“Enlightened Statesmen Will Not Always Be At The Helm.”

How did Madison respond to the idea that he was the “Father” of the Constitution? What do you think? Is he deserving of the title? Why or why not? While many, even in his time, heaped significance praise on Madison as the primary author of the constitution, he didn’t think so. The piece mentions a letter he wrote claiming that he was given to much credit for his role at the convention. He thought it should be “regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.” It was a republican idea that the

Despite dysfunction proliferating the workings of its institutions, the American political system continues to function as originally designed: to limit government control beyond the basic protection of liberty. At face value, the dysfunction of the American political system is guilelessly attributed to party polarization. Yet, political faction, according to James Madison, is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, he argues in The Federalist that it is an essential and effective feature of a properly

aragraph 1 1. What does Madison say have been the “mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished”? Madison says that the “mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished” are instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils. 2. What problem does Madison say cause government to be unstable and contributes to its “unsteadiness and injustice”? Madison states that the cause of instability in the government and the things

E SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in