Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Posted on 06/07/2011 6:54:23 PM PDT by neverdem
Of possible interest to the Federalist Papers pinglist?
Madison was Hamilton’s bitch.
--James Madison
Yeah, they didn’t all agree but I’m glad it was that particular group who hammered out the details.
Apt!
It’ll have to do.
Excellent article by Myron Magnet.
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Of course he did. He knew exactly what the necessary and proper clause meant. He was a political creature. His record is full of flip-flops and incoherence. In the end, he did more harm to liberty than good.
Thanks for the ping.
ping
Thank you.
Thanks for the Wee Jemmy ping
The lesson of Madison's Presidency is the importance for the Chief Executive to build a reliable, competent staff, a lesson the present occupant of the Oval Office is, for all his storied although undemonstrated intellect, incapable of exercising. His predecessor, for all his storied although little proven insufficiencies, did quite a bit better, thank God. Jemmy Madison learned it the hard way.
I am not quite so severe as the author in criticizing the evolution of Madison's political thought - it was, after all, a perfect illustration of the contrast between political theory and practical politics. Very few people, including Jefferson, can dance with Madison in respect to the former in my opinion; the latter might be best (if at all) excused as an expression of the still nascent nature of American government. If one cringes at the vision of Jefferson receiving the British envoy in his bedroom attire, how much more can one ache in embarrassment at the antics of the present President bowing and scraping like a third-rate actor playing a fourth-rate butler? American government has grown up in the succeeding two centuries; it is a pity that its occupants have not.
A terrific piece, and many thanks to Neverdem for posting it. Lots to think about. Napoleon, for one - the fellow who sold us half of our country (at the time) was defeated and imprisoned by the time the British had decided they'd had enough of war for awhile and negotiated peace in 1814; by February of the next year he would once more explode into the world scene, and the same Wellington who had astutely recognized the futility of a war in America would step forward to once again become his nation's hero with troops that were much better spent on the field of Waterloo than in the forests of the New World. One cannot help but wonder what would have happened then had the British not declined to pursue their re-acquisition of their departed colonies. I'd love to hear the author's speculation on that alternate history.
Phooey!
” Madison’s chief goal that year was to get the Bill of Rights through Congress. He had at first strongly opposed such amendments, arguing that the Constitution, by its precise enumeration of the federal government’s strictly limited powers, makes clear that any power not on that short list remains off-limits.
Hamilton had similar objections. His and Madison’s degree of sincerity is not open to me, but that was their argument. Madison’s views seemed to evolve throughout his long and active life, as Magnet observes.
I've noticed that you like the idea of putting yourself in those days. They were interesting times.
Somewhere I read of one Founder lightly complaining that his winter rations consisted of only oatmeal, as he ached for the new harvest. I digress.
We live in interesting times as well. I wonder what people will think of us two hundred years from now?
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