Restoring Madison's Home, And His Legacy

President James Madison was born 257 years ago today. And now, after a long period of relative obscurity, a re-birth of interest in his life is well underway. Rita Braver brings the Madison story home:

It is Montpelier, where founding father James Madison, the fourth president of the United States - known in his time as the "Father of the Constitution" - lived with his wife Dolley.

Michael Quinn, president of the Montpelier Foundation, said that George Washington's Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello have focused public attention on those presidents' roles in shaping America. But Madison's house was sold after his death - and removed from public view. In a way, so was Madison

"I think one of the reasons he is not well known is that his home has been lost to America for a century and a half," Quinn said. "It has been a privately owned home until 23 years ago."

In 1984 its owner, Marion duPont Scott, gave it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over eight decades the duPonts had doubled the home's size, turning it into an elegant country estate.

The first step in Montpelier's reconstruction was, in fact, destruction - half the house was torn down, the rest gutted. Then came the hard part: putting the Madison house back together again.

But the folks at Montpelier are not just restoring a presidential home; they are also reviving a presidential legacy.

"He was recognized as the man who made the Constitution come about," Quinn said. "He really brought the creative ideas that made the Constitution succeed."

But, says Quinn, even in his own time Madison's lack of physical presence (he was around five feet four and sickly) could obscure his brilliance.

"He was a slight fellow," Quinn said. "And in fact, one very noted observer said he had never seen so much mind in so little matter."

The Madisons were part of Virginia's landed gentry. James graduated from what is now Princeton, and was elected to the Second Continental Congress and later the new House of Representatives, where he pushed through the enduring safeguards of American civil liberties:

"Madison introduced the Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives," Quinn said, "and it took a great deal of effort on his part to get it passed."

Madison was considered a great writer who even wrote for George Washington.

"When Washington became president, well, he had to deliver the most important inaugural address in history," Quinn said. "Who did he turn to? The man that he thought was the best writer, James Madison. Well, he delivered the speech to Congress, and Congress was duly impressed and decided they had to reply. And who did they turn to write the reply? The new member of Congess, James Madison!

"It doesn't end yet: The president was so taken by Congress's answer, he decided, 'I have to respond!' And he called on Madison."

Also duly impressed was a beautiful Philadelphia widow named Dolley Payne Todd, 17 years younger than Madison.

"Dolley jotted off a note to her closest girlfriend saying, 'I am to be introduced to the great little Madison tonight,'" Quinn said.

They were married in 1794 and soon after, Madison left Congress to take his wife home to Montpelier.

Mark Wegner, who is in charge of the difficult task of restoring the house, showed Braver. the drawing room. "This is the room that you would have been shown into if you'd come to Montpelier as a guest. This is the only room where the Madison-era plaster survives."

Historical accounts told Wegner that James and Dolley hung pictures of their friends in this room, but exactly where? Wegner said 200-year-old nail holes provided the answer:

"They sheared this white coat off and then mapped all of these holes and began to match these holes to the fasteners on surviving Madison paintings. And so they think they know where each of these works of art hung."

A silhouette of the original Madison mantlepiece in this room provided the design for a reproduction.

A lot of the reconstruction involved detective work. "We have a very good paper trail on this house," Wegner said. "But you quickly get to the end of what documents will tell you. So at that point the house itself becomes the star witness."

Inside one old wall, workers were surprised to find a rat's nest with these remarkable items: a small piece of a letter in Madison's handwriting, a scrap of wallpaper from the period, and some red fabric - possibly from curtains or furnishings. Also, a small candle snuffer.

James and Dolley Madison were recalled to Washington when President Jefferson named him Secretary of State.

In 1808 Madison was elected president, and Dolley lit up the White House.

"In some ways I think she really defined what the new American woman of the new American nation was all about," Quinn said. "She really introduced new clothing styles," such as the empire waist dress and turbans for which she was so famous."

But Dolley truly entered this history books during the War of 1812, when the British attacked Washington. She didn't just flee; she took everything she could out of the White House.

"She commandeered wagons, she saved state papers," Quinn said. "What she's most famous for is she finally realized she could not let the British capture the official portrait of George Washington. She saved the portrait from the flames."

Was she maybe more beloved in the country than he was perhaps?

"I think Madison was enormously respected," Quinn said. "I think Dolley was beloved."

After two terms in office, the Madisons returned to Montpelier. Mark Wegner says they added two separate wings to the house, for a good reason: James Madison's mother came to stay.

"Momma was at this end of the house," he said. "Montpelier was kind of a duplex at this time and that was her end of the house, and this was James and Dolley's end of the house."

In the duPonts' era, a photograph showed a hall and a staircase. Yet originally it was a bedroom, where an aging James Madison spent much of his time in later years, and where he died. It has now been restored.

He passed away in 1836. He was 85. Dolley died 13 years later. Both are buried here on the family property. And it's said that at Mrs. Madison's funeral, President Zachary Taylor eulogized her as the country's "first lady" - the first time that title was ever used.

The renovation of this home will remind Americans of how this dynamic couple lived, but not everything is celebratory

Also on the property is a slave cemetery. It raises a troubling aspect of Madison's life: This founding father who loved liberty so much was also a slave holder.

Although he recognized in his writings that slavery had no place in the country he created, Madison could not solve it. He himself was economically dependent on the slaves.

Quinn said that Madison must be looked at in the context of his time, and revered for a legacy that goes far beyond this house sitting on 2,600 acres:

"The greatest gift Madison left this country was the Constitution," he said.

And, as James Madison wrote at Montpelier in 1829, "Tthe happy union of these states is a wonder; their constitution, a miracle; their example, the hope of liberty throughout the world."