James Madison was an American statesman, diplomat, expansionist, philosopher and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817.

He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States. He was also the main force behind the ratification of the Bill of Rights, which enshrines guarantees of personal freedoms and rights within the Constitution.

During the early 1790s, Madison came to oppose the economic program and accompanying centralization of power favored by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party, which was, alongside Hamilton's Federalist Party, one of the nation's first major political parties.

At age twenty-nine, Madison became the youngest member of the Continental Congress, and within a year, the small, soft-spoken, shy young man had emerged as a respected leader of the body.

Other than Abraham Lincoln, who was present at the Battle of Fort Stevens during the Civil War, Madison is the only sitting commander-in-chief to be directly involved in a military engagement. When British forces marched on Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812, the bookish president borrowed a pair of dueling pistols from his treasury secretary and set off for the American lines to help rally his troops.

President James Madison's face appears on the $5,000 bill, and always has since the denomination was first printed in 1918. The Fed and Treasury discontinued the $5,000 bill in 1969, but some are still in circulation. A bill in very good condition went for more than $100,000 at an auction in 2010.

Madison's friendship with Thomas Jefferson is considered one of the most fruitful political partnerships in American history, but he also had a lengthy and often bitter rivalry with the famed "Give me liberty, or give me death" orator Patrick Henry. The two clashed over the separation of church and state while serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, and Henry later became one of the most outspoken leaders of the Anti-Federalist faction that opposed Madison's efforts to ratify the Constitution.

James Madison was an avid chess player and frequently sparred with his friend Thomas Jefferson. In fact, one of Madison's chess sets, a gift from Benjamin Franklin, is still on display at his Montpelier estate.

Seemingly a confirmed bachelor, Madison surprised friends and family alike when, at the age of 43, he married the vivacious widow Dolley Payne Todd. When Madison began his first term as president in 1809, Dolley embraced the role of first lady and helped define its duties by redecorating the White House and hosting the first ever Inaugural Ball.

The couple dated for just four months before their marriage in 1794. James was 43 years old, and Dolley was 26.