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Fred Carstenson wrote:   
>  
> By the time the Constitution was being written (largely by Madison), 
 
Largely by MADISON?   I don't THINK so.  It came out of committees; 
the person credited with the actual writing of most of it is 
James Wilson of Pennsylvania.  Particularly such crucial components 
as the single president elected by the populace, and the rewording 
of the preface (until the last draft, it read "We the People of 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, ...") 
 
Much of what we KNOW about the Constitutional convention is due to 
Madison's notes, but that does not mean he wrote the document.  
And there are no notes for what went on in the committees. 
 
Madison did  write the Bill of Rights -- under protest, by the way, 
as part of an agreement with his constituents in Virginia who wanted 
it (he did not).  (But he said, if I have to approve of it, I'll 
write it -- there were over 100 proposed amendments that were  
eventually narrowed down to the 10 we are familiar with.) 
 
The deification of Madison began with Charles Beard's discovery that 
Federalist #10 actually mentioned republican politics as a way of 
ameliorating discord -- which was what Beard was looking for with 
regard to his own theses of the needs of democracy -- and is almost  
entirely a creation of the 20th century looking backwards. 
 
Madison was a very intellegent and productive man.  But he did not 
write the Constitution, largely or otherwise. 
 
Mary Schweitzer 
 
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