James Madison as a junior congressman from Virginia, wrote half of the Federalist Papers. He was experiencing significant backlash among his constituents and to justify his 1789 vote he needed to explain what seemed clear indiscretion--Federalism was not a Virginia ideal. For Hamilton and the self righteous north it was progress towards an egalitarian end, but for Madison and his southern locale it seemed heading towards the autocracy that emigrants had risked everything to leave behind.
Roanoke, west side looking east
Rhode Island just wasn't getting the idea. They were allowing British ships to port then trade raw American goods for British trinkets. Further. Spain was inspiring the Choctaw and Cherokee natives to attack from the southwest and was working to further their hold in Florida while excluding navigation of the Mississippi river (#15). France was building in the north and thus the small American union was surrounded by greater forces. With a leak in the middle, the union was already falling apart. Hardly ten years had passed since the British were kicked out and already the bleeding was clear. "The surrounding powers impose an absolute necessity of union" (#20).
Madison had a terrible weight. On one hand he had the independent mind of his people, he knew they wanted to live free of a tyrannical monarch and believed they could live peaceably without an overlord. On the other, foreign nations were itching to steal their developments; Germany recently "had the mercy to disburden Poland of 1/3 its people and territory" (#20). No small group in the Americas had the ability to resist a British invasion; they knew the collective was their only chance of survival. They knew the horrors of imperialism and had lost many lives to end it. To slip back into its grip would be a critical failure--to lose the experiment in rational government was something he couldn't possibly allow. This was his mandate. He believed people elected him as their representative to protect their ernest civilization AND provide autonomy, "...we must perceive at once the difficulty of mingling them [stability and liberty] together in their due proportions." (#37)
From the top of the Blue Ridge, towards Madison's home.
Hamilton didn't much describe the same sense of individualism, he wanted to spread the good seed of modern wisdom, he wanted to project the morality of American ideology. He perceived that without collective Christian morality "the guilt of all would become the security of all" (#16). For Hamilton the risk of Spanish, French and English infiltration was the greatest risk to defend. Hamilton was also quite ready to moralize upon the Old World, he was ready to share the wealth of American morality and justice for the sake of the plebs still under the monarchical yolk. Hamilton was going to spread the good seed of this "novelty in the political world" (#14), he was a forefather of the Northern Integrity, of the new high bar of moral righteousness. Small things like local autonomy were no match for the wisdom of this grand design.
But Madison wasn't from New York. The Virginia mind didn't really fear the British the same way, if only because the settlements were higher up river where the British Navy had to tack close to the defensible shore. By 1789 the good land by the ocean had been exhausted by excess tobacco production and if the foreign legions were going to invade, the Virginians could hit the invaders with shore based artillery long before they got near the village.
James Madison, like Hamilton, did see value in a union of independent states, to me the key difference is that Madison wanted the union to protect each other from outside aggressors while Hamilton wanted the union to bolster financial acumen and to project a moral ideology beyond the union's borders, he perceived a "great advantage for commercial purposes." (#11)
Madison's caution in #10: "The influence of factious leaders [could lead to] a rage for paper money...or for any other improper or wicked project"
A rage for paper money. Modern American elders seem obsessed to find their only security in their paper money, government today seems solely focused on the perpetuation of growing paper money assets. We continue to lose the means to produce items of value and instead are "addicted to war...and desires of unjust acquisitions" exactly as Hamilton cautioned in #6.
George Washington, in his farewell speech said, "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world" yet Orange Man Bad tries to lessen such foreign entanglements and the liberal world goes berserk.
Madison spoke of the "precious right of the people to abolish or alter their governments" (#40, his emphasis) should "persons elevated...find compensations for betraying their trust" (#22) using Sweden as an example where "parties were alternately bought by France and England." They thought this so important that it "became an article of the Bill of Rights" then added "the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace...was against the law." (#26) He continued, "the people of America may be said to have derived an hereditary impression of danger to liberty from standing armies in times of peace." (#26)
How far we have fallen! Currently the house and senate are forming bi-partisan bills to block this exact thing. Instead of studying history they've collectively found compensations for betraying their trust through lobbyists giving security in paper money.
A standing army consuming half the Federal budget when the nation is not at war. Surely Washington Hamilton and Madison would all be aghast.
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Personal note:
We've potentially found a long term place, with internet. When its solid for sure, I'll update y'all on our situation. Over the summer we made it through a number of states and I'll fill in the details of each, as I'm able, shortly. Its pretty tricky posting from a van in a campground and now maybe we are clear of that for a while.
all photos in Virginia ©ramsayphotography2019
