Duty Bound: James Madison’s Six Principles to Stop Federal Tyranny
The states are “duty bound to interpose.”
That’s how James Madison put it in his Virginia Resolutions, passed on Dec 21 and 24, 1798, in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts.
His resolutions answer a timeless question: What should be done when the federal government oversteps its constitutional bounds? Today, that’s 24/7/365 – so it might be the most important question we face.
For Madison, there were six essential principles that make up his plan to stop federal tyranny – without waiting on the federal government to magically do what it almost never does – limit its own power.
Pretty fantastic Christmas gift from the “Father of the Constitution!”
1. Duty to watch and oppose unconstitutional acts
Madison wrote, “this Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the Union of the States, to maintain which, it pledges all its powers; and that for this end, it is their duty, to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles, which constitute the only basis of that union”
This makes it clear that preserving the union isn’t about blind loyalty – it’s about ensuring that the Constitution that created it isn’t violated.
Since the people of the several states are the source of all power in the American system, they have final say over whether their agent violates the rules given to them – that is, the federal government.
This is exactly how the Constitution was sold to the ratifying public in 1787-88.
One of the most prominent examples was from John Dickinson:
“IT IS THEIR DUTY TO WATCH, AND THEIR RIGHT TO TAKE CARE, THAT THE CONSTITUTION BE PRESERVED; or in the Roman phrase on perilous occasions—To PROVIDE, THAT THE REPUBLIC RECEIVE NO DAMAGE.”
2. All Aggressions: Foreign or Domestic
Madison was clear, the federal government would only be supported when within the bounds of the Constitution:
“The General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this state, against every aggression, either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the government of the United States in all measures, warranted by the former.”
During the ratification debates, nearly all the leading proponents of the system said something similar, even Alexander Hamilton:
“It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the State governments will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.”
Hamilton explained why – state governments were designed as an essential line of defense against federal overreach. They had the resources, authority, and proximity to the people needed to organize resistance.
“They can discover the danger at a distance; and possessing all the organs of civil power, and the confidence of the people, they can at once adopt a regular plan of opposition, in which they can combine all the resources of the community. They can readily communicate with each other in the different States, and unite their common forces for the protection of their common liberty.”
3. Agent, not Ruler
Madison explained that the powers of the federal government arise from the compact – the constitution – reinforcing the view that it would be nothing more than an agent of the people of the states who created it.
“That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact; as no farther valid than they are authorised by the grants enumerated in that compact”
In his Report of 1800 explaining the Resolutions in detail, Madison explained that the word “states” in this context doesn’t mean state governments, or a geographic area. Instead, he wrote, “it means the people composing those political societies, in their highest sovereign capacity.”
He continued, noting that this was how the entire system was created.
“In that sense the “states” ratified it; and in that sense of the term “states,” they are consequently parties to the compact from which the powers of the federal government result.”
The first Chief Justice, John Jay, described it in similar terms.
“The Constitution only serves to point out that part of the people’s business, which they think proper by it to refer to the management of the persons therein designated – those persons are to receive that business to manage, not for themselves, and as their own, but as agents and overseers for the people.”
4. The Danger of Precedent
Madison warned against the dangerous precedent of allowing the federal government to violate the Constitution, emphasizing that such violations, if left unchecked, would lead to further abuses. He wrote:
“That this State having by its convention which ratified the federal constitution, expressly declared, “that among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States”
The people of Virginia had been so determined to protect these rights that they pushed for an amendment to enshrine them in the Constitution. Yet Madison saw the alarming reality – violations of even these explicitly listed rights were happening, and he considered it “criminal degeneracy” to allow that to continue:
“and from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from every possible attack of sophistry or ambition, having with other states recommended an amendment for that purpose, which amendment was in due time annexed to the Constitution, it would mark a reproachful inconsistency and criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shewn to the most palpable violation of one of the rights thus declared and secured, and to the establishment of a precedent which may be fatal to the other.”
In short, Madison argued that allowing a single violation would undermine the entire Bill of Rights because it would set a precedent for further violations – a warning that feels especially relevant today, given how often government goes well-beyond its constitutional limits.
This principle echoes a timeless truth: giving power-hungry governments an inch means they’ll take a mile. George Washington had a similar warning just 2 years earlier in his farewell address.
“let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.”
5. Consolidation is Tyranny
Next, Madison pointed out that the general welfare clause was already being twisted into authorizing a vast reservoir of nearly unlimited power, and that was intentional.
“that indications have appeared of a design to expound certain general phrases (which having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former articles of confederation were the less liable to be misconstrued) so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration, which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases”
The result of this, he warned, was that it would lead to the dreaded consolidation – or centralization of power.
“so as to consolidate the states by degrees into one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable consequence of which would be, to transform the present republican system of the United States, into an absolute, or at best a mixed monarchy.”
During the ratification debates, almost everyone warned of the dangers of consolidation – the argument was really centered on whether or not the system would result in that.
On the federalist side, James Wilson emphatically said “To support, with vigor, a single government over the whole extent of the United States, would demand a system of the most unqualified and the most unremitted despotism.”
On the anti-federalist side, Patrick Henry warned that “consolidation must end in the destruction of our liberties.” And he repeatedly warned against it, noting that “dangers are to be apprehended in whatever manner we proceed, but those of a consolidation are the most destructive.”
In 1787, Madison confidently argued that the system would not lead to consolidation. But by 1798, he had witnessed firsthand how quickly power could centralize under the guise of “general welfare,” and he issued dire warnings about its dangerous trajectory.
6. Duty bound to interpose
Madison pulled no punches.
“In case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties there-to have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
When considering the oath to the Constitution, it should be no surprise that Madison considered this not just some mere good idea, but a duty.
St. George Tucker described the oath like this:
“Acts of congress to be binding, must be made pursuant to the constitution; otherwise they are not laws, but a mere nullity; or what is worse, acts of usurpation. The people are not only not bound by them, but the several departments and officers of the governments, both federal, and state, are bound by oath to oppose them; for, being bound by oath to support the constitution, they must violate that oath, whenever they give their sanction, by obedience, or otherwise, to any unconstitutional act of any department of the government.”
Guardians of the Constitution: Then and Now
The people and the states are DUTY BOUND to step up and keep the federal government within the bounds of the constitution when it refuses to follow the rules. Today – that’s 24/7/365.
As Madison reminded us, this is a duty, not a choice – and it’s as urgent today as it was in 1798. The fight for liberty requires vigilance, every day, all year long
These are timeless principles from the Father of the Constitution – a Christmas gift for the ages.
So we want to spread them around as widely as possible, and nothing helps us get that job done more than the financial faith and support of our members.
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