America’s Shortest Founding Father Knew How to Save Our Big, Corrupt Republic

James Madison’s Call for a ‘Defensive Concert’ Against Political Factions and Careerism Resonates Today

One of the many law firms advertising in my part of Florida proclaims on a big billboard: “Size matters.” The crude innuendo is by now old and hackneyed. But America’s tiniest founding father, James Madison, co-author of the highest law in the land, would have agreed. Size matters a lot.

James Madison was 5 feet, 4 inches and slightly built. There’s little evidence to suggest that he was especially preoccupied with his own physical stature, but as “the father of the U.S. Constitution,” Madison was an intellectual giant who thought a …