Federalist Paper No. 10

     The Federalist Papers were a series of essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.  The were published in area news papers and were written to help convince the voters to ratify the constitution. Some believe it was also the intent of the writers to help influence future interpretation of the constitution.  In other words, they were written to give insight into why the constitution and the government were set up the way that they were.  Federalist Paper No. 10 was written by James Madison.  In it he is trying to convince the people of New York about the advantages of a democratic republic.  Madison wanted to let the people know that a large republic would work.  In fact, not only would it work, but that it would work better then a small republic.  A Large republic had never been tried  before.  This was a completely new idea.
     James Madison stars off by talking about factions.  He did not like factions at all.  He had a complete mistrust of them.  Factions today are also called special interest groups, unions or lobbyist.  There had also been several complaints from citizens about the possibility of there being factions under the new Union.  This paper was written to show that factions could be controlled in a large republic.
     In Federalist No. 10 James Madison gives us a great definition of a faction.   He says: "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
     So a faction is a group of people, whether large or small, that share a common interest or belief.  And who have no regard for the rights or beliefs of other individuals or society as a whole.  Their only interest is to assert their agenda or plans.
     Now while Madison was greatly concerned about these factions forcing their ideas and plans on everyone else, he also knew that it would be impossible to get rid of them completely.  Humans like to associate with like-minded individuals.  In fact he had a great analogy.  He compares factions with fire and liberty with air.  He says it would be just as foolish to try to rid the world of factions as it would to rid the world of air, just because air gives fire its explosive force.  That you can not abolish liberty to stop factions.
     The only thing we can hope to do is to control the factions.  One way to do this was to have a government of representation.  Instead of having a pure democracy, you would let the people pick men with integrity, who in turn would pick representatives for Congress.  By taking the best men, you could take away some of the effects of self-interest in the national government. A pure democracy would have to be small in size, both geographically and population wise.  Which in turn makes the country more susceptible to being controlled by a faction.  However, according to Madison, the more people you have, the more interests.  And the more interests will create more factions-who disagree and will not be able to combine together to gain control of the majority.  This is why he fought for a large democratic-REPUBLIC.  This country was meant to be a republic, with representation for all of it's citizens.
     One of the fears in creating this type of government was that the minority would be able to dictate the governing, laws and regulations to the majority.  And to a large extent, that is happening today.  We have strayed from the republic part of our government.  We do not always elect good representatives with integrity.  Nor do we realize that just because we may be out voted, it does not follow that we are then being discriminated against.  It just means that the majority of those who voted, didn't agree with you.  Sometimes that is a hard thing to realize.  That you lost.  Along with the love of liberty and freedom that most Americans have ingrained in their souls, is the belief that you can always win, that you don't have to lose.  However, reality is that someone has to lose.  That's just the way it is.  Everyone can't win.  In fact if we don't teach our children that not only is it okay to lose and that losing or failure will make you stronger, it will be to their determent.  When you are afraid to fail, it is easy to not even try. They must learn to pick themselves up and to try again.  We can not be afraid to stand up for the things we know to be true.  We can not be afraid to make a difference, to do our part and reach for something higher.  We all must learn to keep trying.

Standing up for what I believe

I know that at some time in each of our lives, we have to make a choice about what we believe.  We also have to choose if we will stand up for those beliefs.  For awhile now, I have felt the need to do more. To be more involved, to make sure I let others know what I believe.  I wasn't really sure how to do that.  How can I make a difference in the world around me.  So for now, I am going to write about what I believe and why I believe.
   So what do I believe?  I believe in Jesus Christ.  He is the Savior of the World. He lives and He will come again.
   I believe that this country was created, protected and divinely inspired by the hand of God.  I believe that there were righteous men and women who had a hand in it's creation.  I believe that as long as the righteous out number the wicked on this continent, that we will continue to be protected by the Lord.  I also believe that once the wicked out number the righteous, we will be swept off of this continent.  I know that as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I have a duty to do all I can to keep His commandments, to live a worthy life and to help in every way I am able.
    I love this nation.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be born in this time and place.  So the purpose of this blog is for me to talk about why I love my country and the why and how of it's creation.  So with each post, I hope to talk about many of the following things:  The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, The Federalist Papers, The past presidents of the United States and many other topics.
     The name of this blog comes from two places.  The first is a quote from Patrick Henry.  He was addressing the Virginia Convention.  I know at times I can be a little enthusiastic and passionate about what I know and feel.  I have always loved this part of Patrick Henry's talk: "Give me liberty or give me Death" and ultimately if I have to make a choice, I believe I will stand with Patrick Henry.  For far to long, I have stood ideally by, while letting other people make choices for me or changes to the foundation of this country.  It is time for me to stand up and be accountable for what I know.
     The second part of the name comes from the knowledge that every person living on this earth is free to make any choice they want. Each and every one of us.  Just because I choose to live my life a certain way, doesn't mean that I get to dictate how anyone else lives.  No matter what side of the political or spiritual spectrum you are on,  you get to choose.  I also know that this is a very difficult thing to live with.  Many people will profess to believe in freedom of choice, however they don't want to grant it to anyone who disagrees with them. They will say that others are uneducated or don't really understand or know what is really going on.  All of that doesn't matter.  We still get to decide how to live and who to follow.  All I can and must do, is to do my part to speak up, vote and share my beliefs.
 I hope that at least a few people will decide to follow my posts.  Please feel free to share it with everyone.