As the Republican controlled Senate continues to refuse to hold confirmation hearings for or even meet with President Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice, Federal Judge Merrick Garland, one thing is clear: Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were wrong. During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists were deeply concerned about the possibility of groups and/or factions gaining control of the government and forcing their ideas and agenda on the citizens of the United States. Both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison addressed these concerns.
Hamilton, in Federalist Number 9, uses the words of the philosopher Montesquieu to demonstrate that larger governing bodies can be an effective force against factions gaining control because the other members of the governing body would act to stop that from happening. Hamilton chose to quote Montesquieu directly because the Anti-Federalists used Montesquieu’s writings to oppose a central government. Montesquieu believed in very small republics.
Madison, in Federalist 10, acknowledged that factions and parties will form. He defined a faction as:
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.
Madison believed that
if a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.
The faction could
clog the administration.
Madison also knew that factions could gain a majority and believed that
the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.
But Both Hamilton and Madison believed that Congress would ultimately do what was right and best for the citizens. But this not the first time the Republicans have proven Madison and Hamilton wrong. In 2013, the Republican controlled – Tea Party influenced – House of Representatives allowed the United States Federal Government to shut down over the Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as ObamaCare. Even during the Civil War, not only did the Federal Government continue to function, but elections were held.
How ironic that the party of Abraham Lincoln, the man who believed in the government and Union created by the Constitution and that it was worth saving, would be the ones to prove Hamilton and Madison wrong. But then again, perhaps it is not so ironic. After all, the southern wing of the Republican Party traces its roots back to the Confederacy, which sought and fought to tear the country apart, not the Union.
Moderately liberal, liberally moderate, American flag waving Democrat! Bachelor of Arts in History with concentration in Early American History and Abraham Lincoln
Graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts Degree online in American History at Southern New Hampshire University