Federalist Paper 51

Federalist Paper 51

Gov 101

Spring 2005

James Madison starts the federalist paper by stating that each branch should be for the most part independent. Madison also stated that no one branch should have too much power in selecting members of the other two branches. It would mean that the citizens should select the president, the legislators, and the judges. The members of each branch should not be too dependent on the members of the other two branches. Congress was split into two branches, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and provided for a different method of election in each branch. The best security against a gradual concentration of power in any one branch is to provide constitutional safeguards that would make such concentration difficult. The constitutional rights of all must check one man's personal interests and ambitions. We all know that men like to abuse power and the very need for government itself proves they overdo it because "if men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary"(Madison, 62). These branches should have the power to defend us from any intruders. The biggest problem with framing a government is that the government must be able to control the people, but equally important, must be able and forced to “control itself.” “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions” (Madison, 63).

“If the principles on which these observations are founded be just, as I persuade myself they are, and they be applied as a criterion to the several State constitutions, and to the federal Constitution it will be found that if the latter does not perfectly correspond with them, the former are infinitely less able to bear such a test” (Madison, 63).

The stronger often threaten the rights of the weak (in almost every case), and there is really only two methods of avoiding this “evil” .