Federalist No. 10 Analysis

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The Federalist Papers were written to describe key features within the U.S. Constitution and to promote the ratification of the document. A three-man committee of Founding Fathers wrote the essays and selections of the Papers. These men were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Madison is the one who wrote No. 10, and he described the functionality and the aspects of factions. His views on factions greatly influenced the Constitution and still applies to contemporary government.
To begin, James Madison defines factions as a group of citizens who are united by similar passions or interests who thrive independently within a community. Madison believes that the biggest factional division in society is the wealthy landowners and the poor non-landowners. There are far more of the poor at this point in time, so they are the majority. James does not want the majority to become tyrannical and overpower the minority, the rich, in government. He explains factions are not helpful in making governmental decisions, but still admits
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10. He reiterates frequently within the text that factions do divide a society, but they will never cease existence since it is in our human nature to compartmentalize into groups based on varying interests. The most idealistic way to control factions is to rid each of its causes; however, that would imply that liberty would be taken away from these groups. Needless to say, this country was created to protect liberty, so the only other option, in Madison’s opinion, is a republican government. This republic must be large enough to support the differing opinions throughout the nation and strong enough to compromise with each other. This is supported in the United States Constitution. Factionalism still exists in today’s government, as Madison said. The question is whether our modern government is strong enough to carry out compromises to benefit the