In the world of the Federalist Papers, the pillar of “virtue” has fallen.50 When Madison does write about virtue, it often is not to invoke it but to emphasize that it is a finite resource in humans. For example, in an aside in Federalist 53 he refers to “the period within which human virtue can bear the temptations of power.” He is not saying that humans are wicked and have no virtue, just that virtue alone is insufficient. In other words, “a nation of philosophers is as little to be expected as the philosophical race of kings wished for by Plato.”
