The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton [342]
Federalist 48
p. 307. The authority in support of it isMr. Jefferson…: One of the leading men of the revolutionary period, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) began his political career in the Virginia House of Burgesses (1769–1775). He helped to organize the Virginia Committee of Correspondence (local groups that promoted opposition to British laws before the Revolution) and, in 1775, was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In 1776, he drafted the Declaration of Independence. During most of the Revolution, he served as governor of Virginia (1779–1781), and worked to reform Virginia’s laws. Jefferson’s proposals included the abolition of restrictions on transfers of real property, the assertion of religious freedom, and the public support of libraries and schools. In 1785, he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as resident minister in Paris, and while abroad published Notes on the State of Virginia (1784), a collection of observations concerning the flora and fauna, the social and political life, the geography and economy of his native state. As secretary of state in George Washington’s administration (1789–1793), he was at the center of a growing controversy over the organization of the national economy that, together with the issues and passions inspired by the French Revolution, produced the first political parties under the new Constitution: the Republican party, led by Jefferson, and the Federalist party, led by Hamilton and Adams. Jefferson was elected vice-president in 1796 under his opponent, John Adams. In 1801, he won the first of his two terms as president. In 1809, he refused to seek a third term and spent the remainder of his life in retirement at Monticello, his plantation in Virginia.
p. 308. and the other authority, theCouncil of Censors, which assembled in the years 1783 and 1784: The Council of Censors, established by the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, was authorized to review activities of the executive and legislative branches of government and to amend the constitution. The Council comprised two men from each city and county who were to assemble every seven years. It met in the winter of 1783–1784 and in summer 1784.
p. 309. theexecutive department of Pennsylvaniais distinguished: The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 established a Supreme Executive Council, that is, a plural executive, comprising one member from each county and one from the city of Philadelphia, in order to dilute the governor’s power.
Federalist 49
p. 312. the philosophical race of kings wished for byPlato: Plato (c. 427–347 BC) was a Greek philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers of all time. One of the well-born youths who studied and engaged in dialectic with Socrates, Plato went on, after Socrates’ execution (399 BC), to establish a school (the Academy) and to write numerous philosophical dialogues, including The Apology of Socrates, The Republic, and The Laws. The "philosophical race of kings" alludes to a proposition advanced by Socrates in Plato’s Republic, Book V, namely, that in order for the perfectly just city to come into being, philosophers must become kings or kings philosophers.
Federalist 52
p. 324. anterior to the date ofMagna Charta…: Magna Carta is a written confirmation of the liberties of English subjects, approved under baronial duress by King John at Runnymede in 1215. By the mid-thirteenth century, the document was already regarded as