“The evils issuing from these sources [of state legislative instability and majoritarian threats to individual liberty], contributed more to that uneasiness which produced the Convention, and prepared the public mind for a general reform, than those which accrued to our national character and interest from the inadequacy of the Confederation to its immediate objects.” (James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 24. 1787)
James Madison, 1783 (age 32) (Library of Congress
Discussion Questions
- During the 1780s, why did Madison (and so many other American leaders) seem more worried about signs of broken democracy at the state level than about the obvious deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation?
- Why did the debate about states and their “excesses of democracy” become such an existential crisis for the revolutionary ideology of republicanism?
Madison’s List of 11 Vices of the US political system
April 1787
1.FAILURE OF THE STATES TO COMPLY WITH THE CONSTITUTIONAL REQUISITIONS.
2.ENCROACHMENTS BY THE STATES ON THE FEDERAL AUTHORITY.
3.VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW OF NATIONS AND OF TREATIES.
4.TRESPASSES OF THE STATES ON THE RIGHTS OF EACH OTHER.
5.WANT OF CONCERT IN MATTERS WHERE COMMON INTEREST REQUIRES IT.
6.WANT OF GUARANTY TO THE STATES OF THEIR CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS AGAINST INTERNAL VIOLENCE.
7.WANT OF SANCTION TO THE LAWS, AND OF COERCION IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CONFEDERACY.
8.WANT OF RATIFICATION BY THE PEOPLE OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.
9.MULTIPLICITY OF LAWS IN THE SEVERAL STATES.
10.MUTABILITY OF THE LAWS OF THE STATES.
11.INJUSTICE OF THE LAWS OF STATES.
Handouts