• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Federalist by JEAN YARBROUGH n September 17, 1787, after er possibilities had fallen through, the natural rights of man. Moreover, four months of deliberation Hamilton invited James Madison to their work is circumscribed by the and compromise, the Federal join them. Madison, a leading force knowledge that a republican gov- Convention0 concluded its business at the Convention, was now in New ernment, organized on federal prin- York as Virginia's representative to ciples, is the only form of govern- in Philadelphia and forwarded a ment Americans will accept. The copy of the proposed Constitution the Confederation Congress. Be- to Congress for further action. Ac- tween October 1787 and May 1788, purpose of The Federalist, then, is cording to the new plan of govern- the three produced eighty-five es- to persuade the people, by reason ment, nine states would have to says under the title, The Federalist. when possible and by appeals to ratify the Constitution before it It is now generally agreed that passion and prejudice when neces- Hamilton wrote fifty-one papers, sary, that the Constitution estab- could go into effect. Immediately lishes a republic, and that this re- after adjournment, Alexander Ham- Madison twenty-six and Jay (owing ilton, New York delegate to the to illness) five. The remaining three public is "sufficiently federal" to Convention and one of the Consti- papers, tracing the history of past secure their rights. confederacies, are the joint collabo- But if The Federalist has a practi- tution's chief supporters, launched is by no an ambitious newspaper campaign ration of Madison and Hamilton. cal political agenda, it to secure ratification in his home Following a common eighteenth- means simply a tract for the times. Indeed, it is doubtful that The Fed- state. century practice, the authors did Both supporters and opponents not reveal their identities but eralist had much of an impact upon the ratification drive in New York. of the Constitution recognized the signed the papers under the pseud- pivotal importance of New York. onyms, "Publius." Americans of As the political scientist Clinton Not only did New York provide the that day recognized that the refer- Rossiter has written: "Promises, crucial link between the New En- ence was to Publius Valerius Pub li- threats, bargains and face to face gland states and the rest of the cola, who, according to the account debates, not eloquent words in even country, but it was the seat of gov- in Plutarch's Lives, had saved the the most widely circulated newspa- ernment under the Articles of Con- Roman Republic. The choice of pers, won hard-euned victories for federation. A negative vote in New "Publius" suggested that, like their the Constitution in the crucial York would surely affect the out- ancient namesake, the authors of states of Massachusetts, Virginia come in other states. Yet, important The Federalist papers would save and New York." Ultimately The as New York was, it would not be republicanism in America by recon- Federalist's claim to greatness lies an easy state to carry. Both Robert stituting it on sounder principles. in its authoritative exposition of the Lansing and Robert Yates, New Although The Federalist is the new Constitution and of the princi- York's other two delegates at Phila- most important writing in American ples underlying it. delphia, had walked out of the Con- political thought, it is, more precise- vention in protest, while Governor ly, an exercise in political rhetoric The Federalist's View of George Clinton organized the oppo- than political philosophy. Unlike Human Nature: sition at home. Unanimously elect- the great treatises of political phi- "If Men Were Angels ..." ed president of the New York Rati- losophy by, say, Aristotle or fying Convention, Clinton would 'Hobbes, Publius is not engaged in a At the bottom of The Federalist's defense of the proposed Constitu- use his considerable influence in- disinterested pursuit of the truth. side the Convention and "out of The authors of The Federalist do tion is a view of human nature doors" in an effort to defeat the not explore such questions as which may best be described as realistic. The authors of The Feder- proposed Constitution. "What are the proper ends of politi- Because time was short, Hamil- cal life?" or "What form of govern- alist rejected the popular Enlight- ton enlisted the aid of fellow New ment best promotes these ends?" enment view that man was basical- Yorker, John Jay, in preparing the Rather, they take as their starting ly good, and corrupted only from point the principles set forth in the without by faulty institutions such essays. Jay, though not a delegate Over- to the Federal Convention, was a Declaration of Independence as monarchy or mercantilism. prominent New York statesman (which are themselves derived throw these institutions, it was who had served as Secretary for from Locke, the Scottish moral phi- widely believed, and men can live losophers and others), that the pur- together in harmony with little or Foreign Affairs under the Articles Publius of Confederation. After several oth- pose of government is to protect no government. Although this Constitution 4 124 As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a cer- tain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a portion of esteem and confidence. Republican govern- ment presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher de- gree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful like- nesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government, and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another (No. 55). Yet although republican govern- ment "presupposes" a certain ca- pacity for virtue, elsewhere in The Federalist Publius makes it clear that republican The first Seal of the United States, 1782. Library of Congress. government cannot rely on morality for its preserva- tion. All too often, these "better agreed that these institutions were dente with the most motives" fail just when they be- flawed, the authors of The favorable ex- come most necessary. Moreover, Federal- ternal conditions (No. 2), must ist* held that the causes of human learn that man is the promotion of virtue by the na- no better in the tional government would quarrelling could not be blamed New World than in the require a simply on external conditions. Old. Publius degree of political interference in The is one of the first to deny "the myth roots of discord and faction are of American private matters inconsistent with exceptionalism." republican liberty. "sown in the nature of man" (No. Americans, he warns, have 10). Thus, in answer to the question, no claim Instead, The Federalist seeks to "Why has government to "an exemption from the imper- ground republican been institut- fections, weaknesses, and government on ed at all?" Publius evils inci- the most reliable aspect of human replied: "Be- dent to society in every shape" (No. cause the passions of man will not 6). To believe otherwise nature: self-interest. By self-inter- conform to the dictates is to in- est, Publius means that most men, if of reason dulge in "the deceitful dream of a and justice without restraint" (No. golden age." left alone, will naturally seek to 15). Since no satisfy their ovtn interests arrangement of the But if men are not good, and de- social order could neither sires, rather than look to the well ever make men does Publius regard them as simply good, government, with its ultimate evil. In one of the being of the whole. In a society threat of coercion, would longest state- such as the always be ments on human nature in The one Publius hopes to necessary. Fed- s, ipe, this means that most men eralist, Publius suggests that human Americans, blessed by Provi- will seek a comfortable material nature partakes of both the admira- ble and the base and existence. Although some men will that repub- continue to pursue the more aristo- The Federalist essays will be referred lican govenunent would be inde- to by their numbers in parentheses cratic desires for glory and power, after fensible if men were simply degen- quotations. erate. Publius understands that the desire for material well-being is the mod- this Constitution 0 t 125 s `cei A Alexander Hamilton. Library of Congress. John Jay. Library of Congress. James Madison. Library of Congress. tween majority faction and majority em democratic passion par excel- Federalist No. 51 to turn the small republic argument on its head. In rule. lence. Publius does not condemn But for social pluralism to work any of these selfish impulses, or that paper, he argues that "the larg- is not er the society, provided it lie within to maximum advantage, it even try to moderate them. For The enough simply to extend the sphere Federalist is confident that im- a practicable sphere, the more duly capable it will be of self-govern- of republican government; the Con- provements and discoveries in "the stitution must encourage a large new science of politics" (No. 9) will ment." For The Federalist the chief danger to republican government commercial republic. By com- enable them to channel these de- merce, Publius does not mean unre- sires toward the public good. comes not from the decline m civic virtue but, on the contrary, from the stricted laissez faire, for he regards the "the regulation of these various and The Classical Republican all too active involvement of majority in schemes of oppression interfering (economic] interests" as Tradition and "the Extended "the principal tool of modern legis- Republic" against the minority.

Load more

  6

Copy Link