James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Liberty & Learning - Index

liberty & learning
sive library that consisted of more than sixty volumes, which he freely circulated
among his students. 14 For the young James Madison, Robertson’s school provided
an opportunity to read and explore books that had been unavailable to him on the
Virginia frontier. As historian Douglass Adair notes, “Here, in the Scotch classicist’s
[Robertson’s] library, the first of any scope to which young Madison had
access, he began to discover for himself the resources hidden in books.” 15
It was also at Robertson’s school that Madison was seriously exposed to the exciting
and radical ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment. He studied some of the era’s
greatest political philosophers, including Montesquieu and Locke. In addition, he
read Horace, Virgil, Plato, Thucydides, Tacitus, Milton, and Justinian while studying
a variety of subjects, including French, Greek, Latin, Algebra, grammar, composition,
history, geometry, and literature. 16 These early years away from home helped
Madison discover for himself a love of learning, and he began to develop the skills
that would make him a lifelong scholar. Historian David Mays claims, “The quality
of Robertson’s instruction was so high that his pupils were to have enormous influence
in shaping the history of Virginia and the United States.” 17 Well after Madison
had retired, he had the occasion to reflect upon his long career and readily acknowledged,
“All that I have been in my life, I owe largely to this man.” 18
When Madison returned to the Montpelier plantation in 1767, he met Thomas
Martin, the new pastor of the Brick Church in Orange. In addition to his clerical
duties, Martin had been engaged by the senior Madison to serve as a tutor for
his children as well as to assist James in preparing for college admittance. Martin
was a recent graduate of the College of New Jersey, and he urged Madison to
consider attending classes there despite the fact that very few Southerners ever
ventured north for schooling. Virtually all sons of the Virginia gentry who even
attempted higher education preferred the more predictable and comfortable confines
of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. 19
William and Mary was hardly known for its high academic standards. Many
viewed it as a finishing school for the Virginia elite, a place to have a brief respite
before returning to plantation society and life as a tobacco farmer. 20 The students
and faculty of the college were widely known to enjoy horse racing, gaming,
cockfighting, and other frivolities and were frequent patrons of the many
taverns located along Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg. Philip Fithian,
a graduate of the College of New Jersey who served briefly as a tutor at Nomini
Hall in Westmoreland County, wrote of a discussion he had with his employer,
Robert Carter. Fithian said,
16