Federalist No. 10

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Federalist No. 10

            Federalist papers were essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to argue against ratification of the American constitution. Federalist paper number 10 was Madison’s first essay that he started writing on the federalist paper. Among the other eighty-five federalist papers, which were published between1787 and 1788, federalist paper number 10 is the most commonly quoted by judges and jurists in a court of law. In this paper, Madison was mainly trying to talk about factions. He has analyzed the different roles that factions have and the best ways to contain them in a government.

In the essay on the federalist paper number 10, Madison was saying that factions are a group of people who come together with a common interest in the aim of representing the interest of groups of citizens or a community. These groups are usually activists’ groups like the environmental groups or unions, which have been formed by several people to voice their demands to the government. Political parties can be categorized as faction according to the federalist paper number 10 because they are formed by a group of people who have come together with a common interest to represent its people in the government as stated by the federalist paper number 10.

In addition, Madison states that the factions need to be eliminated. This is because they are like democratic societies and democratic societies can undermine the government leading to violence and civil wars in the government. He has stated that the faction can break up a government due to their characteristic and nature of them being democratic. Therefore, he has stated and said that this factions need to be broken and control so that they cannot afford to bring violence in the society.

However, Madison has contradicted himself in the paper by saying that the factions can be allowed to be formed since they would do nothing to the government according to the constitution of the United States despite the fact that he had said that they should be abolished.

Two remedies have been stated in the federalist paper to control these factions. One of the remedies is by controlling or removing its causes. This is where there liberty is destroyed. In the existence of this faction, liberty is one of the essential things that makes them what they are therefore, removing their liberty means killing existence.

The other remedy is by controlling all its effects. Different factions have their own interest either religious or political. Additionally, different factions have different degrees of effects in their course of activities. Therefore, they are given liberty but their activities are controlled so that their effect could not be heard or felt in anyway. Madison has stated that liberty and factions cannot be separated same as air and fire. It means if their liberty is removed or destroyed, they are destroyed, or they die with it. However, the factions are oppressed until they are in unison with the government therefore, there effect has been controlled and they would not be much of a problem in bringing violence.

One part in the federalist paper number 10, which is not suited nowadays, is the part where the factions are either oppressed or demolished. In these current days, where people have learnt their rights, whenever they are oppressed instead of calming them down, they will become more violent and very rebellious. In addition, the people of today are very well educated and they are very conversant with the laws of the country therefore, if the government decided to impose something against them, it would lead to violence. On the other hand, if this faction happens to be demolished this can even lead to a military coup or a civil war in the country. In relevance to the above, the government is advised to maintain this faction as democratic society since the government is protected by the constitution. Additionally, if they are abolished, who will be the voices of the public and who will watch the government so that they could not steal money. Therefore, the people of that society use these factions as a watched dog to the government.