Essay Introduction

James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" and fourth President of the United States, provides a chilling warning about the relationship between warfare and state power. In this extract, Madison argues that war is the "parent of armies," which inevitably leads to debts and taxes—the primary instruments used by the few to dominate the many. He specifically highlights how the discretionary power of the Executive branch expands during conflict, threatening the delicate system of checks and balances designed to protect the people. His insights remain a timeless caution against the consolidation of power that invariably accompanies a perpetual state of war.

The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty

by James Madison

OF all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .

[It should be well understood] that the powers proposed to be surrendered [by the Third Congress] to the Executive were those which the Constitution has most jealously appropriated to the Legislature. . . .

The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war . . . the power of raising armies . . . the power of creating offices. . . .

A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments.

The separation of the power of declaring war from that of conducting it, is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted.

The separation of the power of raising armies from the power of commanding them, is intended to prevent the raising of armies for the sake of commanding them.

The separation of the power of creating offices from that of filling them, is an essential guard against the temptation to create offices for the sake of gratifying favourites or multiplying dependents.

About the Author

James Madison was the fourth President of the United States. "The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty" is from Letters and Other Writings of James Madison.

Attribution

Madison, James. "The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty." In Essays on Liberty, Vol. 1, 88-89. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1952.