Though he was always a household name, until the musical Hamilton James Madison was often overlooked outside of academic circles. Now Madison has a solid core of devoted fans. These fans want to know more than just his accomplishments, they want to understand him as a person, but in that arena Madison presents mystery after mystery. A new theory has been put forward that may answer some of the questions of our fourth president’s personal life: James Madison may have been asexual. 

What is asexuality?

Broadly defined, asexuality is a sexual orientation where a person does not experience sexual attraction to other people.¹ More accurately, asexuality is an umbrella term which covers a segment of the spectrum of sexuality. This spectrum ranges from sexual, to demi-sexual (an orientation where a person only feels sexual attraction to someone after becoming close to them mentally and emotionally) all the way to being completely asexual and experiencing absolutely no sexual attraction to other people.² A person can also fall anywhere in between. Some asexual people are sex-repulsed, while some are indifferent to sex.³ Whether they personally are sex-repulsed or indifferent to sex, an asexual person can still be sex-positive, meaning they still believe in the benefits for society of the free expression of sexuality.⁴

For the purposes of this post, when I say asexual from this point on I mean experiencing little to no sexual attraction.

James Madison

James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, on March sixteenth of 1751. Madison’s family was comfortable; though far from the richest family in Virginia, they were richer than most. After graduating from Princeton in just two years (and suffering a mental breakdown in the process) Madison embarked on a career in politics. This career would take him from the Virginia Legislature to Congress and back again several times, and introduce him to his steadfast political ally and best friend, Thomas Jefferson. Madison was eventually elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he crafted the Virginia Plan, much of which found its way into the final version of the Constitution. Madison helped get the Constitution ratified, writing twenty-eight of the Federalist essays and authoring the Bill of Rights. He retired briefly, only to be called back into political life to serve as Secretary of State under his friend Thomas Jefferson, and then to succeed him as president.⁵

Personality

Madison was definitely an introvert. In politics Madison only made speeches when he absolutely had to, and often he got others to do the speaking for him. In social situations he was no better. A congressman’s wife called him “a gloomy, stiff creature…the most unsociable creature in existence.”⁶ Madison disliked large gatherings so much he left his own inaugural ball early, and was in bed sound asleep by the time his guests left. When only close friends were around, however, Madison had a warm energy and quite the sense of humor.⁷

Madison’s unwavering dislike of large parties and his complete lack of social skills are often included in arguments about his sexuality, and many have pointed to these characteristics as signs Madison was asexual.⁸ Just as it is commonly assumed that all bisexuals are flirty and sociable, it is often assumed that all asexuals are introverted and shy. Both of these concepts are stereotypes. Thus James Madison’s introversion should not be interpreted as evidence of any sexual or romantic orientation. 

Madison’s Relationships

Catherine “Kitty” Floyd

Madison’s society very heavily encouraged marriage. When Madison was thirty-four, a friend remarked on Madison’s continued bachelor status, telling him “I shall only remind you at present of the Taunts to which old Bachelors are justly exposed, and from which the best services to the public in other respects will not skreen you much longer.”⁹ Men who remained unmarried past thirty were assumed to be unfriendly, unmasculine, or both. It is even possible they were followed by rumors of homosexuality. Despite this, no evidence whatsoever exists of James Madison’s love life until he was thirty-one years old.¹⁰ It was at this time, near the end of 1782, that Madison fell in love with Catherine “Kitty” Floyd.¹¹ Madison was boarding at a house run by Floyd’s family. Though Floyd was only fifteen, there was apparently a spark between them, and Madison soon wrote to Jefferson to tell him that they were engaged, and that they planned to marry as soon as Congress’s current session ended.¹² Prior to that time however, while Madison was briefly away from Floyd, she wrote him to tell him that she had decided she was more in love with another man, and she broke off the engagement. Madison was devastated.¹³

Madison’s relationship with Catherine Floyd is particularly important to the debate about his sexuality because the heartbreak he experienced is often used as an explanation for the noticeable lack of relationships in his life. It is often implied that he was so heartbroken (and embarrassed) that his fiancee had left him for another man, that he either refused to date for the next ten years, or could not bring himself to do so.¹⁴ This is a common argument: when someone says a historical figure may have been asexual, someone else almost always suggests that some heartbreak early in life caused the figure to give up on love.¹⁵ There are a number of things wrong with this argument. First of all, it conflates sexual and romantic attraction. Even if a bad break up could convince someone to never pursue romantic love again, that would not stop them from experiencing sexual attraction. It would, in theory, make them aromantic, not asexual. That leads to the second problem, which is that nothing can make a person aromantic or asexual, just as nothing can make a person become gay. 

Dolley

In the spring of 1794, more than ten years after his failed romance with Catherine Floyd, Madison asked mutual friend Aaron Burr to introduce him to Dolley Payne Todd.¹⁶ The first meeting apparently went well, and Todd’s niece later wrote “in this first interview, at her own house, she conquered the reclusive bookworm Madison, who was considered an old bachelor.”¹⁷ The romance progressed, and Madison persuaded Catherine Coles, Todd’s cousin by marriage, to write her and testify that Madison had fallen deeply in love. Coles told Todd “He told me I might say what I pleas’d to you about him to begin, he thinks so much of you in the day that he has Lost his Tongue, at Night he Dreames [sic] of you & Starts in his Sleep a Calling on you to relieve his Flame for he Burns to such an excess that he will be shortly consumed & he hopes that your Heart will be calous [sic] to every other swain but himself he has Consented to every thing that I have wrote about him with Sparkling Eyes.”¹⁸ 

James and Dolley Madison do seem to have had a very happy marriage. After his marriage Madison was said to be happier and more sociable than before.¹⁹ Indeed, the two Madisons were said to be downright playful when they were together, with Mrs. Madison sometimes giving her small husband piggy back rides.²⁰ They were rarely apart, and when they were they constantly corresponded, repeatedly reminding each other that they had an unbreakable bond.²¹ 

It could be debated endlessly what these two relationships say about Madison’s sexuality. It is worth acknowledging that his interest in Floyd may have been born more out of a desire to escape the stigma of being an “old bachelor” than true love. Madison’s short courtship and long marriage to Dolley Payne Todd, on the other hand, are full of examples of genuine affection, proving that Madison did experience romantic attraction. Neither of these relationships proves definitively whether Madison experienced sexual attraction.

The most important thing (for this purpose at least) in Madison’s romantic history seems to not be the relationships themselves, but rather Madison’s conspicuous lack of relationships. During times when Madison was particularly busy it almost seems as if he forgot to have a love life. His friend Jefferson, though just as busy as Madison, found time to marry Martha Skelton, have an illicit romance with Maria Cosway, and father several children with his slave Sarah “Sally” Hemmings. Jefferson was just as devoted to his work as Madison. He was just as engrossed in educating himself, and wished just as much that he could spend his time at home with his books. But occasional forays into the world of amorous intrigue were necessary for Jefferson; he needed a partner. Madison wanted someone to grow old with, someone he could be himself around, but when he was too busy to seek true love, Madison was fine by himself. 

Madison’s Childlessness

Besides his personality and his relationships, the other main point brought up in debates on Madison’s sexuality is his lack of biological children. Todd’s last baby was born less than a year before she married Madison. When they married, Todd was only twenty-six years old. And yet, in nearly forty-two years of marriage, they failed to have children of their own. Could Madison’s lack of biological children be evidence that he was asexual?

There are other possible explanations. The birth of Dolley’s second son, William, severely debilitated her and the baby, who died not long after. Though Todd recovered, she may have sustained injuries that prevented another birth.²² The problem could also have been Madison’s health. He himself said that he experienced “sudden attacks, somewhat resembling epilepsy.”²³ According to the Epilepsy Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania, it is common for men with epilepsy to struggle with fertility problems, even if they are not on antiepileptic drugs.²⁴ It is even possible that the couple chose not to have children. While away from her mother in Philadelphia Todd found herself taken under the wing of Martha Washington, another widow who had no children in her second marriage.²⁵ Dolley and Martha had something else in common: they had both had to endure the death of a child. Perhaps both women were unwilling to shoulder the emotional burden of another child, and to risk another loss.

Writing about LGBTQIA historical figures I have had to reiterate time and time again that having a child does not prove someone’s sexual orientation. In studying Madison I have come to realize that not having a child does not prove it either. Since not all asexuals are sex-repulsed, it is entirely possible for an asexual man to father a child. Conversely, there are other possible reasons why Madison did not father any children. In the end not having children does not prove that Madison was asexual, but it does not prove that he was not asexual either. 

There are three main points brought up in the debate over James Madison’s sexuality: his personality, his romantic history, and his lack of biological children. The first and the last of these have proven to be dead ends, or, perhaps more accurately, red herrings. Madison’s severe introversion does not prove he did not experience sexual attraction. The question of Madison’s lack of biological children is fraught with complications and splits off in a million different directions, never really proving anything. With these two points disqualified, the only thing left to consider is Madison’s relationship history. The fact remains that while Madison did dream of finding a lifemate, he did not urgently need a partner. This could be an argument for Madison being asexual, demisexual, or demiromantic. While this is a matter that demands to be studied more in depth, and which I may return to in a later post, it is reasonable to say that James Madison was quite possibly America’s first asexual president. 

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1. https://youtu.be/i14YMpKS_CY, “7 Things Asexual People Want You to Know”, Psych2Go
2. https://youtu.be/gPS7ZvDQKE4, “ANNOYING Things Asexual People are Tired of Hearing”, Echo Gillette
3. Ibid. 
4. http://wiki.asexuality.org/Sex-positive , “Sex-Positive”, AVEN Wiki
5. https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Madison, “James Madison”, Irving Brant
6. James Madison: Son of Virginia and Founding Father, Jeff Broadwater, 113
7. Ibid.
8. “PEOPLE” THINK MADISON’S INTROVERSION MEANS HE’S ACE
9. Caleb Wallace to James Madison, 12 July 1785
10.  Broadwater, 113, and Strength and Honor: The Life of Dolley Madison, Richard N. Côté, 108
11. http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2011/08/kitty-floyd.html, “Kitty Floyd”, History of American Women
12. James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 22 April 1783
13. See #11
14. Ibid.
15. For evidence that people suggest the Gave-Up-On-Love argument in discussions possibly asexual historical figures, see: https://historycollection.co/10-famous-asexual-figures-from-history/, “10 Famous Asexual Figures from History”
16. Côté, 114
17. Ibid.
18. Catherine Coles to Dolley Payne Todd, 1 June 1794
19. Côté, 146
20. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/surprising-raucous-home-life-madisons-180954205/, “The Surprising Raucous Home Life of the Madisons”, David O. Stewart
21. James Madison to Dolley Payne Madison, 30 July 1818, and Dolley Payne Madison to James Madison, 15 December 1826
22. Côté, 192
23. James Madison to Joseph Delaplaine, September 1816
24. https://www.efepa.org/living-with-epilepsy/men-with-epilepsy/, “Men With Epilepsy”
25. Côté, 116