Happy Birthday Mr. Madison

David Rubenstein gives $10 million to Montpelier, home of James Madison

Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein announced Saturday that he is giving $10 million to Montpelier, the historic Orange, Va., home of the nation’s fourth president, James Madison.

The donation comes on the heels of Rubenstein’s gifts of $5 million to the White House Visitor Center in September and $12.3 million to Arlington House, the home of Robert E. Lee, in July.

He also paid $7.5 million of the $15 million cost of the repairs to theWashington Monument after the 2011 earthquake.

The Montpelier gift, announced at the site, will fund reconstruction, refurnishing and archaeology at the plantation that Madison’s family occupied with its slaves for several generations.

Montpelier is about 90 miles southwest of Washington. Madison served as president from 1809 to 1817. When he retired, he moved with his wife, Dolley, back to the plantation where he had grown up and where his mother still lived.

David M. Rubenstein, pictured in this file photo, announced Saturday that he is giving $10 million to Montpelier, the historic Orange, Va., home of the nation’s fourth president, James Madison, who also helped write the U.S. Constitution. (Jeffrey MacMillan/Jeffrey MacMillan )

“I do believe that we should learn more about our history, and particularly history relating to the rights and freedoms that this country has,” Rubenstein said in a telephone interview Thursday night.

“James Madison, as a person who lived in Montpelier and was the father of our Constitution, I think making sure that more people know about him is probably a good thing,” he said. “I wanted to try to make Montpelier a more attractive destination.”

“Montpelier, like Monticello and like Mount Vernon, are homes of great American leaders from that era,” he said. “And more and more Americans, I hope, will visit them.”

Monticello was Thomas Jefferson’s home. Mount Vernon was George Washington’s home.

Rubenstein — the billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based global private equity firm — has a passion for U.S. history and has made numerous major history-themed donations in the past.

He said he called Montpelier several months ago and asked whether he could visit. “I came down and looked around,” he said, and was struck by the story of Madison’s diligence, learning and behind-the-scenes work ethic.

“He devoted himself entirely to public service,” Rubenstein said. “He got things done.”

James Madison on the Separation of Church and State

“The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State.”
~James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, quoted from Gene Garman, “Essays In Addition to America’s Real Religion” 

“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
~James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822

“Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.”
~James Madison, letter, 1822

“Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.”
~James Madison; Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical
Endowments

James Madison: Champion of Religious Freedom

On this day in 1785, James Madison wrote "Memorial and Remonstrance," which set out arguments for freedom of religion.

When the American Revolution began, Madison was “under very early and strong impressions in favour of Liberty both Civil & Religious,” as he wrote in an autobiographical sketch. He worked extensively for the freedom of Baptist preachers who had been jailed for dissenting from the established church. “Happily it was not long before the fruits of Independence and of the spirit & principles which led to it, included a complete establishment of the Rights of Conscience,” he wrote, “without any distinction of sects or individuals.”

Madison played an important role in establishing the rights of conscience during the 1776 Virginia Convention. Acutely aware of his youth and inexperience compared to the “distinguished and experienced members of the Convention,” Madison did not join in the debates. He did, however, propose a small but profound change in George Mason’s wording of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Rather than guaranteeing mere religious “toleration,” Madison successfully argued that the Declaration of Rights should be amended to express the right to “free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.” This subtle change recognized that the freedom of conscience was a right that belonged to all citizens, not a privilege that the government could choose to tolerate.

Madison further explained his position on religious liberty in 1785 when a bill before the Virginia legislature called for a general assessment to support Protestant churches. Instead of using the tax for a single state-supported church, the amount collected was to be divided among the churches selected by taxpayers. Madison wrote an anonymous petition entitled Memorial and Remonstrance which provided fifteen arguments against the general assessment bill. Madison emphasized that religion was a matter of individual conviction and could not be directed by the government in any way. He warned that the bill opened the way for majority suppression of minority rights. He believed that religion did not need or benefit from government support, and that government did not need support from religion.  

As a member of Congress, Madison opposed paying military chaplains with public funds, explaining later that “The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.”  While as President he opposed the tradition of government proclamations for days of prayer, fasting, or thanksgiving, Madison compromised by presenting his proclamations as suggestions rather than directives.