This @nytimes review is nuts. I haven't read Ellis's book (yet), and can't be sure what he says. But the notion that Madison believed in a "living Constitution" is absolutely belied by the evidence. Just consider two statements from Madison, one in 1790 and another in 1826. 1/5
In response to Jefferson's "the earth belongs to the living" letter, Madison responded that the Constitution is an improvement that forms a "debt against the living," which can only be discharged "by a proportionate obedience to the will of the authors of the improvement." 2/5
This exchange gives the title to my book, in which I explain (among other things) that all the Founders (as far as I can tell) were originalist. 3/5 amazon.com/Debt-Against-L…
And here is a letter from 1826: "In the exposition of laws, and even of Constitutions, how many important errors may be produced by mere innovations in the use of words and phrases, if not controulable by a recurrence to the original and authentic meaning attached to them." 4/5
Perhaps the most important point to remember: that there were lower-order disagreements about the meaning of the Constitution does not mean there wasn't agreement on higher-order interpretive methods. 5/5
