The Madisons are big on this campus. There are two cats, for example, that hang out on the Quad and the students have named them . . . yup, Dolley and Jimmy. Images of James Madison are especially prominent: there are two statues, Big Jimmy (on east campus) and Little Jimmy (near my building). There are stylized Jimmy heads on our website, on the doors of official university vehicles, on t-shirts, Powerpoint templates, stationary, posters, and so on.We even had our own first-person interpreter, an undergraduate who dressed the part and delighted the community as she (yes she) walked around campus in tricorn and breeches. Most of these representations, interestingly, portray Madison as the father of the Constitution, a vigorous man in his prime. Dolley is far less visible, but no less beloved. I recently learned that there is an award named for her: students nominate each other for Dolley Leadership Awards in categories like Outstanding Student Organization and Outstanding Program/Event.

I can’t help but wonder, What would the real Dolley and Jimmy think about their special celebrity here? To answer this question, I first have to learn more about the historical Madisons (more than the basics that any decent, self-respecting historian of the United States already knows). Fortunately, there are lots of books and articles on this subject. I’m currently reading Allgor’s A Perfect Union and Brookhiser’s James Madison waits on the shelf. I have also read bits of Founding Gardeners and several other popular works. The first thing I read, however, was Taylor’s A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons. Colleagues who specialize in Madison’s political thought offer additional titles. How, I ask, do we at JMU reconcile the great deeds of this couple with their great shortcomings? How do we present them as role models, which elements of their character do we celebrate, which ones do we ignore and why? The information we present on campus matters because it may be the only interpretation of the famous duo our students ever get.