220th Anniversary: James Madison Drinks, and Writes an Article

A Professor Publius Short Story | 22 December 2012 | Publius

[Publius]

James Madison Drinks, and Writes an Article

Philip Freneau had set the deadline for the December 22nd edition of the National Gazette, and James Madison found himself racing the hourglass. Freneau published the newspaper, dedicated to the positions of Thomas Jefferson’s faction within the Congress and the council around His Excellency, while working for the red-haired Secretary of State as a translator. Mr. Jefferson saw neither difficulty nor conflict with this arrangement.

Freneau had labeled the men of Alexander Hamilton’s faction as Monarchists, Tories, and Anti-Republicans, claiming their role was to reverse the results of 1776. The Secretary of the Treasury had labeled the men around Mr. Jefferson as sympathizers of the ongoing unpleasantness in France.

Though relations between Hamilton and Madison had grown testy of late, there was enough residual friendship for Alec to invite Jemmy to the tavern just off Philadelphia’s High Street for dinner and Christmas libations. Always hungry for spirited discussion and debate, Jemmy had accepted with alacrity.

Following a bottle of Madeira, Hamilton was always moved to loquacity. Because of this he was a highly sought after guest at dinners in New York, where he would hold the attention of a room with his conviviality. It was Jemmy’s earnest hope that Alec would say something to inspire the article he was to deliver to Freneau.

In addition to Madison and Hamilton, seated around the table were Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, and the young, dashing Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire.

As Jemmy swallowed his first glass of Madeira, the feeling of warmth spread from his stomach to his loins. He was going to have to be careful tonight.

James Madison was a man of abstemious habits who did not smoke, and drank only in moderation with meals. He recalled a dinner at the home of James Wilson some five years earlier during the late Convention where Wilson attempted to school Madison on his idea of direct election of the president by the people without regard to state. When that idea failed – for good reason – Wilson had designed the Electoral College on the spot. Jemmy remembered speaking with Wilson in his dining room after far too much Madeira and Port, then suddenly standing in Wilson’s yard with his hands on a wooden club on something called a “putting green”. Wilson was standing behind him, his arms wrapped around him, telling him in his soft Scottish burr of the proper way to wield a golf club against a ball. How he had gone from Wilson’s dining room to his yard was still shrouded in mystery. Jemmy made a mental note to stop drinking at a reasonable time.

Alec was working on his second bottle, and Jemmy could not help but joust with Ames and Boudinot. “Would not the people be best served by the maintenance of their own vigilance?”

Hamilton snorted. “The people? They are stupid and licentious. A mob. Once they have established a government, they should think of obedience, leaving the care of their liberties to their betters.”

Alec, you are in fine fettle tonight, he thought. I must write that one down.

”I will stipulate that slavery has been the general lot of humanity,” answered Jemmy, like the earnest student of history that he was. “People have been ignorant, asleep and divided. But what does that prove? Are you saying that because people may betray themselves, they ought to give themselves up to those who have an interest in betraying them? Should it not make more sense to conclude that the people ought to be enlightened, awakened and united? Then, after establishing a government, they should watch over it.”

Boudinot laughed. “You’re only looking at the surface, Mr. Madison. The truth is in the depths.”

”It is not the government that will fly off from the people, but the people that will fly off from the government,” Hamilton interjected acidly. “Enlighten the government, warn it to be vigilant, give it influence and arm it with force. To the people I have only one word – obey.”

Gilman looked askance at Hamilton. It was apparent to the young former officer that Hamilton was winding himself up in preparation for a five hour oration like the one he had delivered at the first session of the Philadelphia Convention. Gilman remembered painfully those five hours without a break at the pissing trough.

”Colonel Hamilton,” Gilman interjected carefully, “I should think that the centrifugal tendency is with the people, not the government. The secret lies in restraining that tendency by increasing the attractive principle of government. I should find it a perversion of the natural order of things to make power the primary and central object of the social system and liberty but a satellite.”

Hamilton swallowed a bit and deflated briefly. Jemmy made a mental note to have Jefferson speak with Gilman; he could become an ally. He swallowed another glass of Madeira in spite of the warning voice in his head. Hamilton thought a bit before responding to his young political ally.

”Colonel Gilman, the more you increase the attractive force of power, the more you enlarge the sphere of liberty. The more you make government independent from the people, the better security you provide for their rights and interests.”

”Alec, old friend,” said Jemmy with a smile, “I find that line of thought at least mysterious, if not illogical. This is not religion. This is about the institutions of man.”

”But Jemmy,” Hamilton said, with the genuine friendship shown to an intellectual equal, “this is about religion. Citizens, or subjects, require the light of faith and the spirit of obedience. Without that, government becomes the accomplice of atheism and anarchy.”

Madison, who had been trained for the ministry, found himself on familiar ground. Alexander Hamilton had just hanged himself with a noose of his own making. The article for Freneau could be written in jig time. All it required was the sting of a wasp for a conclusion. The sentence shaped itself in Madison’s brain long before his quill pen touched hemp paper.

”I denounce you to the people as a blasphemer of their rights and an idolater of tyranny.”

There! A bit too strong for an old friend, but the article would be published under a pseudonym.

Jemmy staggered out of the tavern a few hours later as the knot behind his forehead expanded to cover most of his brain. This would be a bad one, he knew. He quietly climbed the spiral staircase of Mrs. Swinton’s boarding house, entered his room and lit a candle. He had to begin the article at once before the thoughts fled him.

“Who are the best keepers of the people’s liberties?” he wrote. As he labored, his presto jig time slowed to an adagio, and then a stately largo. But he had to finish this now. Freneau was waiting.

When Mrs. Swinton rang the bell for breakfast, its tiny sound echoed in his head like the great bells of the Gloria Dei church down the street.

James Madison promised himself he would never drink again.

Who Are the Best Keepers of the People’s Liberties?
James Madison, 22 December 1792

Republican: The people themselves. The sacred trust can be nowhere so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it.

Anti-Republican: The people are stupid, suspicious, licentious. They cannot safely trust themselves. When they have established government they should think of nothing but obedience, leaving the care of their liberties to their wiser rulers.

Republican: Although all men are born free, and all nations might be so, yet too true it is that slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant, they have been cheated; asleep, they have been surprised; divided, the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? That because the people may betray themselves, they ought to give themselves up, blindfold, to those who have an interest in betraying them? Rather conclude that the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it, as well as obey it.

Anti-Republican: You look at the surface only, where errors float, instead of fathoming the depths where truth lies hid. It is not the government that is disposed to fly off from the people, but the people that are ever ready to fly off from the government. Rather say then, enlighten the government, warn it to be vigilant, enrich it with influence, arm it with force, and to the people never pronounce but two words: submission and confidence.

Republican: The centrifugal tendency then is in the people, not in the government, and the secret art lies in restraining the tendency by augmenting the attractive principle of the government with all the weight that can be added to it. What a perversion of the natural order of things to make power the primary and central object of the social system and liberty but its satellite.

Anti-Republican: The science of the stars can never instruct you in the mysteries of government. Wonderful as it may seem, the more you increase the attractive force of power, the more you enlarge the sphere of liberty; the more you make government independent and hostile towards the people, the better security you provide for their rights and interests. Hence the wisdom of the theory, which, after limiting the share of the people to a third of the government, and lessening the influence of that share by the mode and term of delegating it, establishes two grand hereditary orders with feelings, habits, interests and prerogatives all inveterately hostile to the rights and interests of the people, yet by a mysterious operation all combining to fortify the people in both.

Republican: Mysterious indeed! But mysteries belong to religion, not to government; to the ways of the Almighty, not to the works of man. And in religion itself there is nothing mysterious to its author; the mystery lies in the dimness of the human sight. So in the institutions of man let there be no mystery, unless for those inferior beings endowed with a ray perhaps of the twilight vouchsafed to the first order of terrestrial creation.

Anti-Republican: You are destitute, I perceive, of every quality of a good citizen, or rather of a good subject. You have neither the light of faith nor the spirit of obedience. I denounce you to the government as an accomplice of atheism and anarchy.

Republican: And I forbear to denounce you to the people, though a blasphemer of their rights and an idolater of tyranny. Liberty disdains to persecute.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Funny, it came up today in my own memory hole. And it is perhaps more timely than when you posted it a few years ago...

[Billthedrill]

Congratulations on 19! That's a lot of water under the bridge Jim Robinson built for us all.

By pure happenstance, I retire today after 36 years in the IT industry. I think I have a little editing work in front of me. ;-)

[loveliberty2]

Thank you for this wonderful update!!

As always, your sense of identity with the minds and words of the founding generation serves as a reminder for each of us that the ideas of liberty are as refreshingly new and revolutionary in 2016 as they were in 1776 and 1787.

Today, the unenlightened minds of those who self-identify as "progressives" seem to prefer darkness to light and power for themselves over ordered liberty for themselves and their fellows.

Congratulations and good luck in your new projects, whatever they may be!

[NonValueAdded]

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list.

To the extent this ping overlaps that from Publius, I apologize. But that is the nature of our common interests.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all - and it portends to be a VERY happy New Year!!!

Please FreepMail me if you want to be added to or removed from this low volume ping list. Ping requests gladly accepted.

Recessional of the Sons of the American Revolution:
“Until we meet again, let us remember our obligations to our
forefathers who gave us our Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
an independent Supreme Court and a nation of free men.”

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a republic or a monarchy, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."

[Publius]

Always happy to have you on board.

[Bigg Red]

Nice. Thanks.

[Bigg Red]

Thanks for the ping.

[Mollypitcher1]

Seems to me there are lots of Repubs in the HR who served, including our recently elected Veteran from Florida’s 18th, Brian Mast.

[Mollypitcher1]

Enjoyed the post, as always.

[JDoutrider]

A very Merry Christmas to us all!

[M Kehoe]

My “betters?” Fu@k em. Let’s duel Alec...

5.56mm

[afraidfortherepublic]

Fascinating. Thanks for the post and the ping.

...its tiny sound echoed in his head like the great bells of the Gloria Dei church down the street...

Some of my maternal ancestors built Gloria Dei and had pews dedicated to their families there. I think there is a small window in an upper room with their name, also, and they are buried in the nearby graveyard. I understand that the neighborhood surrounding the old church has declined very badly now, according to cousins who have visited in the last 10 years. Scary bad.

[Publius]

Some light holiday reading for the Canteen gang.

[PGalt]

Happy Anniversary, Publius. Thank so much for being here. Merry Christmas to you and every Freeper. GREAT Freepers BUMP!

[luvie]

Thanks for the ping, Mr. P! Now I need to take the time to really read it! :)

[definitelynotaliberal]

:))

Thanks. Ed auguri di Buon Natale!

[AFreeBird]

L8r

[definitelynotaliberal]

Indeed so! Thank you, gentlemen.

[AFreeBird]

L8r

[Billthedrill]

And a Merry Christmas right back to ya!