Hamilton Eats Madison’s Lunch on States’ Rites

Letter to Romans: Madison said the federal govt’s powers were to be “few & defined” while those reserved to the states were to be “numerous & indefinite.” If that Founding Father was right, would he concede to being wrong as state-run Medicaid fraud & Sanctuary Cities run amok, threaten nation’s future?

If still alive the “other” Founding Father, Hamilton, might be saying, “I told you so.” It was federalist Hamilton who had much more broadly interpreted the Constitution. He saw in the document a system in which the federal govt was to be run by “best men” (think a powerful executive branch) who had “implied” powers to keep the states honest & glued together. In contrast, he saw the states as being self-absorbed, simple-minded & the anti-thesis of national unity. Ironically, Madison had originally agreed that the precursor to the Constitution, The Articles of Confederation,” were too weak to survive let alone succeed; yet remembering the King’s abuses, he remained suspicious of concentrating too much power in the new federal government. That’s why Madison pushed many of the Constitution’s “checks & balances” as well as helped draft the “Bill of Rights.”

Not to take the 5^th and decline to say whether Madison or Hamilton were more right or wrong. And not to be running for Congress & saying “both have their strong points.” Yet at least in terms of the massive fraud being revealed in various state-run Medicaid programs & many of the major cities’ blatant non-enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, isn’t it fair to say how self-absorbed & simple-minded the dis-united states have often proven to be?

Davd Soul