James Madison Essay

James Madison was small of stature. He was barely over five feet tall and he was frail in health. Madison was a principal framer of the Constitution of the Federal Convection. Later known as the Constitutional Convection. It defended the conception of a new, stronger, central government at the Virginia ratifying convection. Madison's powerful rebuttals and counterarguments were the products of his extensive study of governments, his participation in the Constitutional Convection's debates, and his writing a great many of the essays published under the title of The Federalist.

There was a great fear in the new United States about a return to a strong and powerful central government. The Federalist essays defended the principle of a supreme national authority, but it also sought to reassure doubters that the people and the states had little reason to fear tyranny in the new government. Arguments that James Madison made to allay these fears was the different examples from ancient and modern confederacies that prove that the individual members often betray the union. In the Achaean league, the federal government had power similar to the government framed by the convention. The Lycia Confederacy must have been even more similar. Yet history doesn't tell us that either of them ever degenerated, or even tended to degenerate, into one consolidated government. These are worthy of our attention because in both cases the external causes pushing the parts together were much more numerous and powerful than in our case. Consequently, less powerful bonds between members were sufficient to bind them to the head and to each other. Madison also convinces the states that they will play important roles in the Federal Government. He also allay the fears by saying the President of the United States cannot be elected at all without the intervention of the State , that the Senate will be elected absolutely and exclusively by the State Legislatures. Also Madison tells them that the number of individuals employed under the Constitution will be much smaller which means there will be less of personal influence on the side of the former, then of the later. Those are only a few examples that James Madison told the people. In my opinion, I do not believe these arguments were effective arguments because Madison is telling the States exactly what they want to hear to help them believe a central government is a good idea.

James Madison gave powers and responsibilities to the federal government and to the states. The powers and responsibilities for the federal government will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negociation, and foreign commerce. Which last the power of taxation will for the most part be connected. The Operations of the Federal Government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger. As for the states, their powers and responsibilities will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary