At AEI, Jay Cost writes that Madison was effectively the first House majority leader.
To be clear, Madison never held that title in the same way that Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) currently does. The title did not exist when Congress first opened its doors in the spring of 1789. Almost nothing did. Nowadays, a new member of Congress must learn all manner of rules and procedures to be an effective member. There is even a mandatory orientation session they all are supposed to take. But when the House gaveled into session in April 1789 there were no rules beyond those briefly laid out in the Constitution. There was no organization beyond the speaker, whose role was completely undefined in the Constitution. It was into this vacuum stepped Madison.
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Madison rose to the top of the congressional heap thanks to his extensive experience in legislative assemblies, which he had been serving in since 1776, as well as his almost superhuman work ethic. In doing so, he took the lead in three essential projects for the new nation—the impost, the establishment of the State Department, and the Bill of Rights.
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All in all, Madison was the essential man of the first meeting of Congress. Perhaps the best illustration of his influence was George Washington’s inaugural address. The president had his secretary, David Humphreys, write an early draft of it, but unsatisfied with the result, he turned to Madison in February 1789, who was traveling from his home in the Virginia Piedmont to New York City. Madison served as Washington’s ghostwriter, refining the points the president which to make into the polished draft that became part of history. A few months later, the House appointed a select committee to write an official response to the inaugural, with Madison serving as chair. And so it was that communication between the executive and the legislature was essentially Madison corresponding with himself!
Madison’s time as leader of the Federalists in Congress was short lived. The first session of Congress ended in September 1789. When the second session began in January 1790, Alexander Hamilton submitted the Report on Public Credit, the first of several proposals that would transform American public finance and the shape of its politics. Hamilton would become de facto prime minister of the Washington Administration, while Madison would oppose him, in so doing planting the seeds of American partisanship. Madisonian opposition in the House would, in short order, blossom into a broad-based political coalition known at the time as the Republican Party (today referred to as the Democratic-Republican Party). Madison would win election to the second and third Congresses, but retire in 1797 to his Montpelier homestead, returning to government in 1801 as the secretary of state.
The period of Madison’s domination of the House was quite brief, from April to September 1789. But it constitutes one of the most significant accomplishments of his career in government. Not only was he essential in enacting important pieces of legislation, he helped establish the way the House would do business and prove to the nation that Congress could accomplish the tasks the Constitution laid out for it.
