User:Mattweiss/sandbox

Matthew Weiss and Jason Semaya Federalist Paper Collaboration
I'm editing Federalist No.2 and No.39 Jason is editing Federalist No.9 and No.51

Federalist Paper No.2 Revised
Federalist No. 2 is an essay written by John Jay, the second of The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 essays arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. These essays, written by Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, were published under the pseudonym "Publius". Federalist No. 2, titled "Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence", was published on October 31, 1787, as the first of five essays written by Jay where he addresses the advantages of a unified government over separate sovereignties. He discusses how an undivided country enforces laws with more efficiency, resolves conflicts, and gives better protection from foreign influences (i.e. such as military force).

Background

The American Revolutionary War was damaging to the colonies, and despite the victory over England, the colonies were not prepared to run their own country. After the war, there was still a portion of the population which wanted to keep ties with England, who continued to question the ability of the colonies to govern themselves. As a colony of England there were benefits and drawbacks, excessive taxing created tension but there was security in having ties to one of the most powerful nations in the world. After the Revolutionary War, Britain and France still had a large influence along the North Atlantic coastline, and many were worried that one of the European powers would try to reclaim the United States.

The Federalist Papers were used to present answers to all of these questions and help form an orderly government. The essays made critical revisions of a then disorderly nation, and were published throughout 1787 and 1788 by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton under the pen name of "Publics." The authors are now famously referred to as the Founding Fathers of America for their significant work.

Jay's Argument

Federalist Paper Two written by John Jay is entirely dedicated to unity. Jay argues that a strong union of the colonies would provide the best opportunity to prosper for centuries to come.

Jay begins his essay by addressing those who assume that dividing the United States of America is more beneficial than uniting the country. He wants to emphasize to his skeptics that the nation will be governed by a strong but necessary system, and a division of the states into sovereignties would be unfavorable for the greater benefit.

Jay explains that a unified government is crucial in solving conflict within the country. Before the United States Constitution, many states had their own foreign policies and their own currencies which "made trade between states and other countries extremely difficult". In addition, the government had no power to tax the states which meant that the government had little money to pay back debts resulting from the Revolutionary War.

Jay asserted that a strong national government would ease these discords with a unitary foreign policy, monetary system, and equal, fair tax on all citizens. He also argues that a unified government would better protect the country from foreign influences, since separate states are not concerned for the safety of the whole country and their individual pacts with foreign countries would not help other states. A national government would make alliances and create a policy that benefits all of the country. Moreover, a unified nation will have a better and stronger military, with many states contributing soldiers and money, opposed to fragmented forces of sovereign states.

Federalist Paper No.39 Revised
Wikipedia asked in the header of the article to: add citations remove original research

Federalist No. 39, "The conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles", is an essay by James Madison, the thirty-ninth of The Federalist Papers, published on January 18, 1788. Madison defines a republican form of government, which was the former system of The United States. It also considers whether the nation is federal or national: a confederacy, or consolidation of states.

This essay is one of a man to urge ratification of the U.S. Constitution. James Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, sent these essays to try to sway the remaining nine states to preserve the Federal form of government, with a National government interest.

Background

Madison, as written in Federalist No. 10, had decided that factions cannot be controlled by pure democracy since "a common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual."

Madison then theorizes the use of a Republic, and the first form of a Republic must be evaluated. The Roman Republic was a republic, but it was heavily monopolized at the top—almost aristocratic, in a sense, as they only cared about the rich. The poor were treated as outcasts, and not members of society—they were also viewed as politically immature and couldn’t even talk at public meetings. This was not viewed the same way in the Madisonian Republic: there, everyone is treated equally and has a say.

Madison's Argument

Madison defines what republic means and states three rules which must apply to be considered a republic: This corresponds to the Madisonian republic, which means the system of government where the citizens of the state elect representatives to make decisions for them using three powerful branches: the executive, the judicial, and the legislative.
 * 1) What is the foundation of its establishment? Only the people of the nation and no one else would make the decision of who rules the government.
 * 2) What are the sources of its power? The person who is chosen by the people shouldn’t break any rules nor abuse the power that they have.
 * 3) Who has the authority to make future changes?  When someone is chosen to rule the country, they should only be in that position for a certain amount of time unless the people of the nation feel that it’s best to impeach them.

From early in the Constitutional Convention, Madison held the position that the national government should be federal, because if it was more extensive in relation to the states that would increase the, "probability of duration, happiness and good order". It was not initially clear how the new government would interact with the states, and Madison was in favor of a federal form, a "a political system in which at least two territorial levels of government share sovereign constitutional authority over their respective division and joint share of law-making powers; differently put, neither the federal government nor the relevant federative entities may unilaterally alter one another’s powers without a process of constitutional amendment in which both levels of government participate." . Other alternatives included a confederacy as under the Articles of Confederation or a more strictly national government.

Article Evaluation
The first article I decided to evaluate was lacking certain details in the elements. Also some formatting was not the best. When I first arrived at the page, I couldn't see the table of contents. I had to scroll down, which is minor, but I think it's much more convenient and looks more professional to have the table of contents show up on the side of the page at the top of the article. Also, as for the details, I think it would be beneficial to have a couple sentences on each paper, because right now all that's on the page for each paper is the title. Right now, there's a awkward section at the end which kind of gives summaries of the papers in groups, but that could definitely be changed to be more comprehensive. Maybe the groupings of summaries could be split up into sections to be written about. As for the content, most of it is impartial, but there is a section on disputed essays which is information that is not reflected on the later list of the authors of each paper. Overall there's a lot of room for improvement of this article, as the talk page is filled with suggestions, and it is listed as a good article with room for improvement.