Federalist No. 70 Annotations and Question

Federalist No. 70 Annotations and Questions Paragraph Annotations: 1. The energy in the executive power is extremely significant and beneficial for a steady administration, security of liberty as well as protection of the community. 2. A weak Executive leads to a weak or bad government overall. 3. Questions are raised regarding what characteristics make up the perfect and balanced Executive. 4. The characteristics that give energy to the Executive are unity, duration, support for itself, and competent powers. 5. The characteristics adding safety are a sense of freedom to the people and responsibility. 6. Celebrated politicians and statesmen for their great values and just views also support the single Executive legislature. They believe it will help adapt to deliberation and wisdom to secure the best of people’s interests and privileges. 7. One man can much more easily carry out proceedings of decision, secrecy, and despatch than that with a greater amount of people. 8. One way the unity of the Executive can be broken is by putting power into 2 or more magistrates that have equal integrity and authority. Another way to destroy the unity of the Executive is by putting power into one man to the control and cooperation of others. 9. We can learn from the experiences of other nations that adopted such a system. They teach us that plurality in the Executive leads to no good. 10. One may approve the idea of plurality in the Executive if formed an attachment to the dictates of reason and good sense. 11. Two or more people engaged in a common pursuit can be disastrous since they might have very different opinions in various aspects. If such conflicts arise, they may lead to lessening respectability, weakening the authority, and distracting of the plan and operations. Further, these could lead to violent factions that adhere to different people, eventually breaking the unity in the magistrate and the government. 12. The human characteristic of opposing something just because a person you dislike supports it or wasn't involved in planning it. This characteristic may lead to people to desperate lengths to oppose something, where the great interests of society are sacrificed to the vanity of individuals and their hunger for control. 13. Governments based on the principles of free government are prone to inconveniences due to the difference in opinions in parties. When resolution becomes a law, the opposition must end or may result in punishment. The decision in the Executive legislature is pure and unmixed while free govs might lead to embarrassment and weakening the execution of a plan. 14. The existence of a council would provide diversity in views and opinions that would eventually lead to a habitual feebleness and slowness in the Executive. 15. Primarily, plurality tends to hide flaws and destroy responsibility. Censure and punishment are two types of responsibilities. The great number of people editing something may leave the public in suspense of the real author when working on a plan or document. Further, wrong people may be blamed for the doings of someone else merely due to the number of people. 16. The divided opinions in a council may lead to reaching a conclusion which doesn’t specifically address the issue at hand, but only might so very vaguely. Therefore, collisions between parties tend to come to an ambiguous solution in order to satisfy everyone. 17. Scandalous appointments are made to important offices and some cases have led to all pirates agreeing on the impropriety of the thing. They tend to play the blame game when it comes to bearing the consequences of their actions. 18. Plurality deprives people of 2 of the greatest securities that are the restraints of public opinion which lose their efficacy and the opportunity of finding the misconduct of people they trust with facility and clearness. 19. It is not okay to give the king in England a council since he is the absolute master of his own conduct in the exercise and may disregard the counsel. 20. Although it might work in Great Britain, good behavior cannot compensate for the intended and necessary responsibilities of a Chief Magistrate. 21. State constitutions want a council since they believe that power is more likely better in the hands of more men than a single man. But “the executive power is more easily confined when it is one.” More men in authority will only bring danger. 22. Power is more likely to be abused and be found formidable to liberty of the nation if given in the hands of a number of men. If only one leader is assigned, his actions can be narrowly watched and suspected. A council to a magistrate would be in fact more harmful than helpful. 23. Further, if a council is assigned to the magistrate, they will cost huge expenditure without much use. Prior to the constitution, everyone agreed that unity of the executive of the state was the best feature of the constitution. Questions: 1. Based on this document, describe the traits needed in a good president. Energy is an important trait that a good president needs since energy is necessary to protect and fight for people’s rights and liberties. Energy further includes the president employing unity between the states and the people, competent powers that are just and balanced, adequate provision for support and a smooth working of the government and finally, have a long duration of energy and passion to positively impact the nation while keeping public interests in mind. A good president needs to be aware of the power they hold and use it appropriately with taking every aspect in consideration. 2. Explain how a president might use ideas in this document- especially unity and energyto support a presidency with expanded powers. A president might read the document and understand the significance of energy and unity that play a huge part in building trust between the president and the people of the nation. Therefore, he might use those ideas by carrying the same excitement and passion for the position for the entire 4 years to let the nation know that the election was a success. The president can go out of his way and address topics that aren’t much talked about or are unknown to the public in order to maintain his sense of fairness and inclusiveness. Using his expanded powers of appointing Supreme Court Justices, he can make sure the trials are being carried out justly. He can bring positive changes in policies and public facilities that people encounter in their day to day lives, in order to implement nation uniting strategies. 3. Write a full paragraph summary of the document. Firstly, the author started by mentioning what characteristics are required in the Executive. The “ingredients” for a good Executive were said to include the concepts of unity and energy. Energy was emphasized to be a primary characteristic since it included unity, competent powers, adequate provisions and duration. The author later goes on to talk about how a one person Executive can be much more powerful than one with two or more people in authority. Having many people in authority can only lead to a disastrous government since different people have different opinions on things which can be a huge conflict. Having one person in authority can eliminate conflict in opinions and make it easy to keep a narrow watch over them. Lastly, the author mentions how unnecessary the council is in the magistrate, which the states want since it might help control the excessive use of power by one authority. In conclusion, the purpose of the document is to convince people of the benefits of an exclusive authority in the government.