Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/223

JAMES MADISON 181 the world why a Federalist of 1787- 90 must there after, in order to preserve his consistency, become a loose obstructionist. It was entirely consistent for a statesman to advocate the adoption of the consti tution, while convinced that the powers specifically 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 attitude perfectly reasonable in itself, but it is, in particular, 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, more over, eminently proper, and afford an admirable illustration of the difference in temper and mental habit between himself and Hamilton. 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 de manded 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 Federal government, however admirably it met the emergency of the moment, was such a measure as might easily create a dangerous precedent, and there was certainly nothing strange or inconsistent in Madison s opposition to it. A similar explana-