Federalist #9 Summary (b)
The Federalist Papers Summary and
Analysis
by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison
Essay 9
Summary
Alexander Hamilton explains that "a firm Union will be of the
utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States as a
barrier against domestic faction and insurrection." While other
republics have provided good examples, they are merely
examples and should be used as a starting place, not an ending
place. Improvements have been made in political science, as well
as the other sciences, since their inception. Hamilton trusts that
at some point in history, America's constitution will also be a
starting place for governance. These improvements include
"balances and checks," such as the elected judges and two
separate legislative bodies to represent different aspects of the
people. After making these assertions, Hamilton makes an astute
analogy, comparing the nation and the states to an orbit of
planets around the sun, each still being their own entity but all
forced to orbit around something more powerful in order to
survive.
Hamilton concludes that the utility of a confederacy is to
suppress faction, to guard the internal tranquility of States, and
to increase their external force and security. For Hamilton, a
strong government would be able to suppress rebellions in other
parts of the country because they would not have the same ties
to the region - this is an advantage of a larger republic. He
believes that people who use Montesquieu's arguments against
the size of a nation not being suitable for a republic are false and
using the philosopher's words out of context. To try and persuade
people that they are wrong, Hamilton quotes the philosopher at
length. The majority of Montesquieu's comments used by
Hamilton are concerned with the value of the size of a republic in
avoiding internal corruption, domestic factions, and insurrections,
not the impossibility of liberty existing in a large republic.
The author then proceeds to discuss the difference between a
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Federalist #9 Summary (b)
confederacy and a consolidation of States. While people believe a
confederation to be an alliance with no "object of internal
administration," Hamilton believes this position is arbitrary, with
no basis in precedent or principle. For him, the definition of a
confederate republic is an "assemblage of societies," or an
association of two or more States into one State. The rest is the
discretion of those involved in forming the government. As long
as there is no abolition of state governments, something that is
not proposed by the Constitution, the government is indeed a
confederation. Hamilton concludes his essay with an example of
the Lycian confederacy, a government that existed with
representation based on the size of the population. Montesquieu,
speaking of this association, said "were I to give a model of an
excellent confederate republic, it would be that of Lycia."
Hamilton, then, emphasizes that the novelties in the Constitution
are not completely new and even approved by the philosopher
most frequently quoted by critics.
Analysis
It is important to understand Alexander Hamilton's political
philosophy in order to clearly view this essay. During the
Constitutional Convention, Hamilton proposed to copy the British
constitution as closely as possible. In the first place, he
advocated the creation of a senate that would correspond to the
House of Lords and represent the wealthy few. Recognizing the
impossibility of making this upper house hereditary, Hamilton
nevertheless hoped to give it strength and power by electing
senators for life. The chief "organ" of Hamilton's "strong souled"
government, however, was not its senate but its elective king. As
Hamilton insisted in Philadelphia, nothing less would check "the
amazing violence & turbulence of the democratic spirit." This
"republican" monarch, like the senate, would be elected for life;
he would have power to veto all national legislation, and the
prerogative of appointing the governors of all the states, which
would thus, under Hamilton's scheme, be reduced to
administrative satrapies of the national government. Finally, he
hoped this elective king would be given control of the patronage
in order to bribe the legislature and insure a steady
administration. His study of England had convinced him that this
"corruption" was required for a stable government.
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Federalist #9 Summary (b)
This "strong souled" government copied after England's was
Hamilton's ideal for America. Only in the establishment of a state
which institutionalized in its very organs a "will" independent of
the people could the class struggle be allayed in the Untied
States. When the Convention turned Hamilton's scheme down in
favor of the more democratic and responsible government
outlined in the Virginia Plan, he was bitterly disappointed. In July
he left the Convention and returned to Philadelphia only for the
last sessions. When he signed the Constitution he admitted "no
man's ideas were more remote from the plan than his were
known to be." He further confessed that this signature was given
only because the choice was between "anarchy and Convulsion
on one side, and the chance of good to be expected from the
plan on the other."
It was in this same spirit of disdain, only partially concealed, that
Hamilton wrote as Publius, especially in #9. He was never
reconciled to the Constitution's "weakness" as long as he lived.
Even while he was preparing to write The Federalist, he drew up
a private memorandum in which he prophesied its failure unless
additional power could be "squeezed out its clauses by
interpretation." Hamilton felt so strongly about the need for an
overruling, irresponsible, and unlimited government that it
showed through even in his Federalist essays, in spite of his
attempt to conceal his opinions in order to achieve ratification.
Federalist 9 indicates clearly that he expected a continual use of
military force to be necessary for keeping the rebellious poor in
their place. In this essay the union is advocated because it will
permit the use of troops raised in one section of the country to
stamp out revolts in other districts, an expedient restored to
Hamilton during the Whiskey Rebellion.
It is characteristic of the different outlooks of Alexander Hamilton
and James Madison that Hamilton, in this Federalist Paper,
advocated the new union because it will make it easier to
suppress with military forces such outbreaks as Shay's Rebellion,
while James Madison, in Federalist #10, argues that the union
will prevent the recurrence of any such outbreaks. Hamilton
prized the union as an instrument guaranteeing that the rich
would win every class struggle; Madison hoped that union would
prevent class war from being declared in the first place. This
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Federalist #9 Summary (b)
dichotomy is part of the internal conflict of the Federalist Papers,
something for which many critics have criticized this document.
In contrary, these two different approaches provide two different
aspects of the constitution, allowing both to become an important
part of this philosophic document.
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