  In response to: Sound the Alarm to the People: James Madison,
Thomas Jefferson and the Principles of 1798  Colleen Sheehan is
one of our best students of James Madison. Over a span of years,
she has produced a series of significant and insightful articles
and book chapters that treat the Virginian’s political thought
with a special emphasis on his conception of the role of public
opinion in politics.  In 2009 she drew together much of her
previous scholarship in her book, James Madison and the Spirit
of Republican Self-Government. [1] With the present essay, which
builds on and draws from her book, Sheehan probes further the
question of the proper role for state legislatures and the
people themselves when confronted, as Madison was himself in
1798, with acts of the national government that appeared
tyrannical and abusive.  Sheehan’s essay here speaks for itself
quite effectively and I won’t attempt a summary of its main
points. Rather, I will dig into some of the major implications
it raises for understandi