Constructed Response You will use the following two sources to respond to the item(s). Read the following two sources. Then, answer the question(s) or complete the prompt(s).

Source 1: from “Brutus No. 1,” authored under the pseudonym Brutus

The following open letter to the state of New York was published prior to the ratification of the U. S. Constitution.

(1) . . . If respect is to be paid to the opinion of the greatest and wisest men who have ever thought or wrote on the science of government, we shall be constrained to conclude, that a free republic cannot succeed over a country of such immense extent, containing such a number of inhabitants, and these increasing in such rapid progression as that of the whole United States. Among the many illustrious authorities which might be produced to this point, I shall content myself with quoting only two. The one is the baron de Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, chap. xvi. vol. I (book VIII). “It is natural to a republic to have only a small territory, otherwise it cannot long subsist. In a large republic there are men of large fortunes, and consequently of less moderation; there are trusts too great to be placed in any single subject; he has interest of his own; he soon begins to think that he may be happy, great and glorious, by oppressing his fellow citizens; and that he may raise himself to grandeur on the ruins of his country. In a large republic, the public good is sacrificed to a thousand views; it is subordinate to exceptions, and depends on accidents. In a small one, the interest of the public is easier perceived, better understood, and more within the reach of every citizen; abuses are of less extent, and of course are less protected.” Of the same opinion is the marquis Beccarari.

(2) History furnishes no example of a free republic, any thing like the extent of the United States. The Grecian republics were of small extent; so also was that of the Romans. Both of these, it is true, in process of time, extended their conquests over large territories of country; and the consequence was, that their governments were changed from that of free governments to those of the most tyrannical that ever existed in the world. . . .

Source 2: from “Objections to the Proposed Constitution from Extent of Territory Answered,” James Madison

(1) . . . That we may form a juster estimate with regard to this interesting subject, let us resort to the actual dimensions of the Union. . . . It is not a great deal larger than Germany, where a diet representing the whole empire is continually assembled; or than Poland before the late dismemberment, where another national diet was the depositary of the supreme power. Passing by France and Spain, we find that in Great Britain, inferior as it may be in size, the representatives of the northern extremity of the island have as far to travel to the national council as will be required of those of the most remote parts of the Union.

(2) Favorable as this view of the subject may be, some observations remain which will place it in a light still more satisfactory.

(3) In the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any. The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other subjects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity . . .

(4) A second observation to be made is that the immediate object of the federal Constitution is to secure the union of the thirteen primitive States, which we know to be practicable; and to add to them such other States as may arise in their own bosoms, or in their neighborhoods, which we cannot doubt to be equally practicable. The arrangements that may be necessary for those angles and fractions of our territory which lie on our northwestern frontier, must be left to those whom further discoveries and experience will render more equal to the task. . . .

Write an Argument Based on your notes, write a brief argument in support of one of the sources. Evaluate the counterclaims provided by the opposing source and provide evidence from the source as well as original evidence or reasons in support of your own claim. Use appropriate rhetorical devices and strategies to increase the persuasiveness of your argument. Maintain a formal tone.