ABSTRACT
The most authoritative commentary on the Constitution remains ‘The Federalist’. Yet ‘The Federalist’s’ explanation and defence of the Constitution was always somewhat suspect, since, as the authors themselves admitted, ‘The Federalist’ was a polemic, written to promote the ratification of the Constitution, as well as a work of political philosophy. Moreover, Alexander Hamilton and fames Madison, its main authors, soon parted political company, with Madison in the House of Representatives leading a party in opposition to Hamilton’s policies as Secretary of the Treasury. Madison, known as the ‘Father of the Constitution’, was also the father of the party system, grafted onto the Constitution soon after the government went into operation. This chapter displays the departures that Madison’s thinking as party leader made from the thinking of Madison the co-author of ‘The Federalist’, and argues that these departures comprised a very different and in some ways a superior way of conceiving of America’s form of government.
