Editing James Madison (section)

===Federalism===
{{external media | width = 220px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?68744-1/sacred-fire-liberty-james-madison ''Booknotes'' interview with Lance Banning on ''The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic'', February 11, 1996], [[C-SPAN]]}}

During his first stint in Congress in the 1780s, Madison came to favor amending the Articles of Confederation to provide for a stronger central government.{{sfn|Burstein|Isenberg|2010|pages=85–86}} In the 1790s, he led the opposition to Hamilton's centralizing policies and the Alien and Sedition Acts.{{sfn|Burstein|Isenberg|2010|pages=232–234}} Madison's support of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in the 1790s has been referred to as "a breathtaking evolution for a man who had pleaded at the Constitutional Convention that the federal government should possess a veto over state laws".{{sfn|Chernow|2004|pp=571-74}}

Other historians disagree and see Madison's political philosophy as remarkably consistent.  Perhaps more importantly, they point out that Madison's loyalty was to the Constitution, not to his personal preferences.  Madison had advocated in the debates of the Constitutional Convention that the proposed federal government have veto power over state laws, but he was willing to follow the Constitution as it was adopted and ratified, rather than what he might have wished that it said.  Madison had written in Federalist #45 that the proposed federal government would have powers that were "few and defined" (as enumerated in Article I of the Constitution).  He felt strongly that to interpret it otherwise would be a breach of faith with "We the People" who had ratified the Constitution based on that understanding.<ref>Samples, John, editor.  ''James Madison and the Future of Limited Government'', pp. 29-30, 34, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., 2002.  {{ISBN|1-930865-23-6}}.</ref><ref>Read, James H.  ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BgkxEBSFMOkC&pg=PA12 Power Versus Liberty: Madison, Hamilton, Wilson and Jefferson]'', pp. 12-14, 27-28, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2000.  {{ISBN|0-8139-1912-6}}.</ref><ref>Banning, Lance.  ''The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic'', 296-8, 371, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1996.  {{ISBN|0-8014-3152-2}}.</ref><ref>Sorenson, Leonard R.  ''Madison on the "General Welfare" of America'', pp. 84-5, 99-100, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, 1995.  {{ISBN|0-8476-8065-7}}.</ref><ref>Rosen, Gary.  ''American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding'', 126-8, 140-1, 145, 160, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1999.  {{ISBN|0-7006-0960-1}}.</ref><ref>Rossiter, Clinton, editor.  ''The Federalist Papers'', p. 260, Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, New York, 1999.</ref>

Madison, who was the author of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]], was also faithfully following the [[Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|10th Amendment]], which says that all "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."<ref>Samples, John, editor.  ''James Madison and the Future of Limited Government'', pp. 29-30, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., 2002.  {{ISBN|1-930865-23-6}}.</ref><ref>Read, James H.  ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BgkxEBSFMOkC&pg=PA49 Power Versus Liberty: Madison, Hamilton, Wilson and Jefferson]'', pp. 49-50, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2000.  {{ISBN|0-8139-1912-6}}.</ref><ref>Sorenson, Leonard R.  ''Madison on the "General Welfare" of America'', p. 100, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, 1995.  {{ISBN|0-8476-8065-7}}.</ref><ref>Rosen, Gary.  ''American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding'', 151, 160, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1999.  {{ISBN|0-7006-0960-1}}.</ref>