Happy Birthday, Jemmy!

And if, in fulfillment of that stern decree which denounces decay and death on all human beings - a decree before which Babylon and Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, and all that was illustrious in antiquity have crumbled into dust - if it be irreversible to all, and America be doomed to travel through ages of bondage, let us indulge the consolatory hope that the life of Madison, triumphing over the injuries of time, may become a pillar of light by which some future patriot may reconduct his countrymen to their lost inheritance.

James Barbour, Eulogium on the Life and Character of James Madison.