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<h1 class="entry-title"><a rel="bookmark" href="18">Federalist № 18</a></h1>
<h2 class="entry-summary">The Same Subject Continued</h2>
<h3 class="entry-summary">
The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the
Union
</h3>
<div class="entry-content">
<p id="salutation">To the People of the State of New York:</p>
<p id="p1"><span class="initial">Among</span> the confederacies of
antiquity, the most considerable was that of the Grecian
republics, associated under the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphictyonic_League">Amphictyonic
council</a>. From the best accounts transmitted of this celebrated
institution, it bore a very instructive analogy to the present
Confederation of the American States. <a class="permalink"
href="#p1">¶</a></p>
<p id="p2">The members retained the character of independent and
sovereign states, and had equal votes in the federal council. This
council had a general authority to propose and resolve whatever it
judged necessary for the common welfare of Greece; to declare and
carry on war; to decide, in the last resort, all controversies
between the members; to fine the aggressing party; to employ the
whole force of the confederacy against the disobedient; to admit
new members. The Amphictyons were the guardians of religion, and
of the immense riches belonging to the temple of Delphos, where
they had the right of jurisdiction in controversies between the
inhabitants and those who came to consult the oracle. As a further
provision for the efficacy of the federal powers, they took an
oath mutually to defend and protect the united cities, to punish
the violators of this oath, and to inflict vengeance on
sacrilegious despoilers of the temple. <a class="permalink"
href="#p2">¶</a></p>
<p id="p3">In theory, and upon paper, this apparatus of powers
seems amply sufficient for all general purposes. In several
material instances, they exceed the powers enumerated in the
articles of confederation. The Amphictyons had in their hands the
superstition of the times, one of the principal engines by which
government was then maintained; they had a declared authority to
use coercion against refractory cities, and were bound by oath to
exert this authority on the necessary occasions. <a
class="permalink" href="#p3">¶</a></p>
<p id="p4">Very different, nevertheless, was the experiment from
the theory. The powers, like those of the present Congress, were
administered by deputies appointed wholly by the cities in their
political capacities; and exercised over them in the same
capacities. Hence the weakness, the disorders, and finally the
destruction of the confederacy. The more powerful members, instead
of being kept in awe and subordination, tyrannized successively
over all the rest. Athens, as we learn from Demosthenes, was the
arbiter of Greece seventy-three years. The Lacedaemonians next
governed it twenty-nine years; at a subsequent period, after the
battle of Leuctra, the Thebans had their turn of domination. <a
class="permalink" href="#p4">¶</a></p>
<p id="p5">It happened but too often, according to Plutarch, that
the deputies of the strongest cities awed and corrupted those of
the weaker; and that judgment went in favor of the most powerful
party. <a class="permalink" href="#p5">¶</a></p>
<p id="p6">Even in the midst of defensive and dangerous wars with
Persia and Macedon, the members never acted in concert, and were,
more or fewer of them, eternally the dupes or the hirelings of the
common enemy. The intervals of foreign war were filled up by
domestic vicissitudes convulsions, and carnage. <a
class="permalink" href="#p6">¶</a></p>
<p id="p7">After the conclusion of the war with Xerxes, it appears
that the Lacedaemonians required that a number of the cities
should be turned out of the confederacy for the unfaithful part
they had acted. The Athenians, finding that the Lacedaemonians
would lose fewer partisans by such a measure than themselves, and
would become masters of the public deliberations, vigorously
opposed and defeated the attempt. This piece of history proves at
once the inefficiency of the union, the ambition and jealousy of
its most powerful members, and the dependent and degraded
condition of the rest. The smaller members, though entitled by the
theory of their system to revolve in equal pride and majesty
around the common center, had become, in fact, satellites of the
orbs of primary magnitude. <a class="permalink"
href="#p7">¶</a></p>
<p id="p8">Had the Greeks, says the Abbe Milot, been as wise as
they were courageous, they would have been admonished by
experience of the necessity of a closer union, and would have
availed themselves of the peace which followed their success
against the Persian arms, to establish such a reformation. Instead
of this obvious policy, Athens and Sparta, inflated with the
victories and the glory they had acquired, became first rivals and
then enemies; and did each other infinitely more mischief than
they had suffered from Xerxes. Their mutual jealousies, fears,
hatreds, and injuries ended in the celebrated Peloponnesian war;
which itself ended in the ruin and slavery of the Athenians who
had begun it. <a class="permalink" href="#p8">¶</a></p>
<p id="p9">As a weak government, when not at war, is ever agitated
by internal dissentions, so these never fail to bring on fresh
calamities from abroad. The Phocians having ploughed up some
consecrated ground belonging to the temple of Apollo, the
Amphictyonic council, according to the superstition of the age,
imposed a fine on the sacrilegious offenders. The Phocians, being
abetted by Athens and Sparta, refused to submit to the decree. The
Thebans, with others of the cities, undertook to maintain the
authority of the Amphictyons, and to avenge the violated god. The
latter, being the weaker party, invited the assistance of Philip
of Macedon, who had secretly fostered the contest. Philip gladly
seized the opportunity of executing the designs he had long
planned against the liberties of Greece. By his intrigues and
bribes he won over to his interests the popular leaders of several
cities; by their influence and votes, gained admission into the
Amphictyonic council; and by his arts and his arms, made himself
master of the confederacy. <a class="permalink"
href="#p9">¶</a></p>
<p id="p10">Such were the consequences of the fallacious principle
on which this interesting establishment was founded. Had Greece,
says a judicious observer on her fate, been united by a stricter
confederation, and persevered in her union, she would never have
worn the chains of Macedon; and might have proved a barrier to the
vast projects of Rome. <a class="permalink" href="#p10">¶</a></p>
<p id="p11">The Achaean league, as it is called, was another
society of Grecian republics, which supplies us with valuable
instruction. The Union here was far more intimate, and its
organization much wiser, than in the preceding instance. It will
accordingly appear, that though not exempt from a similar
catastrophe, it by no means equally deserved it. <a
class="permalink" href="#p11">¶</a></p>
<p id="p12">The cities composing this league retained their
municipal jurisdiction, appointed their own officers, and enjoyed
a perfect equality. The senate, in which they were represented,
had the sole and exclusive right of peace and war; of sending and
receiving ambassadors; of entering into treaties and alliances; of
appointing a chief magistrate or praetor, as he was called, who
commanded their armies, and who, with the advice and consent of
ten of the senators, not only administered the government in the
recess of the senate, but had a great share in its deliberations,
when assembled. According to the primitive constitution, there
were two praetors associated in the administration; but on trial a
single one was preferred. <a class="permalink"
href="#p12">¶</a></p>
<p id="p13">It appears that the cities had all the same laws and
customs, the same weights and measures, and the same money. But
how far this effect proceeded from the authority of the federal
council is left in uncertainty. It is said only that the cities
were in a manner compelled to receive the same laws and usages.
When Lacedaemon was brought into the league by Philopoemen, it was
attended with an abolition of the institutions and laws of
Lycurgus, and an adoption of those of the Achaeans. The
Amphictyonic confederacy, of which she had been a member, left her
in the full exercise of her government and her legislation. This
circumstance alone proves a very material difference in the genius
of the two systems. <a class="permalink" href="#p13">¶</a></p>
<p id="p14">It is much to be regretted that such imperfect
monuments remain of this curious political fabric. Could its
interior structure and regular operation be ascertained, it is
probable that more light would be thrown by it on the science of
federal government, than by any of the like experiments with which
we are acquainted. <a class="permalink" href="#p14">¶</a></p>
<p id="p15">One important fact seems to be witnessed by all the
historians who take notice of Achaean affairs. It is, that as well
after the renovation of the league by Aratus, as before its
dissolution by the arts of Macedon, there was infinitely more of
moderation and justice in the administration of its government,
and less of violence and sedition in the people, than were to be
found in any of the cities exercising SINGLY all the prerogatives
of sovereignty. The Abbe Mably, in his observations on Greece,
says that the popular government, which was so tempestuous
elsewhere, caused no disorders in the members of the Achaean
republic, <em>because it was there tempered by the general
authority and laws of the confederacy</em>. <a class="permalink"
href="#p15">¶</a></p>
<p id="p16">We are not to conclude too hastily, however, that
faction did not, in a certain degree, agitate the particular
cities; much less that a due subordination and harmony reigned in
the general system. The contrary is sufficiently displayed in the
vicissitudes and fate of the republic. <a class="permalink"
href="#p16">¶</a></p>
<p id="p17">Whilst the Amphictyonic confederacy remained, that of
the Achaeans, which comprehended the less important cities only,
made little figure on the theatre of Greece. When the former
became a victim to Macedon, the latter was spared by the policy of
Philip and Alexander. Under the successors of these princes,
however, a different policy prevailed. The arts of division were
practiced among the Achaeans. Each city was seduced into a
separate interest; the union was dissolved. Some of the cities
fell under the tyranny of Macedonian garrisons; others under that
of usurpers springing out of their own confusions. Shame and
oppression erelong awaken their love of liberty. A few cities
reunited. Their example was followed by others, as opportunities
were found of cutting off their tyrants. The league soon embraced
almost the whole Peloponnesus. Macedon saw its progress; but was
hindered by internal dissensions from stopping it. All Greece
caught the enthusiasm and seemed ready to unite in one
confederacy, when the jealousy and envy in Sparta and Athens, of
the rising glory of the Achaeans, threw a fatal damp on the
enterprise. The dread of the Macedonian power induced the league
to court the alliance of the Kings of Egypt and Syria, who, as
successors of Alexander, were rivals of the king of Macedon. This
policy was defeated by Cleomenes, king of Sparta, who was led by
his ambition to make an unprovoked attack on his neighbors, the
Achaeans, and who, as an enemy to Macedon, had interest enough
with the Egyptian and Syrian princes to effect a breach of their
engagements with the league. <a class="permalink"
href="#p17">¶</a></p>
<p id="p18">The Achaeans were now reduced to the dilemma of
submitting to Cleomenes, or of supplicating the aid of Macedon,
its former oppressor. The latter expedient was adopted. The
contests of the Greeks always afforded a pleasing opportunity to
that powerful neighbor of intermeddling in their affairs. A
Macedonian army quickly appeared. Cleomenes was vanquished. The
Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and
powerful ally is but another name for a master. All that their
most abject compliances could obtain from him was a toleration of
the exercise of their laws. Philip, who was now on the throne of
Macedon, soon provoked by his tyrannies, fresh combinations among
the Greeks. The Achaeans, though weakenened by internal
dissensions and by the revolt of Messene, one of its members,
being joined by the AEtolians and Athenians, erected the standard
of opposition. Finding themselves, though thus supported, unequal
to the undertaking, they once more had recourse to the dangerous
expedient of introducing the succor of foreign arms. The Romans,
to whom the invitation was made, eagerly embraced it. Philip was
conquered; Macedon subdued. A new crisis ensued to the league.
Dissensions broke out among it members. These the Romans fostered.
Callicrates and other popular leaders became mercenary instruments
for inveigling their countrymen. The more effectually to nourish
discord and disorder the Romans had, to the astonishment of those
who confided in their sincerity, already proclaimed universal
liberty<a class="note" href="#note1">1</a> throughout Greece. With
the same insidious views, they now seduced the members from the
league, by representing to their pride the violation it committed
on their sovereignty. By these arts this union, the last hope of
Greece, the last hope of ancient liberty, was torn into pieces;
and such imbecility and distraction introduced, that the arms of
Rome found little difficulty in completing the ruin which their
arts had commenced. The Achaeans were cut to pieces, and Achaia
loaded with chains, under which it is groaning at this hour. <a
class="permalink" href="#p18">¶</a></p>
<p id="p19">I have thought it not superfluous to give the outlines
of this important portion of history; both because it teaches more
than one lesson, and because, as a supplement to the outlines of
the Achaean constitution, it emphatically illustrates the tendency
of federal bodies rather to anarchy among the members, than to
tyranny in the head. <a class="permalink" href="#p19">¶</a></p>
<address>
<span class="nickname">Publius</span>.
[<span class="vcard author"><span class="fn">James Madison</span></span>
with
<span class="vcard contributor"><span class="fn">Alexander Hamilton</span></span>]
</address>
<ol id="notes">
<li id="note1">
This was but another name more specious for the independence
of the members on the federal head.
</li>
</ol>
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<div class="meta">
<p>
First published in the <abbr class="published updated"
title="1787-12-07">Friday, December 7, 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._18">on
Wikipedia</a>, read the <a rel="prev" href="17">previous</a> or
<a rel="next" href="19">next</a> Federalist Paper, or go
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