Every once in awhile, you might hear the false claim that James Madison opposed the use of the Convention of States option in Article V of the Constitution.
That would be strange, considering he voted in favor of it at the constitutional convention in 1787. But the lie persists, so Prof. Rob Natelson, the nation's leading Article V scholar, put it to rest this week in an article originally published at the Article V Info Center.
Here's an excerpt.
Opponents of a convention for proposing amendments frequently cite a passage in a 1788 letter written by James Madison to create the impression that Madison opposed the Article V application and convention process. However, opponents invariably lift the passage out of its context.
It is clear to anyone who reads the entire letter, or the rest of Madison’s correspondence, that he did not oppose the Article V convention process. He opposed only an immediate convention that might try to re-write the entire Constitution before it was even implemented—the kind of convention then being promoted by New York. Madison repeatedly asserted that he would not object to a new convention in a year or two. He wanted political passions to cool, to give Congress a chance to adopt a bill of rights, and to put the government in operation so it would clearer as to the necessary modifications.
As Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson on August 10, 1788: “The delay of a few years will assuage the jealousies which have been artificially created by designing men and will at the same time point out the faults which really call for amendment.”On August 23, 1788, Madison added: "A very Short period of delay would produce the double advantage of diminishing the heat and increasing the light of all parties. A trial for one year will probably suggest more real amendments than all the antecedent speculations of our most sagacious politicians."
Clearly if Madison was willing to consider a convention in a year or so, he would have thought 232 years sufficient!
The truth is, every founder at the convention voted in favor of Article V -- both amendment proposals processes. They knew that one day the federal government might abuse its power, so the states needed a method to propose constitutional amendments without interference from the national government.
That's exactly the situation we find ourselves in today, and if any of the founders were here, they'd ask us why we haven't used the tool they gave us in Article V of the Constitution.
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