Federalist Papers 10, 51, 78

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All of the federalist papers were written for the purpose of convincing Americans that a strong federal government was needed. After the USA won the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress became useless. Each of the states had absolute veto power over any action this Cogress could take, and unanimous agreement never occurred. For about ten years after the revolution, all of the states behaved like independent countries. This suited most state citizens and rulers.

There were two primary reasons why some of the independent state's rulers were willing to give up SOME of their power to a federal government. First, they saw that interstate commerce was not growing as rapidly as it could. This was because each state had its own laws and could impose its own taxes. The multiplicity of laws and tarrifs, as an example, frustrated the ability of a businessman (including farmers) to take a product from state A to state B and sell it at a profit. This especially hurt the state's eastern merchants who generally controlled the states' governments.

The second reason some of the independent state's rulers were willing to give up SOME of their power was fear. There were many mini rebellions in the various states after the war was over, like Shay's rebellion. The rebellions occurred because the average farming population, who lived on the western fringes of the states, were being taxed out of the homes and farms, in order for the new State governments to repay the money lent to the revolution by the rich merchants in the eastern parts of the states. In addition, despite high taxes, the needs of the farmers (like protection from the indians) were being ignored by the wealthy eatern merchants who were the state's leaders. The state leaders saw the need for a strong army to be ready to stop these various revolutions.

At the same time, many Americans, after just getting through a war to get rid of a distant ruling elite (in England) had no desire to create another ruling elite for the united states.

All of the federalist papers were written to convince people in the united states that a stronger federal union was needed AND that this stronger union would NOT infringe on individual rights, as the old (English) government had done.

Federalist Papers number 10, 51 and 78 all dealt with how the new central government could not become too destructive of individual freedoms because of the Constitution's concept of separate powers for the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government, each of which would have their own sphere of powers and each of which would serve as a check against abuses of the other two.

In Federalist paper 78 Alexander Hamilton explained why the Supreme Court, the third party in the proposed Constitution, along with the office of the president and the congress (i.e. executive, legislative and judiciary) would not be all powerful and, therefore, not likely to infringe upon individual freedom. He wrote, "Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. Hamilton went on to explain that "The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community" while the "legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated." Hamilton went on to explain that the Supreme Court would have no influence over either the Congress or the Presidency. He also said that justice would not be capable of being bought by the rich, noting that the jusdiciary would have "no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments."

Hamilton summed up his views of why citizens of a new United States need not fear the Supreme Court, saying his "simple view of the matter suggests several important consequences. It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself."

Paper 78 also argued for the lifetime tenure of judges, provided they exhibited good behavior.

Federalist 51 was written by James Madison and attempted to explain why the division of powers between the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of goverment would protect citizens. He also felt that checks and balances would occur because direct voting for the House of Representatives would ensure the voice of the average person in Congress while the method (in the proposed constitution) for choosing the Senate and the President, with strong state government input, would help to assure the state government's power. Of course, this has all changed today. All of the federal government is popularly elected and state governments retain few of their historic rights.

In addition, because each branch has distinct, neccessary governmental function to perform, there is good reason, for example, to have each somewhat dependent upon the other, for example by having Supreme Court appointees have qualifications determined by the Senate and executive Branch.

Madison, however, did not want gridlock. He explains in this paper the need to keep the branches of Goverment minimally dependent on the others.

Madison then explains the strict Constitutional interests of each department, admits to the power of ambitions each branch would have, but explains why the structure of government will only allow the members of each branch to improve the effectiveness of their departments, not their relative strength with regards to the people or other branches. He erroneously felt that the the Constitution would be strictly adhered to, and that a "territorialism" at the federal level of government would ensure no branch got too big.

Madison obviously did not feel we would ever have an imperial presidency. He demonstrates this by noting that "If men were angels, no goverment would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external, nor internal controls on goverment would be necessary." Madison believed the structure of his Constitution would be strictly adhered to, and that the structure would be sufficient to prevent the growth of dictatorial presidents, like Franklin Roosevelt. Madison felt the new United States goverment would be safegaurded not only by external controls (such as State Powers, that he describes in Federalist Papers 48 and 49), but further by the internal controls he described in this paper.

He also felt, as Hamilton stated in 78, that the legislative branch would be the most powerful, and further divided in this power by the Senate's and House's different tasks.

Madison also spent some of this paper discussing the protections from a big central government because of the division of individual rights surrended to the state and federal goverments. The specific powers of the Federal goverment are defined in the Constitution, the other rights were supposedly to be the States. Madison seemed to really believe that the State Goverments would keep the federal powers limited. He lived to discover this would not be the case.

Given all of this structural separation of power, Madison proclaimed that it was improbable that any faction (sepcial interest group) that held interests contrary to the interests of the whole, could ever gain control. "Justice is the end of goverment. The combination of checks and balances in the Federal Goverment, bolstered by the ambitions of those occupying the offices, watched by the people provided internal and external safegaurds to liberty under the Constitution."

In Federalist 10 Madison again showed that he understood human nature. He understood that special interest groups would try to use the government to get their own way. Again he drew upon the concept of the separation of powers, clearly expressed in the Constitution, as a way to prevent this, even if politicians and their special interest groups were to lie.

If lying politicians and special interest groups were to stoop to spreading lies or misinformation to poison a popular goverment and advance their interests, the factions spreading the lies would still not be able to overstep the Constitutions division of power. It would be improbable to believe that all of the separated powers or all of the people would buy into the same lies. If a majority, for reasons of expediency or short term passion, had interests detremental to liberty, Madison believed that through the process of a bicameral legislature the flawed logic would be exposed as beyond the realm of constitutional integrity. The House might go along with public opinion. The Senate would not. In the instance of a special interest minority wanting to benefiot themselves at the benefit of the many, the House would prevent such actions. Of course, Madison had no idea that Senators would also become popularly elected, or that special interest would be given court protection to buy elected officials with campaign contributions.

Without the benefit of seeing the future, Madison assumed that any sneaky deals, when exposed to being deliberated by the members of the two bodies (The Senate and The House) flaws of the sneaky idea would be exposed. He felt that the Constitution's required voting process would demand debate prior to a vote in both houses. He failed, of course, to recognize that politicians would perfect ideas such as "riders" which allowed them to simply place their sneaky deals into law, without argument. Madison closed this paper with his believe that "we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican goverment" In Madison's defense it should be noted that HIS constitution -- if strictly interpreted -- would have prevented many of the excesses of big government and big business that exist today. Unfortunately, The Constitutional principles began to deteriorate very early in the history of the United States.

All three of these papers are examples of trying to convince the citizens of the united states to truly become citizens of The United States. All three of these papers used logic to explain why the government constructed by the new Constitution would not affect individual liberties. All three of these papers focused upon the concepts of Separation of Power as one of the reasons the new federal government would not become to powerful. Madison's two papers both proved to be wrong.

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