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Veneration and Vigilance: James Madison and Public Opinion, 1785–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Alan Gibson
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Extract

This essay examines the evolution from 1785 to 1800 of Madison's understanding of the proper role of public opinion in the American political system. It provides an insight into Madison's transformation from the leading architect of the Constitution during the 1780s to the opposition leader of the Jeffersonian party during the 1790s. The essay challenges the contention that Madison's writings on public opinion establish his support for using governmental institutions and statesmanship to improve the souls of the citizenry and to develop a common character among them. Instead, it is argued, Madison defended the sovereignty of public opinion as a means for citizens to influence and monitor their representatives’ actions in an extended republic where these tasks were at once difficult and imperative. In the course of this defense, Madison contributed to a developing libertarian tradition of political thought in America based upon the broad protection of freedom of speech and the belief that political truths best emerge from the free flow of ideas.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , Winter 2005 , pp. 5 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2005

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References

The author would like to thank the Earhart Foundation, the American Political Science Association Small Grants Program, and the International Center for Jefferson Studies for their support of my research for this article and the John Carter Brown Library, the Huntington Library, and the American Antiquarian Society for their support of the broader project for which it is a part. I would also like to thank Garry Wills and Gordon Wood for first bringing this topic to my attention and for their keen insights into it and Michele Shover, Bob Ross, Lowell Harrison, Lance Banning, J. C. A. Stagg, and Peter Onuf for their helpful comments on this manuscript.

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83. The degree to which the common law doctrine of seditious libel was accepted in the early American republic, the question of how progressive the Federalists were, and the role of Madison and Jeffersonians in the development of a libertarian conception of freedom of the press and their faithfulness to that conception remain highly contested topics. For an excellent recent discussion of the scholarship on this subject see Martin, Robert W. T., The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty, 1640–1800 (New York: New York University Press, 2001), pp. 5–10.Google Scholar

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86. Ibid., p. 336.

87. Ibid., p. 343.

88. Ibid., p. 337, p. 342.

89. Ibid., p. 339.

90. Ibid., pp. 341–42.

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