Thomas Jefferson’s second term did not go as well as his first term. That would become a trend that a lot of future POTUS would suffer from. Hostilities between France and Great Britain heated up again and Jefferson g0t C0ngress to go along with the Embargo Act, which barred Americans from trading with not only Great Britain and France but all of Europe. This was very controversial and it really hurt New England merchants. The Embargo Act would be the big issue in the 1808 election.

POTUS Thomas Jefferson like George Washington had enough of it by the end of his second term and said he was going home ‘to his family, his books and his farms.” He did recommend his Secretary of State James Madison to be the Democratic-Republican candidate for POTUS. In the early part of American history the job of Secretary of State grew to be viewed as the stepping stone to the presidency. {Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Quincy Adams were all Secretary of States} James Madison, like Washington and Jefferson was from the state of Virginia.

James Madison was one of the Founding Fathers, he wrote the U.S. Constitution. He was quite possibly the best mind of that generation. The Congressional Caucus got together and nominated James Madison to be the Democratic-Republican Candidate over Vice-President George Clinton and James Monroe. The Federalists went with former Vice Daddy and their 1804 candidate that had his clock cleaned by Jefferson- Charles Pinckney.

James Madison didn’t come without his problems. He was hardly impressive to look at. He was 5 foot 4 inches tall, weighted less than 100 pounds. His nickname was Little Jemmy. He had a number of health problems and didn’t like to make eye contact. He wasn’t a very fun guy. Luckily he had a wife that made up for this, Dolley Madison.

The Democratic- Republicans would nominate the the current Vice-President George Clinton as Madison’s running mate. The Federalists would nominate Rufus King as Pinckney’s running mate.

Although people in the country were fired up over the Embargo Act, Jefferson was still a popular president and the idea of James Madison as his successor went over well with most people. Charles Pinckney would do better in this election as far as gaining more electoral votes but it still wasn’t very close. Pinckney did great in New England but poorly in the south. The final total with James Madison being elected the 4th POTUS was -Madison 122, Pinckney 47, George Clinton 6. [below is George Clinton}

George Clinton would remain as Vice-Daddy. This would be the first of only 2 times that a sitting Vice-President was selected to stay in the office while another man took over the Presidency. The other time was in 1828 with John Calhoun. George Clinton had designs on the White House and he had some support with the Democratic-Republicans who weren’t all that hot on Little Jemmy Madison.