Madison’s Lesson for America: Capture the Congress
History offers a hard lesson: public outrage without electoral victory rarely changes governments. Madison and Hamilton understood that lasting reform requires winning the institutions where constitutional power actually resides.
“We The People” are without the power of government. The crises are different from those of our founding, but the political mechanics are strikingly similar. Hamilton and Madison first had to create an effective instrument of constitutional power before they could repair a failing system. Americans who believe today’s constitutional order is under strain face the same preliminary task: assembling sufficient political power to restore effective checks and balances.
In 1783 the then United States, operating fitfully on the basis of the weak and largely impotent Articles of Confederation, was slogging along, incapable of raising much needed revenue, dealing with competitive trade issues, controlling raucous rebellions, or functioning as a whole. The new country stumbled because of the non-cooperation of the 13 states and growing sectional divides between the South, New England and the middle states. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, alone among American leaders at the time, recognized the increasing political enfeeblement deriving from the Articles of Confederation. The splintering that separated the states was worsening and both were determined to do something about it while the new nation was trying to get its roots down.
The history of what Madison and Hamilton did is significant because it illustrates how two men succeeded in stopping a slide into irrelevancy by the 13 early states. It is a dissimilar challenge to the one we have today in ridding ourselves of a destructive kakistocracy with kleptocrats at the helm, but familiar in terms of the enormous difficulty of those out of power in their effort to displace those in whose grip we struggle against.
Madison and Hamilton struck on a keen organizational approach, one that was not foreordained or part of a coherent plan, but which emerged piecemeal: it began with a series of meetings at Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon held to resolve differences over portioning of the Potomac and trade disputes. As troubles between many of the states were part of the foundering federation at that time, the Mount Vernon meetings led to the Annapolis Convention at which delegates from five of the larger states met to resolve the conflicts stressing interstate trade. The Annapolis Convention failed in this effort, and Hamilton and Madison used this failure to persuade the then Congress of the Confederation, the junior equivalent to today’s Congress, to call for a full convention of all the states to deal with all the faults and weaknesses stemming from the flawed Articles of Confederation. Hamilton and Madison, aided by George Washington and others skillfully parlayed it into the drafting of what emerged as the Constitution.
In our bid to rid ourselves of Trump and his loyalist toadies today, the victory must come in steps, just as it did for these two eighteenth Century American giants. Gatherings in the streets build awareness, momentum, a sense of burgeoning strength, which can lead to an explosive turn out at the polls. That objective is, of course, to empower a congress that will stand up to Trump, whether that means impeachment or legislation to block his means and maneuvers.
In short, despite the situational appearances that would contrast two vastly differing eras and issues, there is yet a subtle underlying and foundational similarity between them, that is the need to grow decisive power from a state of weakness and disorganization into a weapon that can unseat a tyrant.
It is that process we are engaged in now and it bears the earmarks of a successful reality.
As we move toward the incontestably weighty consequences of this November I can imagine that the smell of victory this month of August is roughly the same as Madison and Hamilton might have sensed when they realized they had in their hands the very instrument they needed, the Constitutional Convention. It would fix what badly needed fixing.
William R. Piekney served as US Naval officer for four years and served in the CIA for 30 years in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He was under deep cover early in his career and later was station chief numerous times, including West Africa, Pakistan and Egypt. As a member of the Senior Executive Service he directed the Agency’s African operations and then East Asia operations, traveling extensively to those regions to maintain and develop relations with host intelligence and security services. Overall he has spent nearly fifty years in the U.S. Intelligence Community and in related national security affairs. He is a member of The Steady State.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
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