How far the provisions of a different nature contained in
the plan above quoted might be adequate, I do not examine. Some of them
are unquestionably founded on sound political principles, and all of
them are framed with singular ingenuity and precision.
PUBLIUS
____
FEDERALIST No. 50
Periodical Appeals to the People Considered
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, February 5, 1788.
MADISON
To the People of the State of New York:
IT MAY be contended, perhaps, that instead of OCCASIONAL appeals to the
people, which are liable to the objections urged against them,
PERIODICAL appeals are the proper and adequate means of PREVENTING AND
CORRECTING INFRACTIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION.
It will be attended to, that in the examination of these expedients, I
confine myself to their aptitude for ENFORCING the Constitution, by
keeping the several departments of power within their due bounds,
without particularly considering them as provisions for ALTERING the
Constitution itself. In the first view, appeals to the people at fixed
periods appear to be nearly as ineligible as appeals on particular
occasions as they emerge.
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