Federalist No. 53 is an essay by

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

, the fifty-third of ''

The Federalist Papers ''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The ...

''. It was published in the ''New York Packet'' on February 12, 178

under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Publius, the name under which all ''The Federalist'' papers were published. This essay is the second of two examining the structure of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together the ...

under the proposed United States Constitution. It is titled "The Same Subject Continued: The House of Representatives". Anti-federalists had argued that one-year House terms would be more "

democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

" or " representative" than longer terms. Defending the two-year terms adopted in the Constitution, Madison argues that Representatives in the House will need some knowledge of national affairs (how things work in the different states), as well as some minimal knowledge of

foreign affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

. Because experience in the House counts here, two-year terms are appropriate. Madison also argued that one-year House terms would increase the amount of election fraud in the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

of Representatives. His reasoning was that it takes a while for election fraud to come to light. If the elections were annual, a representative could buy an election and serve most of his term before the fraud came to light.

References

External links

Text of The Federalist No. 53

congress.gov Congress.gov is the online database of United States Congress legislative information. Congress.gov is a joint project of the Library of Congress, the House, the Senate and the Government Publishing Office. Congress.gov was in beta in 2012, and b ...

1788 in American law 53 1788 in the United States 1788 essays {{FederalistPapers-stub