Madison's Denial
Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 34 (2019)
28 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2019
Date Written: February 20, 2019
Abstract
This review of Noah Feldman, Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, (2017) praises Professor Feldman for a literate summary of Madison's papers. All three of Madison’s lives are important to our national history. Professor Feldman, however, does not give a critical review or appraisal of Madison’s position, because he does not have a fulcrum for leverage from outside Madison’s papers. He gives Madison credit for arguments first made elsewhere and at time when Madison was still a skeptic. Feldman cannot correct Madison's errors.
The focus of the review is on Madison’s denial of the strong national government that Madison, foremost among others, created. Madison's turn has to be understood as opposing Hamilton on specific set of programs:
(1) most importantly, bank notes as a form of paper currency, but also
(2) assumption of state debts, and
(3) “scaling,” which is the proposal to pay for the war debts by paying only the depreciated value of the debts and not the amount originally promised.
Feldman describes Madison’s papers on the issues, but he is of no help in evaluating the arguments or assessing their historical meaning. On all three issues, Hamilton is clearly right and Jefferson and Madison are cleanly wrong.
Slavery is probably the most important factor in pushing for restrictions on the national government, even if it is not stated as a factor by either Madison or Jefferson. Feldman mistakenly treats the turn as related to the Bill of Rights, but Madison is a consistent defender of individual rights.
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