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Differences Between James Madison And The Constitution

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Desirae Beilby James Madison and the US Constitution The United States of America’s first government was known as the Articles of Confederation, a government that had a weak one house, national legislature with most of the power resting with the states. This first government did not work well for the growing country which led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. At this Constitutional Convention, James Madison and many other men got together to work on framing and drafting the US Constitution of 1787. There were numerous concerns addressed such as representation for small vs large states which lead into the concern for slavery vs individual rights. A major issue James Madison dealt with regarded democracy and governmental powers. James Madison was the principle writer and framer of the US Constitution. In order to address the interests of the large and small states regarding representation, the framers put a bicameral legislation in place. One house was the House of Representatives based on population as the large states would like, and the other was the senate based on equal representation with two members per state as the small states would like. The bicameral legislation was one of many checks on pure democracy and majority rule …show more content…

His checks on pure democracy and majority rule included his bicameral legislation, the Bill of Rights, the separations of powers with the system of checks and balances, and the electoral college. He put many checks into place against pure democracy and majority rule because he was worried about their affects when creating a government to oversee a large country with a large population. James Madison’s thoughts on pure democracy and majority rule along with many opinions he had that were involved in the creation of the constitution were mentioned in his essay Federalist 10 from 1787. Madison

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