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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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Regarding the constitution James Madison and his fellow delegates had a challenge to write a strong constitution to hold the people and the states together The Constitution guards against tyranny by creating Separation of Powers and Small and large States. Furthermore the separation of powers is guarded by the constitution . The three

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1. One of Madison’s proposals that was rejected, was the idea to give Congress the power to veto any state laws. This would have changed the government today because every state law would have to be sent to congress in order to be passed. This would delay the nations lawmaking ability and create a jam. There would be thousands of laws in Congress waiting to be approved and it would end up taking years for one law to be passed.

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James Madison, along with other U.S Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in 1789 to establish a stable government for many years to come. It was very important to enforce that all men are created equal and to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the country. What the Framers meant by “securing the blessings of liberty” is the rights they fought for in the American Revolution. They didn’t want to be ruled by tyranny, but to be governed by elected officials who the people voted on. They wanted to make sure the goals of the constitution were being met.

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He believed the local state assemblies abused their powers, only spoke for their local interest, changed their membership constantly, and enacted unjust laws. He believed ratifying the Constitution to a strong central government was the only option for the young country to succeed. Madison adopted David Hume’s idea, a strong republican government might perform better in a large setting rather that a small one. He convinced the American public of this idea through a series called the Federalist Papers. Madison thought a citizen’s rights were more protected with a central government rather than a local state government.

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James Madison wanted to prevent tyranny so he framed a new Constitution because the Articles of Confederation wasn’t working. This constitution will include federalism, separation of powers, check and balances, and having the power of larger and smaller states balanced. Federalism is one way the constitution guards against tyranny. Federalism the powers given to states and central government and what powers they share.

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Madison’s essay reflects the fear many had of a tyrannical government and the desire to ensure that the country didn’t revert back to that which it had just escaped from. He notes the necessity to prevent any one faction or group from gaining too much power and oppressing those in the minority. The separation of powers was set in place to ensure that this could not happen. Even if one group decides they want something, the other two have the equal authority to prevent it should it not represent the country as a whole.

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James Madison was proposing the plan of splitting the government into three groups, the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. This would give each branch an equal amount of power with each branch doing a different job. Federalism prevents one branch from becoming too powerful and this is

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He believed in a balance of power system and laid the foundation we have used for centuries to keep the uneasy peace between the polar opposite viewpoints of the Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideals. He highly influenced the Constitution and was a major supporter of developing the separation of powers. He explained the relationship between government power and economic power; where an economic difference between states could breed conflict. His solution to this was that a strong, effective, well-balanced national government could bring stability and prosperity. He and Jefferson both differed with Hamilton over how strong the executive should be, but unlike Jefferson, Madison developed a more subtle approach that hinged on balancing the power.

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10 in an attempt to ratify the Constitution, the new form of government for the United States. In the Federalist Paper No. 10, Madison analyzed the way to deal with facts, made a comparison between a pure democracy and a republic, and made another comparison on whether a small government or a large government would be the best for America. He informed the people that there is not a way to completely get rid of factions, but there are ways to deal with them. One great way to deal with factions is by having a government that knows how to control and deal with their effects. Madison believes that a republic can do that job better than a democracy, because a democracy is a small society of people who can not admit there is a cure to factions.

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In Federalist 51, he focuses on how the Constitution divides the power of the government into three branches and so no one branch would have too much power. This was done by using the checks and balances system. Madison believes that each branch should be, for the most part, independent, but, to avoid any branches from abusing its power, no branch should have too much power in choosing the members of another. He says that to follow this rule strictly, the people of the United States would choose all members of all branches, but difficulties would arise as the people may not be aware of the best qualifications for each position. So, the branches check one another and the people elect the members other than in the judicial branch, whose members are chosen by the executive branch.

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With this quote, Madison describes the Founders’ intent to design a government which could self-balance and obstruct the majority’s monetary impulses. Specifically, the Founders believed that factions, groups of people united by common interests and passions, would quickly assemble and attempt to impose their will on the nation out of self-interest. Consequently, the Founders fashioned the Constitution with in-built roadblocks, separation of powers along with checks and balances, to pit factions against one another to slow down the government’s legislative abilities. For instance, the Founders created two houses within Congress to cause factions from multiple constituencies to check one another. As stipulated by the Constitution, small districts

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Former President James Madison is most known as the Father of the Constitution, but many don’t know that he was instrumental in the ratification of the Constitution with his writing in the Federalist Papers. Federalist 39 and 46 focus on the theme of federalism and the impact it has on the Constitution. Madison’s arguments had the goal of convincing the people of the importance of the Constitution, because the Constitution stood no chance of ratification if the populous did not favor it. Madison starts Federalist 39 by explaining that the Constitution would create a shift toward a republican style of government, where citizens would be represented by a congressman in the legislative branch.

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The Constitution addresses the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation which Madison talks about in his “Vices of the Political System.” In that, Madison points out 12 vices, or flaws, in the American political system. James Madison’s “Virginia plan” was the basis for the U.S. Constitution. His plan was to have a government with three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial. James Madison was the “record keeper” and took detailed notes during the Philadelphia Convention.

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James Madison wrote Federalist 51 over 200 years ago, yet its words still impact today’s government in 2016. When writing Federalist 51, Madison had two main objectives in mind; he wanted a government with a separation of powers, and he also wanted minorities to be protected. Both of his objectives have been accomplished and continue to be present in today’s American government with the latter objective being more present in today’s government even more so than in the past. To begin with, power is separated in today’s government, preventing a single person or group from having absolute power since, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” according to John Dalberg-Acton. The American government is composed of three branches which power is separated amongst.

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Madison is well known as the father of the constitution and he believed that the constitution was the perfect mix of representative republic and direct democracy. Writing the constitution was probably a tedious task because not only do you have to find laws that represent the whole people, but they must be laws that help the state as well as do not step on other toes. The well know author William Golding used similar government to democracy in his well-respected novel “Lord of the Flies”. Golding in lord of the flies shows a happy state under multiple leadership. Golding uses democracy rather than dictatorship as the best ideal form of government.

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