fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

the name of protection against invading armies and Europeancoalitions. Sometimes it is to the commercial classes whosebusiness is represented as prostrate before the follies of theConfederation. Now it is to creditors seeking relief againstpaper money and the assaults of the agrarians in general; nowit is to the holders of federal securities which are depreciatingtoward the vanishing point. But above all, it is to the ownersof personalty anxious to find a foil against the attacks oflevelling democracy, that the authors of The Federalist addresstheir most cogent arguments in favor of ratification. It is truethere is much discussion of the details of the new frameworkof government, to which even some friends of reform tookexceptions; but Madison and Hamilton both knew that thesewere incidental matters when compared with the sound basisupon which the superstructure rested.In reading the pages of this remarkable work, a study in politicaleconomy, it is important to bear in mind that the system, whichthe authors are describing, consisted of two fundamental partsonepositive, the other negative:I. A government endowed with certain positive powers, butso constructed as to break the force of majority rule and preventinvasions of the property rights of minorities.II. Restrictions on the state legislatures which had been sovigorous in their attacks on capital.Under some circumstances, action is the immediate interestof the dominant party; and whenever it desires to make aneconomic gain through governmental functioning, it musthave, of course, a system endowed with the requisite powers.Examples of this are to be found in protective tariffs, inship subsidies, in railway land grants, in river and harborimprovements, and so on through the catalogue of so-called“paternalistic” legislation. Of course it may be shown that the“general good” is the ostensible object of any particular act;but the general good is a passive force, and unless we knowwho are the several individuals that benefit in its name, it hasno meaning. When it is so analyzed, immediate and remotebeneficiaries are discovered; and the former are usually foundto have been the dynamic element in securing the legislation.Take for example, the economic interests of the advocates whoappear in tariff hearings at Washington.On the obverse side, dominant interests quite as oftenbenefit from the prevention of governmental action as frompositive assistance. They are able to take care of themselvesif let alone within the circle of protection created by the law.Indeed, most owners of property have as much to fear frompositive governmental action as from their inability to secureadvantageous legislation. Particularly is this true where thefield of private property is already extended to cover practicallyevery form of tangible and intangible wealth. This was clearlyset forth by Hamilton:It may perhaps be said that the power of preventing bad lawsincludes that of preventing good ones. . . . but this objectionwill have little weight with those who can property estimate themischiefs of that inconstancy and mutability in the laws whichform the greatest blemish in the character and genius of ourgovernments. They will consider every institution calculatedto restrain the excess of lawmaking, and to keep things in thesame state in which they happen to be at any given period, asmore likely to do good than harm.... The injury which maypossibly be done by defeating a few good laws will be amplycompensated by the advantage of preventing a number of badones.”The Underlying Political Science of the ConstitutionBefore taking up the economic implications of the structure ofthe federal government, it is important to ascertain what, inthe opinion of The Federalist, is the basis of all government. Themost philosophical examination of the foundations of politicalscience is made by Madison in the tenth number. Here he laysdown, in no uncertain language, the principle that the first andelemental concern of every government is economic.1. “The first object of government,” he declares, is theprotection of “the diversity in the faculties of men, fromwhich the rights of property originate.” The chief business ofgovernment, from which, perforce, its essential nature mustbe derived, consists in the control and adjustment of conflictingeconomic interests. After enumerating the variousforms of propertied interests which spring up inevitably inmodern society, he adds: “The regulation of these variousand interfering interests forms the principal task of modernlegislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in theordinary operations of the government.”2. What are the chief causes of these conflicting politicalforces with which the government must concern itself?Madison answers. Of course fanciful and frivolous distinctionshave sometimes been the cause of violent conflicts”; but themost common and durable source of factions has been thevarious and unequal distribution of property. Those who holdand those who are without property have ever formed distinctinterests in society. Those who are creditors, and those whoare debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest,a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyedinterest, with many lesser interests grow up of necessity incivilized nations, and divide them into different classes actuatedby different sentiments and views.”3. The theories of government which men entertain areemotional reactions to their property interests. “From theprotection of different and unequal faculties of acquiringproperty, the possession of different degrees and kinds ofproperty immediately results; and from the influence of theseon the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors,ensues a division of society into different interests and parties.”180 fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007