Category — James Madison

The Founders distrusted overly strong governments. That’s why they engineered a limited republic. Today, Americans seem to turn to their government to validate and protect real and presumed rights, and increasingly rely on government to guarantee the substance of life. Many modern Americans embrace national authority and fight to enlarge governmental powers. The Founders would be appalled. What would the Founders think about growing government power? Here is what they said in their own words.

This has not been a particularly joyful season inside the beltway. All we’ve seen is a lot of clamoring, to little effect. In the hinterlands, we hear the echoes of the politicians’ raucous debate about government spending, government borrowing, and government intrusion into our homes and business. One side yells that the only solution is to tax the rich until they squeal, while the other side of the aisle insists we must reform entitlements or go the way of Greece. What would the Founders think about all this? Here is what they said in their own words.

Madison was involved in every major event of early American history, before, during and after the Founding. Richard Brookhiser’s serious, if too brief, biography of James Madison, is delightfully written, and replete with insights about the man and his time.

The Founders feared an overly powerful government. Governments govern … which means they exercise power. George Washington may have said it best, “Government is not reason: It is not eloquence, it is Force, like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” James Madison chimed in by adding, “The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”

The Enlightenment concepts of first principles and natural rights were important to the Founders. They served as the basis for the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and many other founding documents.

Our forefathers bequeathed to us more than a republic. They willed to us an enduring constitution that incorporates more thought and brainpower than any document ever written by man. After fifty-five convention delegates worked ceaselessly for four months, three million people argued about it for up to two years, then it was ratified by conventions of the people, and after it was put in force, Congress immediately acceded to popular demand by proposing ten amendments that restricted the government from abridging the rights of the governed.

An incredibly prescient letter from Madison to Jefferson, in which Madison offers his observations on the dangers of a tyrannical majority in a democratic system. Madison explains his views on the proposed Bill of Rights and one of the reasons for his reticence was simply because he didn’t care for all those who supported it!

“At the same time I have never thought the omission [of a Bill of Rights] a material defect, nor been anxious to supply it even by subsequent amendment, for any other reason than that it is anxiously desired by others.”

In 1812 the United States was ill-prepared for war, let alone war with the most powerful nation on the planet, and President Madison knew it. But the country was sick and tired of being disrespected, thousands of its sailors impressed, and its trade restricted. The hawks in Congress, in spite of the Federalists’ attempts to stop them, would not be denied. Henry Clay was one of those war hawks.

The only way to repair our Constitution is with justices that have a deep-seated loyalty to the founding principles. The founders may have underestimated the capacity for judicial activism by a highly politicized court.

Those interested in enlarging their understanding of the Constitution have a unique resource in the Pacificus – Helvidius Debates. Liberty Fund has performed a great service by bringing together, for the first time, all the documents relevant to the Debates in a single, readable volume.