of government and reading the classics in political discussions of government and reading the

classics in political theory. Their concerns were highly practical, focusing little of their

The merits of the Montesquieu did not turn up until The Federalist; and although a perverse

argument could be made that Madison’s ideal was truly in the tradition of John Locke’s

Second Treatise of Government, the Locke whom the American rebels treated as an

honorary president was a pluralistic defender of vested rights, not of parliamentary

The critical fight was over representation of the states and once the Connecticut

Madison’s increased devotion to the art of politics is nourished by an increased respect, that

just six months later after the Convention and prepare essays for The Federalist in contradiction

to his basic conventions about the true course the Convention should have taken.

Two issues will serve to illustrate the later process of accommodation, the first was the

institutional position of the Executive. Madison argued for an executive chosen b

which experience would reveal could be rewoven without undue difficulty.

half a million men had to die on the battlefields of the Civil War before certain constitutional

defects of the Constitution, would be like losing a battle, nor would he agree to conditional

perhaps in New York, but this volume had enormous influence on the image of the

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