American Age:
Book Review
by Mike Mahn

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Title: The Business of May Next

James Madison & The Founding

 Author: William Lee Miller

University Press of Virginia

Notes from first reading: ‘Very insightful – offering revelations as to motives and compromises that’ve been obscured by the brush of (revisionist?) popular history. Good reference source, though tedious and, occasionally, distracting due to the author’s personal lectures. On the whole, though, valuable, and a must read for any student of American history.’

America cannot be understood without knowing the central, pivotal, continuing, and all-encompassing role of the United States Constitution which is the posit of law and anchor of legitimacy, but also the summation of national policy and the clearest reflection of the principles of a people. To know the Constitution, one most know how it was written, and why what was written became part of the text.

It thus becomes essential to know those who did the writing, and to understand the well-springs of thought that they drew upon in this process. If there is a singular text that would serve as a guidebook in this regard, William Lee Miller’s The Business of May Next: James Madison & the Founding, may be that work.         

Madison is considered the ‘father of the Constitution,’ but that is a misleading title, at least in this reviewer’s estimation. There were many significant contributors, including Madison. There is little doubt, however, that among this broad class of champions, they would likely agree that Madison was the most pivotal and instrumental person in the group, not only in developing the text, but in gaining its ratification among the member states of the Confederation that governed after the Revolution.

Miller’s book traces Madison in the years, 1784-1791. He gives insight into the sectional differences, particularly over slavery (a word never mentioned in the Constitution, purposely), and between the larger and smaller states, that resulted in the compromises reflected in the structure of the great charter and the limitations contained on the powers of the respective branches of the new government, as well as the balance of power between the states and the federal government being created.

Slavery was the cancer that was tolerated in order to gain union, yet, ironically, it was known that this was but a temporal fix and that ultimate resolution would be required if the Union were to endure. It is most understandable, reading May Next, why Lincoln would remark, concerning the justification of the War Between the States, that it was necessary to ‘complete the unfinished business of the Constitutional convention,’ or words to that effect.

Madison saw the necessity of a central government strong enough to govern, but resisted including a specific ‘bill of rights’ to protect individual liberties and protect states from federal encroachment, even though he had written such a document for Virginia to protect citizens from state power. He was almost arrogant, and certainly naive, in his belief and insistence that the limitations on federal power contained in the Constitution did not require any special list of protections, such as freedom of the press, the right of the people to peaceably assemble, etc.

Madison then feared calls for a second Constitutional Convention, which could upset the compromises reflected in the original text that was cobbled together after much difficulty. If any changes were allowed, the ratification process would be endless and union would likely fade. Interestingly, Madison would later gain his greatest fame for helping to frame just such a Bill of Rights as he resisted so fiercely in the Constitutional process. 

Madison and proponents of the Constitution, such as Alexander Hamilton, considered the document ‘perfect’ and resisted and refuted claims by contrary voices, such as Patrick Henry, who opposed the Constitution without such a list of specific protections. In hindsight, the opponents have been proven correct, as none foresaw how the embedded power given the Supreme Court could twist and extend the text, nor how the Congress, ever seeking to expand and encroach in all domains, would not be restrained except by such a bill of rights, which would also be subject to predation by the courts and the Congress. 

Yet, though Patrick Henry and many other significant, thoughtful voices of the era were correct in their fears, also proven correct was the diminutive Jimmy Madison and his colleagues, in foreseeing the necessity of union and central power in order to protect the nation (‘life’), to resists the passions of the mob (‘liberty’), and to enhance economic opportunity (‘the pursuit of happiness’). As stated, it is a must read for any person who seeks to be a complete citizen.