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dium " in any of Hamilton's writings that I have read. The use of the term "constitutional charter," p. 314, is common in Madison, e.g, cf. "The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitu- tional charters," IV, 468 (1792); "forced constructions of the constitutional charter," IV, 506 (1798), IV, 520, "as laid down in the constitutional charter," IV, 391 (1835). This expression I have not noted in Hamilton's discussions. The same general proposition of frequently referring constitu- tional questions to the people Madison criticises in a letter to Jefferson in February, 1790. The similarity of the criticism is worth noting in this connection. The objections in No. 49 are, " as every appeal to the people would carry an implication of some defect in the government, frequent appeals would in a great measure deprive the government of . that veneration which time bestows on everything, ... in every nation the most rational government will not find it a superfluous advantage to have the prejudices of the community on its side," p. 315. In his letter to Jefferson, Madison asks: " Would not a government so often revised become too un- stable and novel to retain that share of prejudice in its favor which is a salutary aid to the most rational government? " ^
It may be added that Chancellor Kent notes that: "Mr. Hamilton told me that Mr. Madison wrote 48 and 49, or from pa. 101 to 112 of Vol. 2d." ^ The pages, as given, show that the numbers are those of the collected editions and not the original numbers as printed in the journals.
Number 50.
This number discusses the propriety of periodical instead of occasional appeals to the people, and reviews the history of the Pennsylvania Council of Censors, of 1783-84. In regard to this institution and Jefferson's scheme criticised in No. 49, John C. Hamilton writes: "As to this, as well as to the scheme of Jefferson, an analogy in Hamilton's writings
1 Madison's Writings, I, 504. ^ Dawson's The Federalist, cxl.
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