Federalist_10

Federalist 10 In his farewell address, George Washington declared that political parties would divide and ruin the nation. He believed that such factions would destroy the Union they had fought so hard to create. James Madison however, takes another point of view. In Federalist 10 he addresses the issues of factions among the people. He does not entirely condemn these divisions, but rather views them as a kind of necessary evil. In a society where citizens have large amounts of freedom to hold and express individual ideas and opinions, it is inevitable that there will be others holding these same ideas and will be united by their common thoughts. This is how political parties and interest groups essentially are formed. The only way to prevent the formation of such factions would be, as Madison puts it, “by destroying liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.” America is not a nation of citizens with a single homogenous train of thought. That is absurd, and to be blind to that fact is pure naivete. As Madison puts it, the remedy would be worse than the disease. As groups, factions, madison, citizens, parties, among, same, representatives, political, interests, idea, union, states, solution, rights, republic, puts, put, opinions, majority, interest, group, form, federalist, existence, common, always, united, true, thought, seem, reality, rather, pure, provided, point, people, paper, own, others, opposing, one, number, nation, motive, minority, make, liberty, less, ideas, government