Federalist No. 38 is a defense of the Constitution in which Madison admits that the present document is not perfect but asserts that no amendment or change offered to the Constitution succeeded in remedying some problem without also creating new problems of at least equal weight and significance. Madison also likens the America of 1789 to a sick patient and the Founders to learned physicians who have unanimously agreed upon a remedy for the nation’s ills. Madison, in the analogy, likens those who would offer up specific objections to the proposed remedy to unqualified persons seeking to advise the patient against the remedy without having first gone through the deliberations necessary to arrive at such a position.
Madison also remarks that the proposed Constitution is better than any conceivable alternative and criticizes those who would find fault with it for wanting perfection were none exists or should be expected. Furthermore, Madison notes that, “it is a matter both of wonder and regret, that those who raise so many objections against the new Constitution should never call to mind the defects of that which is to be exchanged for it.” He goes on to say that, “it is not necessary that the former should be perfect; it is sufficient that the latter [alternative] is more imperfect.”
Madison concludes by saying that the problems faced by the present Congress require a new Constitution and compares the power held by this Congress to a lifeless mass as the Congress under the Articles is completely dependent on states for their power. This leaves Congress at the mercy of the states and deprives them of the ability to enact any legislation to which the more powerful states might object. This most likely is the chief imperfection in the alternatives alluded to by Madison in this paper.
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