James Madison

One of America’s greatest founding fathers was a man named James Madison. Madison was hailed as the father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Through Madison’s efforts with the Constitution and the Bill of rights, he constructed the freedoms and rights that we know today.

But before he constructed the political documents that governed the authority of government and people’s rights, Madison was faced with a difficult question. The question that came to his mind was, “how can the government control the governed while controlling itself?” In his view he believed that there would be factions that would ultimately control the government. To separate these factions Madison devised a system called Federalism. Through federalism the people’s rights would be represented through both the states and the Federal government. In doing this, factions such as religious groups, political parties and other groups couldn’t completely take over the  government due to the divisions in power. Besides the divisions between state/federal governments, Madison composed a system to separate the powers of the federal government.  As Madison pointed out in the federalist papers (essays that promoted the ratification of the Constitution),

 “In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; . . .

It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not independent of the legislature in this particular, their independence in every other would be merely nominal. But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. . . . Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.” (James Madison, Federalist papers 51.)

Through the separations in the federal government, the checks and balances of power would be in place by three distinctly different bodies of government.  None of these bodies of government would rely on the other but would balance the power to uphold and protect the constitutional rights. With the rights of the citizens protected by the republican government, no faction could completely control the government. Similarly the government couldn’t govern its citizens without the checks and balances that are set in place to give minorities (small political groups) the rights to have a position in matters without being persecuted. With the rights of everyone being protected, the United States political system is highly favored by the people. And with a strong advocacy for our system of government, the people find favor in being governed by a system of popular sovereignty.

In conclusion the state and federal government control each other, while they control themselves. As Madison stated,

“In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” (Federal papers 51.)