In the Federalist Papers #10, “The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection”, Madison uses the paper to warn against the power of factions to destroy the country and oppress the citizens. As he argues in favor of the ratification of the Constitution, he demonstrates how a federal government under the Constitution will ensure the rights of all while not bowing to the pressures of the factions, whether minority or majority. He demonstrates the danger of factions in clear and concise language and proposes ways to remove the causes of factionist beliefs, which are all unacceptable. Madison advocates that the only way to eliminate the factions hold on the people is to control the effects by minimizing their voice inside the system of a republic.
For much of the Federalist #10, Madison describes the danger of factions. He uses phrases like “adversaries to liberty” and “superior force of an interested and overbearing majority” to surreptitiously place those factions as enemies of the people who wish to be, “virtuous and considerate citizens”. His use of words when describing the factions moves the reader to view them as the evil few trying to corrupt the rights of the larger good. He sets up the dichotomy of the factions versus the people with direct references to loan holders and debtors and the landed and without land. These were significant spots of contention among the people of the age and would have likely swayed their opinion into a negative view of these various factions. This paper would be very persuasive simply because those that read it would never want to think of themselves as the problem, they would see factions as ‘the others’, though they were likely part of these groups. Madison took care to demonize these collections of men to such an extent that everyone would immediately view the situation as ‘us versus them’ and want to fall onto the side of good citizenry.
Within the paper, Madison proposes a theory that the only ways in which to solve the harm of factions is to either remove the cause of factions or control the effects. Within this argument, he declares that the two ways to remove the cause of faction is either to eliminate the liberties that allow factions to exist or to ensure that every citizen has the same opinion. Of the previous argument, he clearly states that eliminating liberties goes against every belief that the people have and likens it to banning air to control a fire. Of the latter choice, he states the obvious issue that as humans we will all continue to have differing viewpoints. By setting up the solutions with such significantly adverse solutions, he leads the reader to believe that the ‘only’ two solutions are situations which would be intolerable for living. This prepares them for his solution for controlling the effects.
Madison states in the paper that if the only solution to factions is to control the effects, then the solution much be to form the republic. Within a democracy in a state, a majority that is going against the general good of the people can easily take control of the situation during voting and get their passions acted upon. Madison illustrates that within a republic of representatives, the area in which they serve would be large enough that it would be unlikely to ever have such a majority. These representatives would be elected to serve large areas and so would not feel the need to sway their vote to meet the needs of a small group of people. He further asserts that by broadening the size of area that government is responsible for, there will be a wide variety of people with varying interests. Due to this diversity, it is unlikely that a majority that goes against the best interests of the people will over come to power. Herein lays Madison’s most significant argument that the Constitution sets up a political system that will result in the fairness for all.
Within this Federalist paper Madison demonstrated his clearly refined skills of persuasion. He defined the problem, demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the general solutions and established the Constitution as the only proper solution. He even guarded against the fear of the time that the government would get too powerful by leaving the larger interests to the republic and the local issues to the states. This argument was exceptionally influential and would likely have had significant effects on the reader. By clearly delineating the quandary, eliminating some solutions and then proposing the solution he wished to be chosen, he was exceptionally coercive.
