by Kimberly Lerch | Published: May 1, 2026
David B. Mattern’s 1997 book, James Madison’s “Advice to My Country” is a nice, little, readable book of quotes, advice as it were, from our fourth president, James Madison.
According to Wikipedia, James Madison (March 16, 1751(March 5, 1750) – June 28, 1836) was “an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. [Madison] was popularly acclaimed as the “Father of the Constitution” for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bills of Rights. and the Bill of Rights…. Madison helped form the Democratic–Republican Party.”
I am not going to go into Madison’s life; I want to contrast his “advice” to what is currently going on in the country. You can go online and Google him; also, Mattern provides a seven-page introduction to his work, covering Madison’s life.
Agriculture
Madison: “The class of citizens who provide at once their own food… are the best basis of public liberty, and the strongest bulwark of public safety. It follows, that the greater the proportion of this class to the whole society, the more free, the more independent, and the more happy must be the society itself.” (p.12)
Current situation: How tariffs are affecting American farmers– “The Trump administration continues to tell America’s farm community that this is a golden age and that the administration’s tariffs are working. The data tell a different story.”
How the US-Israeli War against Iran is affecting American farmers– “Since the U.S. began bombing Iran, for example, restricted travel through the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted the flow of nitrogen fertilizer, sending the price spiraling upward. And that’s on top of what farmers will spend filling up their fuel tanks.”
America and the World
Madison: “The United States are now furnishing models and lessons to all the world, a great, soon to be the most hopeful portion of it, is receiving them with a happy docility…the eyes of the world being thus on our country, it is put the more on its good behaviour, and under the greater obligation also, to do justice to the Tree of Liberty by an exhibition of the fine fruits we gather from it.” (pp. 13-14)
Current situation: The Pew Research Center produced a report in June 2025 entitled “Views of the United States” where people in 24 countries rated the US according by a various metrics and topics (e.g., age, ideology, gender). They state that, “Overall, roughly half of adults across the countries surveyed view the U.S. favorably. The U.S. receives its most favorable rating from Israel, where 83% see it positively.”
American Politics
Madison: “A Government like ours has so many safety-valves, giving vent to overheated passions, that it carries within itself a relief against the infirmities from which the best of human Institutions can not be exempt.” (p.14)
Current: Situations: “Presidential power across multiple administrations has increased due in large part to Congress’s failure to fulfill its constitutional role…presidential use of impoundment, or the refusal to spend funds appropriated by Congress…represents a different magnitude and something we really haven’t seen before… when norms of cooperation and consultation dissipate, it becomes difficult to figure out what controls will replace them…The power of the purse is really essential to how government operates and to preserving constraints on the executive…traditional norms regarding the Department of Justice’s independence seem to be eroding…concerns about presidential influence on the selection of targets for prosecution or acts such as removing a sitting US attorney to install someone willing to indict a political adversary…the president can refuse to enforce a statute passed by Congress by large majorities and held to be constitutional on challenge by the Supreme Court.”
Appointment Power
Madison: “The appointment to offices is, of all the functions of Republican and perhaps every other form of Government, the most difficult to guard against abuse. Give it to a numerous body, and you at once destroy all responsibility, and create a perpetual source of faction and corruption. Given it to the Executive wholly, and it may be made an engine of improper influence and favoritism.” (p.16)
Current situation: “In the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump placed more non-Senate confirmed political appointees across agencies than any modern president and did so at a historically fast pace.”
“There is widespread dissatisfaction with federal agency performance. For some observers, the problem stems from the large number of appointed positions, many regularly vacant because of political dysfunction and others filled with unqualified political appointees who interfere with career professionals. For others, the insulated nature of the career bureaucracy creates performance problems. Since civil servants cannot be fired easily, they have few incentives to work hard and be responsive to elected officials. Reformers advocate cuts or expansions in the number of political appointees to improve performance.”
Balance of Powers
Madison: “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” (p.18)
Current situation: A current list of Executive Orders as of 4/13/26 and statistics on Trump’s executive orders during his second term.
Federal versus states’ rights with regards to ICE
The executive branch dismantles some independent agenciesl
Corporations
Madison: “There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity of ecclesiastical corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses,” and “Incorporated Companies, with proper limitations and guards, may in particular cases, be useful, but they are at best a necessary evil only. Monopolies and perpetuities are objects of just abhorrence.” (p.35)
Current situation: Attitudes towards deregulation, sector favoritism, corporate pressure/retaliation/political posturing from government.
The Executive
Madison: “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and the most prone to it.” (p.43)
Current situation: The eight wars ended under Trump , effects of attempted strong-arming of allies, and a snapshot of the Iranian War.
Poverty and Government
Madison: “To provide employment for the poor and support for the indigent is among the primary, and at the same time not least difficult cares of the public authority…Some degree of interposition … is at all times and every where called for.” (p.79)
Current situation: Attitudes towards work-focused welfare reform, 2017 Tax Law, safety-net cuts, and economic strategy
For the final two topics, I combine them; they are:
Power and Leadership
Madison: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first, to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” (p.62) “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” (p.79)
Current situation: I have no words.