Category — Federalist

Hamilton and Madison draw on their study of ancient history to show that even the wisest confederacies are prone to dissension and dissolution. They conclude that there is more to fear from the anarchy of its members than from the tyranny of its federation.   Read the rest of this entry »

Hamilton may have allowed his enthusiasm and optimism get the best of him in some of his assessments as to the risks involved in investing too much power into the central government. His desire to replace the Articles of Confederation is laudable, but some of his arguments make the reader reflect ... "methinks [he] doth protest too much."   Read the rest of this entry »

In this essay, Hamilton cites the experience of other confederacies as an argument for a strong central government and dismisses fears that the central government could become abusive. It now appears that those fears were well founded.   Read the rest of this entry »

Gouverneur Morris was quite a writer. It was Morris who gave us the magnificent style and beautiful prose of the Constitution. But, he was much more than an editor. He had quite a lot to say during the convention.   Read the rest of this entry »

Federalist No. 16 is the second of six essays on the inability of the Confederation to preserve the Union. Amazingly enough, Hamilton finds a way to come up with new and interesting things to say which offer insights into what he and his fellow writers had in mind for the federal government. It's no wonder that the anti-Federalists were concerned with a Constitution that had no bill of rights.   Read the rest of this entry »

Roger Sherman was the only Founder to sign all the major documents of the era, and he was on the final committees for the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Admired by his contemporaries, political friends and enemies alike, "the old puritan" was an omnipresent patriot during our founding who wasn't afraid to stand up for his beliefs.   Read the rest of this entry »

"We, the People" are the very first words to the United States Constitution, setting the tone for the American Experiment. It's only fitting, then, to examine the ideas from the very first Federalist essay in order to understand their true importance, even into our day.   Read the rest of this entry »

With everyone in the blogosphere talking about Judge Vinson's ruling on the constitutionality of the health care bill, we were initially going to opt out from chiming in. But, upon reading the ruling, we were amazed to see how much philosophical analysis (not just case law) went into the decision ... the majority of which asks a question which is near and dear to our hearts.   Read the rest of this entry »

In this article we attempt to pull out some things to think about from Federalist No. 15. We ponder whether Hamilton may have gone overboard in correcting some of the defects he identified in the Articles of Confederation. There are also some timeless observations on foreign policy.   Read the rest of this entry »

In Federalist No. 15 Hamilton makes further arguments about the utility of retaining the Union. What is more interesting, however, is his commentary on foreign policy.   Read the rest of this entry »