Monday, June 27, 2005
Federalist No. 1, part 1
THE FEDERALIST NO. 1 (Hamilton)
To the People of the State of New York: (Each of the Papers begins with this salutation)
After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. (Things are so bad with our current system of government, you've got to consider something new.) The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing 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. (Hamilton speaks of union, safety & welfare, and empire. The preservation of union of the 13 states is the obvious goal, for the common defense and economic prosperity is how I would interpret safety & welfare. Hamilton's use of the word empire is intriguing; could it be that he saw this new constitution not merely for strengthening the union of the existing 13 states, but also as a canvas with which to cover and claim the vast continent to the west and bind it to the original 13? Hamilton probably hoped for at least as much. Although, it is ironic that it was his opposite in many respects, Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded in laying claim to the largest portion of what became the United States as we know it.) It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important quesion, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. (Hamilton brings the issue right to the people and not to the states of the existing confederation.) If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind. (I am reminded by this last sentence of Paine's words from The Crisis, "These are the times that try men's souls..." and Hamilton lays it on just as thick in warning against the "general misfortune of mankind" if the wrong election is made.)
To the People of the State of New York: (Each of the Papers begins with this salutation)
After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. (Things are so bad with our current system of government, you've got to consider something new.) The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing 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. (Hamilton speaks of union, safety & welfare, and empire. The preservation of union of the 13 states is the obvious goal, for the common defense and economic prosperity is how I would interpret safety & welfare. Hamilton's use of the word empire is intriguing; could it be that he saw this new constitution not merely for strengthening the union of the existing 13 states, but also as a canvas with which to cover and claim the vast continent to the west and bind it to the original 13? Hamilton probably hoped for at least as much. Although, it is ironic that it was his opposite in many respects, Thomas Jefferson, who succeeded in laying claim to the largest portion of what became the United States as we know it.) It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important quesion, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. (Hamilton brings the issue right to the people and not to the states of the existing confederation.) If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind. (I am reminded by this last sentence of Paine's words from The Crisis, "These are the times that try men's souls..." and Hamilton lays it on just as thick in warning against the "general misfortune of mankind" if the wrong election is made.)
// posted by Zerin Hood @ 2:59 PM 
