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<h1 class="entry-title"><a rel="bookmark" href="1">Federalist № 1</a></h1>
<h2 class="entry-summary">General Introduction</h2>
<div class="entry-content">
<p id="salutation">To the People of the State of New York:</p>
<p id="p1"><span class="initial">After</span> an unequivocal
experience of the inefficacy of <a href="/articles">the subsisting
federal government</a>, you are called upon to deliberate on <a
href="/constitution">a new Constitution for the United States of
America</a>. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending
in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the
<em>union</em>, 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. 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 question,
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. 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. <a
class="permalink" href="#p1">¶</a></p>
<p id="p2">This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to
those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all
considerate and good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be
if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our
true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not
connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently
to be wished than seriously to be expected. The plan offered to
our deliberations affects too many particular interests, innovates
upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussion
a variety of objects foreign to its merits, and of views, passions
and prejudices little favorable to the discovery of truth. <a
class="permalink" href="#p2">¶</a></p>
<p id="p3">Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the
new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be
distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in
every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of
the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold
under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of
another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize
themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter
themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision
of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its
union under one government. <a class="permalink"
href="#p3">¶</a></p>
<p id="p4">It is not, however, my design to dwell upon
observations of this nature. I am well aware that it would be
disingenuous to resolve indiscriminately the opposition of any set
of men (merely because their situations might subject them to
suspicion) into interested or ambitious views. Candor will oblige
us to admit that even such men may be actuated by upright
intentions; and it cannot be doubted that much of the opposition
which has made its appearance, or may hereafter make its
appearance, will spring from sources, blameless at least, if not
respectable—the honest errors of minds led astray by
preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so
powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the
judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on
the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first
magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to,
would furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much
persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a
further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from
the reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate
the truth are influenced by purer principles than their
antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party
opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these,
are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who
oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these
inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than
that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized
political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is equally
absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in
either can rarely be cured by persecution. <a class="permalink"
href="#p4">¶</a></p>
<p id="p5">And yet, however just these sentiments will be allowed
to be, we have already sufficient indications that it will happen
in this as in all former cases of great national discussion. A
torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To
judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to
conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of
their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by
the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their
invectives. An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of
government will be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond
of despotic power and hostile to the principles of liberty. An
over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people,
which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart,
will be represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait
for popularity at the expense of the public good. It will be
forgotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant
of love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be
infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the
other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of
government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the
contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their
interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition
more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights
of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the
firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that
the former has been found a much more certain road to the
introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men
who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest
number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to
the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants. <a
class="permalink" href="#p5">¶</a></p>
<p id="p6">In the course of the preceding observations, I have had
an eye, my fellow-citizens, to putting you upon your guard against
all attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in
a matter of the utmost moment to your welfare, by any impressions
other than those which may result from the evidence of truth. You
will, no doubt, at the same time, have collected from the general
scope of them, that they proceed from a source not unfriendly to
the new Constitution. Yes, my countrymen, I own to you that, after
having given it an attentive consideration, I am clearly of
opinion it is your interest to adopt it. I am convinced that this
is the safest course for your liberty, your dignity, and your
happiness. I affect not reserves which I do not feel. I will not
amuse you with an appearance of deliberation when I have decided.
I frankly acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay
before you the reasons on which they are founded. The
consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. I shall not,
however, multiply professions on this head. My motives must remain
in the depository of my own breast. My arguments will be open to
all, and may be judged of by all. They shall at least be offered
in a spirit which will not disgrace the cause of truth. <a
class="permalink" href="#p6">¶</a></p>
<p id="p7">I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the
following interesting particulars:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<em>the utility of the union to your political prosperity</em>
</li>
<li>
<em>the insufficiency of the present confederation to preserve
that union</em>
</li>
<li>
<em>the necessity of a government at least equally energetic
with the one proposed, to the attainment of this object</em>
</li>
<li>
<em>the conformity of the proposed constitution to the true
principles of republican government</em>
</li>
<li><em>its analogy to your own state constitution</em></li>
<li>
and lastly, <em>the additional security which its adoption
will afford to the preservation of that species of government,
to liberty, and to property.</em>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a
satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made
their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your
attention. <a class="permalink" href="#p7">¶</a></p>
<p id="p8">It may perhaps be thought superfluous to offer
arguments to prove the utility of the <em>union</em>, a point, no
doubt, deeply engraved on the hearts of the great body of the
people in every State, and one, which it may be imagined, has no
adversaries. But the fact is, that we already hear it whispered in
the private circles of those who oppose the new Constitution, that
the thirteen States are of too great extent for any general
system, and that we must of necessity resort to separate
confederacies of distinct portions of the whole.<a class="note"
href="#note1">1</a> This doctrine will, in all probability, be
gradually propagated, till it has votaries enough to countenance
an open avowal of it. For nothing can be more evident, to those
who are able to take an enlarged view of the subject, than the
alternative of an adoption of the new Constitution or a
dismemberment of the Union. It will therefore be of use to begin
by examining the advantages of that Union, the certain evils, and
the probable dangers, to which every State will be exposed from
its dissolution. This shall accordingly constitute the subject of
my next address. <a class="permalink" href="#p8">¶</a></p>
<address class="author vcard">
<span class="nickname">Publius</span>.
[<span class="fn">Alexander Hamilton</span>]
</address>
<ol id="notes">
<li id="note1">
The same idea, tracing the arguments to their consequences, is
held out in several of the late publications against the new
Constitution.
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="meta">
<p>
First published in the <abbr class="published updated"
title="1787-10-27">Saturday, October 27<sup>th</sup>,
1787</abbr> issue of the <span class="publication">Independent
Journal</span>.
</p>
<p class="rights">
This work is in <a rel="copyright license"
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/">the
public domain</a>.
</p>
<p>
Read about this
paper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._1">on
Wikipedia</a>, read the <a rel="next" href="2">next</a>
Federalist Paper, or go
<a rel="contents" href="/">back to the list of them all</a>.
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