We are continuing our study of the arguments given by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in favor of the adoption of the proposed constitution to unite the original thirteen colonies. This in-depth study is useful in that we do not have to guess what it was the founders were thinking in writing this constitution, we have their own words to go back upon. Without further ado.
In Federalist 5, John Jay (continuing to write as Publius) continues with the argument that a united group of states would be more likely to resist the interference of foreign powers than would either individual states or some smaller group of states. He uses the example of Queen Anne’s letter to the Scotch parliament in 1706 as an example that he felt the readers of this letter would most likely be familiar. He quotes her letter saying, “It will secure your religion, liberty, and property; remove the animosities amongst yourselves, and the jealousies and differences betwixt our two kingdoms.”[1] Great Britain had been divided into three countries that often quarreled among themselves. Queen Anne used the safety of them all as the reason for her urging a union. Should the states remain independent, or form 3 to 4 separate entities, “they would always be either involved in disputes and war, or live in the constant apprehension of them.”
Interestingly, Jay goes on to point out that separate state entities would never be equal, “yet what human contrivance can secure the continuance of such equality?” It is the very nature of groups to be unequal. What concerns Jay is that the stronger of the groups of states would have little incentive to help protect the weaker groups of states. In an eerie knowledge of what is to come, Jay points out that the northern states are stronger, “For it cannot be presumed that the same degree of sound policy, prudence, and foresight would uniformly be observed by each of these confederacies for a long succession of years.”
Given the distance of the colonies from Europe, Jay felt that it was more likely that a confederation of states would more likely find reason to find conflict among themselves than it would be for them to unite against the threats coming from Europe. In case there is any doubt that the founders were familiar with Roman history, Jay concludes with a warning that, “How many conquests did the Romans and others make in the characters of allies, and what innovations did they under the same character introduce into the governments of those whom they pretended to protect.”
Hamilton takes over again in Federalist 6. He talks about the history of nations that have gone to war in situations similar to what that in which the individual states find themselves. Hamilton points out that a person would have to be, “far gone in Utopian speculations” who did not think that separate states would eventually devolve into warring parties. In my earlier articles I have pointed out where others have talked about the “nature” of man. The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans all understood this immutable nature of man. It was some of the enlightenment philosophy and postmodernism that began to call this into question. Hamilton is having none of that. He states, “To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.”
To illustrate the likelihood that individual states would be more likely to go to war, Hamilton lists some historical examples including Pericles driving various nation states in Greece into war over personal issues (including the resentment of a prostitute, the supposed theft of a statue, misuse of funds, etc. that came to be known as the Peloponnesian wars), the Cardinal of Henry VII (who aspired to be Pope), Emperor Charles V, and several other lesser-known European intrigues.
He goes on to bring up Shay’s Rebellion. Shay was an Army Captain who led an uprising in western Massachusetts over the aggressive collection of war debts, and the failure of the states to pay their Revolutionary War debts to the soldiers who fought. At stake was the credit worthiness of the young country and Shay was put down aggressively. Had Shay not been deeply in debt, Hamilton says that his rebellion might have caused a civil war in Massachusetts. Hamilton argues that a republic would be more predisposed to be pacific, to be more interested in commerce, and to avoid, “ruinous contentions with each other.”
In case there is any doubt that Hamilton and the other founders were well versed in the history of Greece and Rome, “Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics; two of them, Athens and Carthage, of the commercial kind. Yet were they as often engaged in wars, offensive and defensive, as the neighboring monarchies of the same times. Sparta was little better than a wellregulated camp; and Rome was never sated of carnage and conquest.” In this sentence we can see Hamilton advocating for the kind of Republic he saw described and debated by Aristotle rather than rule by the individual as seen in Rome. He points out that Carthage, while a commercial republic, was the aggressor in a war that eventually resulted in her destruction at the hands of Hannibal, and even Great Britain, which was the largest world trader at the time, found itself at war often by virtue of being a monarchy (and in this example we can see why the founders were careful to reserve the right to declare war to Congress).
Finally, Hamilton quotes “Principes des Negociations” by Mably saying, “NEIGHBORING NATIONS (says he) are naturally enemies of each other unless their common weakness forces them to league in a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC, and their constitution prevents the differences that neighborhood occasions, extinguishing that secret jealousy which disposes all states to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their neighbors.” (Emphasis in the original) Hamilton points out that in this, Mably both points out the problem, and offers the solution.
A Republic.
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[1] All quotes from the Federalist Papers can be found here https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-1-10#s-lg-box-wrapper-25493267