Presidential trivia: At 4 feet 6 inches, James Madison was our smallest president. He did have the third-largest head of any president, however, behind James Garfield and Ronald Reagan. (Teddy Roosevelt had the largest teeth.)Madison disliked having himself painted with others, and always tried to claim he was seated when the above painting with gun collector Alex Hamilton and Supreme Court Justice and practical joker John "JJ" Jay was done.
He wasn't.
John Jay went on to be another unrecognized Founding Father. Alexander Hamilton went on to become shot in the gut by Vice President Aaron Burr. James Madison merely went on.
Believe it or don't.
I believe it. There's an infamous pugnacity some short folks are reputed to have. Hearing about his height (which I didn't know) explains a great deal.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Napoleon, for whom this complex is named, was ~5' 7" which was pretty average.
If Madison was 4'6", it looks like the other two were about 5'6", making them about average for those days. Gandhi was small. So what is it I'm supposed to believe or not?
ReplyDeletePlease Max, are you lying? For some reason I did not think you would.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Of COURSE I'm lying. Do you really think I would put an animation of Teddy Roosevelt's teeth at the bottom of the post if I were being truthful? This is not an "official" American history post, so I can say anything I want to say. There's no Google TOS rule for Blogger that you have to tell the truth. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteMadison was not 4 feet 6 inches tall. Good god. but at 5-4 and 98 pounds, he WAS our smallest president.
The picture is a collage of three heads on a black background. If you like, I can make him taller than Hamilton in Photoshop. I'll make his head bigger while I'm at it if you want, too. And give him Joe Lieberman's chin. K?
Hamilton, who towers over Madison in the photo, was only, like 5-6 I think. And JJ Jay? Who knows? What was that Ettarose? Who cares? So true.
I hope you don't think I didn't look up Madison's height. I'm taking my American history very seriously.
ReplyDeleteI didn't look it up. Not that I don't take my history seriously, but who cares how tall he was?
ReplyDeleteI don't have heightism.