Independence Hall displays a quote from James Madison in Federalist 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” This assumption about the state – one shared by many Catholics – lies at the centre of the liberal project. It asserts the purpose of government is remedial and coercive, that it exists purely on account of our fallen nature.
This idea is similar to one articulated by Thomas Hobbes, who believed that our life before society was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. Our world was a bellum omnium contra omnes, “a war of all against all”. He believed government was a kind of social contract or a treaty among individual lords of themselves; that we all agree that it would be better to give up some of our liberties to form a government that can curb our selfish impulses and perhaps prolong and enrich our lives.
