James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 - June 28, 1836) was the fourth President of the United States (1809-1817) statesman and political theorist. Madison is one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution (Alexander Hamilton and John Jay). He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for being instrumental in the drafting of the United States Constitution and as the key champion and author of the United States Bill of Rights (1789). To Madison's deep disappointment, they excluded a proposed amendment that guaranteed national sovereignty over the states. Scholars have argued that, if this amendment had been included, the Civil War might have been avoided. Madison is remembered favorably for his stance in Native American Indian affairs. As pioneers and settlers moved West into large tracts of Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws territory, Madison ordered that Native lands be protected by the U.S. Army from intrusion. He was of the landed gentry. He inherited his plantation, Montpelier, and owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime to cultivate tobacco and other crops. He died in 1836, at the age of 85, as the last of the Founding Fathers.