Federalist

Federalist

America was facing an issue in 1787. This issue was whether or not to write a new constitution. Naturally there where two main groups in opposition to each other and wrote papers to persuade people to join their position on the fight. The groups where the anti-federalist and the federalist, the federalist wanted a strong national government and the anti-federalist wanted a strong state government.

The federalist wanted a strong national government because they felt that it would lay the foundation for a stable government. There are many thing that can weaken the stability of a nation. Madison’s main point is that factions have a negative impact on population. A faction is a group of people who have similar political opinions, attributes and economic standpoints. Factions are negative because while they are wanting laws passed they may be infringing on the rights of others. Madison states that “Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.” In this he is stating that majority rule is not always the best policy because no matter how small a group may be they still have unalienable rights. He is also stating that personal freedoms public good are being disregarded when a faction takes hold.

Madison also states that the tyranny of factions can be avoided but not eradicated. He states that they are unavoidable as long as there individuals who share a point of view with others. “There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests. It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.” (Madison). In this metaphor Madison is saying that the only way to end a faction is to cast out liberty but life without liberty is worse than factions, we need liberty like an animal needs oxygen because without liberty life would be suffocating. He is also stating that it would not be fair to cast out liberty because it feeds a destructive force (factions).

The anti-federalist wanted a faint national government with a strong state government. They felt that a strong national government would not be able to address the needs of people as well as a state government and that a strong national government would be able to invade there rights easier. “But whoever seriously considers the immense