Reflecting on the Federalist - Looking Back on Two Years of Study
Having spent the last 85 weeks writing reviews of each Federalist Paper, I thought it would be a good idea to take some time to note the points that stick out most in my mind.
Here is a brief discussion of the items that stick out most in my mind.
Federalist Papers
While reviewing the Federalist Papers, as with any rereading of a favorite collection, something new generally sticks out in one’s mind.
This time, unlike most books that I can read in a week or so, this one was spread out over a year and a half. Therefore, there is bound to be some recency bias.
Furthermore, this is not an all encompassing overview of the Federalist Papers. Instead, I am just going to point out a few things that have been resonating through my mind having completed a long-term reassessment of these Founding Documents.
Primarily, there are two words that come to mind when reflecting on the Federalist…’energy’ and ‘gridlock.’
Energy
The one goal of the Federalist Papers that seems to stick out most in my mind is the idea of a Government that is full of ‘energy’.
This idea was mostly espoused in the Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, most specifically with the Executive Branch.
I have read many interpretations of what Hamilton meant by ‘energy’ but my reading indicates that he wanted a Government where the President is able to move swiftly and deliberately on behalf of the people in order to satisfactorily execute the powers with which he’s been interested.
Gridlock
During my reading of the Federalist, I noticed that the authors were essentially promoting what I can only call gridlock.
First of all, they were obviously in favor of a system of Checks and Balances that would prevent one branch of Government from getting too much power over the others.
Furthermore, these writers seemed to be especially proud of setting up a system that would prevent the Government from being changed too easily. While this might sound like a contradiction to the ‘energy’ that we discussed above, it was important to the Framers to have changes be made slowly while having final decisions carried out quickly.
A major concern in the Papers was the prevention of mob rule. Therefore, the Constitution was created with a certain amount of gridlock so the direction of the Government would not be jolted back and forth on the everyday whims of the people.
WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT?
As I said last week, I am deciding on what to do with my Friday articles now. Should I start over with Federalist #1 or spend some time on the Anti-Federalist Papers?
Let me know what you think!!!!
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Until then, check out the list of previous Federalist Papers here:
