ABSTRACT
Since Charles Beard first focused attention upon it in 1913, the Tenth Federalist Paper has been at the center of the debate concerning the foundations of the American republic. Second, Beard also cited the Tenth Federalist Paper in support of his contention that the Constitution was an 'economic' and undemocratic document which benefitted the owners of personality who had drafted it. In the Tenth Federalist Paper, Madison of course argued that expanded electoral districts would help insure the election of representatives who would refine the public views and that an extended republic would contain a diversity of economic interests which would act as a barrier to the formation and concert of majority factions. A second interpretation of the Tenth Federalist Paper – the pluralist reading—remains much more popular. The contemporary debate on the Tenth Federalist Paper concerns the dispute over how Madison hoped to establish Congress as a disinterested umpire and a series of additional questions of interpretation and emphasis.
