James Madison slowly sat up in bed. He felt very weak that morning. The sun had just risen, and soon the enslaved maid Sukey would bring him his breakfast from the basement kitchen.

But it irritated him that he couldn’t eat it at the dining table. The eighty-five year old “Father of the Constitution” had been confined to his bed for six months. Rheumatism and liver dysfunction crippled him.

Madison still had animated conversations with his family and visitors. But he knew he wouldn’t last much longer. And he was the last of the Founding Fathers.