Disproving Charles Beard's Con

            James Madison begins his famous Federalist Paper 51 by explaining that the purpose of his essay is to help the readers understand how the structure of the proposed government makes liberty possible. Each branch should be, for the most part, in Madison's opinion, independent. To assure such independence, no one branch should have too much power in selecting members of the other two branches. In his Second Treatise of Civil Government, John Locke stated that "it is not without reason the [man] seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united, or have a mind to unite for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, which I call by the general name - property." It was by these basic principles that laid the essential framework for our constitution. Based upon the fundamental ideals described by Locke and Madison, Charles Beard, in his essay Framing the Constitution, asserts that the framers of our Constitution were anxious, above everything else, to protect the rights of private property against any leveling tendencies on the part of the property less people. Beard argues that the Constitution was essentially an economic document based upon the concept that the fundamental private rights of property are anterior to government and morally beyond the reach of popular majorities. .