A Federalist Account

The American Government during the late 1700s faced a mixture of challenges, including unity, economic prosperity, political stability, and even personal rivalries. The main reason why the American Government didn’t collapse during the volatile early years is due largely to the US Constitution, which was drafted in 1787 and enacted in 1788. The influences that the Constitution drew from varied immensely, drawing upon thoughts from philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke...etc. Perhaps the most important facet of the US Constitution was its implementation of the system of checks and balances, which succeeded in its original goal of preventing one branch of government from gaining too much power. Montesquieu’s idea of having factions check the power of others allowed totalitarianism or oligarchism from arising in the United States. Although the system was not designed to be perfect (and it still isn’t today-e.g. gridlock), it did allow the transition of the war years to flow more smoothly from a leaderless nation to the concept of a presidency. In James Madison’’s Federalist No. 10, he writes

“No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.”

Here, Madison stresses that one man leadership or one group of leadership will precipitate disaster, mostly due to the conflicting self-interests of that leader and that of his nation. Madison instead stresses having a popular majority form of republicanism to take over the foundation of the fledgling US government. Having a popular government, Madison advocates, will allow for the general spirit of good prevail. Although Madison doesn’t stress on how to achieve such an end, the concept of popular government is his main goal for the United States:

“A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.”

Madison, instead of explaining how to achieve such a cure, explains why republicanism is better than a full on democracy. A republic allows for a small group to elect a leader and make important decisions whereas a democracy attempts to include every citizen of a nation in the embetterment process. A republic triumphs over a democracy because it allows for efficiency and, arguably, more justified decisions.

In his Federalist No. 51 paper, Madison describes the different departments of a government and how each should complement the other. Madison explains how this should work:

“But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches”

The different branches that Madison is referring to is to take the form of government. He argues that although the legislative branch will undoubtedly possess the greatest power, two other branches will be able to check its influence.

“In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government”

Here, Madison explains that although people surrender themselves to the administrative government, they will be afforded protection and rights and that this exchange is beneficial to both parties, especially when a nation’s population exceeds efficiency.