The United States Government, much like the endlessly-rebooting Spider Man franchise, has journeyed ...
The United States Government, much like the endlessly-rebooting Spider Man franchise, has journeyed through the years with certain fixed features that we've come to expect as iconic and unchangeable. Things like the three-branch structure, the House of Representatives, the Senate, Aunt May, and Uncle Ben have become timeless facets of our system of Government. (Hmm. Maybe Aunt May and Uncle Ben didn't actually exist when the Founding Fathers were doing their Founding Father thing…although we think people like James Madison would have given the thumbs up to the phrase "With great power comes great responsibility.") Nevertheless, the Constitution has proven a stable and flexible foundation for our current government, only really requiring tweaks and edits to persist in the present. But—and this is a big but and we cannot lie—the Constitutional Government was not the first government of the United States. Mind blown? Mind blown. The United State's O.G. (that's Original Government) was prescribed by the Articles of Confederation. That government wasn't going so hot though, so the Constitutional Convention was held in 1786 to toss the old one out the window and start from scratch. The various delegates to the Constitutional Convention had to create a document—and a government by proxy—that would have support from at least nine of the thirteen states in order to come into law. No biggie, right? To get the support the Constitution needed, Alexander Hamilton rounded up James Madison and John Jay—together three of the MVPs in statecraft—to write a series of newspaper essays in support of the Constitution. (Give this a listen for a quick run-down.) Basically, the Federalist Papers were a series of commercials for the United States, coming to an America near you. The nation was brand new, something that its founders viewed as an experimental form of government, and a lot of them strongly disagreed on how it should even look. The Articles of Confederation had been a disaster, giving the federal government the power to make laws but not the power to enforce them, no power to hold a standing army, and a bunch of other serious weaknesses. People were understandably worried about tyrannical rule after fighting a war to overthrow one, but the government was weak to the point of being ineffectual. It was a Goldilocks situation, with the British Empire in the role of Papa Bear's oatmeal, and the Articles of Confederation in the role of Mama Bear's oatmeal. While the devs of the Constitution were working on the balance changes for patch 1.786, the authors of the Federalist Papers were working on writing out the patch notes. These Federalist Papers ultimately serve as a pretty essential behind-the-scenes peek at the thought process that went into forming the Constitution. James Madison wrote Federalist Papers 10 and 51, two essays in an absurdly long 85-essay series. Both generally had to do with the structure of the United States Government, and how the proposed structure specifically would keep the power of the majority from taking control of the Government, and keeping the power of corruption down. He argues that the most effective way to do this is to have a Democratic Republic, broken down into a three-branch system. (Rule of three, y'all.) This was still a touchy idea, and was a stronger government than some of the delegates would have liked. This central conflict, over a strong versus a weak federal government, would fracture American politics irreparably into the two-party system. The years to follow would have the issue even split the writers of the Federalist Papers apart, with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton going from co-writers to political rivals over the issue. While the papers weren't wildly influential in their own time, today they provide us a window into the mind-sets of some of the people behind the Constitution, flaws and all. If you ever wanted to get inside the head of James Madison without some Magic School Bus-style trip there, Federalist papers 10 and 51 are a good place to start.
