James Madison: Builder of a Stronger Government and a Free Society

James Madison was a political theorist, political leader, and the fourth president of the United States. James Madison is also known as the father of The Constitution, and was a key advocate for the Bill of Rights. Based on his past experiences and the study of various philosophies, Madison wanted to create a government that was strong, protected individual rights, and limited the influence of factions within the country. The current state of government lives up to what Madison had envisioned in some ways, but fails in others ways.

Background

Madison’s motivation to create a new form of government arose from the direct observance of ineffective government, and exposure to philosophical thought that promoted personal liberty, and the protection of the minority from faction. Before the United States had the current constitution, it operated under a set of documents known as the Articles of Confederation. These documents created a loose alliance between states. However, the document had a multiple weaknesses. One of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was the lack of powers given to the central government. Among several of the powers denied to the central government, two of the most essential powers denied were the ability to tax the individual states directly (Jensen 166) and, raise an army (Jensen 19). The army was essential for the protection of the union, and the taxes were necessary to fund an army. Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government could request taxes and troops, but it was up to the states to comply with that request. In article three of the Articles of Confederation; it states that those 13 individual states would, “…enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare…” (Poles 41). Due to the fear of a strong centralized government violating personal liberties, the articles created a centralized government unable to properly secure those same liberties, or provide a defense from foreign powers. The government’s weaknesses were exposed during Shays rebellion. Shays rebellion was sparked when Revolutionary War veterans and other protestors shut down county courts in an attempt to stop hearings on tax and debt collections in the state of Massachusetts. The radicalized group even attempted to raid a federal armory. The federal government did not have the means to raise and mobilize an army to put down the rebellion. As a result, the government of Massachusetts was forced to put down the rebellion itself (Warren, 42). In order to deal with similar insurrection like Shays Rebellion in the future, Madison pushed for a government that was powerful enough to provide security. However, Madison and other framers of the constitution did not want to create a system, like the former monarchy, with enough power to jeopardize individual liberties.

In addition to the failure of the Articles of Confederation, Madison was also heavily inspired by exposures to other forms of thought. Philosophers John Locke and David Hume influenced Madison to a great extent. Madison accepted Locke’s view that government’s main purpose was to protect individual rights of its citizens. In “The Second Treatise of Government”, John Locke suggests that man had abandoned the state of nature and entered into political society to protect individual property. Locke states:

The enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very unsecure. This makes him willing to quit a condition, which, however free, is full of fears and continual dangers: and it is not without reason, that he seeks out, and is willing to join in society with others, who are already united, or have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property (Locke 66).

As Locke declared, individual property includes physical objects, your life, and individual rights. Furthermore, society has attempted to secure individual property and maintain liberty through various forms of government. Under the influence of the rhetoric from Locke, Madison helped construct a constitution to ensure the protection of private property rights that locked talked about.

David Hume influenced Madison views on faction. In David Hume's “On parties in General,” Hume asserts that “Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same nation” (Hume 77-88). Madison echoes these sentiments in Federalist Number Ten. Madison states that a faction is a “…number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community” (Kennedy 193). Madison’s constant study of philosophers like Locke and Hume had a huge impact on Madison's attempt to construct the constitution.

Madison’s Solution

The founders wanted a new government that would address the flaws found in the Articles of Confederation. A true democracy would not have worked because a simple majority could easily use its power to dominate the minority. As a result, Madison and the other authors created a constitution that formed a federal republic. The federal republic is composed of elected officials from all states, and they represent the will of the citizens. In addition, the federal government was created with three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branch. The powers delegated to these branches are documented in the constitution. The legislative branch is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives, and these two bodies make the laws (Hamilton 14). The executive branch of government administers and enforces the laws (Hamilton 18). Lastly, the U.S Supreme Court has the power to interpret and apply the laws (Hamilton 22). In addition, the Supreme Court plays a major role in deciding what powers are delegated to the state and what powers are relegate to the federal government (Blindenbacher, 513-516). Therefore, the allocation of responsibilities within the federal government is dependent on the rulings of the Supreme Court. Depending on the era, some court rulings have been in favor of the federal government, while others have chosen to uphold states rights. Overall, The Constitution gave the central government adequate power to address the issues that existed under the Articles of Confederation. However, Madison helped tailor a government that would be strong enough to protect individual rights, but not strong enough to violate the rights of its citizens.

The Bill of Rights was added to the constitution to address the concerns of government using its power to violate personal rights. The Bill of Right protects multiple individual rights such as the freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. The Bill of Rights also grants the right to a fair trial and other liberties that the founders believed were inalienable rights, given by god. The Bill of Rights also addresses state rights. The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (Smith 77). Therefore, the federal government’s authority is relegated by the constitution. However, the powers not clearly stated by the constitution come in to question often.

Overall, Madison and the other authors of the constitution created a government that operated by a set of rules that would prevent one person, or small group of people within it, from acting autonomously. In addition, Madison helped create a document that preserved the personal rights of its citizens. Although created in a different time, and with different circumstances, the U.S Constitution and its Bill of Rights still serve as the guiding document for the operation of the U.S government.

The Current State of Government

Madison and the other framers designed the constitution to address fears of weak central government, protect personal rights, and keep one faction of society from dominating anther. Did those provision work? In many ways they did. In some ways, they did not, or least not the way Madison intended.

The current federal government is definitely the strong central government that Madison envisioned. The government has been extremely successful at asserting its authority over the states when personal liberties were at stake. For example, many issues such as slavery segregation, women’s suffrage and other issues, could not have been resolved if states had the final judgment. In addition, Madison’s vision of a central government that protected individual rights has also come to realization. It may have taken some time for some groups in this country, but in terms of individual rights, the United States is the freest society in the world. Americans have the rights to say what they want, go where they want, and worship as they believe. Recently, many American citizens are being allowed to marry whom they want with the current trend of allowing same sex marriages. Therefore, the U.S is still evolving into a more egalitarian society that Madison and Locke were proponents of. There is almost no restriction on what Americans want to do with their lives, as long those actions do not infringe on the rights of others.

In contrast, there are ways that the current government does not reflect what Madison had envisioned. For example, the attacks on September 11th, 2001 resulted in the restrictions of many of those civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The government claimed that it needed greater authority to combat terrorism so they took steps like passing the PATRIOT act. Among other powers, the PATRIOT act allowed the government to monitor communication online, the phone, and any other medium. In addition, Section 213 of the PATRIOT act allowed the government to search private property without someone’s knowledge, or a warrant (USA Patriot Sections 213-220 2014). The creators of the PATRIOT act emphasized that these provisions were to be used against terrorist, or suspected terrorist as defined in section 802 of the patriot act (USA, Sections 802-811 2014). However, the definition of terrorism was very broad. Therefore, an individual that was not a terrorist, but was unfortunate to be identified as a terrorist could lose basic rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution. Some may argue that expanding the powers of government after 9/11 actually saved more lives. In fact, this law allowed Americans to keep our remaining freedoms. That is the freedom to live in peace, and safely without the fear of harm. Nevertheless, the amount of power the federal government still holds in the name of security goes against what Madison and other framers of the constitution had planned. In fact, many of the actions are similar to the government the United States originally won its independence from, a government that had the power to interfere with personal life of common citizens.

On some levels, Madison’s attempt to prevent the affects of factions has succeeded. Although they may clash at times, no differences among people in the modern day United States is a threat to the physical integrity of the country, which was likely during Madison’s time. For example, there is not one religious group that is forcefully imposing it beliefs on the rest of the county, or any other difference among groups that is threatening to break up the union. However, a minority faction of society is affecting the quality of life of the majority, and they are called the wealthy. Born to a family of wealth, Madison was part of minority as well. Madison believed that those with wealth should be protected, stating, “Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority (Gaffney 408). Currently, the majority of this country’s wealth still lies in the hands of a few. According to reports, at the end of 2009, 1% of the population owned 1/3 of the nation’s wealth, and the top 5% controlled 87% of the wealth. In contrast, the bottom 80% of the citizens owned less than 13% of the nation's wealth (Goodwin 258). The rich minority in this county are protected because the majority of the citizens in this country would not be successful in enacting laws that may threaten that wealth. They would also not be very successful in enacting laws that benefited the poor at the expense of the rich. The cost to run for office is extremely high. Politicians spend millions of dollars to win elections. Therefore, the only people that are likely to create federal laws come from that minority. So when read at face value, Madison’s rhetoric on protecting the right the minority seems noble. However, the system has been, and is still successful at protecting a minority that dominates the majority with its wealth. Madison would definitely be satisfied.

The intentions of Madison and the other founding fathers may have been good, but that does not mean that current system of government does not need to be changed. The working class majority should have a greater impact on the political process. The majority of lawmakers are members of the wealthy minority. Therefore, they can enact legislation that is more favorable to them, and not in favor of the middle class, or poor. David Thoreau asked, “…is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?”(Thoreau). Thoreau also asserted that it was up to citizens to demand better from its government (Thoreau). It took a revolution to break away from monarchy, and it is up to the citizens of the United States to take action, and push for changes that will allow them to have more participation in the political process.

Conclusion

Madison witnessed the weakness of a government that could not effectively meet the needs of its citizens. Therefore, Madison sought to create a government that had the power to protect individual rights, but not subjugate the citizens to tyranny. Furthermore, Madison wanted to keep any particular segment of society from violating the rights of another. The government has lived up to the expectation of what a strong government should be, and it has also taken action to protect individual liberties. However, it has amassed too much power in some areas, and that has led to the violation of civil liberties, something that Madison would definitely oppose. Madison also claimed to be against faction of society dominating another. However, the wealthy dominates the majority of citizens in this country due to their strong influence over government. Based on the words of Madison, that may have been the literal intent. Nevertheless, it is not out of the realm of belief to think that the majority could Americans could mobilize, and make a change.

Works Cited

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