Father of the Constitution
In 1787, James Madison, represented the state of Virginia during the Continental Convention. He was accompanied by 54 other delegates. As a Federalist, Madison conversed his ideas about wanting to have a strong, central government. Madison also supported the Virginia Plan, proposed by Edmund Randolph. James Madison was the principal author of this plan and believed in three separate branches of government and a two-house legislature. A lot of Madison's views were included in the US Constitution. As copies were sent throughout all states for ratification, his native state, Virginia, and other states were showing some opposition to the document. This led Madison along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to publish pursuasive writings favoring the Constitution called The Federalist papers. These essays seemed to do the trick, causing the required nine states to ratify the Constitution, enabling the document to be legal. Because of all of Madison's contributions to the US Constitution, James Madison is now known as the Father of the Constitution.