The Ratifying of the Constitution of the United States and the Importance of the Federalist Papers

On September 17, 1787 the Constitution of the United States of America was adopted and ratified by the states and “The People” as it states in the Preamble to the Constitution, as a document to govern and protect our country.  It was written in order to form “a more perfect union” and to establish those rights that every citizen naturally has. However, in the beginnings of this establishment, we notice that the Constitution was not very accepted among many in the United States.  The Constitution became an object of opposition and began to be spoken out against by many who opposed the Constitution.  People questioned whether men were capable of establishing such a government and whether or not they would be endlessly dependent on such a document.  Surely it was written by men and there must be errors.  But there were those founding fathers and writers of the Constitution that knew of the importance of this document and the need of this type of government.  All they needed to do was to help those who did not understand, to understand.  In response to this outrage of opinion, authors by the names of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, wrote essays outlining the operation of this new form of government and stressed the importance of it.  These essays are known as the Federalist Papers and consist of 85 essays to the people with the goal to unite the people and help them support this new form of government. 

                In one of the most famous essays to the public, the Federalist Paper 51, written by John Madison, he posed the very utmost significant and challenging question that has probably ever been brought up in political science.  “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.”  Acting as an answer to this great question, James Madison continues in the next sentence of the Federalist Paper 51 essay, “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”  Madison clearly states that the power of the government is derived from the people or “the governed.”  Which is why controlling the governed is so important to the success of the government.  Once the government has control over the people and is supported by the people, the next complication is how to prevent the government from becoming corrupt and turning on itself.  That is what James Madison meant by the need for “auxiliary precautions.”  A new system was to be introduced, to assure the stability of the government.  A system where the government would be separated into different branches of power known as the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch.  These different branches as James Madison implied, “will control each other, and at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”  This system known as the Checks and Balances described the Separation of Powers on a federal and national level and then the power would be divided on a federal and state level recognized as a Division of Powers.  This gives the government a superior range to help govern those where variety played a key part in the voice of the people.  One state’s challenges might be another state’s strength.  All over the United States of America there are many different types of people and from this variety come many different factions.  Power has been given to the state to regulate these factions.  This gives the government more flexibility and power to control “the governed.”  Also hand in hand with the Separation of Powers, the Rule of Law plays a huge part in this as well, that the leaders or the governors could not put themselves in exception to the law or above it.  All men were created equal and all have equal consequences.  James Madison said in his second consideration that, “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.”

                The Federalist Papers (with an emphasis on Federalist Paper 51) played a key role in the unification of the people of the United States to help support our Constitution.  The Constitution has helped our country reach the goals that were set by our founding fathers.  Many amendments have been introduced to even more fully help the Constitution fulfill its purpose.  We now understand the reason for the Separation of Powers in our governmental system today and in conclusion support it to a greater extent.  That was the intention of the writers of the Federalist papers, to ratify the Constitution because they knew the power it and how it solves the problems and errors that are meant to bring a country down because of the greed and pride of men.