America demands bold lines and strong personalities in its public men. It might almost be said that unless a man lends himself to caricature, he will not be included in the company of American political greats. James Madison has accordingly suffered unduly at the hands of American historians, and he has suffered even more in being denied an appropriate place in the affections of the American people. For my own part, I should like to confess that I took for granted the prevailing attitude about Madison, as in every way the junior lieutenant to Jefferson, when I first began my studies of the American philosopher-statesman. It was a genuine experience, then, gradually to come to realize that this gentle and modest man was not the pure scholar who had wandered into politics, there to be given favors of office by the great Republican leader with whom he was closely associated. He was, as I have attempted to demonstrate in a previous work, in every way a full collaborator with Jefferson in forming the Republican party and in developing that Republican ideology which is still unmatched in the modern theory of democracy. He was also the amalgamator of all the essential elements in the Republican tradition, conceived in the broad sense: for he achieved, in his thought and character, a total balance among Jefferson's ideals for the pursuit of happiness, Hamilton's understanding of strategic means, and Adams' realization of the need to check power with power.