Response paper 1

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James Madison wrote the Federalist Paper No.39 to answer critics concerning that the Union would become a republican form of government. He had also defined the term “republican government” in the paper to allow his readers to better understand the Framers’ intention to establish a republican government. Madison wrote in the second paragraph that a republican government is the only and rightful way that suits Americans and that self-government is practical and possible. “No other forms of government would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America: with the fundamental principles of the Revolution: or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.”

Madison went on to explain that the distinctive characteristics of the republican form of government could not be found by just reading political books. Madison gave the examples like Holland, Venice, and Poland. They were often described as republican countries, however the truth was that the power in all those governments was not derived from the people. Venice, for instance, “absolute power over the great body of people is exercised in the most absolute manner by a small body of hereditary nobles. ” Madison stated that a republican form of government is one that “derives all its powers directly and indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.” He stated that no government could be called republic if it derived its power from a small group of people or from a favored class. The Constitution made by the framers obeyed the republican principles by...

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...nstitution is considered as a federal constitution. In addition, Madison pointed out the difference between House of Representatives and the Senates in many aspects, one such example would be how they derive their powers. The House of Representatives derive its powers from the people, is national. On the other hand, the Senate, which derived their powers from the states, is considered as federal. Though with these differences, Madison said that the executive branch, which consists of both, would have a mixed character, federal and national.

Madison stressed that it is necessary for the new form of government to be both federal and national because it needs the nationalism to prevent the occasion when the concurrence of each state is needed to every decision and it also needs federalism to prohibit ultimate authority on people.

Works Cited

Federalist Paper No.39

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