Does every increase in the power of government entail a loss of
liberty for the people? James H. Read examines how four key
Founders--James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, and
Thomas Jefferson--wrestled with this question during the first two
decades of the American Republic.
Power versus Liberty reconstructs a four-way
conversation--sometimes respectful, sometimes shrill--that touched
on the most important issues facing the new nation: the
Constitution, the Bill of Rights, federal authority versus states'
rights, freedom of the press, the controversial Bank of the United
States, the relation between nationalism and democracy, and the
elusive meaning of "the consent of the governed."
Each of the men whose thought Read considers differed on these
key questions. Jefferson believed that every increase in the power
of government came at the expense of liberty: energetic
governments, he insisted, are always oppressive. Madison believed
that this view was too simple, that liberty can be threatened
either by too much or too little governmental power. Hamilton and
Wilson likewise rejected the Jeffersonian view of power and liberty
but disagreed with Madison and with each other.
The question of how to reconcile energetic government with the
liberty of citizens is as timely today as it was in the first
decades of the Republic. It pervades our political discourse and
colors our readings of events from the confrontation at Waco to the
Oklahoma City bombing to Congressional debate over how to spend the
government surplus. While the rhetoric of both major political
parties seems to posit a direct relationship between the size of
our government and the scope of our political freedoms, the debates
of Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Jefferson confound such simple
dichotomies. As Read concludes, the relation between power and
liberty is inherently complex.
General
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