Buried: Montpelier Estate, Montpelier Station, Virginia
Fourth President - 1809-1817
Born: March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia
Died: June 28, 1836, at Montpelier, Virginia
Age at death: 85
Cause of death: Heart failure
Final words: “Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.”
Admission to Montpelier Estate: $14.00
He was a statesman best known as the “Father of the Constitution.” Yet, had he lived in the modern media age, James Madison might never have become president. Our shortest president at 5’4”, the soft-spoken Madison lacked the qualities of a successful politician. Luckily, his wife Dolley had enough for both of them. Attractive and outgoing, she made the White House the center of the capital’s social circuit. While her husband led America to victory over Britain in the War of 1812, Dolley is remembered for saving George Washington’s portrait from the burning White House.
James and Dolley Madison left the White House in 1817 after his two terms as president. They spent the next nineteen years at Montpelier, their estate in Virginia’s Orange County. Even though he was one of the county’s largest landowners, Madison had little money in retirement; a number of poor crops meant even less to live on. Yet he continued to contribute to the public discourse through debates on the slavery issue and through his involvement with Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. After Jefferson’s death, Madison served as the university’s rector until his own health began to decline.
Dolley Madison’s grave at Montpelier
During the first six months of 1836, James Madison was unable to leave his bedroom, his body plagued by a debilitating case of rheumatism. A neighbor of Jefferson’s in the Virginia piedmont, Madison was treated by the same physician, Dr. Robley Dunglison, who tended to Jefferson in his final days. In his last months, clearly on the verge of death, Madison was told that drugs could prolong his life until the Fourth of July. He refused to try and delay the inevitable and thus did not survive to share the same memorable day of death as Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe.
Madison tried to eat an early breakfast with his family at Montpelier on June 28, 1836, when food lodged in his throat. One of his nieces grew concerned. Madison reassured her: “Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.” He then slumped over and died. He was laid to rest on June 29 in the family plot at Montpelier, an Episcopal priest committing his body to the earth. The funeral was attended by family, friends, and neighbors. More than one hundred slaves looked on as the “Father of the Constitution” was buried.
After James Madison’s death, his widow returned to Washington, where she lived out the rest of her years. She is buried next to her husband at Montpelier.
Touring James Madison’s Tomb at Montpelier
From points north: Take Route 66 West to Route 29 South. At Culpeper, take Route 15 South. Continue on Route 15 to Orange. At Orange, take Route 20 South. Montpelier is located on Route 20 just four miles from the town of Orange.
From points south: Take Interstate 95 North to Route 64 West. From Route 64, take Route 15 North. At Orange, take Route 20 South. Montpelier is located on Route 20 just four miles from the town of Orange.
The Madison Family Cemetery is accessible via the Montpelier parking lot. Follow the marked path to the cemetery.
Montpelier is open daily except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from April through October and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from November through March.
Admission to Montpelier is $14.00 for adults and $7.00 for children ages six to fourteen. Admission for children under six is free.
Note: You can no longer visit the cemetery without taking an official tour. The cemetery gates are only open to tour groups during visitor’s hours.
For additional information
Montpelier
11407 Constitution Highway
Montpelier Station, VA 22957
Phone: (540) 672-2728
www.montpelier.org
“…Madison cherished hopes of freeing his slaves upon his death.”
—Richard Norton Smith
“Take care of me when dead,” Thomas Jefferson wrote James Madison, in February 1826, “and be assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.” Faithful as ever, Madison succeeded his old friend as rector of the infant University of Virginia. Condemning southern nullifiers, he organized his voluminous notes on the Constitutional Convention for posthumous publication and cherished hopes of freeing his slaves upon his death. Madison was forced to abandon these plans as Montpelier sank into debt; idealism fell victim to the plantation economy (in his will, he did make modest provision for the American Colonization Society and its agenda of returning America’s slaves to their African roots.)
The day after his death, the former president was buried in the Madison family plot half a mile south of his mansion. His much loved wife, Dolley, lived on in the nation’s capital until 1849, sending the second telegraph (after Samuel Morse’s immortal “What hath God wrought?”) and being voted an unprecedented honorary seat in the House of Representatives. Her funeral was the largest Washington had ever seen, attended by, among others, “The Presidential Cabinet, The Diplomatic Corps, Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives…and their officers; Judges of the Supreme Court and Courts of the District and their officers; Officers of the Army and Navy; the Mayor and Corporation of Washington”—and a vast assembly of “Citizens and Strangers” come to pay respects to one of America’s great women.
Originally laid to rest in the Congressional Cemetery on Capitol Hill, Dolley was not reunited with her husband until 1858. Today they sleep in the rolling horse country of Orange County.
—RNS