Madison, James
1809–1817

Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785) is the founding document of American church-state separation thought — written specifically to defeat a Virginia tax that would have supported Christian ministers, it argues that 'religion is wholly exempt' from civil government's cognizance and that 'the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians.' Madison's Memorial is a point-by-point philosophical refutation of state-mandated religious displays exactly like the Ten Commandments law Paxton champions; he also wrote Federalist No. 10 warning against factional spirit of exactly the kind Paxton's primary campaign embodies. Madison also as president vetoed the incorporation of Trinity Episcopal Church on church-state grounds. Talarico's church-state separation, anti-faction anti-corruption package, careful institutional restraint, and 'most vocal defender of separation of church and state' positioning align directly with Madison's documented framework. Madison would push back on the expanded federal economic policy, recognizing it as the kind of Hamiltonian centralization he and Jefferson opposed, but would find the institutional restraint framework more compatible than Paxton's.