Who educated this founding father?

James Madison’s character was greatly influenced by his tutor, Reverend Thomas Martin, a Princetonian who lived with the family after becoming their pastor at “the Brick Church,” St. Thomas parish. In 1769, Madison enrolled in the College of New-Jersey at Princeton, studying under the great patriot, Rev. John Witherspoon, D.D., President of the college, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He mastered the writings of the Great Revival in Scotland, of which Rev. Witherspoon had been a leader, and was instructed by his sermons. Rev. Witherspoon told Thomas Jefferson “that in the whole career of Mr. Madison at Princeton, he had never known him to do or say any indiscreet thing.” Madison was trained to be a minister and preacher of the Gospel. However he took up the call to serve his country during the American Revolution.¹ He is rightly called “the father of the United States Constitution,” as he played a key role in its framing.

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¹

Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University Archives, File #54-1771, Princeton: New Jersey, pp. 1-2.