In today's hyperbolic, 24/7 news cycle, every outlet has their bias. More than ever it seems that the news is based more in sensationalized headlines, designed more for generating clicks than for informing the readers.
At 1776 Analysis, we tend more toward an Originalist understanding of the proper size and scope of government.
All tagged Federalist Papers
For Madison, the first objective of government was to protect liberty, so removing the cause of factions, which is liberty, would be antithetical to the purpose government. Thus, the remedy for factions would need to be the control of the effects of factions, which could be most appropriately achieved through a Republican Government.
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.
Uniting the States under the US Constitution, for Hamilton, was the surest way to persevere liberty and minimize the tendency of standing armies to tend toward authoritarianism.
For Hamilton, it was clear, the States united under one, limited government, stood the best chance of survival against threats from abroad, and from internal dissensions. The central government, to whom the public debt would fall, with whom the authority to mitigate territorial disputes, and by whom interstate commerce would be regulated, gave the States a uniform structure within to operate, and mitigated possibilities of internal altercations.
This Federalist Paper goes a long way in explaining the enumerated Congressional powers in Section 1 Article 8 of the US Constitution. The Congressional powers were supposed to be very limited, and were to be used to provide levels of uniformity between the States in specific areas.
A single Union of the 13 states was the remedy to internal aggression among the States and a unified front against all foreign agitators. By creating a federal government over the 13 States, uniformity of defense for all parts could be provided and internal aggression could be mitigated. No other construct, outside a Union of the 13 States, could provide as much long-term security to the people of America.
“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.
“A cordial Union, under an efficient national government, affords them the best security that can be devised against hostilities from abroad.” In an attempt to illustrate the value of a central national government, Jay first discusses the matter of safety of the citizens of the States.
“Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with the requisite powers.”
Federalist No.1 introduced the topic of the Constitution and prepared the readers for the coming papers in support of adoption. Hamilton argued that no less than, “the existence of the Union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world,” were at stake.
