Federalist Paper Checks And Balances

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The Federalist Papers, written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, served as one of the most important political documents in United States history. The founders carefully crafted this collection of essays to come up with a government that is truly unique and unlike any other. Some of the most memorable essays are 10, 51, and 78, which were a composition of ideas on honesty, reasoning in leadership and power, and balancing a political system. The United States government falls under the category of constitutional federal republic. Firstly, it is constitutional because we accept the Constitution as our most supreme set of laws that we must abide by. Secondly, the United States is a federal government, because it splits …show more content…

It is noted by Hamilton and Madison that the most powerful branch, however, is the legislative. In Federalist No. 78, Hamilton stated that the judicial branch was perhaps the least dangerous of the three, due to the fact that it will not put the liberty of the people at risk, as opposed to the executive and the legislative. He mentions that as long as all three branches are separate, then the judiciary “will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it has the least capacity to annoy or injure them.” The executive branch “holds the sword” and the legislative “commands the purse.” The judiciary, controlling neither sword nor purse, neither “strength nor wealth of the society,” has neither “FORCE nor WILL but merely …show more content…

51, Madison states, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Madison made it clear that we, as humans, can have natural qualities engraved in our personalities such as greediness, corruptive behavior, and ambitiousness, and that the government we create should be one that will not be torn down by such qualities, but be able to cooperate with them. In addition, Madison believed that a republic, in general, can oftentimes lead people into taking advantage of political powers, making it a difficult form of government to control—he states, “…in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control