Musings of a Patriot

Tag: documents

  • Federalist No. 17

    Prior to Federalist No. 17 I had never completely disagreed with any of the federalist papers. Unfortunately, in discussing the possibility of a national government becoming stronger than would be desirable, Alexander Hamilton completely missed on his guess that: It will always be far more easy for the State governments to encroach upon the national…

  • Articles of Confederation

    In the midst of my efforts to evaluate all the Federalist Papers, I realized that I had never read the Articles of Confederation which was the basis against which the Constitution was written and against which the Federalist Papers were generally basing their arguments. The Articles of Confederation were the first attempt by the states…

  • Federalist Nos. 15 – 16

    Federalist Nos. 15 and 16 led me to two conclusions. First, Hamilton is accusing those who oppose the Constitution of hoping for a different result by repeating their previous actions (sounds like our modern politics of perpetual incumbency). Second, the confederacy that Hamilton describes that preceded our current (theoretically) Constitutional government sounds a lot like…

  • Federalist Nos. 13 – 14

    Federalist No. 13 left me with imagining one of two conclusions based on the following statement: Nothing can be more evident than that the thirteen States will be able to support a national government better than one half, or one third, or any number less than the whole. The two conclusions that I can draw…

  • Federalist Nos. 11 – 12

    Federalist Nos. 11 – 12 follow the same overarching argument that many of their predecessors followed. It can be boiled down to the truths concerning economies of scale. A larger union has great advantages over a smaller nation in many aspects of government. Number 12, which deals with government revenue, reminded me of a few…

  • Picking Up the Pace

    I realized yesterday that I have been losing steam on my review of the Federalist papers partly because the idea of 84 posts is rather daunting. I also realize that I am not obligated to break them up exactly as they were published. I have determined that I could have covered 2 – 5 in…

  • Federalist No. 10

    A larger republic would be less susceptible to factions and the multi-level structure of government would allow for issues of local concern to be solved at a local level with only “the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national.” But the advantage of a larger republic breaks down when large groups of people…

  • Federalist No. 9

    Federalist No. 9 can be almost completely reduced to this extended quote by Montesquieu: a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC. . . is a convention by which several smaller STATES agree to become members of a larger ONE, which they intend to form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one, capable of…

  • Federalist No. 8

    I found Federalist No. 8 to be simply prophetic about the dangers a country faces when subjected to the intersection of human nature and the constant perception of external threat. Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to…

  • Federalist No. 7

    My first reaction to Federalist No. 7 was that it was applicable to the nation at the time it was written, but had little insights to offer us at present. Later it occurred to me that the issues being addressed would be applicable at any time we might consider the possibility of dissolving the nation…