From America’s First Freedom:

Take a look at Federalist 46, for instance, authored by James Madison. Keep in mind, the Federalist Papers were originally opinion pieces, published at a rate of one or two a week in order to influence the debate over ratification of the Constitution. Madison was writing this to convince a living audience to approve the Constitution and create a strong federal system. InFederalist 46, the “Father of the Constitution” is laying out the case that, even with a strong federal government, Americans shouldn’t worry about tyranny developing. Why? As he explained, even under the most powerful federal government, the people would retain state and even local governments that would be freely elected. Additionally, Madison explicitly acknowledged, the armed populace of a free society would far outnumber the size of the federal army.