Born in the middle of the eighteenth century as a subject of King George II, James Madison, father of the United States Constitution, lived until 1836, dying as a citizen of Andrew Jackson's republic. For over forty years he played a pivotal role in the creation and defence of a new political order but he also lived long enough to see the system of government he had nurtured threatened by disruptive forces that would ultimately lead to civil war. In this book, Drew McCoy tells the poignant story of Madison's reckoning of his generation's spectacular political achievement.