such discrimination. Moreover, he regards any plan to favor “the ‘wealthy and well born’” as impracticable, because these classes are randomly distributed throughout the nation. Finally, in Federalist No. 61, he responds to the criticism that the Constitution is deficient because it contains no provision specifying the time and place of national elections. He answers by pointing out that neither the New York nor any of the other State constitutions contain such specifications, and that there have been no ill effects. He goes on to point out some of the positive advantages that will flow from the national government’s fixing a uniform time of election. Most importantly, he argues, it will ensure that the entire membership of the House will simultaneously be subject to control by the people.
E. The Senate
The Anti-Federalists viewed the Senate with mixed emotions. The vast majority favored a second chamber, and most were pleased that the States were accorded equality of representation. Yet many voiced strong criticisms of its powers, composition, and relationship to the executive branch. Beginning with essay No. 62, Publius devotes five essays to answering the most common criticisms of the Senate and to pointing out what role he anticipates it will play in providing for stable government free from the ravages of faction.
In this first paper, Publius deals with the qualifications for election to this chamber, the mode of election, and equality of State representation. He also begins his discussion concerning its size and term of office by inquiring “into the purposes which are to be answered by a senate.” Notable in this paper is his lukewarm defense of equal State representation in the Senate and his detailed analysis of the contemplated role of the Senate. Equality of representation, he maintains, is the result of a necessary compromise that “may prove more convenient in practice, than it appears to many in contemplation.” However, he views the Senate as indispensable in checking the potential excesses of the House, as well as in ensuring sound, well-conceived legislation. He is most emphatic in stressing the role of the Senate in curing the poisonous effects, both internal and external, of an “unstable government” that produces “mutable” policies.
In Federalist No. 63, Publius continues his discussion of the role of the Senate in promoting stability. It will provide, he maintains, “a sense of national character” necessary for the respect of foreign nations and the orderly conduct of international relations. He observes that the Senate, because of its stability and continuity, will also be more inclined than the House to take the successive steps sometimes necessary for the implementation of long-range goals and policies. But the bulk of the essay is devoted to a discussion of the Senate as an institution that can prevent oppressive and unjust majorities from ruling. The Senate, he argues, can serve to check such factions “until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind.”
Publius next examines (No. 64) the role of the Senate in the treaty-making process. He emphasizes its stability, as well as the intelligence, knowledge, and character of its members, that render the body suitable for this purpose. However, the essay is most notable for delineating a significant and distinct role for the president in the area of treaty negotiations. Noting that “secrecy” and “despatch” are often necessary, he praises the proposed Constitution for allowing the president sufficient latitude to take advantage of changing circumstances and to maintain secrecy in the negotiation process. In answering major criticisms of this process, he stresses that treaties, viewed as “bargains” between nations, have a different character from ordinary legislation, because the consent of the contracting parties to the treaty is necessary “to alter or cancel them.” He cannot foresee the process being abused, largely because the president and members of the Senate, as well as “their families and estates,” will be bound by the terms of treaties to the same extent as ordinary citizens.
The final two essays (of the next twenty by Hamilton) dealing with the Senate are concerned with its role in the impeachment process. The main issue discussed in No. 65 is the propriety of vesting the Senate with the power to try those impeached by the House of Representatives. Though Publius can see merit in having a “court for the trial of impeachments . . . distinct from” the regular departments of government, he notes practical difficulties and the “heavy expense” that would attend any such arrangement. In Federalist No. 66, he takes up a detailed defense of the role of the Senate in the impeachment process. The constitutional provisions, he argues, do not violate the separation of powers principles. Nor does he believe that the Senate’s role in the appointment or treaty-making processes, which it shares with the president, will inhibit it from removing culpable individuals from office.
F. The Presidency
With Federalist No. 67, Publius begins an eleven-essay survey of various aspects of the presidency. In the opening essay, he strives to dispel the charge leveled by many Anti-Federalists that under the proposed Constitution the president will have an authority and status akin to that of the most powerful monarchs. Such a depiction he regards as utterly without foundation. To illustrate the absurdity of these charges, he refutes the claim that the president may fill “casual vacancies in the senate.”
After setting forth (in No. 68) the virtues of the electoral college for electing a president—a process that “affords a moral certainty, the office of president will seldom fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications”—Publius explores (No. 69) the “real character of the proposed executive” by comparing his status and powers with those of the king of Great Britain and the governor of New York. To counter the charge that the president is little more than an “elective king,” he discusses his term of office, his liability to impeachment and removal, his participation in the legislative process, his powers as commander-in-chief, and his powers of appointment and treaty making. He concludes that it is questionable whether the president’s authority even exceeds that of the governor of New York, but that, in any event, “there is no pretence for the parallel which has been attempted between him [the president] and the king of Great Britain.”
Nevertheless, Publius does emphasize the need for energy in the executive to secure the blessings of good government and liberty. In Federalist No. 70, he identifies four ingredients of an energetic executive: “unity; duration; an adequate provision for its support; [and] competent powers.” In the remaining essays on the presidency he deals with these ingredients, beginning first with the need for “unity.” On this score he maintains that both reason and experience clearly speak against having plural executives or an executive council. He argues strenuously and at length against the idea of a council whose concurrence would be required for the exercise of executive functions. Such an arrangement, he observes, would make it difficult, if not impossible, for citizens to fix responsibility for fraud, misconduct, and incompetence. Moreover, he concludes, this lack of accountability would render any such council a greater threat to liberty than would a single executive.
In discussing “duration” (No. 71), the second ingredient of an energetic executive, Publius defends the four-year term of office as contributing to the firmness of the executive, a firmness that would allow the executive to block oppressive and unjust measures in order to give the people the “time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.” What is more, he believes such a term is essential if the executive is to act independently of Congress, particularly the popularly elected branch whose members “sometimes . . . fancy, that they are the people themselves.” Given these views, it is hardly surprising that Publius vigorously defends the view (No. 72) that the executive ought to enjoy indefinite reeligibility. He enumerates in some detail the potential “ill effects” that limitations on reeligibility would produce. He concludes by arguing that the presumed advantages of the principle of exclusion (“greater independence” and “greater security to the people”) are highly dubious.
The third ingredient of an energetic executive authority, “adequate provision for its support,” is discussed in essay No. 73 by taking note of the constitutional provision prohibiting an increase or decrease of presidential pay during the executive’s term of office.
