(1787–1788), were a series of articles explaining the need for, and urging the ratification of the United States Constitution by the individual State governments. These articles, which were published in New York newspapers, were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay under the pen name of “Publius.” Without the powerful arguments presented in The Federalist Papers, the Constitution most likely would not have been ratified.
Federalist No. 47: When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or body, there can be no liberty, because apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.1871
Federalist No. 51: (James Madison) But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others.
The provisions for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.
But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.1872
In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.1873
Federalist No. 81: (Alexander Hamilton): In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution.1874