Ratification Of The New Constitution In The Federalist Papers

Since the establishment of the colonies in Northern America, the colonists had the continual fear over the development of a tyrannical government like that of Great Britain’s. As a result, the Articles of Confederation was written and provided the government with little to no means to rule over the states including a lack in ability to collect taxes to help reduce their debt to other European nations. In each of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay attempt to persuade the states to ratify the new Constitution of the United States as the current Articles of Confederation proved to be inefficient. In Federalist Paper No. 10 and Federalist Paper No. 51, James Madison discusses societal representation--more specifically the effect of factions--and the balancing of powers through the system of checks and balances, respectively, to provide a deeper understanding of the proposed form of government to the people.

In the proposed Republican form of government, Madison acknowledges that each an every faction created within the states is a problem for any republic. A faction defined, is a group of citizens united through common interests. The development of factions is essentially inevitable as the liberty the people have obtained ultimately results in the development of different opinions that fuel the varying factions. However, abolishing liberty results in the previous tyrannical government the colonists once experience where opinions of the people were completely disregarded. Furthermore, factions often development an animosity as they can often prioritize their own beliefs rather than work towards the common good. Because factions cannot be stopped from forming, the more common solution was to suppress majority factions by making them “unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression” (Madison). 

This would be done through the proposed Republican government, also known as a Representative Democracy. Under this new government, representatives for each state would be elected to act in accordance to the will of the people within their state. The problems that arise are the possible betrayal of the interests of the people by those elected and the determining of how many representatives are needed to prevent conspiring and confusion. To prevent corruption, a large enough number of citizens would elect state representatives which further encourages the people to vote so that the interests of the few will not prevail, but not so large that it would lead to poor representation of the people’s interests.