Verified Document

Federalist Papers According To The Constitution Of Essay

Federalist Papers According to the Constitution of the United States, this nation was founded under the principles of individual freedom and individual voice. America was designed to be a representative government by and for the people; a direct opposite of what the people had experienced when America was a British colony with no say in their government. If this was indeed to be a representative government, why then did the Founding Fathers put so much distrust into the American populous? Many of the processes of government in this nation are designed so that the influence of government people can interfere with the desires of the nation at large. The only logical explanation for this discrepancy is that the Founding Fathers believed in the principles of representative government but did not have faith that the citizens of the United States could make the proper decisions about policy.

It must be noted that at the time the United States Constitution was written, many men in America were uneducated. Particulary in the South, a man's focus was traditionally his business and his family. Education was not the priority it is in modern society. Consequently, much of the voting public was unlearned. Those who created the government feared putting the ability to make direct decisions in the hands of uneducated individuals. However, they also feared putting too much power in the hands of any one individual. In Federalist Paper No. 51, James Madison explains why it is necessary to have separation...

Everyone was considered capable of ignoring what was in the nation's best interest in order to claim more individual power. "The remedy for this inconvenience is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit."[footnoteRef:2] It was not only that the Founding Fathers had distrust for the common man; they understood that everyone can be lured by false promises and misinformation. If all the power is taken from the people and invested in a representative body, it must be assured that those representatives will serve the people and not their own self-interest. [1: Madison, James. (1788). "The Federalist No. 51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments." Independent Journal.] [2: Madison, James. (1788). "The Federalist No. 51."]
Madison was also concerned that if each individual person was given a vote, nobody would be satisfied. The rights of the majority must be met without ignoring the desires of the minority. "It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited:

Madison, James. (1787). "The Federalist No. 10: The Utility as a Safeguard Against Domestic

Faction and Insurrection." Daily Advertiser.

Madison, James. (1788). "The Federalist No. 51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish

the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments." Independent Journal.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Federalist Paper 10, James Madison Discusses the
Words: 1547 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Federalist Paper #10, James Madison discusses the Union's ability to control and break the influence of specific factions over the governmental process. The paper includes many strengths, and a few weaknesses. Yet the overall paper convinced me of the purpose of the Union in this capacity. Federalist Paper # 10 begins with a discussion of the problem at hand, that of how to control the factions of a nation. The paper

Federalist Papers Governing One's Own
Words: 1734 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Efforts were made to check the power of the majority as well as the minority, for to achieve justice not simply in the perfection of the individual soul but to create a functioning and just government that has effective checks and balances that stymie the pursuit of happiness of its citizens, "is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its

Federalist Papers Written More Than Two Hundred
Words: 907 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Federalist Papers Written more than two hundred years ago, Alexander Hamilton's, John Jay's and James Madison's Federalist Papers remain completely relevant in describing American political philosophy and clarifying the country's political history. The Federalist Papers outline some of the main causes for the creation of a new nation based on fundamental rights, freedoms, and personal liberties. As their title suggests, the papers set forth an argument in favor of a strong

Federalist and Anti-Federalist Review Federalist Papers Were
Words: 1217 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Federalist and Anti-Federalist Review Federalist papers were written in support of the ratification of the U.S. constitution while anti-federalists were written in opposition of the same. The most important papers in federalist series were paper 10 and 5 both written by James Madison on the subject of power distribution within the federation. Anti-federalist paper 3 was written under the pseudonym Brutus and meant to oppose the arguments raised by Madison on

Federalist Papers Closely Analyze the
Words: 1087 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Proposal

" However, the legislature, more so than the executive or even the more qualified judiciary must dominate, not because the legislature is more representative, but because, as it the legislature is even further divided into two bodies, this ensures that it will be the least tyrannical. In short, the less able a branch of government is able to agree within itself, the better -- and the less able the three branches

Federalist Papers Why to Ratify
Words: 958 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

However, Madison believed that a republican form of government could control for the impact of factions on the political process. Madison believed that a republican form of government had several advantages over a straight democracy. First, under a democracy, there is no delegation of power to elected officials, which would make it unduly cumbersome to govern a country as large as America. Second, Madison believed that by entrusting the government

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now