James Madison: Father of the Temporal Restoration
Rodney K. Smith
Education Conference ·
June 06, 2009
Rodney K. Smith, president of Southern Virginia University, spoke about James Madison’s unequaled role in the founding and establishment of the United States. Madison’s part in the “temporal restoration” is comparable to Joseph Smith’s role in the spiritual restoration, Smith said.
Considered the father of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Madison was born in Virginia in 1751 and died 85 years later. He was only 5 feet four inches tall and weighed only about 100 pounds, was frail and often had poor health. Those who knew him called him Jimmy.
Smith emphasized the importance of the Constitution by quoting Elder Dallin H. Oaks who said, “The United States Constitution was the first written constitution in the world. It has served Americans well, enhancing freedom and prosperity during the changed conditions of more than two hundred years. Frequently copied, it has become the United States’ most important export.”
Madison, who ultimately served as secretary of state and for two terms as president of the United States attended the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton, where he received a liberal arts education, Smith said.
Though Madison believed strongly in freedom of religion and that the multiplicity of sects helped to stave off the domination of one faith over another, he initially opposed the U.S. Bill of Rights, in part for the way early drafts dealt with religious freedom.
Smith, a former dean of several law schools and a Constitution scholar, recounted a trip he made to a conference Poland in the early 1990s to present a paper on equality. His Polish friends seemed interested only in talking about the rule of law, which helped him better appreciate its importance.
Madison saw the rule of law not only as a means to secure liberty, but also as a method for allowing multiple sects and religious freedom, Smith said.