SPECIAL REPORT - A Tale of Three Presidential Houses: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Virginian, who acted first as an American, lent credibility 6 A TALE OF THREE PRESIDENTIAL HOUSES: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY to the gathering and the momentous task before the delegates. [...] Of utmost importance to Madison was freedom of conscience—America’s “first freedom.” 18 A TALE OF THREE PRESIDENTIAL HOUSES: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dic- tate. [...] The intro- ductory video provides an overview of the exhibits on the property and the significance of Montpelier itself.50 An eight-minute video discusses Mad- ison’s “Big Ideas”: extending the sphere,51 federalism, and protecting the rights of the minority.52 The video also labels Madison a slaveowner and the Constitution as racist, stating that it applied only to white men like himself. [...] The exhibit on the Constitution, located in the cellars of the Father of the Constitution, focuses on slavery rather than on the meaning and significance of the Constitution or Madison’s role in shaping it. [...] as will be able to restore health to any diseased part of the federal body.”72 One power the delegates enshrined in the Constitution was federal authority to abolish the slave trade, a provision that was absent from the Articles of Confederation.73 Unfortunately, the exhibit on the Constitution has the feel of a “gotcha” campaign that attempts to discredit the entire Founding generation because of.