The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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GOVERNMENT.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
GOVERNMENT.[46]
In monarchies there is a two-fold danger—1st, That the
eyes of a good prince cannot see all that he ought to know—
2d, That the hands of a bad one will not be tied by the fear
of combinations against him. Both of these evils increase
with the extent of dominion; and prove, contrary to the received
opinion, that monarchy is even more unfit for a great
in the former to that species of government.
Aristocracies, on the other hand, are generally seen in small
states; where a concentration of public will is required by
external danger, and that degree of concentration is found
sufficient. The many in such cases, cannot govern on account
of emergencies which require the promptitude and precautions
of a few; whilst the few themselves, resist the usurpations
of a single tyrant. In Thessaly, a country intersected
by mountainous barriers into a number of small cantons, the
governments, according to Thucydides, were in most instances,
smaller the state, the less intolerable is this form of government,
its rigors being tempered by the facility and the fear
of combinations among the people.
A republic involves the idea of popular rights. A representative
republic chuses the wisdom, of which hereditary
aristocracy has the chance; whilst it excludes the oppression
of that form. And a confederated republic attains the force
of monarchy, whilst it avoids the ignorance of a good prince,
and the oppression of a bad one. To secure all the advantages
of such a system, every good citizen will be at once a
centinel over the rights of the people; over the authorities of
the federal government: and over both the rights and the
authorities of the intermediate governments.
From The National Gazette, January 2, 1792.
TO HENRY LEE.
You already know the fate of the apportionment Bill—the subject
was revived in the Senate, but I understand has been suspended in
order to give an opportunity to the house of Reps. to procede in a
second Bill if it pleases—Nothing however has been done in it, and it
is difficult to say when or in what form the business will be resumed—
The subject most immediately in hand in the House of Reps. is the
Post office Bill, which has consumed much time and is still in an unfinished
state—you see in the Newspapers historical sketches of its
progress—
The Senate have of late been much occupied by the nominations
of the President for foreign courts—that is, Mr. Thomas Pinkney for
London—Govr. Morris, for Paris, & Short for the Hague—a considerable
diversity of opinion is said to prevail, and to be the cause
of delay in coming to a decision—
The disturbances in Hispaniola continue without abatement, and
tis certain that the contagion is reaching Jamaica—
The plan for retrieving our Western affairs is not yet before the
Legislature—
I enclose the report of the Secy of the Treasury on Manufactures—
What think you of the commentary (pages 36 & 37) oft the terms
"general welfare"?—The federal Govt. has been hitherto limited to
the specified powers, by the Greatest Champions for Latitude in
expounding those powers—If not only the means, but the objects are
unlimited, the parchment had better be thrown into the fire at once—
I sent you by Mr. Brackenridge a number of Surveys for our friend
Baron Steuben, and have acquainted him with a state of the business
as far as I could collect it—Whenever you can supply any further
information I shall be ready to aid in forwarding it to him—
With the sincerest affection
Yrs always—Mad. MSS.
Lee was then Governor of Virginia. He replied to the letter,
January 8:
". . . But really I have discovered no one measure of the gen.l
go.t which has been attended with success, except the fiscal schemes
whose completion the moment the abominable principles on which
they are built became sanctioned by the national Legislature, were
certain.
"I find you was one & first of three in your house appointed to
draft an answer to the late presidential speech—Read the first clause
of your reply and tell me how you would impute the prosperity of the
U. States in any degree, much more in the degree you did, to the laws
of Congress. No man loves and venerates the P. more than I do, and
to hurt his feelings would be doleful to my heart; but had I been a
member of your house, I should certainly in defiance of all other considerations
arrest that servile custom of re-echoing whatever is communicated
without respect to fact. We owe our prosperity such as it
is, for it is nothing extraordinary to our own native vigor as a people
& to a continuation of peace, not to the wisdom or care of gov.t. Indelibly
stained is the wisdom the honor & justice of the govt. by those
fashionable treasury schemes imitative of the base principles & wicked
measures adopted thro necessity in corrupt monarchies and long since
reprobated (tho continued) by the wise & good in the countrys where
they exist. . . . I deeply lament the sad event, but really I see
no redress, unless the govt. itself be destroyed. This is risking too
much because great evils indubitably must grow from discord & the
people must suffer greatly whatever may be the event of such an experiment.
The money interest is growing daily more & more formidable,
they are industrious, they combine they concert measures, they
beset every avenue of information, & they bespatter the character
of every individual who dares to utter an opinion hostile to the
fiscal measures—So that the chance of successful opposition is more
& more doubtful. Men hate to risk without tolerable hopes of success.
To this cause I impute the submission of so many well informed
heads & honest hearts to the base perversion of the constitution
of the U. S.
"Never did practice so flatly contradict theory as the paper & the
administration of it so far. . . ."—Mad. MSS.
The reply to the President's speech, adopted October 27, which
Madison had drawn up was perfunctory. The opening clause to
which Lee objected read:
"In receiving your Address, at the opening of the present session,
the House of Representatives have taken an ample share in the feelings
inspired by the actual prosperity and flattering prospects of our
country; and whilst, with becoming gratitude to Heaven, we ascribe
this happiness to the true source from which it flows, we behold with
an animated pleasure the degree in which the Constitution and Laws
of the United States have been instrumental in dispensing it."
Lee wrote again, Jany. 17, 1792:
". . . In that funding system will undo us, such an unnecessary
wanton base infamous plan never was fostered for a moment by a
people circumstanced as we were: yet it has not only been fostered
but absolutely rivetted upon us—While we deprecate & lament the
obnoxious event we must submit to it, because effectual opposition
may beget civil discord & civil war.
"I wish to god the debt could be discharged, the banditti paid off,
& a like scheme prohibited in future. . . ."—Mad. MSS.
The next letter, January 29, is endorsed by Madison: "Evidence
of General H. Lee's disaffection to the policy & measures of the Federal
Government during several of the early years of Washington's
administration, and of his partiality for Freneau's National Gazette."
It proceeds:
". . . I admire the constitution, I revere the principles on which
it is founded & love affectionately the objects which it contemplated.
All that grieves me is, the perverseness of its administration. The
effects heretofore produced are spurious, but have been so successful as
to render in my judgment a change of constitution in operation certain
altho there will be no change for a long time in names. . . ."—
Mad. MSS.
The letter contains no direct allusion to Freneau's paper, but on
February 6 he wrote:
". . . Freneau's Gazette you mention has not reached me, nor
indeed have I for two mails got any papers from him. This precariousness
in the reception of his paper will cramp the circulation of it, for
which I am exceedingly sorry as it is rising fast into reputation.
"Innes is so pleased with the attention of the editor to political
matters and to the independence evidenced in his selection of home
information that he has desired me to procure for him the Gazette
and to request that all the papers from the beginning be forwarded.
"This you will please to do & give Innes's address & residence.
"I intend to urge Davies the public printer here to re-publish [illegible]
& such other political matters as serve to inform the people."
—Mad. MSS.
| The writings of James Madison, | |