James Madison traced the problems he observed as a member of the Virginia council such as the execution of rashly made laws. Also, Madison witnessed the “balking” of individual states at the notion of carrying out necessary measures for common good while an elected delegate to Congress. He attributed these problems to the design of the state constitutions which concentrated all powers of government in the legislature, which had proven ineffective at the time. “…his deepest concern was to prove that a national republic would protect minority interests and individual rights against the danger of a “factious majority”, a majority which, while claiming to embody the popular will, actually preferred its own interests to the public good.”(p. 55 Rakove’s biography)
Madison’s concern in protecting minority interests drove him to the Constitutional Convention with the intent to support the ratification of the Constitution. Although some anticipated its ratification as an advancement, others feared national government would become too powerful and destroy state government. In response, Madison, among two others, tried to counter these arguments with assurance in national government by helping to write some of the 85 total essays published in The Federalist.
The compromise between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists was, in essence, the Bills of Rights, which were written by Madison as a result of his passion for the establishment of government. “Many of the protections provided by the Bill of Rights harked back to lessons learned in earlier struggles with Parliament.” (Created Equal, p. 280). Guarding the rights of the people would become a permanent part of the U.S. Constitution.
Madison secured many freedoms and secured the acceptance of the Constitution he had labored so much to frame. Even in Hamilton’s Plan for the U.S. in 1790, he opposed having the national government pay the states’ debts because he saw this in empowering it by giving it leverage...