1787 Federalist 6 · Founding Made Plain

11787 Federalist No. 6

2Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States

3For the Independent Journal.

4HAMILTON

5To the People of the State of New York:

6THE three last numbers of this paper

7 have been dedicated to an enumeration of the dangers

8 to which we should be exposed,

9 in a state of disunion,

10 from the arms and arts of foreign nations.

11I shall now proceed to delineate dangers

12 of a different and, perhaps, still more alarming kind--

13 those which will in all probability flow

14 from dissensions between the States themselves,

15 and from domestic factions and convulsions.

16These have been already in some instances

17 slightly anticipated;

18 but they deserve a more particular

19 and more full investigation.

20A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations

21 who can seriously doubt that,

22 if these States should either be wholly disunited,

23 or only united in partial confederacies,

24 the subdivisions into which they might be thrown

25 would have frequent and violent contests

26 with each other.

27To presume a want of motives for such contests

28 as an argument against their existence,

29 would be to forget

30 that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.

31To look for a continuation of harmony

32 between a number of independent,

33 unconnected sovereignties

34 in the same neighborhood,

35 would be to disregard

36 the uniform course of human events,

37 and to set at defiance

38 the accumulated experience of ages.

39The causes of hostility among nations are innumerable.

40There are some which have a general

41 and almost constant operation

42 upon the collective bodies of society.

43Of this description are the love of power

44 or the desire of pre-eminence and dominion--

45 the jealousy of power,

46 or the desire of equality and safety.

47There are others which have a more circumscribed

48 though an equally operative influence

49 within their spheres.

50Such are the rivalships and competitions of commerce

51 between commercial nations.

52And there are others,

53 not less numerous than either of the former,

54 which take their origin entirely in private passions;

55 in the attachments, enmities,

56 interests, hopes, and fears

57 of leading individuals

58 in the communities of which they are members.

59Men of this class,

60 whether the favorites of a king or of a people,

61 have in too many instances

62 abused the confidence they possessed;

63 and assuming the pretext of some public motive,

64 have not scrupled to sacrifice

65 the national tranquillity

66 to personal advantage or personal gratification.

67The celebrated Pericles,

68 in compliance with the resentment of a prostitute,[1]

69 at the expense of much of the blood and treasure

70 of his countrymen,

71 attacked, vanquished, and destroyed

72 the city of the SAMNIANS.

73The same man,

74 stimulated by private pique

75 against the MEGARENSIANS,[2]

76 another nation of Greece,

77 or to avoid a prosecution with which he was threatened

78 as an accomplice of a supposed theft

79 of the statuary Phidias,[3]

80 or to get rid of the accusations prepared to be brought

81 against him for dissipating the funds of the state

82 in the purchase of popularity,[4]

83 or from a combination of all these causes,

84 was the primitive author of that famous and fatal war,

85 distinguished in the Grecian annals

86 by the name of the PELOPONNESIAN war;

87 which, after various vicissitudes,

88 intermissions, and renewals,

89 terminated in the ruin of the Athenian commonwealth.

90The ambitious cardinal,

91 who was prime minister to Henry VIII.,

92 permitting his vanity to aspire to the triple crown,[5]

93 entertained hopes of succeeding in the acquisition

94 of that splendid prize

95 by the influence of the Emperor Charles V.

96To secure the favor and interest

97 of this enterprising and powerful monarch,

98 he precipitated England into a war with France,

99 contrary to the plainest dictates of policy,

100 and at the hazard of the safety and independence,

101 as well of the kingdom

102 over which he presided by his counsels,

103 as of Europe in general.

104For if there ever was a sovereign

105 who bid fair to realize the project

106 of universal monarchy,

107 it was the Emperor Charles V.,

108 of whose intrigues Wolsey was at once

109 the instrument and the dupe.

110The influence which the bigotry of one female,[6]

111 the petulance of another,[7]

112 and the cabals of a third,[8]

113 had in the contemporary policy,

114 ferments, and pacifications,

115 of a considerable part of Europe,

116 are topics that have been too often descanted upon

117 not to be generally known.

118To multiply examples of the agency

119 of personal considerations

120 in the production of great national events,

121 either foreign or domestic,

122 according to their direction,

123 would be an unnecessary waste of time.

124Those who have but a superficial acquaintance

125 with the sources from which they are to be drawn,

126 will themselves recollect a variety of instances;

127 and those who have a tolerable knowledge

128 of human nature

129 will not stand in need of such lights

130 to form their opinion

131 either of the reality or extent of that agency.

132Perhaps, however, a reference,

133 tending to illustrate the general principle,

134 may with propriety be made to a case

135 which has lately happened among ourselves.

136If Shays had not been a DESPERATE DEBTOR,

137 it is much to be doubted

138 whether Massachusetts would have been plunged

139 into a civil war.

140But notwithstanding the concurring testimony of experience,

141 in this particular,

142 there are still to be found visionary or designing men,

143 who stand ready to advocate the paradox

144 of perpetual peace between the States,

145 though dismembered and alienated from each other.

146The genius of republics

147 (say they)

148 is pacific;

149 the spirit of commerce has a tendency

150 to soften the manners of men,

151 and to extinguish those inflammable humors

152 which have so often kindled into wars.

153Commercial republics, like ours,

154 will never be disposed to waste themselves

155 in ruinous contentions with each other.

156They will be governed by mutual interest,

157 and will cultivate a spirit

158 of mutual amity and concord.

159Is it not

160 (we may ask these projectors in politics)

161 the true interest of all nations

162 to cultivate the same benevolent

163 and philosophic spirit?

164If this be their true interest,

165 have they in fact pursued it?

166Has it not, on the contrary, invariably been found

167 that momentary passions, and immediate interest,

168 have a more active and imperious control

169 over human conduct

170 than general or remote considerations

171 of policy, utility or justice?

172Have republics in practice been less addicted to war

173 than monarchies?

174Are not the former administered by MEN

175 as well as the latter?

176Are there not aversions, predilections, rivalships,

177 and desires of unjust acquisitions,

178 that affect nations as well as kings?

179Are not popular assemblies frequently subject

180 to the impulses of rage, resentment, jealousy, avarice,

181 and of other irregular and violent propensities?

182Is it not well known

183 that their determinations are often governed

184 by a few individuals in whom they place confidence,

185 and are, of course, liable to be tinctured

186 by the passions and views of those individuals?

187Has commerce hitherto done anything more

188 than change the objects of war?

189Is not the love of wealth

190 as domineering and enterprising a passion

191 as that of power or glory?

192Have there not been as many wars

193 founded upon commercial motives

194 since that has become the prevailing system of nations,

195 as were before occasioned

196 by the cupidity of territory or dominion?

197Has not the spirit of commerce, in many instances,

198 administered new incentives to the appetite,

199 both for the one and for the other?

200Let experience,

201 the least fallible guide of human opinions,

202 be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.

203Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics;

204 two of them, Athens and Carthage,

205 of the commercial kind.

206Yet were they as often engaged in wars,

207 offensive and defensive,

208 as the neighboring monarchies of the same times.

209Sparta was little better than a wellregulated camp;

210 and Rome was never sated of carnage and conquest.

211Carthage, though a commercial republic,

212 was the aggressor in the very war

213 that ended in her destruction.

214Hannibal had carried her arms

215 into the heart of Italy and to the gates of Rome,

216 before Scipio, in turn, gave him an overthrow

217 in the territories of Carthage,

218 and made a conquest of the commonwealth.

219Venice, in later times,

220 figured more than once in wars of ambition,

221 till, becoming an object to the other Italian states,

222 Pope Julius II. found means to accomplish

223 that formidable league,[9]

224 which gave a deadly blow

225 to the power and pride of this haughty republic.

226The provinces of Holland,

227 till they were overwhelmed in debts and taxes,

228 took a leading and conspicuous part

229 in the wars of Europe.

230They had furious contests with England

231 for the dominion of the sea,

232 and were among the most persevering

233 and most implacable of the opponents of Louis XIV.

234In the government of Britain

235 the representatives of the people

236 compose one branch of the national legislature.

237Commerce has been for ages

238 the predominant pursuit of that country.

239Few nations, nevertheless,

240 have been more frequently engaged in war;

241 and the wars in which that kingdom has been engaged

242 have, in numerous instances,

243 proceeded from the people.

244There have been, if I may so express it,

245 almost as many popular as royal wars.

246The cries of the nation

247 and the importunities of their representatives

248 have, upon various occasions,

249 dragged their monarchs into war,

250 or continued them in it,

251 contrary to their inclinations,

252 and sometimes contrary to the real interests

253 of the State.

254In that memorable struggle for superiority

255 between the rival houses of AUSTRIA and BOURBON,

256 which so long kept Europe in a flame,

257 it is well known

258 that the antipathies of the English

259 against the French,

260 seconding the ambition,

261 or rather the avarice,

262 of a favorite leader,[10]

263 protracted the war

264 beyond the limits marked out by sound policy,

265 and for a considerable time

266 in opposition to the views of the court.

267The wars of these two last-mentioned nations

268 have in a great measure grown out of commercial

269 considerations,--

270 the desire of supplanting

271 and the fear of being supplanted,

272 either in particular branches of traffic

273 or in the general advantages

274 of trade and navigation.

275From this summary of what has taken place

276 in other countries,

277 whose situations have borne the nearest resemblance

278 to our own,

279 what reason can we have to confide in those reveries

280 which would seduce us into an expectation

281 of peace and cordiality

282 between the members of the present confederacy,

283 in a state of separation?

284Have we not already seen enough

285 of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle theories

286 which have amused us with promises of an exemption

287 from the imperfections, weaknesses and evils

288 incident to society in every shape?

289Is it not time to awake

290 from the deceitful dream of a golden age,

291 and to adopt as a practical maxim

292 for the direction of our political conduct

293 that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe,

294 are yet remote from the happy empire

295 of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?

296Let the point of extreme depression

297 to which our national dignity and credit have sunk,

298 let the inconveniences felt everywhere

299 from a lax and ill administration of government,

300 let the revolt of a part

301 of the State of North Carolina,

302 the late menacing disturbances in Pennsylvania,

303 and the actual insurrections and rebellions

304 in Massachusetts, declare--!

305So far is the general sense of mankind

306 from corresponding with the tenets of those

307 who endeavor to lull asleep our apprehensions

308 of discord and hostility between the States,

309 in the event of disunion,

310 that it has from long observation

311 of the progress of society

312 become a sort of axiom in politics,

313 that vicinity or nearness of situation,

314 constitutes nations natural enemies.

315An intelligent writer expresses himself

316 on this subject to this effect:

317"NEIGHBORING NATIONS

318 (says he)

319 are naturally enemies of each other

320 unless their common weakness forces them to league

321 in a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC,

322 and their constitution prevents the differences

323 that neighborhood occasions,

324 extinguishing that secret jealousy

325 which disposes all states to aggrandize themselves

326 at the expense of their neighbors.''[11]

327This passage, at the same time,

328 points out the EVIL and suggests the REMEDY.

329PUBLIUS.

330[1] Aspasia, vide "Plutarch's Life of Pericles."

331[2] Ibid.

332[3] Ibid.

333[4] Ibid. Phidias was supposed to have stolen some public

334 gold, with the connivance of Pericles,

335 for the embellishment of the statue of Minerva.

336[5] Worn by the popes.

337[6] Madame de Maintenon.

338[7] Duchess of Marlborough.

339[8] Madame de Pompadour.

340[9] The League of Cambray, comprehending the Emperor,

341 the King of France, the King of Aragon,

342 and most of the Italian princes and states.

343[10] The Duke of Marlborough.

344[11] Vide "Principes des Negociations" par l'Abbe de Mably.