{"id":12051,"date":"2025-09-21T18:40:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=12051"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:16:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:16:31","slug":"amdm2025september25","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/amdm2025\/amdm2025september25\/","title":{"rendered":"September 25th: Federalist Paper #10"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for the Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"background-color:yellow\"><strong>Discussion Post #4<\/strong>&#8211;Due Friday, 9\/26, 11:07 pm<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Federalist Paper #10<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/topicstoanalyze\/logical-fallacies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Logical Fallacies<\/a><\/strong> (time permitting)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Democracy\/Liberty\/Freedom\/ETC. quotation:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.&#8221;<br>&#8212;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.franktyger.info\/frank-tyger-in-his-own-words.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Frank Tyger<\/a><\/strong>. In <em>The Little Book of Happiness: For When Life Gets a Little Tough<\/em>. OH, 2023, p. 23.<br>(The quotation was probably originally published in <em>The Trenton Times<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>James Madison, Federalist Paper #10<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are 85 Federalist Papers, but we&#8217;ll only be discussing three of them. There&#8217;s quite a bit to unpack in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/guides.loc.gov\/federalist-papers\/text-1-10#s-lg-box-wrapper-25493273\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist Paper #10<\/a><\/strong>, and there are many ways to approach this text. Think back to the discussion on <strong>discourse communities<\/strong>&#8211;a group of people adhering to <strong>intersubjective epistemology<\/strong>, a &#8220;faction,&#8221; right? If we were in a History or Political Science class, we might think through the historical developments leading to this document and\/or the ways in which it influences both the US Constitution and also our contemporary assumptions about the meaning of the Constitution, especially the elusive nature of &#8220;framers intent.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although he doesn&#8217;t have a musical (overrated or not), <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Madison\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">James Madison<\/a><\/strong> was an important founder of the United States, specifically for his role in creating and supporting the Constitution and Bill of Rights. His background is relevant to specific parts of the Constitution (he was a life-long slave owner and collegiate debater), but, remember, our approach to texts is for rhetorical and American cultural analysis. One can learn an awful lot about a culture by reviewing the texts of that culture. I&#8217;ve selected several passages that are indicative of American culture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>para. 1:<\/strong> &#8220;The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 1:<\/strong> &#8220;Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of <strong>rival parties<\/strong>, and that <strong>measures are too often decided<\/strong>, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but <strong>by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority<\/strong>.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>My take on this is that it explains the problem of the tyranny of the majority.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For this class, think about this as prevailing social norms making us conform (as opposed to the legal letter of this statement).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Where else does the value of stability come up in American culture?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why do you think that is the case?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What&#8217;s the opposite of stability?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para 2:<\/strong> &#8220;By a <strong>faction<\/strong>, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to <strong>a majority or a minority of the whole<\/strong>, who are <strong>united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest<\/strong>, <strong><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">adversed to the rights of other citizens<\/span><\/strong>, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.&#8221;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I think of this refers to special interests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para 3-4:<\/strong> &#8220;&#8230;two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction&#8230;&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1) Remove causes\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>destroy liberty<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>indoctrinate citizens to &#8220;the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2) Remove effects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para 5:<\/strong> &#8220;<strong>Liberty is to faction what air is to fire<\/strong>, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aliment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aliment<\/a> without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish <strong>liberty<\/strong>, which <strong>is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction<\/strong>, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The English professor in me has to pause on the analogies presented above:<br><em>Liberty is to faction as air is to fire.<\/em><br>Liberty <strong>:<\/strong> Faction <strong>::<\/strong> Air : Fire<br><em>Liberty is to political life as air is to animal life.<\/em><br>Liberty <strong>:<\/strong> Political Life <strong>::<\/strong> Air <strong>:<\/strong> Animal Life<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>So we&#8217;re free to engage in political parties, but what does that say about <strong><em>engaging with democracy<\/em><\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 6:<\/strong> <strong>As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.<\/strong> As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other<\/span><\/strong>; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the <em>former<\/em>: opinions<br>the <em>latter<\/em>: passions<br>therefore, one&#8217;s passions &#8220;attach themselves&#8221; to one&#8217;s opinions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We have freedom to create narratives, but nothing compels us to be infallible. Our emotions (or self-interests&#8211;mistaken or not) influence our opinions, which are <strong>our interpretations of events, observations, reality<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do we discuss about how opinions are formed?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 6:<\/strong> The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/insuperable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insuperable<\/a> obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In other words&#8230;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I believe Madison is using <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/faculty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">faculty<\/a><\/em><\/strong> in the first definition entry: &#8220;ability&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Property rights originate from the &#8220;diversity&#8221; of abilities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Such a &#8220;fact&#8221; cannot be overcome and creates differences in interests (e.g., people with more property have interests different from those with no property).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Protecting the [fruits of these] abilities is the government&#8217;s <strong>MAIN<\/strong> priority.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This protection leads to different levels of <strong><span style=\"background-color:yellow\">property acquisition<\/span><\/strong>, which divides &#8220;society into different interests and parties.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 7:<\/strong> The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government<\/strong>, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; <strong><span style=\"background-color:yellow\">an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power<\/span><\/strong>; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, <strong>have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity<\/strong>, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. <strong>So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Madison is claiming something about human nature. Is he correct? Seems pessimistic&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 7:<\/strong> &#8220;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.<\/span><\/strong>&#8221;\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and <strong>divide them into different classes<\/strong>, actuated by different sentiments and views.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Does this mean people with money think differently from those without money?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">The regulation of these various and interfering interests<\/span><\/strong> forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.<\/span><\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 8:<\/strong> &#8220;<strong>No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment<\/strong>, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of <strong>men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time<\/strong>&#8230;&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;&#8230;questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">The apportionment of taxes<\/span><\/strong> on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, <strong>no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice.<\/strong>&#8221;\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Compare this to Federalist Paper #51: &#8220;<strong>If men were angels<\/strong>, no government would be necessary. <strong>If angels were to govern men<\/strong>, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Real Life asks, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0R6WIbx8ysE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Send Me an Angel&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Scorpions&#8217; song <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1UUYjd2rjsE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Send Me an Angel&#8221;<\/a> is quite different.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 9:<\/strong> &#8220;It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. <strong>Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 10:<\/strong> &#8220;&#8230;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS<\/span><\/strong>.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 11:<\/strong> &#8220;When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The government must &#8220;<strong>secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction<\/strong>, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 12:<\/strong> Must thwart factions from &#8220;carry into effect <strong>schemes of oppression<\/strong>.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prevent a majority from having the interests or passions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;&#8230;neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 13:<\/strong> Thoughts on <strong>pure democracy<\/strong> and common interests and passions.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Madison defines a &#8220;pure democracy&#8221; in the ancient concept where all citizens of a small governing body vote on every piece of legislation&#8211;not really a representative democracy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebsco.com\/research-starters\/literature-and-writing\/athenian-democracy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Ancient Athens<\/strong> (460 BCE to 320 BCE)<\/a> had a large assembly that would vote on matters; the &#8220;president&#8221; was mainly a vote counter serving only for the government&#8217;s business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 14:<\/strong> &#8220;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">A republic<\/span><\/strong>&#8230;opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 18:<\/strong> In the next place, as each <strong>representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for <span style=\"background-color:yellow\">unworthy candidates<\/span> to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried<\/strong>; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to <strong>centre in men who possess <span style=\"background-color:yellow\">the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters<\/span><\/strong>.\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I&#8217;m not sure how this relates to this class, but I couldn&#8217;t resist pulling this out. To me, it means our elected official from larger pools (governors, Senators, and Presidents) will have the most merit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 20:<\/strong> &#8220;The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of republican than of democratic government&#8230;&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Madison argues that factions will be less of an issue to cause problems in a republic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Smaller societies have larger majorities that could &#8220;more easily&#8230;concert and execute their plans of oppression.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<strong>Extend the sphere<\/strong>, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; <strong>you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens<\/strong>&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This means that large populations will have groups not trusting each other, which hinders consensus and, therefore, establishing powerful factions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>para. 22:<\/strong> A rage for paper money, <strong>for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project<\/strong>, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For this class, the warning about the particular maladies possible in small-scale vs large-scale situations is very relevant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Notice the economic issues Madison is warning about. What do you think a contemporary example might be?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Next Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll finish up anything we didn\u2019t get through today. We&#8217;ve got two more Federalist Papers to cover next week: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/guides.loc.gov\/federalist-papers\/text-51-60#s-lg-box-wrapper-25493427\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist Paper #51<\/a><\/strong> &amp; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/guides.loc.gov\/federalist-papers\/text-71-80#s-lg-box-wrapper-25493470\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist Paper #78<\/a><\/strong>. Don\u2019t forget <strong>Discussion Post #4<\/strong> is due Friday, 9\/26, 11:07pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the Day James Madison, Federalist Paper #10 There are 85 Federalist Papers, but we&#8217;ll only be discussing three of them. There&#8217;s quite a bit to unpack in Federalist Paper #10, and there are many ways to approach this text. Think back to the discussion on discourse communities&#8211;a group of people adhering to intersubjective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":11703,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12051","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-38n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12051"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12116,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12051\/revisions\/12116"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}