After the United States won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War, the essential problem facing the framers of the Constitution was to find some way to establish power and yet maintain liberty. This called for the republican form of government, in which the people are sovereign (supreme) but rule through elected representatives. Up to Madison's time most students of government had assumed that small republics were more virtuous than large ones. Madison observed that the opposite was true in America. Tyrannical majorities ruled the smallest states. In the larger ones, however, the greater diversity of interests prevented one faction, or interest group, from acquiring undue power.
So, Madison reasoned, let the United States have the republican form of government at all levels, with each state controlling its local affairs. Let a supreme federal government manage national affairs and interstate matters—those between the states. The larger such a federal republic became, the more liberty it could enjoy with safety, for the different interests of the various sections of the country would split the factions that might produce tyranny in a small republic.
Madison presented this idea to the delegates at Philadelphia. It overcame the fear many of them had of democracy, and the government of the United States was built on the basis of Madison's ideas. He then joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing The Federalist papers, explaining the Constitution to the people in order to secure its ratification (Michael, 1986). Madison led the supporters of the Constitution at the Virginia ratifying convention. He was then elected to the House of Representatives in the 1st Congress of the United States.
Madison proposed a government with strong central powers, including a national judiciary and an elected national executive, and with authority to veto legislation of individual states....................
