According to scholars, the most important difference between James Madison and Thomas Jefferson has long been Madison's argument that constitutional government requires “veneration” of the constitution. Madison's Federalist No. 49 is the most well known of his recommendations of constitutional veneration, but as will be discussed in later chapters, Madison made this argument several times over the course of his life, often when responding to Jefferson's enthusiastic recommendations for appeals to the people. This chapter focuses on Federalist No. 49, where Madison's argument first occurs and where it was given in its most public form, and it argues that the scholarly account is not quite accurate. Indeed, the evidence shows that Madison did not fully endorse constitutional veneration and even that Madison offered reasons to be wary of it.

In Federalist No. 49, Madison criticized a provision of Thomas Jefferson's 1783 proposed constitution for Virginia, which would have provided for a new constitutional convention whenever two-thirds of any two of the three departments called for it. Madison noted that Jefferson's proposal had “great force” because it seemed “strictly consonant with republican theory” in that it would refer constitutional disputes back to the people, who “are the only legitimate fountain of power.” But Madison also listed “insuperable objections against the proposed recurrence to the people.” In particular, Madison argued that appeals to the people would undermine “veneration” toward the law and would at the same time raise regime-level questions that would appeal to the passions rather than to the reason of the public.

Because Madison so clearly says that prejudice is a necessary substitute for reason, there has been little interpretative uncertainty about No. 49. Scholars have typically found in this essay support for the larger argument that Madison was a “conservative” in the likes of David Hume and perhaps even Edmund Burke. To be sure, as was discussed in the introduction, scholars are still divided concerning Madison's commitment to democracy and the consistency of his political thought over time. But even those scholars who emphasize a more democratic Madison acknowledge the difficulty the essay makes for their case. More generally, Federalist No. 49 is the clearest indication for scholars that Madison did not share Jefferson's belief in constitutional change by appeal to the people.