Federalist No. 10 James Madison Summary

No matter what the government or its people try to implement to disable factions, another will always rise due to the nature of man. Destroying liberty is the most heinous crime imaginable for Madison and I agree, every citizen having their liberty is what this country was founded on and it should therefore be untouchable. Madison’s idea of giving every citizen the same ideals and interests is blatant sarcasm to illustrate how factions are unpreventable and simply part of human nature. No matter what you may do to try and prevent it, there will always be new movements and ideas that people rally behind and their freedom to do that is part of what makes America special.

“You make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.”

Federalist 10 has the strongest argument that supports our current Constitution. Madison’s view goes against the traditional view that a small republic is better than a larger one. The proposed government that Madison supports was trying to establish a strong government that would be capable of controlling violence and damage that are caused by factions. Factions being a group of people who gather together to protect and promote their social economic interests and political opinions (Madison, 72). The biggest concern was that the factions would become too powerful and start to over power the government if the United States did not have a strong government. Different factions with contrasting ideas pose a threat to the wellbeing of the people. The factions could be either a majority or minority of a whole. If the factions have closer contact with one another they are more likely to participate in acts of violence, which would effect the way the United States is governed. A small republic would draw attention to everyone’s different interests, therefore highlighting the major contrasts between different

In “Federalist #10”, Madison describes the dangerous effects that factions can have on Republican government and on its people. Madison defines a faction as a group of citizens who unite under a shared cause, and work against other groups in order to achieve their means. Their means of achieving their goals may achieve adverse effects upon the rights of other citizens. Put in more modern terms, a faction could be reasonably compared to a special-interest group. The sort of faction that most endangers the liberty inherent in United States society are factions that contain a majority of the whole. The weakness of a popular government is its susceptibility to the effects of factions. However, a well-constructed Union provides numerous

However, Madison explained that there are two methods of removing the causes of faction. First, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence. “Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an ailment, without which it instantly expires,” Madison stated. What Madison was trying to say is that liberty and factions go hand in hand. Liberty promotes a faction to grow and get more powerful. In this way, it is better to lessen liberty among individuals to provide for what is best for the overall society. If people are not free to form and express their points of view, then factions could never take hold.

For Madison, there were only two ways to control a faction, this was by removing the cause and controlling the effect of a faction. When Madison says that “liberty is to faction as the air is to fire”, it means that air can feed the fire and liberty cannot be controlled by anyway with factions is the same because it cannot be controlled. Federalist papers are more focus on how it is going to control the effects of the factions. A way to control an effect of a faction was with a

James Madison wrote The Federalist No. 10 to inform the people about the problems and possible solutions for the formation of factions. Through multiple statements concerning the dangers of factions and the benefits of a republic, Madison’s major argument was in favor of the United States Constitution. Madison defined a faction as "A number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion or interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." (Madison p. 1) Factions can be compared to the modern day lobby group; or as groups of people with a common self-interest. These groups are only involved for

What Madison is saying is that factions are going to be in a society no matter what. People are going to have different opinions. Factions are always going to exist, and no matter what, the government cannot remove factions because if they do then they are eliminating peoples rights. The constitution protects against this. ?Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a 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.? This is one reason that the Americans had success (Ziegler 216).

The only way to manage faction is to remove its causes and to control its effects. By removing its causes Madison believes that liberty will be destroyed, or that by giving every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests, would be impossible because people can never all be the same. Madison wanted the United States to be a republic, a form of democracy in which power is vested in representatives, so there will be a greater number of citizens represented and we will also be able to have more control over the factions effects.

A faction by definition is a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics. These groups are often wound together based off some principle they believe relates to them in some way or another. Madison thought most factions existed through unequal property distribution. Few individuals had a large majority of property while most had little property and others having none at all. Madison even said in Federalist Paper No. 10, “Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed a distinct interest in society” (Madison, 1787). This interest he was referring to was how often these two classes of people were discriminated; the discrimination being labeled as rich or poor. Madison felt through the unequal property and the weak governmental

The Federalist Papers were 85 essays that were published in 1787 and 1788. They were anonymous and always signed by “Publius.” Publius was actually 3 men, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They wrote the papers to convince the people of New York to vote to ratify the Constitution. These essays were published in newspapers throughout the state of New York. Federalist 10 was written by James Madison and was titled The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued). This essay was a continuation of Federalist 9. Federalists like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton thought that if the states continued to maintain complete control, each state would become its own nation, which would leave the U.S. bankrupt. They believe that a strong central government would have the ability to stop this from occurring. Factions were James Madison’s worst fear. Madison believed that factions were what were going to keep states divided and more likely to turn to individual nations. James Madison’s opinions are correct.

The Federalist Papers Number 10 is written by James Madison and explains the necessity of the Constitution to protect our country from factions. A faction is “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent aggregate interests of the community (Publius, 72).” Publius states that there are two ways to get rid of factions. The first way to eliminate a faction is to take the Liberty away from all of the people in the faction. The other way to cure a faction is to give everyone the same opinion. Both of this solutions are not possible

In addition, Madison defined that a faction is an amount of people, whether a popular or smaller, who are combined and motivated by nearly mutual compulsion of desire, or of attention, opposing to the privileges of further residents, or to the durable and collective benefits of the public. Also he explained why the Framers took a representative democracy, a republic, slightly than a clean, straight, democracy as the system of government for our new population. He defined a "pure democracy" as "a culture involving of a lesser quantity of nations, who gather and direct the rule in individual."

One of the biggest sources that factions come from are from the distribution of land. There are two main ones, those with lots and land and those with little land. Even though these groups conflict, the government is obliged to guard the interests of each group. Madison stated two ways to control factions, which were to remove its causes and controlling its effect. Madison says next that he worries about corruption of members of the new government, but says it is less likely because representative will be chosen by a large population. He also discusses the differences between a republic and a democracy, along with that the main goal of the Constitution is to make all 13 states secure from threats and invasion.

The Federalists papers are a collection of seventy-seven essays that justify the existence and power of the Constitution. In the “Federalist Paper 10”, Madison begins his introduction with “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately than its tendency to break and control violence of faction.” Madison believed that one of the strongest aspects of the constitution was minimizing and controlling violence caused by factions. This then brings up the dividends within the nation and how factions solely look out for their interests of themselves while working against the best interest of the public. Madison goes on to say that, there will inevitably be factions as long as there was classification