Madison and Federalist 51

The difficulty that Madison poses comes from the idea of men governing men. Giving other men the power to govern over us can cause difficult problems and we become subject to them, such as what happened with Hitler that we talked about in class.

                I really like in the Federalist #51 when he says “It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others.” This is showing that the separation of powers was a way to try and fix the problem of men governing men. In the 10^th amendment they separate the powers between the 3 different branches and the separation of national and state government.

                In Federalist #51 he says “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” With those auxiliary precautions he talks about the constitution being a written law to limit the power of the government. The election process and popular sovereignty also limits the power with the idea that we get to choose who is governing us.

Inspired Constitution

Seeing the inspiration for the Constitution is interesting from an LDS point of view.  Of course we all know that this is all a part of God’s plan. To write such an inspired document they all worked together to study and work with each other. They were motivated to actually make the document instead of just talking about it. Elder Dallin H. Oaks brings up a few key points of the Constitution that are inspired. The first point he brings up is the separation of powers. It makes sure that each branch is independent and has its own equal and separate balance of power. The delegates made sure to find the perfect combination to make the separation of powers work. The inspiration obviously came here, there is no way they could have agreed and found the right way to make the combination to make it a good balance for the separation of powers. I like the quote by President Clark that said, “It is this union of independence and dependence of these branches—legislative, executive and judicial—and of the governmental functions possessed by each of them, that constitutes the marvelous genius of this unrivalled document. … As I see it, it was here that the divine inspiration came. It was truly a miracle.”

Another point that he brings up is a written bill of rights. Without the right of religion, America could not have been the right place for the restoration of the gospel. The bill of rights was inspired because it protects those natural God-given rights that each man has such as the right of speech, press and assembly.

                Throughout the Constitution God is brought up and this just helps prove that it truly is an inspired document.  The delegates even said that they were recipients of heavenly inspiration. One of my favorite quotes is when Alexander Hamilton said, “For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interest.”