Ashley Husemoller’s Reviews > James Madison: A Life Reconsidered > Status Update

No society, not even the smallest, was truly homogeneous. Factions, or interest groups, were endemic to the human race, and the challenge was making sure that majority rule, which was at the heart of republican government, did not become an instrument for one faction to suppress others.

“If [eloquence] includes persuasion by convincing,” his fellow Virginian John Marshall wrote, “Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man I ever heard.”

“Extend the sphere,” Madison would soon explain, “and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it les probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.”