Development of the Constitution

Development of the Constitution

After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, many were skeptical on how promising the new Constitution would be to the neoteric country. One of many outspoken supporters of the Constitution was federalist James Madison. In an effort to support the Constitution, James Madison had the "The Federalist No.10" published in New York newspapers. Here, Madison not only defended the Constitution, but also analyzed the republic and discussed how it was much more effective than pure Democracy when dealing with factions.

Madison defined factions as being 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 further asserts in the federalist article that there are two ways of removing factions. First, by destroying liberty and second, "giving every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests." He then continued to illustrate his point of view by comparing liberty to faction. He says, "liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires." In other words, Madison is stating that liberty is essential to political life because it nourishes factions. In addition, Madison explains that creating a society in which people have same opinions is impractical

because "as long as the connection subsists between reason and self-love, opinions and passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other." Here, Madison is asserting that individualism causes people to have different opinions; hence, it would impossible to have every citizen think the same and have t...

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...owers includes the checks and balances. Checks and balances prevents any branch from becoming too powerful. Each branch's independence is protected. For example, the president can appoint the justices to the Supreme Court, but only with the approval of the Senate. In a pure democracy on the other hand, a handful of voters can control the laws that are passed and not passed causing tyranny in the governmental system.

The Preamble states, "We the people of the United States…establish this Constitution." James Madison, "The Father of the Constitution" believed that a republic was far superior to pure democracy. Many of his political ideas were stated in "The Federalist No. 10" article and the United States Constitution further supports his

ideology. Overall, it can be concluded that Madison was an important figure in the development of the Constitution.