On April 8, 1787, James Madison wrote to Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia: "My Dear Friend, I am glad to find that you are turning your thoughts towards the business of May next." Madison was referring to the Federal Convention scheduled to begin the next month in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. Madison's project was for an entirely new form of government-although the upcoming gathering had made clear its aim of merely improving the existing government under the Articles of Confederation. This case explores the extraordinary leadership of James Madison who had few stereotypical qualities of a leader.

On May 30, 1787, the second day of the Convention held in the Pennsylvania State House, six states voted "aye" and one "nay" to the proposal to establish "a national Government ... consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and Judiciary." In that moment, delegates who had gathered merely to revise the Articles of Confederation agreed to abolish it. In that moment, James Madison earned the title of Father of the Constitution, although he had not even introduced the proposal.