eastern and sunday night at 7:00, the angel of the battlefield and founder of the red cross clara barton operated the missing soldiers office in a washington, d.c. boarding house until 1868. join us as we rediscover the third floor office as it's prepared for renovations, this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3. coming up here on c-span 3, more american history tv. next, a tour of james madison's montpelier mansion. and then an examination of the 1297 magna carta, the first document issued to an english king by subjects seeking liberties. later, a look back at the assassination attempt on president ronald reagan. each week american history tv's american artifacts takes viewers behind the scenes at archives, museums, and historic sites. the 2600 acre estate of

montpelier was once home to the nation's fourth president, james madison and his wife dolley. it lies about 90 miles south of the nation's capital in orange county, virginia. the national trust for historic preservation owns the property that is managed by the nonprofit montpelier foundation. american history tv visited the site for a tour with the foundation's president, michael quinn. >> welcome to the home of james and dolley madison. this house really tells madison's entire life story, and the house as it appears now reflects his vision for his life-long home. the core of the house was actually built by his father, and madison moved in when he was only about 14 years old. in fact, later in life, he talks about walking from the old farmhouse over here, carrying some of the lighter furniture. but if you look at the house now, you can actually pick out the original core built by his father. if you look at the doorway on

the far left, just to the right of it, you'll see a line in the brick where the brick was stitched together. that's the original corner of the house built by madison's father. and the house stood like this for 30 years. and then james married the love of his life, dolley madison. and after four years as a member of congress, he decided to retire from congressional service and come home to montpelier. at that point, he extended the main block of the house about 30 feet. and he added this second door over here. and two windows, and he also added the portico. in fact, the portico was an essential part. it wasn't just an aesthetic element. it was an essential part of the functioning of the house, because there was no interior hallway connecting these two houses on the first floor.

so james and dolley lived on the left side. his parents and their other children lived on the right side. and the way the two households called on each other was via the front doors in the shelter of the portico. now the house remained in this configuration only for about ten years, and then madison was elected president of the united states. and with that then huge salary of $25,000 a year, he embarked on another renovation and expansion campaign of his home. he added the one-story wings on either side. by the wing on this side, he create his private library. the wing on the other side he really designed as a private apartment for his mother. his father had passed away by this time. and then he added the door, designed with the help of his good friend thomas jefferson as the real centerpiece welcoming you in to montpelier. so this home as it now stands

really reflects james madison's vision for his home, and it also tells his entire life story, from the youth to his marriage to his ascension to the position of president of the united states of america. so let's go in and learn about james and dolley. madison would have welcomed you into this room he created in that last remodeling. his drawing room. and it really was where every member of the public was welcomed. with virginia hospitality and madison's famed for his statesmanship in creating the nation, he was visited constantly -- foreign visitors, rising politicians in america, andrew jackson came at one point, and also just the merely curious. well, they all would have been welcomed, and they would have been welcomed in this room.

and madison really created this room to make a powerful impression. visitor after visitor talked about the presidential splendor of this room, and really did reflect his entire career as a statesman, as a virginia planter, as a force in the creation of the american nation. they also talked about it as a real history lesson. and madison intended it that way, because for madison, the history of humanity was really his laboratory. and he had studied past attempts at self-government. so he knew that what america was today was founded on the past. and this room tells you that history. in fact, the picture over here, kind of shocking i'm sure for many of his visitors, but in fact that's a pan figure and a nymph. so this is alluding to ancient -- the ancient world, to ancient greece, to rome, the

birthplace of democracy, the foundation of the philosophy and ideas on which the american constitution was based. across from this painting is a huge depiction of the suffer at amaos. for madison, that talk about the next epoch in history. and finally the third told on this wall, the presidents of the united states. and of course he focuses on the presidents because it also emphasizes one of the great inventions of the american constitution, which is the peaceful transfer of power from leader to leader. now he has followed a very typical standard depiction of the presidents. george washington, of course, is hung the highest. and below him should be the next three presidents. john adams, the second, thomas jefferson, the third. but where his picture should be

hung as the fourth president, madison hangs the picture of the fifth president, james monroe. and visitors note that. why doesn't he put his own portrait here? and then as they look around the room, they discover that madison has hung his own portrait as one visitor said, in the corner behind the door showing his modesty, but he has also hung his portrait next to his beloved dolley. so, again, he is telling you an awful lot about himself, the importance of dolley in his life. over this thomas jefferson, his best friend, and next to it a picture of mary magdalen. i thought he long hung it next to jefferson to poke a little

fun at his friend. you also see other features that impress visitors. the bust, these are notable people of american history from george washington to the marquis d 'lafayette. they served tea here. they welcomed their guests. they had many visitors. while every visitor had access to this room and would be welcomed by madison or dolley or another member of the family, madison also used this room to control all of that public interest and to give himself some privacy. because unless you knew him or had a letter of introduction, you really wouldn't see any more of the house than this room you. would be welcomed here very graciously. you might be served some punch, and then you would be on your way. so you only went beyond this room into the other rooms of the house if you were a member of the family or a friend. now let's go into the south side

of the house, which was the private apartments of madison's mother. we pass through the original entry hall of the house, and you really understand how this functioned. this big wide space with doors at either side. you would throw them open for a cooling cross-breeze in the summer. but this is also where people would have carried out activities. but this is the older part of the house. in this room over here, it later became mother madison's room. however, and visitors to mother madison said they would find her often sitting on the sofa with her knitting and her prayer book. she lived to be 98 years old, and she was only 20 when madison was born. so she was always a part of the madison household. now an important aspect of this house is that it is the home in which madison moved at a young age.

and, in fact, in this exhibit, we're showing you that move. madison is shown on the left, and a young slave by the name of sonny born almost the same time as madison is helping him move. sonny remained at montpelier his entire life. and in fact he accompanied madison when he was sent to college at princeton. while at this point in their lives there are many similarities, as they aged, their life experiences were much, much different. and of course it could be no other way given the reality of slavery in america at the time. now madison's parents realized his incredible ability. ultimately they sent him to princeton, then called the college of new jersey. but prior to that they really prepared him. they placed him with a private tutor by the name of donald robertson. and madison studied with him for five years.

he was a scotsman. he was from edinburgh and part of the scottish enlightenment, a presbyterian minister. later in life, madison was to write everything i became i owe to that man. it really was the rigorous training and the inspiration by an amazing teacher that prepared madison to take on such a strong role in building the american nation. we're going to go over to the dining room now and take a look at how james and dolley entertained their guests. we're now entering the madisons' dining room. and this is in the part of the house that madison added with his marriage to dolley. so this is his first expansion of the home. and madison and dolley entertained constantly, and they brought to montpelier the style

of entertaining that they had first developed during madison's presidency at the white house. in fact, we created a table with ghosts of the famous visitors who came calling, from andrew jackson here to the marquis delafayette, jefferson, james monroe. what really starts bringing the room together is the wall party. we know from the research that james and dolley strongly preferred french influence in decor and in their style. and this paper is a replica of one made by a frenchman who had relocated to philadelphia and was introducing french-inspired papers to america. we know the madisons ordered wallpaper from him. and this is a replica of one of the ones he produced at that time. it creates the feeling of a tent in this room. really makes the corners kind of

dissolve away and creates a very intimate and spacious feel for his guests. but the thing every visitor noted about this was madison was not seated at the head of the table. he seated himself on the side of the table. and it was his wife dolley who stood at the head, who seated. and that meant she was really running the dinner. she was calling for the service, pouring the soup, asking the servants to pour the wine and conducting the conversation. they really developed this form of entertaining while madison was president. and it shocked visitors at first. that was not the role a woman took on in a household. that was the man's role. but dolley was so good at it that everyone fell in love with it. and they all realized that madison was so busy with the weighty affairs of government that he couldn't be bothered with who sat where or the course of the conversation. and it really tells you a lot

about the relationship between james and dolley. they were very complimentary. she was 17 years younger. and even though she was raised a quaker, it turns out she had an incredible flare for putting people at ease, for really knowing them as people and caring for them. and she loved the lime night. between the two of them, madison gave that role to her while he continued to focus on the weighty work of government and politics. from this room, we're going to go into the adjoining room, which is madison's library. we're entering madison's library. and for madison, this is one of the most important rooms in this house. in fact, he added this on to the house when he became president, and he created a very spacious place to hold his books and to provide the area he wanted to work.

as this room was being built, we have a letter from his builder, james dinsmore. and he says if i put a window next to the fireplace, it will give you a view of the temple you plan to build as well. he went on the assure him there will still be plenty of spaces for the bookshelves for all of your books. so we know that madison okayed the idea because the window is there. madison really used this area in the years after his presidency because he set for himself an amazing project, which is to create an archive of the united states constitutional convention. and as you look around, you see some of the work, some of the thought he put into that. he had taken very careful notes at the constitutional convention, and he went back over those notes. he expanded them and wrote them out carefully. he added annotation. in one or two cases, he also went to other delegates, wrote

to other delegates or their families asking if they still had a copy of the speech that was given at the convention. by the end of his life, madison had put together a thorough record of the constitutional conversation. it filled almost a thousand pages. and for him, this was an important part of the legacy of the founding of america. because when he had been preparing for that convention, he had carried out a great deal of research to find out how other attempts at self government, at confederations had been created, and what was the intentions of those creators and had come up blank. there were no records. so madison wrote a little introduction to this, and he described his goal as providing a record for those who in other places or at a later time might be striving for liberty, could learn from the example, the decisions, and the debates of

the american founders. so you had a real sense of history and a sense of legacy. it also tells you that he still wasn't entirely certain about the outcome of the constitution. even at the end of his life, although it had been in effect for 40 some years, he did not know it would survive. this library also tells you a lot about madison's intellectual life. it's filled with globes, maps. he followed current events. he subscribed to newspapers. he welcomed visitors to discuss political issues before the nation. he weighed in on topics such as nullification and succession by writing the equivalent of editorials that were published in the paper. these books are the identical edition of books in the same titles that madison owned, and many of them actually may be madison's. sadly, his library, which

totaled 4,000 volumes by the end of his life was lost after his death. in his will he had provided that h his library should go to the university of virginia, but unfortunately the estate, montpelier estate, dolley placed it in the hands of her son from her first marriage, and he seems never to have carried out that provision of the will. from here we're going to go into a nearby room. this room became james madison's study at the end of his life. it's very close to his library, and therefore he didn't have to move very far. in his old age, and he lived to be 85, he suffered terribly from arthritis. so even walking was difficult, and his hands became crippled. in this room, we show a bust made of madison when he had just passed 80 years of age. this copy of the original is actually made from a life mask. in other words, the plaster was

put on his face to really capture the structure of his face, the lines and the sense of time that has passed. he was the last surviving member of the constitutional convention. he died on june 28th, 1836 at the age of 85. and he died in this room. we have an account of his death that actually is provided by a man, paul jennings, who is a slave, a personal assistant to madison in his final years. >> i was always with mr. madison until he died and shake him every other day for 16 years. before his death he was unable to walk and spent most of his time on the couch. but his mind was bright. and with his numerous visitors, he talked with as much animation and strength of voice as ever i heard him in his best days. i was present when he died. that morning suki brought in his

breakfast as usual. he could not swallow. his niece, mrs. willow said "what is the matter, mr. james. nothing more than a change of mind, my dear. his head dropped. and he ceased breathing. as quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out. >> after his death, as madison's family and executors want through his papers they found something he had written, he titled it "advice to my country. "and he intended for tigit to remain private until after he died. but it contained what he thought was the most important words he could convey to his fellow americans. and he wrote -- "the advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the union of the states be cherished and perpetuated. like the open enemy of it be regarded as a pandora with her box open and the disguised one

as the serpent creeping with deadly wiles in paradise." it tells you so much. first, his long careful study of the american nation told him the most important thing was to keep the union together. but we also see his deep training and, and understanding, as he refers both to the classical world with reference to pandochra and biblical world with reference to the serpent and the garden. we are going to go upstairs and take a look at the bedrooms and what used to be madison's library. now interestingly enough. james and dolly never had any children. yet this house was always filled with children and family members. madison came from a large family. in fact, on his 50th birthday, he noted he had 50 nieces and nephews. most of them lived in this area. they were constantly visiting.

and all the bedrooms on the second floor would have been filled. this upstairs room was james and dolly's private bedroom. one of the more elegant rooms on this floor of the house. we're in the process of furnishing this room. the bed you see here has come to us, from a family member, collateral descendant, of james madison, with a strong family tradition of having been their bed here at montpellier. you can see we have still not yet begun to furnish this and dress this, as it would have been when the madisons were here. the sofa is made by a washington, d.c. furniture maker, william worthington. we know from surviving records that james and dolly purchased a sofa from this furniture maker. this gorgeous mantle here, that, madison installed later, and it really has touches that -- also show the feminine side of

dolly's presence here. but this was one of the best rooms in the house. and the reason for it is the spectacular view out the windows, of the blue ridge and the amount of light that filled this room. in fact, ten years later, when madison put the one-story wings on the mansion, he created the roofs of those as flat decks. and he did that so that some of his bedrooms would have their own private terrace. it is a glorious space. one of his visitors even wrote. i have the best bedroom in the house. i have my own private porch. this is what he meant. a police to catch some fresh air, to have a spectacular view of the blue ridge mountains. the next room we are going to see is the old library. it's just across the hall. and this is where the books were stored until madison put the 1810 addition on the home.

we are now entering the old part of the house. and one door madison did put down when he first added that addition, when he came home with dolly, was this one. and he did it because, this was the library of the house. and madison wanted access to his books. in fact, madison came home in 1786. the year before the constitutional convention. and his family said he barely emerged from this room except to eat. because madison devoted himself to a study of human history. when he went to the constitutional convention, he wasn't any more patriotic than the others, but he was more prepared. madison studied every attempt at self government, at confederation, that he could find in human history. and from that study -- he really -- discovered a record of failure. again and again. democracies, republics,

confederations had fallen apart and failed. but from all of those failures, madison gained some new insights. one of his most powerful is he concluded, that standard belief that it will work best in a city state like athens is completely wrong. what his research told him in that kind of environment, yes, everyone may know each other, but it's very easy for a single individual a charismatic individual to gain power. or for a faction, those who own land, those who don't own land, to gain power. and the first thing they do is pass laws that oppress everyone else. it did not lead to freedom. madison concluded that a -- a great protection of liberty is to create a large country. there are so many factions, so many interest groups, so many people vying for leadership, that no single one would be able to gain control.

so, from study he concluded that america needed to be knit together. the 13 states needed to be knit together as a single nation, a true union. the way to achieve that, he concluded was for the new constitution to be ratified not by the state legislatures, but to be ratified by the people of america. and thus our constitution begins with the word "we the people of the united states." if you look at this wall, you learn much more about madison's insights and thinking. one of the delegates of the constitutional convention said, what makes him great he is not only a philosopher, but a politician. what that meant is that madison knew his stuff, he also knew human nature. after all, he had spent the previous ten years in american politics. working at the virginia general assembly, working in the confederation congress. he knew that people would never

be better than they really are. so other thoughts he brought to framing our new constitution is make people's ambition counter other ambition. therefore, he pro pose eposed separation of ideas. these ideas he knit together in two research papers he wrote in this very room. one titled vices of the political system of the united states. the other, an examination of ancient confederaciesch they sc. his road map he used guiding discussions of the constitutional convention. in fact when madison got there. he arrived early. the rest of the virginia delegation soon arrived. and he caucused with them and he put together a plan of action. and he persuaded the governor of virginia, one of the delegates to introduce it in the opening days. it was dubbed the virginia plan. what madison pro posed was really the framework of our

constitution. it incorporated his ideas, his understanding, of self governance, as a means to achieve liberty, and thus he was accorded the title father of the constitution in his own lifetime. but it was really in this room -- that madison brought these ideas together. it is in this room, the old library of montpellier where madison thought more deeply and with more e affect but government than any individual in history. we are going to exit the house by the rear door. and see the back porch that james and dolly created they also created this large lawn, you see, and this really was -- an extension of the house. their visitors, that talk about barbecue parties, that dolly organized where 100 would come. in fact dolly wrote she was more comfortable entertaining 100

here at montpellier than 20 in the white house. you also meet here the lord and lady of the manor, dolly and james madison. this statue was created life size. we challenged the sculpture to create not just the likeness of james and dolly but the relationship between them. here you see madison reading. he was always, had his head una book. dolly approaches and the madisons immediate reaction is to share one of the item he's just read. it shows a sense of affection but it also shows the intellectual relationship between them. if you want to learn about james madison, the father of the constitution, and his wife dolly, who inspired the title first lady, there is no place to come but mont pellier, in orange, virginia. four square miles of land. many features, attracti