wise contrivance............................

      As the historian Daniel Howe puts it, the founding generation was "fed up with the Articles of Confederation and their reliance on uncoerced public virtue."  The moment had come, he continues, to consider whether "the vices could, through wise contrivance, be made to do the work of virtues."  Thinking through this apparent paradox would become the specialty of James Madison. . . .

       Not only was the structure of the United States flawed, but so was the classical conception behind it, he argued.  The time had come to accept that "all civilized societies are divided into different interests and factions, as they happen to be creditors or debtors—Rich or poor—husbandmen, merchants or manufacturers—members of different religious sects—followers of different political leaders—inhabitants of different districts—owners of different kinds of property etc etc"  But if "different interests and factions" were inevitable, then faction would have to be accepted and interest would have to be seen not as sinful but as natural.  What would a government designed to accommodate them look like?

-Thomas E. Ricks, First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country