James Madison on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights Essay

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

Second, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests. Madison defined faction as any group, majority or minority, within a society that promoted its own self-interest at the expense of the common good. Due to this, there needs to be a check on the government. Sometimes public rights can harm the rights of an individual, and Madison wanted to prevent that from happening. Federalism is another way to control factions. A large republic means more factions will

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

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.

The main argument that Madison discussed was that a strong central government would be able to control the violence of factions. As long as there is humanity, there would be factions. Destroying the causes of factions would be highly impractical and unwise. Instead Madison felt that it would be better to control the effects that these factions could potentially cause. He also stated that there were stark differences between a Direct Democracy and a Republic and their control of factions. A Direct Democracy would be controlled by the will of the largest faction, and thus the weaker minorities will have close to no say in their government. To combat against this, Madison felt that, “The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures” (Madison). The Federalists main argument behind their style of government was that everyone’s voice would be heard and would not be drowned out by the voice of the majority, something that only a Republic could

In order to correct “factious spirits that have tainted our public administrations”(Madison, 72), the government must control the effects of factions. He argues, “as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success... will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters (Madison, 77).” With this statement by creating an extended republic with more representatives, the tyranny of a majority could be avoided with the addition of more qualified, democratically-elected representatives. As a result, Madison felt that creating an extended republic with more representatives with more people voting would quell the effects of

According to Collier, “Madison believed these laws were oppressing the creditor minority, and if the country was to have any stability, it must have a national government capable of preventing states from passing them.” (Collier 63) Madison believed in the idea of social contracts, which was the basic theory that power originally belonged to the people and their natural rights. Along with these social contracts, Madison believed that human beings were not all good or all evil, but a little bit of both. He states “human beings are generally governed by rather base and selfish motives, by suspicion, jealousy, desire for self-aggrandizement, and disinclination to do more than is required by convenience or self-interest, or exacted of them by force” (64). Madison believed in three principles that would make a successful government. These three principles were that the government should begin with the people, that all people were ultimately self-serving, and the most important principle was the national government must be completely dominant over everyone else. All in all, James Madison was determined to control power. With all of these ideas in his head for the Constitutional Convention, Madison was ready. The Virginia delegates began to meet for two or three hours each day explaining their plans of government to the convention.

Picture yourself in an environment that only a dictator can rule and vote only for his state. None of your votes counts without a significant amount of people to share your votes with. Which creates a tyranny that will destroy the whole state, which will not be fair for the people living there. On May 1787 in Philadelphia, 55 individual calls for a constitutional convention. They are mostly wealthy white mens. In this case, James Madison and his fellow delegates challenge to write a constitution that was strong enough to hold the states and the people together without letting any person, group or branches of government gain too much control. The Articles of Confederation was to weak and wasn’t working so that’s why they meet for the constitutional

The first and foremost difficulty that James Madison and the rest of the nation faced in creating this Constitution was the escape from overpowering monarchy. After fighting this impossible war and miraculously becoming victorious, the people wanted the exact opposite of a Constitution. The colonies of the United States wanted to govern themselves how they pleased and to avoid a federal government altogether. James Madison along with the rest of the Federalists knew that this would not be able to keep the country in balance. If everyone had freedoms

James Madison proposed an idea for how the government should function and the meeting was known as the Virginia Plan. Madison wanted a state government and national government to lead the people into a great country. He was also in favor of the national government because the population of Virginia was large which would give them more representation. Madison also included that the national government would have the authority to enforce and create its own laws as well as collecting taxes. Under the Virginia Plan, the government was divided into the legislative branch,

There are numerous possible conclusions as to what the Constitution may have looked like had James Madison gotten his way at the debates in the Federal Convention. Initially, Madison’s vision of government lined up with the Virginia Plan presented by Edmund Randolph to the Federal Convention on May 29th, 1787. This plan stressed the interest of a stronger national government, with representation in the legislative branch based on the apportionment of people, instead of states, and subjected state laws to a veto by the national government. Despite the early plan of government, it is more realistic to assert that Madison’s vision for government was pliable, and that his vision evolved through the convention to appear as it did on September 17, 1787. Considering Madison’s comments in both the Federal Convention along with his subsequent authorship of certain Federalist Papers, under the pseudonym Publius, it is clear that through the deliberative process of debate during the convention that James Madison’s vision for a national government was almost wholly reconciled to the final draft. James Madison achieved the majority of his desires for a new constitution, mainly protection against the encroachment by states on federal power, limiting the power of those in government by creating separate distinct functions for each branch of government and finally by securing rights of individuals structurally by extending the republic.

Madison makes three major claims in Federalist #10. The three claims Madison makes arguing for a larger Republic are that corruption and bad behavior can be better controlled, a large republic will unify the country, and a large republic will protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The title of #10 is “The Union as a safeguard against domestic faction and insurrection.” As the title suggests, factions are the main issue in the reading. “Madison defines factions as “A number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Factions still exist in the country today. Madison believes that the biggest faction is the poor. A large republic would make factions larger. When factions become larger, it is harder for them to become unified because of so many other interests. So essentially, Madison believes that by chopping the large factions up, it would make it more difficult for the faction to unite, and therefore the minority will still be heard. Madison also touches on the issue of corruption. He claims that the larger the republic becomes the chance of corruption declines.

According to James Madison the problem was the factions. He suggests that we keep the problem in hand by removing its cause and also by controlling its effects. I would be smart if he did not remove its cause because it may destroy liberty and give everyone the same opinion. If he controlled the effects then he will have two different types of factions a minority and a majority. So he might want to control the cause.The first problem with the factions was that they were very violent. “ its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.” This quote explains that the factions are becoming out of control and may need to be handled by James Madison. “ The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have,

The last argument Madison makes in favor of a large republic is, in a small republic there will be a lower variety of interests and parties, so more frequently a majority will be found. The number of participants of that majority, will be lower, and considering they live in a more limited territory, it would be easier for them to agree and work together for the accomplishment of their ideas. While in a large republic the variety of interests will be greater so to make it harder to find a majority. Even if there is a majority it would be harder for them to

Have you heard of the word factions? Well, if you haven’t factions are groups of citizens who unite under a common interest or goal. James Madison wrote “The Federalists No.10”, which was about how he felt about factions The Federalists No.10 was set out to be heard by the American citizens, but mainly the citizens of New York. James Madison was also known for his important contribution to the overall creation of the Constitution that earned him the nickname "Father of the Constitution" later in life. Madison wanted to ratify the Constitution also; Madison, John Jay and Anthony Hamilton (other federalist) wrote the Federalist Papers. In The Federalists No.10 James Madison Says “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man”; meaning if there were going to be factions they had to be controlled. By removing the causes of factions, the liberty that is essential to its existence is destroyed. Madison states that "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires". Therefore, it is somewhat quite foolish to abolish liberty considering it is essential to political life. Madison thinks it would be foolish to abolish