" But if
you examine the context of Madison's paper, you discover something
which I think throws light upon that view of instinctive fatalism,
called sometimes the economic interpretation of history. Madison was
arguing for the federal constitution, and "among the numerous
advantages of the union" he set forth "its tendency to break and
control the violence of faction." Faction was what worried Madison.
And the causes of faction he traced to "the nature of man," where
latent dispositions are "brought into different degrees of activity,
according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for
different opinions concerning religion, concerning government and many
other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to
different leaders ambitiously contending for preeminence and power, or
to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting
to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties,
inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more
disposed to vex and oppress each other, than to cooperate for their
common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into
mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents
itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been
sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most
violent conflicts. But the _most common_ and _durable_ source
of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.
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