Federalist Papers Why to Ratify

Federalist Papers

Why to Ratify the Constitution

According to James Madison, one of the primary reasons for Americans to ratify the Constitution was because it provided for a republican form of government. Madison believed that the republican form of government was better suited to control the impact of factions on the political process than a straight democracy. This was due to the fact that in an open political environment, the development of various factions was inevitable. Therefore, to develop a democracy that ensured the rights of the people, regardless of their individual beliefs, one had to do more than to put political power in the hands of the majority. On the contrary, one had to develop a means to give all men a voice in the government and protect all rights. According to Madison, the means to do so was the republican form of government.

Madison was not the only one of the country's forefathers concerned with factions. On the contrary, at the time of the constitutional convention, factions were a source of concern for the majority of Americans. According to Madison:

Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, 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. (Madison)

This concern highlighted the problem of factions, which Madison defined as "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." (Madison). That factions were a problem at the time the Constitution was drafted should not be surprising; although united in their goal to throw off the yoke of English oppression, the several colonies had enjoyed different types of governments, had different goals, and held different values. Therefore, a legitimate fear of these early Americans was that any national government would compromise the rights of the individual states.

While Madison acknowledged that one might attempt to prevent the development of factions, he understood that doing so threatened the liberty of all men. Because the "latent causes of faction" were "sown in the nature of man," Madison believed that a government had to be able to control for the effects of factions. (Madison). He believed that a republican form of government could do so. First, he believed that, "If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote." (Madison). However, Madison also acknowledged that factions could constitute a majority, which, under popular government, would endanger the rights and welfare of the minority. 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 to a small group of elected officials, one might be able to avoid the clashing and fighting that marked the existing political debate. However, Madison was not na ve; he recognized that a republican form of government was ripe for abuse if the elected offices were held by factious persons. To remedy that problem, Madison suggested that the number of elected officials be sufficiently large, "in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude." (Madison).

America's immense size also called for something other than a pure democracy, which was not dictated by practicality. Madison recognized that people in local areas were more likely to have closely aligned interests than people in disparate geographies. Therefore, a large territory demanded a republican form of government because a large territory was more likely to have factious groups. However, though a large territory was more likely to have factious groups, it was less likely that any of those groups would form a majority, which would have enabled the unjust oppression of the minority. "Hence, it clearly appears, that the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic, -- is enjoyed by the Union over the States composing it." (Madison).