evidence: The charge was leveled often in his own time, as it has been ever since: James Madison is and was a hypocrite—a man inconstant in principles; "a mind mired in confusion and inconsistency, or perhaps even one suffering from schizophrenia or tainted by dishonesty."[1] [...] Appalled at this blatant violation of free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment (written by himself), Madison, now retired from Congress, penned the Virginia Resolution in response. In it, he asserted that when the federal government has committed a "deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted" in the Constitution, "the states . . . have the right . . . to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them."[21]The man who had spent months pleading for a national veto on state laws now found himself a decade later arguing that the states essentially had a veto on national laws when those laws violated the Constitution. [...] James Madison was consistent—consistently America’s counterbalance.