Republicans+vs.+Federalists

Baron de Montesquieu wrote in //The Spirit of Laws// (1748) "that a republican government could not flourish in a large territory. The reasons were clear. If the people lost direct control over their representatives, they would fall prey to tyrants. large distances allowed rulers to hide their corruption; physical separation presented aristocrats with opportunities to seize power." (178)

James Madison adamantly disagreed with this notion based on the experiences of the states after they declared independence from Britain and formed their own governments. What he saw were legislatures in relatively small areas (states) that banded together to penalize wealthy, landowning aristocrats. Although they may have banded together over the ideals of republicanism, freedom, and equality, they had become unscrupulous tyrants. Madison believed that a large republic would solve this problem because it would create a wide variety of factions whose petty interests would cancel each other out so that they could compromise and lead in the interests of the people-at-large. This would restore virtue and call the most able-bodied members of society to lead the nation.