Charter · original text
The Federalist
The ratifiers’ public explanation of the inventory. CARTA teaches these papers — not later doctrine — and scores bills against the tests they imply. Madison on few-and-defined powers. Hamilton on void acts. A listed Federalist is a lesson, not a decoration.
Public domain. Hamilton, Madison, Jay, 1787–88. Engrossed parchment, September 17, 1787. National Archives transcription, original spelling retained.
Federalist No. 1 · Hamilton
Reflection and choice
The American premise: a constitution is chosen, not inherited from accident or force.
“It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”
Legislative test — Does this bill rest on a written grant, or on emergency and will?
Federalist No. 10 · Madison
Factions
A public law is a general rule. A private bill dressed as a public law is a faction’s victory.
“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”
Legislative test — Does the operative text name a private beneficiary, earmark, or directed award?
Federalist No. 39 · Madison
A republic
Power is derived from the people and administered for a limited term — not by decree.
“We may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior.”
Legislative test — Does it substitute emergency decree, one-house rule, or an unaccountable board for republican process?
Federalist No. 41 · Madison
General welfare is not a 19th power
The general-welfare phrase is a purpose of the tax power, then qualified by the particulars that follow. It is not a free-standing commission.
“It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. … Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars.”
Legislative test — Is “general welfare” being used as a subject-matter grant, or as the purpose of a listed tax?
Federalist No. 44 · Madison
Necessary and proper
The clause is an instrument of enumerated ends. Without it the Constitution is a dead letter; with it stretched, parchment is a dead letter.
“Without the substance of this power, the whole Constitution would be a dead letter. … If it be asked what is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part of the Constitution, and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer, the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them.”
Legislative test — Is Necessary and Proper carrying a listed end into execution, or standing in as the end itself?
Federalist No. 45 · Madison
Few and defined
The federal inventory is short. Residual authority is with the States and the people. This is CARTA’s first floor.
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. … The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”
Legislative test — Does every operative clause map to a delegated object, or is this the ordinary internal police of a State?
Federalist No. 47 · Madison
Separation of powers
Accumulation of legislative, executive, and judicial power in one hand is the definition of tyranny.
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Legislative test — Does the bill let one branch, officer, or board exercise the powers of another?
Federalist No. 48 · Madison
Parchment barriers
Writing the limits is not enough. The departments must have the means to resist each other. CARTA exists because parchment alone did not hold.
“A mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.”
Legislative test — Does it disable a check, or trust a written recitation to do the work of a structural one?
Federalist No. 51 · Madison
Ambition counteract ambition
Men are not angels. Office must be tied to the constitutional rights of the place.
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. … Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.”
Legislative test — Does the officer’s interest run with the limit, or against it?
Federalist No. 78 · Hamilton
A void act
An act contrary to the commission is void. Limited government is not a slogan; it is a rule of decision.
“There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.”
Legislative test — If this bill is contrary to the commission, CARTA must reject it. Score does not save a void act.
Federalist No. 84 · Hamilton
The Constitution is itself a bill of rights
Hamilton argued a separate bill of rights was unnecessary because the grant was limited. The States demanded Amendments I–X anyway. CARTA enforces both: the limited grant and the declared rights.
“The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS. The several bills of rights in Great Britain form its Constitution, and conversely the constitution of each State is its bill of rights. And the proposed Constitution, if adopted, will be the bill of rights of the Union.”
Legislative test — Even if the grant were limited, does the bill abridge a declared right in Amendments I–X?