Federalist #46

The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared  (Madison)

In Federalist 46, Madison discusses federal-state relations.  The proposed Constitution raises questions about whether federal government would eventually usurp the powers of states.  Madison defends the Constitution by arguing that the relationship between the people and state governments is much stronger than that between the people and the central government.  Moreover, he contends that federal and state governments are simply different agencies for the same people.  Madison continues by saying the adversaries against the Constitution look at the state and federal government as opponents, and they, the people who control these two groups, have lost sight.

As an example, in the state government, Madison discusses the majority of people will be attached to their state. Of these people, some will rise to leadership positions. There will be dialogue and conversation regarding the needs and wants of the people in a familiar environment.  The topics will be issues that the people will be “more familiarly and minutely conversant.” Madison believes this will regulate “the domestic and personal issues of the people.” However, the federal government is not seen in such a “popular favor” light by the people.  Instead, the idea that the federal government is a platform for men to build their “political consequence” shies the population away from enlarging the federal government’s power. This is faulty thinking in Madison’s point of view. He believes people, in the future, “should become more partial to the federal than to the state governments.” The people will only be able to do this if they are inclines to see past their “antecedent propensities.”

Madison also compares the faculty that the federal and state governments have to “resist and frustrate the measures of each other.” Madison contends that the members of the federal government will be dependent to members of the state government.  However, on a very “distinct and important point of view,” Madison argues that the advantage of the government power will “be on the same side.”  With this favorable set-up, which includes the mixing and merging of state and federal loyalty, Madison believes “it will partake sufficiently of the Spirit of both to be disinclined to invade the rights of the individual states or the prerogatives of their government.” 

For example, Madison contends that, if the federal government power increased and its roles and functions expanded over that of the states, arguably, the people must have been the cause of the shift in power and responsibilities.  The federal government must have proven itself better than the states in handling some public problem. The federal government is still dependent upon the states, for the federal government is nothing but the collection of states working together to solve national problems.  But because states control the strings of the national government and because states care more about their welfare than that of the nation, national public policies will be more inclined to serve state and local interests rather than national goals. This does not mean that the federal government will not pay attention to national interests and goals.  Madison stated that a national spirit will live within the framework of the national government. 

Next, Madison comments on government encroachments. He said that an encroachment by the federal government on state authority would not incite the anger of one, two, or three states but all of the states comprising the union.  The federal intrusion would send “signals of alarm” to the all states and to all people.   Furthermore, an unjust and oppressive act of the federal government would experience great difficult in its administration.  In the administration of national laws, the federal government depends a great deal upon the compliance of states.  States possess the trust and confidence of their citizens.   The citizens of the states would most likely support their state government’s decision to not carry out a federal law.   Another argument is the federal government would use a military force to carry out their “projects of ambition.” Madison shoots this theory down by stating the federal government could produce but an army of 25,000 to 30,000 men that would be met with half a million angry state citizens.

Madison closes by stating, very simply that “either the mode in which the federal government is to be constructed will render it sufficiently dependent on the people or it will not.” Madison believes the powers given to the federal government will be as “little formidable to those reserved to the individual states as they are indispensably necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Union.” Madison leaves the reader with a sound zinger to the opposition. He states that any recorded doubts regarding the power that should be put into the hands of the federal government are only the “chimerical fears of the authors.”