"Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tend
ency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice....
By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community....
There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.
It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires....
The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves...."
- from Federalist, No. 10, written by James Madison
1.Using Madison's definition, which of these would be MOST likely to be a political faction? A) Congress B) The Republican Party C) The Methodist Church D) Articles of Confederation
2. Which of these would Madison MOST likely suggest as a solution to dealing with factions?
A) banning their existance
B) get people to share all of the same opinions
C) promise people to unite against a common foe
D) live with them as a product of living in a democracy
