14. Despite being the “Father of the Constitution”, James Madison’s paternal relationship with his adopted stepson, John Payne Todd, was rather complicated
James Madison Jr., the “Father of the Constitution” and fourth President of the United States, governed the fledgling nation from 1809 until 1817, weathering the near-destruction of the American nation in the War of 1812. Marrying for the first time at the age of forty-three, Madison wed Dolley Payne Todd, a twenty-six-year-old widow, on September 15, 1794. Never having children of his own, Madison adopted Dolley’s only surviving son from the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic: John Payne Todd. Born in 1792, Payne suffered the tragedy of losing both his father and older brother on the same day during the deadly outbreak.
Sent by Madison to a Catholic boarding school, Payne proved a difficult youth and unsuited for academic life. Becoming an alcoholic, Payne grew aggressive and malcontent, convicted repeatedly for shooting incidents, sentenced to jail for assaults and disruption of the peace, and sent twice to debtor’s prison. Attempting to be a dutiful father, Madison mortgaged his Montpelier plantation to cover his adopted son’s debts and grant him release. Forced to eventually sell the family home to pay off Payne’s debts, impoverishing his once-wealthy mother, Payne would die less than three years after his mother of typhoid fever.