House of Representatives, he became the primary author of the first 12 proposed amendments to the Constitution. Ten of these, the Bill of Rights, were adopted. At the Constitutional Convention, which opened on May 25, 1787, Madison set the tone by introducing a document he authored called 'The Virginia Plan.' The plan called for a strong central government consisting of a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary.”