The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection

Alexander Hamilton

“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.” This point, the anti-Federalist conceded. It was the extent to which uniting the States, however, would tend toward authoritarianism or monarchical reign. The fear was that as the Confederacy (or Union) grew larger so would the forces of the Union. While the larger, more well-prepared forces of the Union would provide greater protections from external threats, those forces would also pose a greater danger to the States, stripping the States of their sovereignty and subjugating the States to the Federal government.

Anti-Federalists were concerned that the formation of the Union, and a central government, was requiring the States to dissolve themselves into the greater Union State. By doing so, the States would be forced to relinquish their sovereignty and become slaves to the central government. Hamilton viewed this perception as misguided. Hamilton explained that there was a difference between a Confederacy of States versus a combination of States. For Hamilton, the anti-Federalists were wrongly assuming that a confederacy was a combination.

States would not, under the Confederacy, be stripped of their sovereignty, for a Confederate Republic was merely, “an assemblage of societies or an association of two or more states into one State.” In either instance, the States did not lose their own sovereignty nor their own identities. The States were being called upon to relinquish certain, enumerated powers to the central government, while retaining all other powers not specifically given to the Federal government.

For Hamilton, this simply meant that certain powers, like providing for the common defense, belonged at a higher level than each individual State. These specific powers were outlined in the proposed Constitution in Article I, Section 8. Moreover, Hamilton argued that the States would have representation in the Federal government. Article I, Sections 2 and 3, provided for the State’s representatives in the Federal government. The House would be made up of Representatives chosen by the people and the Senate would be composed of Senators chosen by the State legislators (The 17th Amendment changed how Senators were chosen).

Therefore, in Hamilton’s estimation, the States were not relinquishing their sovereignty to a Federal government; instead, they were ceding certain powers to a Federal government that would be composed of Representatives and Senators accountable to the electorate and legislators of the States from which they came.