Federalist Paper Essays (Examples)

Federalist No.

Primary Source Analysis

On September 17, 1787 the Constitution of the United States was signed by 39 delegates from 12 states in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after spending the summer debating the final form in the first Constitutional Convention. The Constitution represented in part an attempt to prevent the dissolution of the confederacy of states formed by the shared goal of independence, by forming a strong federal government (hodenhamel, 1987, p. 6).

Once the Constitution had been signed it had to be ratified by at least nine states before the federal government could be formed. To urge the states to ratify, a series of influential essays were published in New York newspapers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, under the pseudonym Publius (hodenhamel, 1987, p. 45). This collection of essays was called The Federalist Papers (Genovese, 2009).

Historians have since recognized that the most influential of…

References

Genovese, Michael A. (Ed.). (2009). The Federalist Papers. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Retrieved from  http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/Open.aspx?id=276510&src=2 

Madison, James. (1787, Nov. 23). Federalist No. 10: The size and variety of the union as a check on faction. New York Packet. Retrieved from  http://faculty.rcc.edu/sellick/Fed10.pdf . Also available in Genovese, 2009, p. 49.

Rhodenhamel, John H. (1987). Letters of liberty: A documentary history of the U.S. Constitution. Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles. Microfiche.

Project Title: Ratifying the U.S. Constitution
I chose this topic because I feel that our country went from being a loose union of individual states to being a nation with a central government when the Constitution was ratified. This was more important than the War for Independence, because it dictated the type of government we would have. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, wanted a strong central government. The Anti-Federalists wanted every state to be its own government. The guiding question for me is: Should the U.S. have ratified the Constitution or stayed a loose confederation?
I found most of my research online, using Google to help me with my web browsing. For primary sources, I was able to locate all the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers at Constitution.org and Yale.edu. This gave me a sense of what the actual debate was about at the time. For modern day perspective, I found…

Federalist Relevance

Madison's Relevance Today: Modern Echoes of Federalist No.

The Federalist Papers penned by James Madison, John Jay, and others in defense of the Constitution during the hotly contested period of its ratification remain some of the most significant documents in American political history to this date. Detailing the arguments of some of the men who helped to frame and influence the composition of the foundational body of laws and structure of government of what is now the most powerful nation on Earth, reading the Federalist Papers is akin to reading the minds of those that have helped to shape global politics and political ideals. At the same time, the fact that so many of the arguments made in these documents are now foregone conclusions, and that the rights and reasons invoked (not to mention the language in which they are invoked) seem so antiquated can make the Federalist…

Works Cited

Holdorf, William. The Fruad of Seat Belt Laws. Accessed 7 May 2012.  http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/the-fraud-of-seat-belt-laws/ 

Madison, James. Federalist No. 10. 1787. Accessed 7 May 2012.  http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm 

McCormack, John. PPP Poll: 33% of Voters Say Gay Marriage Should be Legal, 57% Say It Should Be Illegal. Accessed 7 May 2012.  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ppp-poll-33-voters-say-gay-marriage-should-be-legal-57-say-it-should-be-illegal 

NARLA. (2012). Politicization: A New Era for Women's Bodies. 2012. Accessed 7 May 2012.  http://prochoicenc.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/politicization-a-new-era-for-womens-bodies/

Federalists

Although it is now a ripe 65 years old, Leonard D. White's 1948 publication The Federalists remains highly relevant to studies of American history, politics, and governance. The Federalists is a seminal tome, and a benchmark with which to judge and evaluate subsequent writing on the subject of American public administration and its political and historical context. When it was published, reviewers were already calling the book "the first installment of what may already be called the definitive history of American public administration," (Hart, 1948, p. 703). As definitive as it was in 1948, the Federalists has been unsurpassed in the exact subject and content that Leonard White addressed. The language, packaging, and overall feel of the book might give away its age, but its endurance is due to more important matters such as erudite scholarship, reliance on primary sources, and unrelenting thoroughness.

One of the most enduring aspects…

References

Gaus, J.M. (1948). American administrative history: Review of The Federalists. Public Administration Review 8(4): 289-292.

Hart, J. (1948). Book reviews: The Federalists. Retrieved online:  http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2383&context=lcp 

John, R.R. (1996). In Retrospect: Leonard D. White and the Invention of American Administrative History. Reviews in American History 24(2): 344-360.

Roberts, A. (2009). The path not taken. Public Administration Review 69(4): 764-775.

Anti-Federalist & ill of Rights

The Anti-federalist vs. Federalist argument is one of the most heated political debates the United States has ever seen. Though the length of the actual debate was relatively short, lasting from October of 1787, when the final version of the constitution was approved by the first congressional convention to June of 1788 when Virginia was the first to ratify the constitution of the United States. The concepts ideas and standards that were set forth by both the anti-federalists and the federalists as well as other more moderate politicians are expressed throughout the foundational documentation of the United States.

Most notably the ill of Rights, or the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution are a reflective example of the compromises and victories of both sides but this can be seen elsewhere in the foundational documentation as well. Knowing this and being able to demonstrate…

Bill Of Rights" Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet  http://memory.loc.gov/const/bor.html 

Cato, New-York Journal, November 22, 1787 "To the Citizens of the State of New York." Constitution Society Homepage  http://www.constitution.org/afp/cato_05.htm 

Bill Of Rights" Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet

ratification of the U.S. Constitution pushed the nation to extremes: on the one hand were the Federalists, led by men like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison -- men who promoted the idea of a central government (the reasons for which they enumerated at length in their "Federalist" papers); on the other hand were the Anti-Federalists, led by men like obert Yates and George Clinton (Yates being the presumptive author of the pseudonymously penned Anti-Federalist papers under the name of "Brutus"). Each side had its own view, not just of government, but of humanity and the way in which political society should be organized. This paper will present the underlying fundamental perspective of each side and show why I would have sided with the Anti-Federalists.

The Federalist plan to organize the federal government was to make it capable of overriding the individual autonomy and authority of the individual states, which the…

References

Brutus No. 1. (1787). Retrieved from  http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus01.htm 

Brutus No. 3. (1787). Retrieved from  http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus03.htm 

Federalist No. 6 (n.d.). Retrieved from  http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed06.asp 

Federalist No. 7 (n.d.). Retrieved from  http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed07.asp

Federalist Papers are important to any analysis of the U.S. Constitution because they provided the philosophical and socio-political justification for the adoption of the Constitution. Prior to the ratification of the Constitution, the states were loosely united under the Articles of Confederation. However, Alexander Hamilton and his group of elites did not like that they could not be part of a federal/central government that oversaw and wielded power over the rest of the states. Thus, Hamilton penned many of the Federalist Papers (including Federalist no. 1) in order to combat the ideas expressed by the Anti-Federalists who condemned the Constitution as an attempt to subjugate states' rights.

The Federalist Papers may be read therefore as a series of a letters and arguments meant to sway the reader as to why the U.S. should adopt the Constitution in place of the Articles of Confederation. It is a body of writing that…

Federalism, Unitary, And Confederation

Federalism: Federalism is a political system of governance in which powers are divided among two levels of government, i.e., a central government and governments based in smaller political units, usually called states, provinces, or territories. In this system of government, the smaller political units surrender some of their political power to the central government, relying on it to act for the common good. (Davidson, Encarta article)

Comparison of Federalist, Unitary and Confederation Governing Structures

Other types of government structure are Unitary and Confederation. In a Unitary system, virtually all powers are held by the central government, although it may delegate some of its powers to local or city governments but such delegation is discretionary and for administrative purposes only. A confederation is similar to a federation but with far less power given to the central government. In confederations, the local governments retain most of the powers…

Works Cited

Davidson, Roger H. "Federalism." Article in Encyclopedia Encarta. CD-ROM Version, 2003

Federal Government." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. New York, 2000.

Theories of Government." A More Perfect Union: An exploration of American Democracy. 1999. Thinkquest Website. February 25, 2004 http://library.thinkquest.org/26466/theories_of_government.html

The word federal comes from the Latin term fidere, meaning "to trust."

Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution was ratified in the late 1780's by the original 13 states. But this new nation would experience a myriad of other changes by the turn of the century. With a new political system, westward expansionism and manifest destiny would guide the new American spirit. Of the most significant transformations on the American landscape of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were the parallel phenomena of the Industrial Revolution and the Second Great Awakening. One an unbridled attempt to expand the material world, the other a fanatical endeavor to revive religious sentiment, these movements were uniquely positioned in time. They would also pull the American psyche in two opposing directions.

The Second Great Awakening was a never-before seen Protestant revival movement that swept through the new nation. Preachers sought converts and converts sought church membership in record numbers. On the other side of the equation,…

Baltimore Advertiser, 18 Mar 1788)

(2) the second class was reported as comprised by "those descriptions of men who are certainly more numerous with us than in any other part of the globe. First, those men who are so wise as to discover that their ancestors and indeed all the rest of mankind were and are fools. We have a vast overproportion of these great men, who, when you tell them that from the earliest period at which mankind devoted their attention to social happiness, it has been their uniform judgment, that a government over governments cannot exist - that is two governments operating on the same individual - assume the smile of confidence, and tell you of two people travelling the same road - of a perfect and precise division of the duties of the individual." (No. 10 -- on the Preservation of Parties, Public Liberty Depends, 18 Mar…

References

The Anti-Federalist Papers (1788) Farmer No. 10. On the Preservation of Parties, Public Liberty Depends. 18 Mar 1788 )Baltimore Maryland Gazette. Retrieved from:  http://www.barefootsworld.net/antifederalist.html 

The Anti-Federalist vs. The Federalist. Polytechnic.org. (nd) *Based on the American Journey: A History of the United States by Goldfield, et al. Retrieved from:  http://faculty.polytechnic.org/gfeldmeth/chart.fed.pdf

American Political Philosophy: epublicanism

Within this paper, the general theory of republicanism will be presented. The conceptualization of republicanism discussed within the paper as an American political philosophy will be based on The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison in 1787. Initially, a brief overview of relevant background information on The Federalist Papers will be provided. This will be followed by a discussion of the primary components of republicanism as set forth within the works of Hamilton, Jay and Madison. A summary and conclusions will then be provided.

Overview of The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers have been suggested as representing one of the most important writing in American political thought (Yarbrough, 1986). It represents a collection of 85 letters written by Hamilton, Jay and Madison under the pseudonym of Publius. The letters were written to the American public and were initially published in a…

References

Hamilton, A., Jay, J. & Madison, J. (1961). The Federalist papers. C. Rossiter (ed.). NY: New American Library.

Yarbrough, J. (1986). The Federalist. News for Teachers of Political Science, (Spring 1986). 7 June 2003: http://www.apsanet.org/CENnet/thisconstitution/yarbrough.cfm..

Conservatism in America

Intellectually, it is indeed correct that post-orld ar II can be divided into two periods of conservatism: the period which emerged directly after the war (1945-1990) and the period from 1990 onwards. Traditionally as Ball explained, conservatism in America were opposed to rapid development and industrialization in the early 20th century: "From their point-of-view, this new mass society posed the same threat that democracy had always posed -- the threat that the masses would throw society first into chaos and then in despotism. In arguments similar to those of Plato, Aristotle, and more recently Alexis de Tocqueville, traditional conservatives maintained that the common people were too weak and too ignorant to take charge of government" (Ball, 108). Essentially, this meant that conservatism in the twentieth century revolved around the notion of self-restraint and a core belief pervades that only a small majority are suitable to govern, while…

Works Cited

Ball, Terry and Richard Dagger. Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal. London: Pearson, 2014. Print. .

Boland, Joseph. U.S. Political Thought: Lecture 2. 28 September 1995. website. 2013.

Carey, George, W. "The American Founding and Limited Government." Retrieved from: The Imaginative Conservative. Web.

Crick, Bernard. "The Strange Quest for An American Conservatism." The Review of Politics (1955): 359-376. print. .

Factions: Help or Hindrance

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, aided by John Jay, were responsible for writing eighty-five anonymous essays for the New York Journal in 1787 and 1788. These articles were known as The Federalist Papers, and they were intended to persuade people into ratifying the proposed Constitution. In The Federalist Paper Number 10, Madison responded to critics who had argued that the United States was too large, and had too many groups, or "factions," to be ruled democratically by a single government. Madison acknowledged the importance of factions in the opening paragraph, stating that, "Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction" (Rossiter, 1961). In prescribing how to rule and control the effects of factions, Madison detailed their relationships with other important concepts, such as liberty and property,…

Works Cited

Rossiter, C. ed. The Federalist Papers. New York: New American Library, 1961.

Presidential and Congressional Powers

In the simplest of terms, the differences in powers between Congress and the President is that Congress makes laws and the President enforces them. But, that description does a great injustice to the complexities of the roles of each. Congress is granted "all legislative powers" by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Those powers include the making of laws, coining money, declaring war, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, and maintaining the military. The powers of the President (Executive Branch) are outlined in Article II of the Constitution. They include the power of appointment and removal, the creation of executive orders, limited legislative powers, veto power, pardoning power, power to make treaties, and military powers separate from those of Congress. Both sets of powers, in conjunction with the Judicial Branch, form a balance of powers within the Federal Government. It is the purpose of this paper…

Referenced

Hamilton, J. & Madison, J. "The Federalist Papers" 52-67, 70-77. Online. Internet. Avail http://www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/federalist.Info Acc: Dec 13, 2002.

Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents. Seattle: Free Press, 1991.

" It seems as if Madison was as concerned as the 'anti-federalists' of the time concerning the structure of the new government and wished to alleviate those concerns by allowing each branch control over its own destiny, while at the same time giving the other two branches the authority to step in if something were to go seriously wrong. He was especially concerned of the legislature. He states; "If, therefore, the legislature assumes executive and judiciary powers, no opposition is likely to be made." (pg 308) He wished to ensure that event would not happen. He also states that the executive, similar to the legislative, branch could also be usurped and that there should be no elective despotism, whether that despotism was one man in the executive office, or a group of despots in the legislative, either situation would be unacceptable.

One of the reasons why Madison was worried about…

Works Cited

Kesler, C.R., Rossiter, C. (2003) the Federalist Papers, New York: Penguin Group

"

In this case, according to Alexander Hamilton, the court would have had the right to interfere and it would have had the superior power to declare the Texas statue void on its face.

However, Hamilton aside, our natural law and natural rights also prohibit first trimester abortion. Derived from Locke, Natural law and natural rights follow from the nature of man and the world. For instance, we have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of our nature, because of the kind of creatures that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.

Natural law has an objective, extrinsic existence. The ability to make moral judgment - or in other words, the capacity to know good and evil -- has immediate evolutionary benefits: just as the capacity to perceive three dimensionally tells one when one is standing on…

Today the outbound telephone marketing industry has given political campaigns the ability to reach out to a large group of targeted voters in a quick and quiet way, just below the radar. This notion went way beyond the small volunteer call centers that have existed for over forty years. It was essential for the technology to be in place and widely utilized. Political campaigns could not have put into production a complete industry of dissimilar companies, large and small, with many thousands of telephones in call centers. This was a revolution as one could target using any criteria from gender, age, vote propensity, income, level of education, to presence of children. One could shape the message even within a single calling agenda, so that they may be calling all women, but the script may be different for younger women in comparison to older women. And maybe most importantly, one can…

References

Bimber, B., and Davis, R. 2003. Campaigning Online: TheInternet in U.S. Elections, New

York: Oxford University Press.

Cornfield, M. 2005. Commentary on the Impact of the Internet onthe 2004 Election,

Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project, March 3.

philosophy of education through a historical and then through an explicitly Christian lens, with a focus on the political role of education, and the Christian philosophy of John Milton. Milton's 1644 works Areopagitica and Of Education are invoked to justify the true Christian purpose of education as being exposure to the sort of free expression and free exchange of ideas that are guaranteed in America under the First Amendment.

What would a true Christian philosophy of education look like? The answer might actually be surprising to the majority of Americans who identify themselves as Christian and seek a Christian education. In 2014, frequently Christian education can seem retrograde, a form of ressentiment and indoctrination that derides Darwinism and has a greater interest in upholding a political consensus than in embodying the ideals set forth by Christ Himself. I propose to examine a Christian philosophy of education through a somewhat unique…

References

Fish, S. (1971) Surprised by sin: The reader in Paradise Lost. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gaustad, E.S. (2005). Roger Williams. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gutek, G.L. (2011). Historical and philosophical foundations of education: A Biographical introduction (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Jefferson, T. (1778) A bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge. Retrieved from  http://candst.tripod.com/jefflaw1.htm

Harris (1979) noted that the work of Polybius on oman Imperialism can be viewed to be a much more closer/realistic account of the process that any other 20th century historians. Polybius was therefore very honest and at the same time reliable with his work on oman history (Davidson, 1991, p.10).

Polybius' contribution to the establishment of the U.S. constitution

The contribution of Polybius to the establishment of the U.S. constitution is well documented. His work on the separation of powers is indicated to have immensely influenced the U.S. Founding Fathers (Lloyd,1998). His work can therefore be regarded as one aspect of classical contributions to the U.S. constitution (Bederman,2008).The concept of separation of powers concerns the need for having separate and very distinct legislative, executive as well as judicial branches of a given government. This is one of the central features of the U.S. Constitution. Through this process of separation of…

References

Bederman, DJ (2008).The Classical Foundations of the American Constitution: Prevailing Wisdom. Cambridge University Press

Davidson, J (1991).The Gaze in Polybius' Histories James Davidson Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 81 (1991), pp. 10-24 Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

Hamilton, A.,Jay, J and Madison, J (1788).The Federalist Papers. Available online at  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1404/1404-h/1404-h.htm 

Harris, W.V. (1979) War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (I 979), esp. I1I 1- 13 and IIS-I 6.

Federalists, Anti-Federalists and the Constitution

The ratification of the US Constitution was an issue that essentially divided the thirteen colonies in two: on the one hand was the push by the Federalists for ratification. Their argument was that the thirteen colonies needed a centralized, federal government to ensure that the colonies themselves did not get into any trouble (either through in-fighting or through foreign wars). The Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, saw the Constitution as a gateway to the exact type of authoritarianism that the Revolutionaries had just opposed in the Revolutionary War. The Anti-Federalists wanted each individual state to mind its own affairs and, at best, for there to be a loose confederation among the states so that no one, single entity could assert itself over them all. This paper will examine the writings of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists in light of their historical context of the late…

In fact, during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Slonim notes that the need for a bill of rights was not even a topic of discussion until Virginian delegate George Mason raised the issue just several days before the Convention was scheduled to rise on September 17; Mason suggested that a bill of rights "would give great quiet to the people." Following this assertion, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts moved that the Convention add a bill of rights to the Constitution and Mason seconded his motion to no avail: "The Convention unanimously rejected the proposal by a vote of 10 to 0, with one state absent. Failure to heed Mason's counsel was to plague the Federalists throughout the ratification campaign" (emphasis added).

The first major confrontation concerning the ratification of the Constitution involving the need for a bill of rights occurred in Pennsylvania several weeks after the close of the Constitutional Convention; at…

Bibliography

Banning, Lance. The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Binkley, Wilfred E. And Malcolm C Moos. A Grammar of American Politics: The National Government. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1949.

Bernhard, Virginia, David Burner and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese. A College History of the United States, St. James: Brandywine Press, 1991.

Brant, Irving. The Bill of Rights: Its Origin and Meaning. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

45, for instance, where he argues that "the State governments may be regarded as constituent and essential parts of the federal government; whilst the latter is nowise essential to the operation or organization of the former. ithout the intervention of the State legislatures, the President of the United States cannot be elected at all." (Rossiter, 287) This is a position which suggests not only that the Federalists felt that significant power had already been entrusted to leaders at the state level, but also that this power is seen primarily as a function of the power of the federal government. Thus, we are given further confirmation that the Constitution was inherently a federal document.

In key segments of the debate such as that shown in the Anti-Federalist Paper No. 17, we can see that those who stood in opposition to the empowerment of federal authority derived from the Constitution were a…

Works Cited:

Mansfield, Harvey C. Jr., (1979). Selected Writings Jefferson. Harlan Davidson Press.

Rossiter, Clinton. (1961). The Federalist Papers. Signet Classics.

Storing, Herbert J. (1985). The Anti-Federalist. The University of Chicago Press.

The Nation (TN). (2008). The Antifederalist Papers. This Nation.com.

Articles of Confederation: The Articles of Confederation were approved in November, 1777 and were the basic format for what would become the Constitution and Bill of ights for the United States. There were, of course, deficiencies in the document, this was a new experiment and getting the delegates to agree in kind to pass any sort of document was challenging at best. The Articles did allow a semblance of unity, the further impetus to remain at war with the British, and the conclusion that there would be some sort of Federal government. The Articles, however, failed to require individual States to help fund the Federal (National) government, a template for an Executive and National Judicial Branch, or the issuance of paper money and a central banking system. In essence, the largest failure was the Articles' inability to allow a Federal government to regulate commerce, tax, or impose laws upon the…

REFERENCES and WORKS CONSULTED

Amar, a. (2005). America's Constitution: A Biography. New York: Random House.

Bailyn, B., ed. (1993). The Debate on the Constitution. Library of America Press.

Beeman, R. (2009). Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.

Random House.

10 was written so that people could see the good in the Constitution and why it was so very important that it be ratified and accepted by all of the states in the U.S.

Federalist Paper No. 10 (Madison, 1787) is an excellent primary source because it has been verified by scholars and historians throughout the ages, because it can be safely attributed to Madison as the author, and because it has so much historic significance for the United States overall. However, understanding that Paper in context is vital, or some of what Madison had to say will be lost. For that reason, a secondary source is needed. In this case, hodenhamel's (1987) Letters of liberty: A documentary history of the U.S. Constitution helps to show how Madison's (1787) Federalist Paper No. 10 was used as a part of something much greater. Taken by itself, the Paper is still significant.…

References

Madison, James. (1787, Nov. 23). Federalist No. 10: The size and variety of the union as a check on faction. New York Packet. Retrieved from  http://faculty.rcc.edu/sellick/Fed10.pdf . Also available in Genovese, 2009, p. 49.

Rhodenhamel, John H. (1987). Letters of liberty: A documentary history of the U.S. Constitution. Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles. Microfiche.

Both large states with a great population, they did not want to lose influence or power to a federal government. In particular, there was great debate in New York as existing political leaders feared a lose of power. The Federalists were those who supported the Constitution and include James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. They were the Federalist Papers that were published in New York and not only helped the Constitution to be ratified, but guided the direction of the new American nation. Those who opposed a strong government were the anti-federalists and they feared America would turn into a corrupt nation like Great Britain.

George Washington, who would be the first President, was a federalist and had great influence and therefore helped the country to go in that direction. A Bill of Rights quelled further fears about the oppression of the federal government. In 1788 the Constitution went into effect.…

Saul Bellow

Henderson the Rain King

Saul Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976 for, among other things, the ability to give values a place side by side with facts in literature, unlike realism. The import of his work was seen as creating awareness that only the right values can give human kind freedom and responsibility, necessary foundations for building of faith in the future and a desire for action. Bellow's work was also recognized for its unique mixture of philosophy, cultural analysis and deep insights into human consciousness (The Nobel Foundation eb site).

Henderson the Rain King is an archetypical Bellow work bearing all the aforesaid characteristics. Henderson, the novel's principal character sets out on a journey ostensibly to Africa but primarily in search of himself. Bellow's portrayal of the unhappy, discontented middle-aged American millionaire has been widely interpreted as a caricature of Americans in the…

Works Cited

About The Declaration of Independence." The Library of Congress. July 1, 1997. Retrieved October 9, 2003: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3649/abt_declar.htm

Bellow, Saul. "Henderson the Rain King." New York: Viking, 1959.

Brutus. "First Anti-Federalist Paper." 18 October, 1787. Fortune City Web Site. Retrieved October 9, 2003:  http://www.fortunecity.com/millenium/okehampton/377/1stanti_federalist_brutus.html 

Charters of Freedom: Declaration of Independence." The National Archives

America was a wonderful experiment in freedom and democracy which had never before been attempted by any nation. Nations either tried to give power to the people in order to prevent monarchies from rising to despotic power, or they allowed monarchs, despots and other sole figure heads to rise to power. In the case of allowing the people to rule, Europe and European's had learned many times that unbridled power in the hands of the people was no more just than the rule of despots. obs could become just as dictatorial as individual monarchs who sat upon golden thrones. Until America came into existence, nations could only expect to exist for a short time before political turmoil would create change of government, and the nation would start over again.

So as America grew from a fledgling nation to a powerful and economically stable country, those who had watched democracy struggle…

Mill, John Stuart. Dissertations and Discussions. New York: classic Books. 2000.

Madison, James. Federalist paper #10. 1775

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America, essays on freedom. 1835. Accessed 21 May 2004. Website:  http://www.tocqueville.org

People

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a brief but stirring speech while the country was in the process of tearing itself apart in a civil war. During that speech President Lincoln stated a phrase that has helped to capture what democracy means. Lincoln told the audience that had gathered to dedicate a soldier's cemetery that the government that had been formed "of the people, by the people, for the people" would not "perish from the earth." In that phrase, Lincoln summarized what the founding fathers had hoped to capture in documents that shaped the system of government they believed was essential for prosperity and happiness for all mankind. The fact that the United States has remained in existence for more than 200 years does not necessarily mean that the ideals Lincoln spoke of are in existence today. In fact, many would argue that the concepts Lincoln captured in his…

Works Cited

Hamilton, Alexander, "Federalist Paper 79," Independent Journal 18 Jun. 1788

Madison, James, "Federalist Paper 37," Daily Advertiser 11 Jan. 1788

Madison, James, "Federalist Paper 52," New York Packet 8 Feb. 1788

S. Congress' prohibition of the practice and the Court's refusal to allow the practice, conflicted with the rights of individuals engaged in such practice. The actions of a religious group which are normally protected under the First Amendment and the laws of states like Utah that might wish to turn a blind eye to the practice were not allowed.

The states claim the social contract has been broken because the U.S. government has infringed upon individuals' liberty to marry more than one person and the states' rights to regulate matters not specifically delineated in the Bill of Rights. However, if this were the case that a state could secede every time the federal government disagreed with a state's definition of individual liberties. Virtually every constitutional dispute in the history of the nation, regarding the Bill of Rights, from abortion, to affirmative action, to gay marriage, to free speech, could justify…

Roger Wilkins presents perhaps the most complete picture of the Founding Fathers in his book Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism. It is Wilkins' argument that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison and George Mason were not the idyllic seekers-of-justice and equality that we have been taught, but rather they were wealthy slaveholders with political powers that were not always exercised is an "American" way. In light of this newly presented information, our former ideals need to be reevaluated against the ideas of black patriotism, as well as against our thoughts on patriotism in general. How could all men have been created equal, when African-Americans were not considered to be men at all? Indeed, Americans cannot fully come to understand themselves until they are able to understand who the aforementioned individuals were - no matter what the results.

Slaveholders were great politicians in our nation's…

government that governs least the best sort of government for a freedom-Loving nation to have.

Does the Government that Governs Least Govern the Best?: A Closer Look

That government is best which governs least." This statement has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, though there is no actual evidence of the statement in any of his extant writings. Whether Jefferson originally made this famous saying or not is inconsequential. The fact is, this saying has been repeated countless times over the past two centuries by proponents of democracy, states' rights, civil liberties, and all sorts of other precepts upon which our nation was supposedly founded. Those who believe that a true freedom-loving democracy consists of a government that stays out of the business of its citizens as much as possible are many and loud. There are many historically famous people who can be counted among the ranks of those who believe…

References

De Tocqueville, Alex. Democracy in America. New York: Harper Collins. (re-issue) 1988.

Publius. The Federalist Papers. New York: Signet. (re-issue) 2003.

The criticisms that de Tocqueville levels against American society, and especially against some of the particulars of its governance, continue in his discussion of the potential tyranny of the majority. Americans regard the majority much as Europeans viewed their king, according to de Tocqueville: it can do no wrong, and any wrong it does do is only due to bad advice or information. This subservience, according to de Tocqueville, creates the potential for a majority to rob a minority of its rights through legal means. While this danger certainly exists, however, de Tocqueville fails to demonstrate how it is worse than the tyranny of a monarch.

In addition to the arguments and political observation that de Tocqueville makes, there are other key features of Democracy in America that stand out to the modern reader as interesting tidbits of information, and aspects of American history that have perhaps not been fully…

This is reflected in the document where Jefferson expressly outlines the idea that all men have certain rights and are responsible for their own paths in life (Pilon, 2000). It is a product of its own era, and liberalism was the philosophy that drove much of the political actions in the early United States.

The same can be said of The Federalist. These were a collection of essays regarding the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. They are also set upon the basic premise that all people are created equal, and that humans have certain unalienable rights that a nation or state needs to respect and honor (Hamilton, et al., 2003). The men who wrote the essays were certainly trying to create a good regime through their own beliefs and values. Their ideas, which later led to the founding of a nation, are key in understanding what they believed a good…

Works Cited

Aristotle; ed. By Irwin, Terence. Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis, IN: Hacket Publishing, 1999.

Plato; ed.Jowett, Benjamin. Meno. Stilwell, KS: Digireads Publishing, 2005.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Scotts Valley, CA: Createspace Books, 2009.

Hobbes, Thomas; ed. Curley, Edwin. Leviathan. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1994.

Separation of Powers

It is well-known fact that political power is a very dynamic sphere of human relations and there is no doubt that democratic system is the most progressive result of complicated process of society development. Every citizen of any real democratic society knows that government is called to protect his individual rights and interests but at the same time it is clear from the pages of history that state machine was the main violator of citizens' rights.

It had been proved by thousand years of our history that state organs were not able to secure order and peace in the country, guarantee civil rights and provide effective domestic or foreign policy if political power were usurped by one person or group of them. Moreover, these people become dangerous to usual citizens and the main aim is to remove the amount of power they have to make it difficult…

References:

1. Madison, James Hamilton, Alexander Federalist Papers available at: www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

2. The United States Constitution Center for Civic Education 1997

3. Web-resource www.baldwintrustgroup.org

4. Montesquieu, C.L. The Spirit of Laws (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) Cambridge University Press; 1987

In Medieval times Christianity took over as the dominant form of ethics and through feudalism, divine law organized social and political hierarchy. As religiosity was replaced by humanism, and the Catholic church by alternative viewpoints (Protestantism) political and social structures were torn apart, forcing change and a decline in the structure of feudalism and the opening of a new, more individualistic, some say greedy, system of capitalism. Philosophies of the Age of Englitenment further distanced themselves from using religion as the sole basis for structure with such philosophers as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes and others holding that human existence was more individual -- and therefore more dependent upon individual morals and judgements. Romanticism took these ideas and, through fusion, merged them with ideas on nature, emotion, and the grand capacity for actualization, but again, through the individual (Tumin and Plotch, 1977; (luhm and Heineman). The modern age is…

Bibliography

Bluhm and Heineman. (2007). Prudent Pragmatism and Consensus: Case Ethics in Monist and in Pluralist Society. In B. a. Heineman, Ethics and Public Policy: Method and Cases (pp. 39-48). New York: Prentice Hall.

Hamilton, Jay and Madison. (1998, July 1). The Federalist Papers. Retrieved September 2010, from Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1404 

Hildebrand, D. (2003). The neopragmatist Turn. Southwest Philosophy Review, 19(1), 46-54.

Rescher, N. (2003). By the Standards of Their Day. The Monist, 86(3), 469-80.

Teaching the fundamentals does not necessarily mean stripping the fun out of learning, however. In fact, the best educators know how to balance the wishes of students with core concepts. For example, teaching Homers Odyssey could include both a close reading of the primary text, an analysis of the text using literary criticism, plus an analysis of modern manifestations of the work, such as the Coen brothers' film O Brother here Art Thou. Developing a broad-based curriculum can extend fundamental knowledge about literature, making that knowledge applicable to a wide range of literary works. hen educators are able to incorporate popular culture into a traditional curriculum, their work becomes creative and powerful. Students who can apply themes and philosophies to works beyond that which they encounter in the classroom have really learned something. However, by simply mimicking popular culture, the educator deprives students of the ability to think critically. A…

Works Cited

Coen, J. And Coen, E. (2000). O Brother Where Art Thou? (feature film)

Homer. Odyssey.

Parker, T. And Stone, M. (1997) South Park (television series)

Bernard Bailyn

For years, historians had been writing that the American evolution was the virtuous reaction to England's curtailment of rights. Then, in 1967, Harvard history professor Bernard Bailyn added his additional theory of ideology. In his book, The Ideological Origins of the American evolution, Bailyn agreed that the settlers were principled. Yet that was not the main cause of the discontent. Instead, he said, the settlers had inherited the suspicion of dangers that lurked with power of one entity over another. ather than seeing England's actions as solely unintended slipups, the colonists were paranoid enough to read them as part of a political plot. Obsession, not principles, led to the revolution.

Four decades later, no one is surprised that Bailyn comes up with a different twist to history. "For the last five decades Bernard Bailyn has been the preeminent colonial American historian'1. According to Professor ichard Beeman of the…

References Cited

Bailyn, Bernard Bailyn. "The Challenge of Modern Historiography." The American Historical Review, 87, No. 1 (1982): 1-24.

John Hopkins University. "The First Americans. A History of U.S.: Teaching Guide and Resource Book." Center for Social Organization of Schools Talent Development Middle Schools, 2001.

Rakove, Jack. "Bernard Bailyn: An Appreciation." Humanities, 19, No. 2. (1998): np

Shapiro, Edward. "A historian's historian, Bernard Bailyn, demonstrates once again why he is America's most trenchant historian." World and I, 18, no.7, (2003): 224.

Communication and Super-Saturation of the Modern Sense of Self

"How does the design of information structure the information process? And how, on the other side of the equation, does the nature of audience engagement structure its reception?"

Communication by its very nature is a dialogue. One person or medium speaks. Another individual or an audience of individuals receives the word or the message being conveyed. As with any performance, particularly a live performance, the method of transmission of the message conveyed invariably affects the message itself.

This is demonstrated in its most raw form during an improvised performance piece such as that of a stand-up comic. The comic realizes that he or she is not getting a favorable reception from the audience.

They are yawning, or signaling to the waiter that they would like some new drinks. The comic takes stock of this information, realizing that he or she is…

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Gergen, Kenneth. The Saturated Self. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

O'Barr, William. Culture and the Ad. Oxford: Westview Press, 1994.

Analysis of the Issues: The ethical concern for the rights and welfare of viable infants is certainly a legitimate concern, but the central ethical analysis that pertains to stem cell research revolves around the issue of defining human life appropriately. Objective criteria like anatomical development, cognitive awareness, and above all, sentience of any degree and in any form are all legitimate bases for the definition of life and for identifying the period of gestation corresponding to the earliest conceivable safeguards necessary to prevent suffering.

On the other hand, purely subjective doctrinal claims without objective criteria of any kind are wholly inappropriate bases for defining scientific concepts like when life begins. The fact that human development varies among individuals and that it may be impossible to know exactly where sentience and other elements of "humanness" first begin in the fetus does not mean that it is impossible to identify periods of…

References

Dershowitz, a.(2002) Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age.

Boston: Little Brown, 2002

Healy, B. On Health: The Other Stem Cells; U.S. News & World Report (Jun. 14/04), p. 77.

Hellemans, a., Bunch, B. (1998) the Timetables of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster.

In the period between the evolution and the drafting of the Constitution, Jefferson noted that the eventual existence of a dictator in place of a king in Ancient ome clearly indicated the existence of real failings within the oman system:

dictator is entirely antithetical to republicanism's "fundamental principle...that the state shall be governed as a commonwealth," that there be majority rule, and no prerogative, no "exercise of [any] powers undefined by the laws." "Powers of governing...in a plurality of hands." (Zuckert, 1996, p. 214)

As a result, Jefferson, like the philosophes before him (and the Iroquois) would turn to ideas that would balance the necessary evils of government power with the rights of the people. James Madison agreed wholeheartedly, and urged in "Government of the United States" that a constitutional government based on separation of powers was the only sure way of preventing the country from taking the "high road…

References

 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8969577 

Black, E. (1988). Our Constitution: The Myth That Binds Us. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001637570

Brooks, C.K. (1996). Controlling the Metaphor: Language and Self-Definition in Revolutionary America. CLIO, 25(3), 233+.

America went from being a loose union of individual states to being a nation with a central government when the Constitution was ratified. This was more important than the War for Independence, because it dictated the type of government we would have. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, wanted a strong central government. The Anti-Federalists wanted every state to be its own government. The guiding question of this essay is: Should the U.S. have ratified the Constitution or stayed a loose confederation? This paper will show why the U.S. was better off not ratifying the Constitution and remaining a loose confederation of states.
An interesting article at Mises Institute by Gary Galles argued that history has proven that the Anti-Federalists were right in their fears of what would happen should a central government be founded. As Galles notes, the Anti-Federalists were opposed to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution because they…

Political Ideology

My political ideology is based on my reading of the early Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. When I read these papers I realized that the way our country works today was really shaped by events back then during the days of the founding of the country's constitution. I used to be a Constitutionalist and identify with the libertarians led by on Paul, who pushes to uphold the Constitution. But after reading the Anti-Federalist Papers, I realized that the Constitution itself was never really a good thing: it was essentially designed to take power away from the states and place it in the hands of a central government, an idea promoted by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 6, n.d.). The Anti-Federalists viewed this as a violation of the freedom and autonomy they had just won from England in the evolutionary War (Brutus No. 1, 1787). If the…

References

Brutus No. 1. (1787). Retrieved from  http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus01.htm 

Federalist No. 6 (n.d.). Retrieved from  http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed06.asp 

Jamieson, A. (2016). Brexit Poll: Majority of Brits want to leave EU as referendum looms. NBCNews. Retrieved from  http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/brexit-referendum/brexit-poll-majority-brits-want-leave-eu-referendum-looms-n593441

Military

The colonists' most revered military institution was the militia, a model inherited from their forebears in England. The philosophical underpinnings of the militia model are easy to understand: "fear of a standing army," (Millet and Maslowski 1). A standing army can turn against its people, staging what now would be called military coups one after the other. During and especially after Independence, the validity, effectiveness, efficiency, and relevance of the militia model was called into question. This is why the United States Constitution eventually included the provisions for federalized systems of national security. Naturally, the existence of a standing army to "provide for the common defense" would be required. Independence required an organized military strategy against a powerful Empire; to protect the new nation, it was certain that the military would be necessary to preserve all that hard work. The Constitution therefore enabled the creation and maintenance of standing…

Works Cited

Boot, Max. "The New American Way of War." Foreign Affairs. 2003.

Jay, John. "The Federalist 2." Independent Journal. Oct 31, 1787.

Madison, James. "Federalist 41." Independent Journal. Jan 19, 1788.

Millet, Allen R. And Maslowski, Peter. For the Common Defense. Free Press, 1994.

In this encouragement, American would help to touch off something
perhaps all the more miraculous given the proximity to its oppression to
the European peasantry at large. First in the doctrines which would be
formulated in the wake of French independence and secondly in the way that
Napoleon Bonaparte would begin the spread of such doctrines to a continent
driven by inequality, America's revolution could be said to have been the
opening round in the deconstruction of colonialism and feudalism throughout
Europe and thus, the world.
Drafted in the image of the American Declaration of Independence,
though perhaps more ambitious and sweeping even in its trajectories, the
Declaration of the Rights of Men would dictate a universal principle
arguing that all men are born equal and that any distinctions made between
men according to the social conditions must be terms agreed upon by all
parties. The constitutional document underscoring the…

Works Cited
Center for History and New Media (CHNM). (2005). Monarchy Embattled.
George Mason University. Online at
.

Chew, Robin. (2004). Napoleon I: Emperor of the French. Lucid Caf?.
Online at http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95aug/napoleon.html.

Locke, John. (2003). Two Treatise of Government, 14th. ed. Cambridge

American Constitution: A living, evolving document -- from guaranteeing the right to enslavement in the 18th century to modifications in favor of freedom in the 19th century

Constitution today protects the rights of all in its language, but this was not always the case in its text and spirit. As a political tactic as well as out of personal conviction and experience, Frederick Douglass' characterization of the American Constitution as an anti-slavery document is certainly an admirable piece of rhetoric. Douglass stated that although the America he spoke to at the time of his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, was a nation divided between free and slave states and territories, fundamentally America was and "is in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence" (396)

Slavery, Douglass stated, deprives an individual of his or her dignity, deprives an…

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Available in full text online at  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer  new2?id=DouMybo.sgm& images=images/modeng& data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed& tag=public& part=6& division=div2[29 Jan 2005].

Lincoln, Abraham. "First Inaugural Address: Monday, March 4, 1861." From Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S.G.P.O.: for sale by the Supt. Of Docs, U.S.G.P.O., 1989. Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/124/. [29 Jan 2005].

Madison, James. "Federalist No. 10." The Federalist Papers. Available in full text online ( http://www.thisnation.com/library/books/federalist/10.html ) [29 Jan 2005].

"The United States Constitution." Available in full text online  http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html . [29 Jan 2005].

ig vs. Small Government

The problem of government and public administration in the U.S. today is one that affects many people. The trend in politics in recent years is for voters to voice their anger and frustration with government by voting for outsiders, such as Rand Paul, Donald Trump and ernie Sanders -- candidates who challenge the status quo, overreach of big government, lack of accountability and lack of representation. However, what representatives like Ron Paul assert is that government is too big and that smaller government, according to the Constitution as it was initially devised, needs to be adhered to in order to protect citizens from big government.

The main point of this study is to understand whether the common citizen is in favor of big government or small government and what their perception of the role of government is in today's world.

This study uses relevant literature on…

Bibliography

Creswell, J. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five

Approaches. CA: Sage, 2007.

McCarthy, Justin. "In U.S., 65% Dissatisfied with How Gov't System Works." Gallup,

22 Jan 2014. Web.

Evolution of the Two-Party System in America

Most of the founding fathers of the United States were opposed to the formation of political parties considering them as "quarreling factions" that would foster corruption and hinder the public from freely judging issues on merit. Hence no provision was made in the U.S. Constitution for political parties. Yet a two-party has come to dominate the country's politics, with the Democratic and the Republican parties becoming the two dominant political parties in the U.S. since the mid-19th century.

As early as the 1790s, people with deferring vision of the country's future had started to band together in order to win support for their ideas. The faction that was identified with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President John Adams became known as the "Federalists" while those who supported Thomas Jefferson and James Madison came to be known as the "Democratic-Republicans." (Burke)…

Works Cited

Burke, Robert E. "Political Parties in the United States." Article in Encyclopedia Encarta. CD-ROM Version, 2003

Politics of the United States" Para on Political Parties. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2004. March 31, 2004.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States 

James Madison argued in his "Federalist Papers" against a system in which "factions" (parties) could seize control of the government

The present Democratic Party traces its roots to the Jeffersonian Republicans.

Revolution, Constitution and Enlightenment
The American Revolution and the ensuing U.S. Constitution put forward by the Federalists were both products of and directly informed by the European Enlightenment. The Founding Fathers were considerably influenced by thinkers like Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu (whose separation of powers served as the model of the three-branched government of the U.S.). This paper will explain how the European Enlightenment set the stage for the American Revolution and U.S. Constitution by putting out the ideas that the Americans would use as the basis of the political and social foundation.
The Enlightenment aka the Age of Reason was an Age in which natural philosophy assumed the vaulted position of guiding light over the preceding Age of Faith, which had served as the socio-political basis in Europe for centuries. The Reformation had upended the Age of Faith and introduced secularization into the political realm (Laux), particularly via…

This meant that President was not allowed to encroach upon the rights and powers of other branches. Hamilton further explains in the Federalist Paper # 75:

The essence of the legislative authority is to enact laws, or, in other words, to prescribe rules for the regulation of society; while the execution of the laws, and the employment of the common strength, either for this purpose or for the common defense, seem to comprise all the functions of the executive magistrate.

It was because the framers wanted to limit the powers of the President that his term was fixed at four-years. It was much later that the condition of twice consecutive terms was incorporated in the Constitution to further curtail the powers of the Executive branch. While the framers tried to control all braches of the government by means of limiting powers, they did intend to have a stronger executive branch…

Reference

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, accessed on 18th May 2005 at http://www.naawp.com/gov/fed/_nav/fed_nav.htm