Proponents of the new Constitution believed centralized government was essential for successful commercial and geographic expansion. Only a strong national government, they argued, could effectively negotiate with foreign countries, ensure free trade between states, and create a stable currency.
The Federalist essays addressed widespread concern that a national government, distanced from the people, would soon grow despotic. The essays eloquently and comprehensively argue that distributing power across the various branches of government provides checks and balances to the concentrated sovereignty of the federal government.
James Madison's essay "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection" exemplifies the brilliance and startling originality of the Federalist. Published on November 23, 1787, it challenges the assumption that individual rights can be secured only in small countries with homogeneous populations.
The Constitution's detractors maintained that large nations with disparate populations are inherently unstable. The emergence of factions, they believed, would constantly threaten to overwhelm the government and place personal liberty at risk. Madison topples this argument by insisting that plurality and liberty are complementary. In a famous passage he writes:
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.James Madison, Federalist No.10,
Historical Documents: Federalist Papers
Although written for the New York press, newspapers around the country reprinted the essays. Collected and published in book form in May 1788, the Federalist played an important role in the campaign to ratify the Constitution in New York and Virginia. Ratification of the Constitution was possible without these populous states, but their approval was considered crucial to the success of the new government.
Ultimately, the federalist vision of a national government prevailed. However, the Federalist represents one of many perspectives in a nationwide debate over the Constitution. Learn more about the Constitutional Convention and the controversy surrounding ratification:
- Visit To Form a More Perfect Union: An Introduction to the Congressional Documents. A feature of the collection Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789, this special presentation contains background information about the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and the call for a Constitution.
- Consider the anti-federalist position. Read an essay attributed to George Bryan contained in the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention 1774-1789's online collection of Broadsides. Bryan was especially concerned about the lack of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
- See Elliot's Debates available through the collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. Volume III contains the debates and proceedings of Virginia's ratifying convention. Notice Patrick Henry's outspoken opposition to the proposed Constitution.
- Search the Today in History Archive on ratification for more information relating to the crafting of the U.S. Constitution.
