ABSTRACT
Contrary to a dominant popular view, the United States did not begin with a blueprint that served as a detailed guide for how the government was to operate. It is somewhat mind-boggling that they were able to anticipate as many of the details of the working of the new republic as they did. This is famously true of determining the proper role and power of the president and of the Supreme Court. It is also true of determining the proper role of religion in the new republic and the proper relationship between religion and government. This chapter on the founders considers James Madison as president, because his tenure as president occurred well into the nineteenth century. As the preceding has hopefully made clear, Madison and Thomas Jefferson agreed theoretically as much as two highly intelligent and independently minded men could at the time about liberty of conscience and the proper relationship between the church and the federal state.
