The man known as “The Father of the Constitution”, James Madison, was huge in history, but he was small on the scene. His friends said he “was not much bigger than a half a bar of soap!” He said he was “about 5’6” while others have described him as 5’2” or thereabouts.

But all admit he was a scholar. Madison has been hailed as the prime creator of the U.S. Constitution, but he rejected such praise, saying: “You give me credit to which I have no claim, calling me THE writer of the Constitution of the U. S. This was not like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and hands.”

I think Thomas Jefferson explained his friend Madison the best when he said: Madison “ acquired a habit of self-possession, which placed at ready command the rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, and of his extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly afterwards, of which he became a member. Never wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely, in language pure, classical and copious, soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great National Convention of 1787.” (Founding Fathers—Uncommon Heroes”, by Steven W. Allen, page 195-6).