We mentioned in the last article that Madison, the "father of the Constitution" of the United States, wrote to him after the Philadelphia Conference because the draft constitution he formulated failed to meet his expectations of establishing a centralized government Jefferson, then the U.S. ambassador to France, complained to him that the United States had lost an opportunity to make the country strong.
But for Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence was not thinking the same way as Madison. Although he was also a federalist, he was a federalist with the supremacy of state power, so he had conflicts and differences with Madison, who was bent on strengthening federal power, on the issue of the constitution. Just as a guide for Madison's legal thought, Jefferson did not directly refute Madison, but comforted Madison when he confided his troubles, telling him that an imperfect constitution was not necessarily a A bad thing, at least it can leave room for people to discuss. (For the debate in the states of the United States after the The drafter of the Declaration of Independence: Thomas Jefferson But Madison's troubles did not last long, just as Jefferson comforted him, A big debate about the Constitution soon began in newspapers all over the United States. From the dignitaries to the aristocracy to the common people, people from all walks of life started a heated debate on the constitutional issue. Express his views on the Constitution in the newspapers or in street speeches, and although Madison is exhausted after a summer of bickering in Philadelphia, he is fully engaged in this debate initiated by the press. vs. Ordinary people, Madison is very clear that what determines the outcome is not the debate in the newspaper, nor the street speech, but the representatives of the state constitution approval conferences.When states vote on whether to adopt the constitution, these representatives do not vote according to the wishes of the voters they represent, but decide whether to ratify the constitution according to their own interests. So Madison began to play a behind-the-scenes role again, analyzing the possible outcomes of the vote state by state, and based on the timing of each state's vote to determine the key states that ultimately passed the constitution. According to Madison's analysis, the states in New England, except Rhode Island, will undoubtedly pass the constitution. As for that stupid"; and for Pennsylvania , Madison believes that the faction that supports the constitution will have a great advantage, so the state will not have a problem passing the constitution; New Jersey and Delaware have always been federal support states. As for Virginia, if the supporters of the constitution cannot win as soon as possible, then there may be a repeat of Maryland and North Carolina next to Virginia, otherwise these two states will have no problem passing the constitution, thus reaching the nine states that have passed the constitution The standard has been met, so Virginia will be the most critical state on whether the constitution will be passed. As for New York State , because of the strong influence of George Clinton and his supporters, the possibility of passing the constitution in the first place is very small. But because New York and Virginia are very important in the Union, whether these two states pass the constitution may cause other swing states to follow. So in this case Madison set his sights on VA . But Madison also knew very well that while Virginia's constitutional supporters were powerful, Washington and himself were Virginians.But Governor Patrick Henry was a die-hard Confederate, and with George Mason and Edmund Randolph both dropping support and turning against because the Constitution failed to achieve its goals, no one could be sure of Virginia. The constitution must be passed. There is, of course, another way to achieve the goal of passing the constitution in nine states before the ratification conferences in New York and Virginia. In this way, the two big states face a fait accompli and it doesn't matter how they vote. All in all, according to Madison's analysis, the probability of passing the constitution at the state's constitutional approval conference is very high, and as more states pass the constitution, the pressure on the remaining state representatives increases, and in the end they will not be allowed to. Do not pass the constitution. This is because "supporters of the constitution are united, while opponents have their own reasons for opposing it," he said. I have to say that Madison's analysis is very reasonable, and in the process of analyzing and thinking, he gradually found that if he got the desired result at the Philadelphia Conference, that is, the constitution stipulates that the federal government has absolute power , the states, not even the most radical New England states, may not ratify the constitution at all. And now it is precisely because the Constitution leaves a great deal of leeway in the distribution of federal and state powers that states have a great advantage in ratifying the Constitution. Located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States So he wrote Jefferson in another letter to give a comprehensive account of the outcome of the Constitutional Convention, and realized that what the majority of the delegates at the meeting insisted on was not the establishment of A unified national government, and some of them don't even know what a national government should look like, so they reached many compromises on the division of power at the meeting. has a clear goal, but don't know how to get there? So we can only move forward while groping. The federal system established by the Constitution of 1787 allows the representatives of the states to retain sufficient power for their states even if the United States becomes a unified country. Maybe we will now think that this is forward thinking and the reform is not thorough enough, but it allows ordinary people time to adapt to the process, so as not to lose their way because of the pace too fast. Haste is not enough, this is the eternal truth! During the months from November 1787 to March 1788, among the four men who dominated the Constitutional Convention, except for Washington's retreat, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay all approved the constitution in the states. played an important role in the process. In a plan conceived by Hamilton, they jointly used the pseudonym "Publius" in the form of public letters in the "Independent Daily", "" A total of 85 articles on the Constitution were published in newspapers such as the New York Post, which were edited and published in The Federalist Papers in 1788. "The Federalist Papers" is divided into the necessity of federalism in the United States (1-36), the republic (37-43), the necessity of the federal government to maintain unity (44-46), It discusses the separation of powers and checks and balances (47-84 chapters), and discusses the constitutional government (85 chapters) in five parts. This is a masterpiece that comprehensively defends the new U.S. Constitution, advocates federalism in the form of the state, implements the separation of powers in the distribution of powers in the country, and points out the shortcomings of the Confederate government from 1781 to 1787 and The danger to the future development of the United States, illustrates the necessity and superiority of the establishment of a federal republic. Its political and legal ideas, such as the idea of federalism, the idea of checks and balances of powers, and the idea of judicial independence, not only attracted many politicians in the United States at that time, but also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and accepted by the wider ordinary people. But some ideas in The Federalist Papers also caused some confusion to the people at the time. In Title 51, "The Structure of Government Must Enable Proper Control and Balance Between Departments", Madison elaborated on the functions and methods of government from the perspective of human nature, arguing that "if everyone is an angel, the government will There is no need for existence. In establishing a government where men govern men, it must first be able to control the governed and then self-control.” If we simply look at this sentence, it is completely contrary to the ideas of freedom and democracy. After all, according to Locke 's " government on ", the government should be established with the consent of the governed, with the purpose of To safeguard the interests of the governed. However, this sentence in the collection echoes the idea of decentralization and restriction in the Constitution, and is based on the inherent evil of human nature. The idea of equality in the Manifesto does not match.Although it is said to be necessary for the establishment of a unified country, it finds reasons for the opposition to the Constitution to oppose it. (This article is a serialized article on American history. Although the Constitutional Convention formulated a new constitution, it is not yet known whether it can be approved by the states? Please pay attention to this account, we will introduce it in detail in the next article.) 
787 Constitution , please read
