Analysis of Property by James Madison

The ideal of property by James Madison is stated as “A man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.” (Madison, Lines 16-17) Property by James Madison goes through his structure that a nation should have laws for free speech and religion, using the word property as the definer, while a government should only maintain enough control to support and protect the nation's freedoms. With his ideals of free speech and religion, it will encourage the ideals of communication and knowledge between people as stated with “a man has property in his opinions and the free communication of them.” (Madison, Lines 9-10) The United States history foundation is very dependent on bills like these as Madison's purpose in the document is to enforce the importance of one's properties; Not just the physical ones but the importance of free speech, religion, assemblies, and many more. Looking into the history of this article property was written for the National Gazette as a newspaper article, being a public newspaper in the colonies the purpose was to let all citizens read this incredible document and understand the importance of free speech and how to continue ideals of freedom and education. Property is given the importance it deserves as that same year it was started in 1791, James Madison had written the first amendment being “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” This amendment and Property had to impact the American government into a movement of free speech so it was written entirely to educate the United States citizens of their freedoms and intellectual capabilities. Unfortunately, this article does not have the relevance of articles like the Bill of Rights; I believe without Property and James Madison’s thoughts in this article America would not have the ideas and strength of the first amendment in its history. Property’s direct impact on the history of America was that without Property you would have seen an America without the current day freedoms. Although James Madison had ratified the first amendment with the Bill of Rights, it was very essential for early American thinkers to draft smaller articles such as Property to stress the importance of freedoms in American history. However, the underlying point I see in this essay is what defines a person’s property when a paper of rights is put into an early slave-dependent colonial system. Given the same thoughts, slaves had questioned the meaning of “all men are created equal.” from the constitution as spoken in class so with that I question that this document is an early viewpoint in that slaves were also citizens and humans so that they deserve property in all forms. With the widespread knowledge of the bills of rights in the colonies and the continuation today, Property has entirely achieved its job and purpose in the timeline of the American government due to without the thought of free speech and religion the American government would have been much different. My perception of history in the United States has always been a nation built on freedom so James Madison's ideas in this article are just the basis of American freedoms. Given the history of the American government, the difference to me without this document is that you would have built a nation without the freedoms Madison had been so adamant about and a nation not built on the properties he had laid out. 

Madison, J. M. (1972, March 29). Property. National Gazette, 1–2. 

National Archives and Records Administration. (2021, March 25). The bill of rights: A transcription. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript.