Federalist 51

In The Federalist 51, James Madison raised a very interesting paradox: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” So how do we overcome such a difficulty? Madison says. "In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments." He was saying that the people of America must be the primary control of who is in government and what they are doing. America is by the people, for the people, and of the people. That's not just a saying, it's also very true about how the country is run.

Another thing our government needed to overcome this paradox is auxiliary controls, also known as checks and balances. The Constitution has many different checks and balances to make sure that one branch of the government does not get too powerful. Because of this, our government has lasted since the writing of the Constitution and will last for much longer past now.

Was the Constitution Inspired?

Many people wonder if the U.S. Constitution is inspired and if that is the case, how so? I believe that it is very inspired because once you consider the fact that so many different minded people back in the day all united for one common cause and made something that has been copied by many countries and lasted hundreds of years. They had to sort through so many different opinions and eventually, they created something amazing. Only something inspired of God could be such a force of nature. Also, if the United States did not break away from England, Joseph Smith may have never been able to restore the gospel on the earth today because of lack of religious freedom in England. Everything the Constitution has done since then has only helped the well-being of man and of our natural rights. Without it, we might not even be here. The Constitution, despite being written by men who were not part of our church, was inspired to be written for us today.