The Federalists

“…that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

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.

In the first paragraph, it talks about how a well-constructed union needs to be able to control the violence of a faction. There are problems in factions ,for example “the governments are too unstable, public goods are disregard in the conflict of rival parties, measures are too often decided not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor parties, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority”. Majority rule overruns minorities or the rights of minorities.

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).

One person might say that anarchy would be the only way to have complete and utter freedom, while others would go as far as to believe a controlled communist government is the best route to achieving liberation. Factions (a group of people who agree on certain topics) are inevitable, due to the nature of man. As long as men hold different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of property, they will continue to fraternize with people who are most similar to them. In Federalist #10, James Madison summed up factions

n the history of the United States, the Anti-federalists were the individuals who opposed the implementation of a central federal government which would seek to oversee different operations in the country along with the ratification of the constitution. Instead, they advocated that power ought to remain within the hands of the local and state governments. Conversely, the Federalists advocated for a stronger government that would oversee the operations of all states. They also wanted the ratification of the existing constitution in order to help the government in managing its debts along with the tensions that were developing in particular states. The Federalist movement was formed by Alexander Hamilton, and it functioned as the first

The concept of theory versus reality is a constant in everyday life. Every person has experienced a situation in which the idea in their head was much better than the outcome. All actions have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are worse than others. In the case of the Federalists vs. The Anti-Federalists, was the drafting of the Constitution actually worth it in the end? When the colonists first came over seas from Great Britain there was one thing that was vastly agreed on—a change in how government works and runs was necessary for the future of America. Two major groups eventually formed behind this way of thinking, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists were under the impression that the formation of a constitution and a strong federal government was needed. On the opposite political end there were The Anti-Federalists, were opposed to the idea of a constitution because they worried that the government and the people running it would become too corrupt and powerful. They also believed that a smaller central government was needed with larger governments at the state levels. This smaller central government would be similar to what was formed under the Articles of Confederation. Both sides bring very good arguments, and it is impossible to truly know whether one side’s plan of government would have been better than the other. But when looking at the facts of where our country came from, and where our country is

An example of this is the Anti- Federalist concerns about a republican government not working on a scale this large or diverse. Like the Roman empire, whose government was based on the idea on classical republicanism, they believed it would fall and turn into a monarchy in order to control its people. The Federalist needed a theory to combat this argument so James Madison complied wrote in Federalist 10 that factions were the great enemy of society. Madison defines a faction as “a number of citizens,... who united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Factions are dangerous because there will be a majority faction and then a risk of tyranny will arise, because the

When the United States declared itself a sovereign nation, the Articles of Confederation were drafted to serve as the nations first Constitution.Under these Articles, the states held most of the power; but due to an almost absent centralized government, colonists were ill-equipped to deal with such practices as regulating trade both between states and internationally, levying taxes, solving inter-state disputes, negotiating with foreign nations, and most importantly enforcing laws under the current notion of "Congress". Realizing that there were several deficiencies in the current system of self-government, the states appointed delegates to ratify the situation and come up with a way to attain the aforementioned practices they needed to

The early years of the Constitution of the United States were full of political strife. The two prominent political ideals were complete opposites. The Jeffersonian Republicans were focused on giving power to the people and maintaining a pastoral economy, while the Federalists supported the control of the government by the elite class, and maintaining “positive” democracy. Both parties feared the influence and effect the other party would have on the public. In Linda K. Kerber's article, “The Fears of the Federalists”, the major concerns Federalists held in the early 19th century are described. Ever since the war with and separation from England, the citizens of America were seen to be continually drive to “patriotic rebellion” as a way to

While the anti-Federalists believed the Constitution and formation of a National Government would lead to a monarchy or aristocracy, the Federalists vision of the country supported the belief that a National Government based on the Articles of the Confederation was inadequate to support an ever growing and expanding nation.

Federalist paper NO.10 is Madison 's first essay discussing factions of government. Madison 's says “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control violence of faction”. To summarize what Madison says, the constitution creates a government capable of controlling the violence and damage caused by factions.

However, a look at the American Civil War will prove that the federal government is also able to be overtaken by factions. Was it not in fact two large factions that tore the country in two ending in a United States forced back together by the threat of more war and death? While these two factions could be seen as a coalition of factions at first glance, under Madison’s definition, they are in fact only two factions. Since a faction is defined as Madison to be “a number of citizens… 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.” So the factions fighting for states’ rights, Southern nationalism, and the continuation of slavery are all in fact one faction united since all of these interests are represented and intersect at a South free of federal control. Similarly, the Northern factions of abolitionists, American nationalism, and expansionism collided at the interest of maintaining a united United States, since this would force the freeing of Southern slaves, inhibit the expansion of slavery into the territories, and maintain an America for supports to have nationalism in. These two factions created the very “general conflagration through other States” that Madison declared the federal government would protect against. These two factions were not only able diametrically polarize the majority of a nation but also remain unified enough to tear the nation in

Since time began, it has always been human nature for man to compete and win. Just like when it comes to majorities and minorities, majorities tend to overpower minorities. Guinier makes a great point when she brings up, Madisonian Majorities, which are minorities working with the majority to achieve a solution. By working in this format, we could achieve so much more in much peaceful ways. Madisonian majorities could be best applied to a democracy, because both the majority and minority can work together to satisfy the needs of its citizens. Madisonian Majorities helped shape countless laws that many Americans benefit from today, including the architecture of our government. Therefore, Madisonian Majorities are vital to a democratic

James Madison, an American statesman and political theorist that was present at the constitutional convention. Many of the ideas proposed by Madison are part of the reason that the Constitution has withstood the test of time. Madison was ultimately prepared to deal with one of the biggest problems this new government would face in his eyes, factions. Factions, which as defined by Madison are “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 and aggregate interests of the community” (Madison 156). Madison addresses various ways that he sees factions can be cured of its