Research Paper on:
The Federalist Papers and Elitism

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
be considered one of the largest contributions to American political thought. However, as in todays political climate, these papers were not without their opposition. Many believe that the Federalist Papers  were written by elitists who never considered the rights or the abilities of the common man to adhere to or thrive under the propositions laid forth in the Papers, themselves.  One of the largest sections of the Federalist Papers deals with the development of a Constitution. Article 10, written by James Madison cover the topic of human nature, government  and individual rights. Upon a first reading of the article it is not readily apparent that it was written by someone who had elitist tendencies. However, if one were to  read it, specifically looking for references and ambiguities, then they tend to be glaring in their bias. For example, Madisons contention was that human nature was such that unless  there were some rules for those in government that the organization would tend to become corrupt. No one tends to argue with this idea, however, it is the continuation and  his proposal for these rules that show that he is considering only those in the area of big business. Matter of fact, when one examines all of the various contributors  to the Federalist Papers, the list reads like a whos who of early American Business Owners. A majority of them were property owners, or were from well to do families  who were born into wealth, or were business owners. The Federalist papers, then, tended to be slanted mostly toward those who were in favor of a strong central government  and therefore pushed for the solidarity of the states. However, many feared this strong central government idea simply because it smacked of the very same stranglehold that Americans had recently