“It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true liberty on the face of the Earth.”

The only truly noble government is the self government exercised by Sovereign Individuals.

You are right, Patrick Henry. And when those sovereign individuals form communities, they continue to be responsible and self-directing. The American republican form of government is based on the rights of man with each person first and foremost as responsible as a king over his own land -- and even harder, a king with no subjects, with fellow kings and queens stewards of their own lands and properties. The same rules apply between kingdoms as between neighbors. These communities form counties, then states, then federations -- but the individual is still the source of all power and authority.

Turn that around whereby the leader of a nation dictates to the states which governors dictate to the counties. Even worse, the national government ruling all the people directly.

Madison reminds us that the integrity of the federal system must be maintained.