Federalist No. 4

The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence

John Jay

“But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult.”

For John Jay, even outside the just causes for war, human history was littered with wars waged at the whims of men with consolidated power.

“Monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans.”

This concern, as mentioned in Federalist No. 3, was that the divide States, or Confederacies, would not be distant enough from agitating events to make rational decisions about waging war. The States would be more inclined to avenge a slight, real or perceived. Judgements would be clouded by narrow perceptions, or grand ambitions.

The remedy was proposed in the Constitution, by consolidating the 13 States under the Union and vesting the power to wage war in Congress, to ensure more heated temperaments and ambitions could be cooled by those with less clouded judgements.

Federalist No. 4 continues, however, to highlight a second point in the assurance of safety under the Union. As with President Theodore Roosevelt’s, “speak softly and carry a big stick,” and President Ronald Reagan’s, “Peace through Strength,” military doctrines, the underlying theme is the same; a strong military is a deterrent to aggression. Jay, drawing comparisons to England’s naval forces, comprised of the English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. It was through the unity of these territories that England was able to draw from a larger, more diverse pool of resources to build their ships and man their fleets.

In the same way, the 13 States offered a much larger and diverse demographic from which to draw their forces. Additionally, the Union would have a larger financial basis from which to raise, train, and fund the common defense. And bringing this larger force under the command of a central government would project greater strength to those foreign entities that may intend us harm.