The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President

by Noah Feldman

“While Mr. Henry lives another bad constitution would be formed, and saddled forever on us. What we have to do I think is devoutly to pray for his death.”

Jefferson is a dick

thousand.” But, Madison now for the first time139 suggested, “an enlargement of the sphere” might be “found to lessen the insecurity of private rights.” Bigger was better—or at least might be. It had been a commonplace of the theory of republics that they could exist only on a small scale, in which every citizen could vote for himself or alternatively elect officials who would be close to the people he represented. Building on a conjecture made by the Scottish enlightenment thinker David Hume, Madison was turning the received view on its head.140 Why

Diversity

his deep reform ought to accomplish. “I hold it for a fundamental point,” he wrote, “that an individual independence of the states, is utterly irreconcilable with the idea of an aggregate sovereignty.” Madison had not said so to Jefferson in as many words, probably to avoid upsetting him. But Madison wanted nothing less than to abolish the states as individually independent sovereigns; and he did not think Randolph would balk as Jefferson might have done. It was not, he clarified, that he wanted to consolidate the states “into one simple republic,” a goal that would be “unattainable” as well as “inexpedient.” Instead what he wanted was a “middle ground” that would “support a due supremacy of the national authority” while also “leav[ing] in force the local authorities so far as they can be subordinately useful.”

On November 13, Henry’s supporters proposed the new congressional districts—which were specially designed to keep Madison out of office.

Gerrymandering before Gerry