The Fathers of the United States wrote the Federalist Papers to assure the people that a powerful federal government would be beneficial for the well-being of the individual interest of its citizens as well as the country as a whole. The papers" main purpose was to ensure the citizens that their rights and privileges would not be infringed upon by the government. James Madison, according to some, is a prime example of a leader who attempted to secure the American people's civil liberties. There are those, Charles Beard for example, who oppose Madison's, as well as all of the Fathers of the Constitution's, opinions and claim that they were motivated by self-interests, rather than the welfare of the people when creating the Constitution. Madison's major points are made in Federalist Papers ten and fifty-one. .
Madison's main concern in Federalist Paper number ten is that the Constitution provides the people with a government that protects them against factions. Madison states that factions are groups of individuals that are solely concerned with their own political and economic wellbeing. According to Madison, there are only two ways of eradicating factions, " by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests" (Jacobson, 562). James Madison stated that to eliminate factions would be to eliminate liberty, but that liberty is as crucial to factions as air is to fire. He was saying that just as air fuels a fire, liberty also fuels factions. In other words, the latter (fire or factions) would surely die out without the earlier element (liberty or air). Therefore, Madison realized factions were ultimately unavoidable and therefore needed to be dealt with. He felt the government that was created by the Constitution was well equipped to manage the effects of factions, unlike a direct democracy.
