Commentary
Forrest McDonald, perhaps the 20th century’s greatest constitutional historian, observed in his book “Novus Ordo Seclorum” that the framers produced a Constitution very different from the one James Madison sought.
Madison did agree with most of his fellow framers on some broad outlines: a two-house Congress, an independent executive, and an independent judiciary.
However, Madison favored a “national” rather than a federal government, with Congress enjoying absolute power to veto state laws. He wanted the president to serve for life or be elected by Congress for a single long term. He proposed that the Senate be able to make treaties without the intervention of the president and that the Senate appoint judges. Although a slave holder, Madison favored immediate abolition of the slave trade and the gradual abolition of slavery itself….