The Federalist.

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Ashour

  1. Plan of the investigation

The framers of the constitution envisioned a one-party state in which partisan distinctions would by muted by patriotism and public virtue.  When James Madison wrote The Federalist, not only did he fail to anticipate the rise of political parties or factions; he saw them as potentially harmful to the new nation.  It is thus ironic that when Madison broke with the Washington administration on questions of fiscal policy, he took the first steps toward organizing the Democratic-Republican Party.  The aim of this investigation is to find out why James Madison was considered to be the reason for the formation of political parties.  It will cover Madison’s reasons for writing The Federalist, what he said at the Constitutional Convention on May 25, 1787, and his and others work on how the Federalist Party was formed.  An analysis of these sections will indicate why Madison was the reason for the formation of federalists.

  1. Summary of evidence

The Federalist

The Federalist is the collective title for 85 essays signed “Publius” and published (1787-88) in various New York newspapers to convince New York voters to support ratification of the new Constitution of the United States.  Sometimes called the Federalist Papers, they were published in book form in 1788.  Although the authorship of certain essays is still disputed, the consensus is the Alexander Hamilton wrote 52, James Madison wrote 28, and John Jay wrote 5 essays (Patrick 72-80).

The first 14 essays are a general discussion of the importance of union to the “political prosperity” of America.  Essays 15-22 contain arguments to show inadequacy of confederations and of the Articles of Confederation, and in 23-36 evidence is presented to show the need for a government “at least equally energetic” as that provided by the Constitution.  Numbers 37-51 contain explanations of the republican principles underlying the document, and 52-66 are an analysis of the legislative power of the regulation of elections (Kesler 60-65)  The remaining essays, written by Hamilton, contain the analysis of executive (67-77) and judicial branches (78-83) and of the question of a bill of rights.

Democratic-Federalist

Madison worked with Alexander Hamilton and other supporters of the Constitution (known as Federalists) to win its ratification.  He contributed several papers in the Federalist series.  At the Virginia ratifying convention (1788) he won a dramatic debate with Patrick Henry, one of the opponents of the proposed Constitution (known as the Anti-Federalists) (Ketcham 360)  Serving in the new House of Representatives form 1789, Madison sponsored the Bill of Rights and was one of President George Washington’s chief advisors in inaugurating the new government.

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In January 1790, Madison broke with the administration to oppose the financial program of Hamilton, now secretary of the treasury.  The national bank plan made by Hamilton submitted to congress on December 13, 1790 immediately set off alarm bells for Madison (Lance 96). Madison felt that Hamilton’s policies favored commerce and wealth and allowed the executive department to dominate the other branches of government.  Madison now began to work closely with Thomas Jefferson and his supporters. The opposition of the Jeffersonians deepened, and America’s first political party system began to emerge as the Federalist Party sought stronger commercial bonds with ...

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