Federalist No. 51

           The dilemma that James Madison poses in his paper is the paradox that “Men are governing Men.” This idea raises the question: where does the true power lie? That is the difficultly of it all. If men are governing men who gets the power to govern? The Preamble to the Constitution begins with “We the people…” The primary control then seems to be a dependence on the people. The people are responsible for their government. The people hold the true power. They then relinquished some of that power to the government so that they could enforce the laws. This made man subject to their government. “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” (Federalist No. 51)

            James Madison believed that the Constitution solved this difficulty through auxiliary precautions. “Experience has taught mankind the necessity of Auxiliary Precautions” (The Federalist No. 51) Auxiliary Precautions included many ideas, one of them being checks and balances. Checks and Balances were a way to make sure that not one part of the government had too much power over the other. One example is the Division of Powers between State and National governments. The Legislative Branch is another example because it was separated into two different sections; the House of Representatives and the Senate. Another precaution was the Separation of Power into the three branches; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. “It is evident that each department should have a will of its own and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others.” (Federalist No. 51) Separating into three branches allowed them to check on each other to make sure that one branch was not superior to the other and that they all performed their specific responsibilities.

            Another point is that we have a written Constitution. This written Constitution limits the power of the government because it gives them a list of things they can do.” People also participated and continued to be the ultimate sovereigns of their government.” (The Federalist No. 51) This again shows how the primary control is dependence on the people. As long as the people are the ultimate sovereigns the government can govern the people and keep control of itself with little contention. “The different governments will control each other; at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” (The Federalist No. 51) The founding fathers put these auxiliary precautions into the Constitution to make sure that everything stayed fair and that the power did not fall into one place. They made sure to divide the power and to create checks and balances within the government so that justice and liberty existed. “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.” (The Federalist No. 51)