Apart from serving as the fourth president of the United States from 1809-1817, James Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution. Madison disapproved of the Articles of Confederation, deeming them too weak. He led the push for the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, which would go on to produce the US Constitution. Madison favored a strong federal government as opposed to a weak confederation of states and, in order to sell this point to the general public, he was an instrumental author of the Federalist Papers.