Against Every General Principle: Prudence in the Constitutional Statesmanship of James Madison

The deeply prudential nature of James Madison’s statesmanship has frequently been noted but never sufficiently explored. Prudence, for Madison, meant that an individual should support imperfect (even bad) policies when these were the best practicable—an outlook that complicates assessment of Madison’s thought, leaving substantial space between principle and action. Thus, Madison resisted immediate emancipation not because of doubt about antislavery principles but because he believed that it would practically benefit neither society nor newly freed slaves. Madison’s prudential outlook is of particular relevance to assessing his constitutionalism. Madison’s crusade for proportional representation in the Constitutional Convention—frequently portrayed as an ideologically driven failure of prudential vision—was a carefully calculated maneuver to maintain the union. Of even greater interest, Madison’s willingness to override principle for the greater good extended to one of his most fundamental principles—that constitutional limits on government must be respected.