James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16, 1751, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. He grew up and lived his whole life in Orange County, Virginia on a plantation estate called Montpelier. Madison is remembered today as the Father of the Constitution, an honorable moniker for his work in drafting the Constitution and working it through the Constitutional Convention, and also for his efforts to encourage the states to ratify the Constitution and then for his work in proposing the first ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights.
Madison also served as a Delegate to Virginia, Secretary of State, and then two-terms as President. His contribution to our country has truly been significant.
Expert as he was, he got a few things wrong. For one, he wanted the US Congress to have the ability to veto any state law it wanted to vote down, which he called a National Negative. In the name of federalism, we’re glad that poor idea didn’t gain any traction from the other Founders.
Madison was one of the writers behind the now famous Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay the others. The Federalist Papers were a series of essays written to persuade the voters of New York to ratify the Constitution. It was more propaganda than fair critique, but it left us a treasure of original thoughts from three of the minds who help craft the framework for our revolutionary, and lasting, government.
Federalist Number 10 is authored by Madison, his first contribution. This edition focuses its attention on how the proposed Constitution will protect liberty against domestic factions.
Madison defines “faction” as any group “adversed to the rights of other citizens,” and determines that their creation is inevitable as they are “sown in the nature of man.” It is true that we see various degrees of factions throughout all the various political, social, and commercial groupings, especially in regards to property. Madison providently writes, “The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.” This is still true today. Riots in major cities had violent perpetrators descend on areas where property owners stood steadfast, armed to protect themselves and their livelihood.
Madison states there are “two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction.” The first is to attempt to remove the potential causes for a faction to exist, while the second is to attempt to control its effects. Madison concludes that the first method is impossible in a free society. He offers a famous analogy to illustrate this; “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.” Indeed.
The proper protection against the whims and passions of a direct democracy so easily influenced by violent faction, Madison argued, is a large republic:
“The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source.” More on Federalist 10 here.
In Federalist 37, Madison writes, “Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.” Our country has achieved a remarkable level of stability. We have elections regularly, they are not delayed, postponed, canceled or decided to be held at a date to be determined later. Parliaments and authoritarian governments struggle with election dates, while the United States does not.
Madison makes an important case for regular elections here, writing, “The genius of republican liberty seems to demand on one side, not only that all power should be derived from the people, but that those intrusted with it should be kept in independence on the people, by a short duration of their appointments.”
Our Constitution itself has achieved a historic level of stability. European governments have come and gone repeatedly all the while the US Constitution, ratified in 1788, has stood tall with only seventeen additional amendments since the original ten were added.
A major contributor to our country’s stability is our robust economy. Free-market capitalism along with an open pluralist society has created a strong economy capable of generating wealth. Our republican form of government complements capitalism well, giving us liberty in all aspects of life. But the stability we have enjoyed is never certain and could fall apart in one generation. More on Federalist 37 here.
In Federalist 45, Madison writes, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”
That line articulates a truth too many have forgotten; The US is a republic where the federal government and the states share sovereign authority. The debate has always been at what point exactly does the federal reach end and state begin? Let this debate continue.
Madison’s line from the Federalist served as background for the 10th Amendment, which reads-
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Before that wonderful Amendment was added, the Father of Constitution explained in Federalist 45 that the federal government will have “few and define” powers and the states and the people get the rest. If we could achieve that, then that would be great.
James Madison’s impact on our great nation is truly significant. The Father of the Constitution offered a lot of careful reasoning behind the structure of that historic document in his contributions to the Federalist Papers. His insight then is still essential to understanding our Republic.