"Ambition," Madison said,
[Footnote: _Federalist_, No. 51, cited by Ford, _op. cit._,
p. 60.] "must be made to counteract ambition."
They did not, as some writers have supposed, intend to balance every
interest so that the government would be in a perpetual deadlock. They
intended to deadlock local and class interest to prevent these from
obstructing government. "In framing a government which is to be
administered by men over men," wrote Madison, [Footnote: _Id_.]
"the great difficulty lies in this: _you must first enable the
government to control the governed_, and in the next place, oblige
it to control itself." In one very important sense, then, the doctrine
of checks and balances was the remedy of the federalist leaders for
the problem of public opinion. They saw no other way to substitute
"the mild influence of the magistracy" for the "sanguinary agency of
the sword" [Footnote: _Federalist, No. 15.] except by devising an
ingenious machine to neutralize local opinion. They did not understand
how to manipulate a large electorate, any more than they saw the
possibility of common consent upon the basis of common information. It
is true that Aaron Burr taught Hamilton a lesson which impressed him a
good deal when he seized control of New York City in 1800 by the aid
of Tammany Hall. But Hamilton was killed before he was able to take
account of this new discovery, and, as Mr.
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