James Madison's First and Second Inaugural Addresses — Full Reading | The Open Book Reads

James Madison's two inaugural addresses, from March 4, 1809 and March 4, 1813, read aloud in full with the text on screen. Few presidents arrived with a longer record in building the government they were about to lead. Madison, often called the Father of the Constitution, had done much of the planning for the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He wrote many of the Federalist essays defending the new plan. In June 1789, as a congressman, he introduced the amendments that became the Bill of Rights. He then served eight years as Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State. He took the oath for the first time on March 4, 1809, in the House chamber of the Capitol. Chief Justice John Marshall gave the oath. It was a cloudy day after rain, and the streets of the small capital were deep in mud. Madison wore a suit made entirely in America, a quiet statement in a year when trade with Europe had become a national crisis. That evening his wife, Dolley Madison, presided over the first inaugural ball, at Long's Hotel. Tickets cost four dollars. The crisis was real. Britain and France were at war, and both were seizing American ships and cargoes. Jefferson had answered with an embargo on foreign trade, which hurt American merchants and farmers badly and was repealed in the last days of his term. Madison's first address is short and careful. He promises "to maintain sincere neutrality toward belligerent nations" and to prefer "amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences" to war. He lists the principles he means to follow at home and pays warm tribute to his predecessor. Four years later the country was at war with Britain. Congress had declared war in June 1812, and the first campaigns had gone badly. On a bright, sunny day in the same House chamber, with a new vice president, Elbridge Gerry, Madison gave a second address that is almost entirely about the war. He argues that it is just and was forced on the country. He describes the government's efforts to fight it humanely, and he condemns the conduct of the enemy. It's a wartime speech, written to steady a nation that was still unsure the war could be won. This video uses the texts as printed in Project Gutenberg's collection of presidential inaugural addresses. It opens with a short introduction written for this edition, and every word appears on screen as it is read, alongside portraits by Gilbert Stuart and other period artwork. Content note: the 1813 address uses harsh wartime language about Native Americans who fought alongside the British. It is read as delivered. Chapters 0:00 Welcome 1:32 James Madison · March 4, 1809: First Inaugural Address 9:53 James Madison · March 4, 1813: Second Inaugural Address 18:34 Thank you for listening ── About this video ── Text: James Madison, First and Second Inaugural Addresses (1809, 1813), from Project Gutenberg eBook 925. Public domain in the United States (a work of the U.S. government, and published before 1931). This channel is not affiliated with or endorsed by Project Gutenberg. Narration: synthetic (text-to-speech) voice. The introduction is original to The Open Book. Images: portraits by Gilbert Stuart and other period artwork, and illustrations created for this edition. Texts read on this channel are in the U.S. public domain and presented for educational and cultural purposes. Subscribe and keep the page turning. Which line stayed with you? Tell us in the comments, along with the book you'd like to hear next. #JamesMadison #InauguralAddress #TheOpenBookReads