Happy birthday to James Madison, who is, pound-for-pound, the most distinguished Founding Father. A driving force behind the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, Madison shepherded the young, fractious United States from confederacy to republic. And to make explicit the new government's commitments to personal liberty, the Virginian authored the Bill of Rights.

Madison's ideal union was a far cry from the reality of modern American governance. He envisioned a self-sufficient federal—or "general"— government, vested with the powers necessary to conduct foreign policy, mediate interstate conflicts, and perform a grab bag of other tasks. The federal government's powers are few and defined, however, and the Framers intended that everyday governing be left to the statehouses.

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