Excerpt from History of the United States of America, Vol. 3 The little man of quiet, simple manners, who now stood before ten thousand people and read his inaugural address in a scarcely audible tone, had been a. Leading figure in public life for many years, and was by training eminently equipped for the great office. James Madison as a framer of the Constitution had done more than any other man in making that instrument what it is; he had been a leader in Congress under Washington, and had now just completed his eight years as chief in the Cabinet of Jefferson. Cer tainly he knew the inner workings of the government as few could know them. Moreover, next to his retiring chief, Madison was the ablest man in the country, save one, Albert Gallatin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.