Federalist 10 vs Brutus 1
Federalist 10:
In federalist 10 James Madison’s first essay he wrote for the federalist papers, Madison discusses the dangers of factions.Madison discusses how the constitution was specifically drafted to prevent factions from being created. Madison defines factions as a number of citizens, a majority or minority with similar political interests and goals. Madison then elaborates how the constitution works to prevent factions. Madison explains that the constitution creates a large republic with a diverse population. This works to prevent factions by extinguishing the power of any one group. With a diverse republic and diverse population, it will be extremely hard to create an effective faction with a lot of power
Brutus 1:
In Brutus 1, an anti-federalist paper against the ratification of the constitution, Brutus argues against a strong central government and the large republic that James Madison testifies to. Brutus argues that this strong central government will go against and take away individual liberties and freedoms. This article by Brutus was a direct response to the federalist papers in an attempt to argue against ratification for the remaining states to vote on the constitution. Brutus argues that this central government will only put power in the hands of very few people, leading to individual liberties being hurt. Brutus also argues that the constitution did not use checks and balances well enough to prevent this from occurring.
Result:
The result of this argument between federalist and anti-federalist is the ratification of the constitution with the central government and the checks and balances both Brutus and James Madison discussed. This demonstrates potentially some level of influence the federalist papers had over the anti-federalist responses. Madison’s argument was overall more influential than Brutus 1, as the constitution was ratified. However, the constitution was already written with these checks and balances in place in order to keep each branch of the government in place while not delegating too much power to anywhere specifically. So, Madison's argument in federalist 10 while is correct and helps give insight into the checks and balance system did not change much of the constitution and was not a large problem with the ratification. This demonstrates how Madison's federalist 10 was not extremely influential on the public perception of the constitution itself during the time of ratification.
1.
Research guides: Federalist papers: Primary documents in American history: Federalist nos.
1-10. Federalist Nos. 1-10 - Federalist Papers: Primary Documents in American History - Research Guides at Library of Congress. (n.d.). https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-1-10
2.
Dry, M., & Storing, H. J. (n.d.). The anti-federalist: Writings by the opponents of the
Constitution: Herbert J. Storing, Murray dry: 9780226775654: Amazon.com: Books. https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Federalist-Writings-Opponents-Constitution/dp/0226775658
3.
Essay no. 1 (1787). National Constitution Center – constitutioncenter.org. (n.d.).
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/brutus-essay-no-1