Madison warned us of the ‘violence of faction’ and the ‘propensity to this dangerous vice’

I am deeply concerned about the future of our nation, but not for the reasons that first pop into your head. I do not see our world through a partisan lens. I am not supporting one political party or the other. I do not see our world as black or white, right or wrong, liberal or conservative, MAGA or evil Democrat.

Nay, it’s exactly that polarization of the American people, my fellow countrymen, my fellow citizens right here in Susanville and Lassen County, that bothers me deeply as I see these divisions growing and deepening right here in my own community that I opine about today.

The Founding Fathers envisioned this chasm in the new nation and addressed it way back then.

Founding Father James Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, wrote Federalist Papers No. 10, published Nov. 23, 1787 in the New York Packet, as he and others seeking the ratification of the Constitution sought public support for a new form of government.

Federalist 10 (The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection), which some political scientists consider the most important American political document save the Constitution itself, continues Federalist No. 9 written by Alexander Hamilton.

Madison expertly describes the dangers of factions in the new republic (as well as the distinction between a federal union and a democracy and the class struggle between the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy) and offers solutions that may have made sense in the 1780s when the 13 states clung together along the Atlantic Ocean and the great expanse of wilderness to the west remained largely unexplored, but they do not offer much relief in 2025. Madison argued the newly envisioned Union, by its very nature would eliminate the dangers of factions.

Madison opens Federalist No, 10 this way — “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.”

So, what is a faction? There were no political parties as we know them today in the 1780s, and Madison wrote, “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.”

Madison recognized the citizens dividing themselves into factions is the simple consequence of our humanity.

He wrote, “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to cooperate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.”

Madison argued there are two methods for “curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions and the same interests.”

Of course, Madison called the first method “worse than the disease,” and he called the second “as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.”

Since the causes of factions are unavoidable because they are so deeply rooted in human nature, Madison argued, “relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects. If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.”

Is Madison right about this? When the majority forms a faction, will the government sacrifice its passion and interest to the public good and the rights of other citizens? As noble as that notion is, I don’t see that happening today.

Madison never envisioned our either/or modern world; his crystal ball could not look 238 years into the future. Can you accurately describe the America of 2263? I know I can’t.

Madison thought the diversity of leaders from different states would be enough to prevent the formation of a national faction. Maybe back then. But today?

“The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States,” Madison wrote. “A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State … Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.”

If I may step up on my soapbox for a moment, the solution ultimately lies with us — the people.

It is We the People who must find the courage to recognize the urgency and necessity of Thomas Jefferson’s profound words in the Declaration of Independence — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and conduct ourselves accordingly.

Since grouping ourselves together into factions is human nature, we must encourage the diversity of opinions that informs every aspect of our lives — politics, religion and freedom of speech, especially. Why would a free people want to trample upon those God-given rights? As Madison suggests, forcing us all to share the same opinions destroys the very liberty the new nation sought to enshrine.

Today and every day, if we do not defend the rights of the minority among us from the tyranny of the majority, if we do not defend the others’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, especially those with whom we disagree, one day we all, every single one of us, will surely find ourselves on the short end of that equation.

Madison warned us of the dangers of factions and the destruction of our liberty, and we should heed his fearful warning. Either we defend and protect our liberty or we lose it to one of these warring factions.