<Tr> <Th> Years of service </Th> <Td> 1775 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Rank </Th> <Td> Colonel </Td> </Tr> <P> James Madison Jr . (March 16, 1751--June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817 . He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights . </P> <P> Born into a prominent Virginia planting family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War . In the late 1780s, he helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution to supplant the ineffective Articles of Confederation . After the Convention, Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, and his collaboration with Alexander Hamilton produced The Federalist Papers, among the most important treatises in support of the Constitution . </P>

Who became known as the father of the constitution