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View Full Version : James Madison was a stone cold genius



Okla-homey
1/8/2007, 07:28 PM
No one has ever said it better:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

The Federalist, Nos. 48 and 51 (1787)

It's amazing that Madison and a handful of guys figured this out, and cobbled together our system of Constitutional "checks and balances" that survives 220 years later.

that is all.

Widescreen
1/8/2007, 07:35 PM
Unfortunately, those checks and balances don't work too well anymore given that the government now takes powers the Constitution never gave it. And no one seems to say anything about it. Where are our James Madisons?

Oh, and I prefer Dolly Madison. Her chocolate covered donuts RMFO.

SicEmBaylor
1/8/2007, 07:36 PM
No one has ever said it better:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

The Federalist, Nos. 48 and 51 (1787)

It's amazing that Madison and a handful of guys figured this out, and cobbled together our system of Constitutional "checks and balances" and "dual sovereignty" and one of those partially survives 220 years later.

that is all.


A very good friend of mine, the one you accused of being me ;), did his masters in D.C in Defense and Strategic Studies. Anyway, he went to the Jefferson memorial gift shop where he was astonished to discover they only had copies of the Federalist and not the Anti-Federalist papers. He pointed out the absurdity of that, but they told him they just work for the Parks department.

So, he goes to the Department of Interior downtown and tries to find someone to complain to but nobody was all that interested.

On the subject of Madison, however, I concur. He's one of my favorites; because he recognized the necessity of ratification (making him an early Federalist), but doing so with a very strict interpretation on the powers of government within the document and eventually becoming a leading Anti-Federalist.

Okla-homey
1/8/2007, 10:17 PM
Unfortunately, those checks and balances don't work too well anymore given that the government now takes powers the Constitution never gave it. And no one seems to say anything about it. Where are our James Madisons?

Oh, and I prefer Dolly Madison. Her chocolate covered donuts RMFO.

IMHO, I think more than anything else, the rise of the "Fourth Branch" of government, the Administrative State has resulted in powers the framers didn't dream of, yet surely enabled by Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 of the Constitution.