Dr. Espinoza
POLS-2305-93L
April 23, 2018
The development of the American Constitution in 1787 accompanied a battle between opposing political philosophies concerning the future of the United Stated and its structure. The Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay favored the newly formed Constitution whom believed the central government would work with an organized checks and balances as well as separation of powers. In the other hand, the Anti-Federalists led by Patrick Henry, James Winthrop, and George Mason thought the Constitution would not be able to protect the right of the people; thought the new nation was too large to be governed by a central authority. Although both were correct in their political …show more content…
Madison explained the need, purpose and justification for separation of powers for each branch of government, that "as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government, ....be the means of keeping each other in their proper place." This statement emphasized that having a strong central government is important, before the Constitution, the colonies were not unified and there were plenty of problems in the states regarding laws. Not to mention the threat of an outside danger, which would be very hard to counteract since there is no central organ that has the power to organize and protect its citizens. As a unified country, there must be a central location that governs and makes decisions, otherwise it is almost certain that there will be internal turmoil between different states at some point. As stated in No. 51, separation of powers leads to the next issue, checks and balances. “Constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights”, Madison introduced the idea of checks and balances, where each branch would have certain powers that can overstep certain powers of any one branch. Refers to how the different branches of government are arranged so that they can protect the rights of the public and of private individuals from too much power in the hands of any one