208 JAMES MADISON 



ment must be gradually tested by the discussion of 

 specific measures, it followed that the only natural and 

 healthful division of parties must be the division be- 

 tween strict and loose constructionists. It was to be 

 expected that Anti-federalists would become strict con- 

 structionists, and so most of them did, though examples 

 were not wanting of such men swinging to the oppo- 

 site extreme of politics and advocating an extension 

 of the powers of the federal government. This was 

 the case with Patrick Henry. But there was no 

 reason in the world why a Federalist of 1787-1790 

 must thereafter, in order to preserve his consistency, 

 become a loose constructionist. It was entirely con- 

 sistent for a statesman to advocate the adoption of the 

 Constitution, while convinced that the powers specifi- 

 cally granted therein to the general government were 

 ample and that great care should be taken not to add 

 indefinitely to such powers through rash and loose 

 methods of interpretation. Not only is such an atti- 

 tude perfectly reasonable in itself, but it is, in particu- 

 lar, the one that a principal author of the Constitution 

 would have been very likely to take ; and no doubt it 

 was just this attitude that Mr. Madison took in the 

 early sessions of Congress. The occasions on which 

 he assumed it were, moreover, eminently proper, and 

 afford an admirable illustration of the difference in 

 temper and mental habit between himself and Hamil- 

 ton. The latter had always more faith in the heroic 

 treatment of political questions than Madison. The 

 restoration of American credit in 1790 was a task 

 that demanded heroic measures, and it was fortunate 

 that we had such a man as Hamilton to undertake it. 

 But undoubtedly the assumption of state debts by the 



