Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/161



THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE FEDERALIST 141

Number 62, Madison.

the people towards a political otherwise produce a sudden

system which betrays so many marks of infirmity and disap- points so many of their flatter- ing hopes "^ (p. 391).

transition to some very differ- ent one. . . . The real danger to republican liberty has lurked in that cause." Kemarks on Jefferson's Draught, Writings, I, 185-86.

Number 63.

Number 63,

Madison.

The first topic is the need of a due sense of national character.

"Yet however requisite a sense of national character may be, it is evident that it can never be sufficiently pos- sessed by a numerous and changeable body. It can only be found in a number so small that a sensible degree of the praise and blame of public measures may be the portion of each individual ; ^ or in an assembly so durably invested with public trust, that the pride and consequence of its members may be sensibly in- corporated with the reputation and prosperity of the com- munity. The half-yearly rep- resentatives of Ehode Island would probably have been little

Motives restraining a major- ity from injustice.

" Secondly. Respect for character. However strong this motive may be in individ- uals, it is considered as very insufficient to restrain them from injustice. In a multitude its efficacy is diminished in pro- portion to the number which is to share the praise and the blame. ^ Besides, as it has reference to public opinion, which, within a particular society, is the opinion of the majority, the standard is fixed by those whose conduct is to be measured by it. The public opinion without the society will be little respected by the people at large of any country. Individuals of extended views and of national pride may bring

1 Cf. Letter to Edmund Pendleton, Feb. 24, 1787, Writings, I, 230; cf. also 325, 333, 350, and 445, and The Federalist, 56, for similar expressions of the same idea.

among whom the blame or praise is to be divided." Madison, Z)e6afes, 118.
 * " Respect for character is always diminished in proportion to the number