ADDRESS.

IF the conductors of the NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, on the completion of the present volume, address their friends and the supporters of the work with more diffidence or less complacency than heretofore, it is not from any consciousness or apprehension of merited rebuke, at the result of their efforts to accomplish all that may have been expected.

The delay which has occurred in the execution of the work, may appear unreasonable to such of their subscribers as are unacquainted with the cause: to such however it is only necessary to state, that the destruction of materials, and consequent interruption of the arrangements for publication, by successive fires, where important branches of the manufacture have been in operation, has been sufficient to occasion the disappointments in regard to a timely issue, from which all concerned have suffered. The conductors can, however, most confidently assure the friends of the work, that no exertions have been spared to remedy the damage referred to; and they indulge the hope, that however late in appearing, the fulfilment of their task will yet be received with a sympathetic welcome from those whom they have constantly laboured to please. They have, indeed, from every section of our extended country, received the most gratifying assurances that their enterprise continues to be regarded by an enlightened people with interest and approbation.

The progress of the work has now been amply sufficient to demonstrate the public estimate of the value of the plan on which it has been conducted; and appears so generally satisfactory as to do away with the necessity of further explanations.

There has, however, one objection been raised, which may perhaps be repeated, relating to the introduction of living characters in a work of National Biography, to which it may not be improper at this time to advert, as there is a degree of interest attaching to this feature of the arrangement which should not be overlooked; and which will not fail to be appreciated by the future historian. Owing to the general circulation of intelligence, and the freedom of discussion, through the medium of the press in this country, the facts which may be given to the public during the lifetime of the individual to whom they relate, are from that circumstance subjected to a severer scrutiny as to their perfect accuracy, than is to be presumed, in general, of posthumous records; and in a retrospective consideration of the selections already made from among the living, in the progress of this work, it may safely be remarked, that few will now be found to regret the circumstance, to question the propriety of the time, or deny the additional interest which the seal of death has attached to the actions that the pages of the National Portrait Gallery have been permitted to record and verify, while the distinguished individuals were yet alive, of a Carroll, a Wirt, a Marshall, a White, a Livingston, a Hosack, or of the illustrious and venerable man whose aged, but still energetic and intelligent, countenance, introduces the present volume.

The value of the materials and the national interest of the subjects which have been received for the work, but which the limits of the parts already published could not include, renders the publication of ́another volume indispensable to the present series.

JAMES HERRING.

JAMES B. LONGACRE.

JAMES MADISON.

JAMES MADISON was born on the 5th of March, 1751, (O. S.) at the dwelling of his maternal grandmother opposite to Port Royal, a town on the south side of the Rappahannock, in Virginia. The house of his parents, James Madison and Nelly Conway, was in Orange county, where he has always resided. In his father's lifetime it was a plain brick building, to which Mr. MADISON added porticoes with extensive colonnades in front and rear, and other improvements. Situated on the west side of the south-west mountain, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, about five and twenty miles from Charlottesville, it is remarkable for the beauty of the scenery and the purity of the air; and likewise that within a short distance of each other, in that region, three presidents of the United States, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, all resided, as closely connected in personal attachment as political faith, who have impressed on the country a large share of the policy and distinction of these United States.

After passing through the usual elementary education, Mr. MADISON was placed, at about twelve years of age, under the tuition of Donald Robertson, a distinguished teacher in that neighborhood, with whom he accomplished the common preparatory studies for a collegiate These studies were further prosecuted under the Reverend Thomas Martin, the parish minister, of the established church of England, who was engaged as private tutor in his father's family.

course.

The climate of Williamsburgh being deemed uncongenial with persons from the mountain region, Mr. MADISON, instead of being put at the college of William and Mary, was sent to that of Princeton, N. J., of which Dr. Wotherspoon was then president; where he completed his college education, and received the degree of bachelor of arts in the autumn of 1771. Mr. MADISON always retained a lively recollection of Dr. Wotherspoon's learning, and often indulged the inclination, which throughout life characterized him, of sprightly narrative

and imitation, by playfully repeating the doctor's curious remarks in a broad Scotch accent. While at college, his health was impaired by over-ardent study: it continued feeble in consequence, during some years after his return home. He had laid the deep foundations of those attainments, habits, and principles, which gradually, but without fail, raised him to after eminence: and when he got home, with ruined health, far from neglecting literary pursuits, he persevered in extensive and systematic reading, somewhat miscellaneous, but not without reference to the profession of the law, although he formed no absolute determination to enter upon the practice; which Burke says, while it sharpens the wits, does not always enlarge the mind. Mr. MADISON studied probably just law enough, but his breeding was altogether that of a statesman; an American statesman, for he never was out of his own country; and though it has often, truly, been said, that he would have made a great chief justice of the United States, yet his studies and acquirements were free from all technical or professional restraint, and his seldom if ever equalled power of reasoning was always exercised on a large scale, and philosophical comprehension of the subject

From nature, from habit, it may be even from the imperfect state of health to which he was reduced at the outset of his career, his was the most passionless course of education and elevation. He never addressed a passion or required a prejudice: but relying on reason alone for every conviction, he effected his purpose without any appeal to prejudices. His political principles do not differ so much from his great predecessor's, Mr. Jefferson, as his manner of imbibing and imparting them. Taking nothing for granted, by intuition, or sympathy, he worked out every result like a problem to be proved. No one was ever more inflexibly attached to the principles of his adoption : but then he always adopted them on earnest consideration and sufficient authority, before he gave them his affections. They were not his natural offspring.

Having received very early and strong impressions in favor of liberty, both civil and religious, he embarked with the prevalent zeal in the American cause at the beginning of the dispute with Great Britain; but his devotion to study, and his impaired health, probably prevented his performing any military service. Devoted to freedom of conscience, he was particularly active in opposing the persecution of the Baptists, then a new sect in Virginia, who were consigned in some instances to jail for violating the law prohibiting preaching by dissenters from the established church. Throughout life he was remarkable for strict adherence to the American doctrine of absolute separation

between civil and religious authority; and one of his vetoes, while president, attested, that in advanced station and age, the principles early taken upon this subject were as dear to him as at first, when he was but a young and gratuitous reformer.

In the spring of 1776, when twenty-five years of age, he was initiated into the public service, from which he rarely afterwards was absent for forty years of constantly rising eminence, till it was all crowned by that spontaneous retirement from the highest station. which is itself the crown of American republicanism. His first election was to the legislature of Virginia, which, in May of that year, anticipated the declaration of independence by unanimously instructing the deputies of that state to propose it.

It is a signal proof of Mr. MADISON's merits, that in this assembly, being surrounded by experienced and distinguished members, he modestly refrained from any active part in its proceedings; and never tried that talent for public debate which afterwards he displayed so eminently. Beyond committee duty and private suggestions, he was unknown in the assembly. At the succeeding county election he was superseded by another competitor. His failure was partly owing to his declining to treat the electors; but in no small degree to the diffidence which restrained him from giving fair play to his faculty of speech, and active participation in public affairs. His refusal to treat, because he held it inconsistent with the purity of elections, may be a lesson to the ambitious, and not unworthy the notice of the temperate. In one of the first steps of his public life, he sacrificed success to that purity, sobriety, and it may be said chastity, of conduct, from which he never swerved. Because, as was imputed, he would not treat, and could not speak, JAMES MADISON lost his election !

But the legislature, in the course of the ensuing session, repaired this popular defection by appointing him member of the council of state, which place he held till 1779, when he was elected a delegate to the congress of the revolution. During the first part of his service in the council, Patrick Henry was governor of the state; and during the latter part of it, Mr. Jefferson. Both these personages experienced and appreciated the importance of Mr. MADISON's assistance, knowledge, and judgment, in a station which did not put his natural modesty to the severe trial of public display. His information, patriotism, perfect probity, and unpretending worth, gained for him the first fruits of his maturing character. He proved himself a safe and serviceable man; recommendations, without which brilliancy is often troublesome, and always useless.