1787 Federalist 11 · Founding Made Plain

11787 Federalist No. 11

2The Utility of the Union

3in Respect to Commercial Relations and a Navy

4For the Independent Journal.

5HAMILTON

6To the People of the State of New York:

7THE importance of the Union, in a commercial light,

8 is one of those points

9 about which there is least room

10 to entertain a difference of opinion,

11 and which has, in fact, commanded

12 the most general assent

13 of men who have any acquaintance with the subject.

14This applies as well to our intercourse

15 with foreign countries as with each other.

16There are appearances to authorize a supposition

17 that the adventurous spirit,

18 which distinguishes the commercial character

19 of America,

20 has already excited uneasy sensations

21 in several of the maritime powers of Europe.

22They seem to be apprehensive

23 of our too great interference in that carrying trade,

24 which is the support of their navigation

25 and the foundation of their naval strength.

26Those of them which have colonies in America

27 look forward to what this country

28 is capable of becoming,

29 with painful solicitude.

30They foresee the dangers

31 that may threaten their American dominions

32 from the neighborhood of States,

33 which have all the dispositions,

34 and would possess all the means,

35 requisite to the creation of a powerful marine.

36Impressions of this kind will naturally indicate

37 the policy of fostering divisions among us,

38 and of depriving us, as far as possible,

39 of an ACTIVE COMMERCE in our own bottoms.

40This would answer the threefold purpose

41 of preventing our interference in their navigation,

42 of monopolizing the profits of our trade,

43 and of clipping the wings

44 by which we might soar to a dangerous greatness.

45Did not prudence forbid the detail,

46 it would not be difficult to trace, by facts,

47 the workings of this policy

48 to the cabinets of ministers.

49If we continue united,

50 we may counteract a policy so unfriendly

51 to our prosperity

52 in a variety of ways.

53By prohibitory regulations,

54 extending, at the same time, throughout the States,

55 we may oblige foreign countries

56 to bid against each other,

57 for the privileges of our markets.

58This assertion will not appear chimerical

59 to those who are able to appreciate the importance

60 of the markets of three millions of people--

61 increasing in rapid progression,

62 for the most part exclusively addicted

63 to agriculture,

64 and likely from local circumstances to remain so--

65 to any manufacturing nation;

66 and the immense difference there would be

67 to the trade and navigation of such a nation,

68 between a direct communication in its own ships,

69 and an indirect conveyance

70 of its products and returns,

71 to and from America,

72 in the ships of another country.

73Suppose, for instance, we had a government in America,

74 capable of excluding Great Britain

75 (with whom we have at present

76 no treaty of commerce)

77 from all our ports;

78 what would be the probable operation of this step

79 upon her politics?

80Would it not enable us to negotiate,

81 with the fairest prospect of success,

82 for commercial privileges

83 of the most valuable and extensive kind,

84 in the dominions of that kingdom?

85When these questions have been asked,

86 upon other occasions,

87 they have received a plausible,

88 but not a solid or satisfactory answer.

89It has been said that prohibitions on our part

90 would produce no change in the system of Britain,

91 because she could prosecute her trade with us

92 through the medium of the Dutch,

93 who would be her immediate customers and paymasters

94 for those articles which were wanted

95 for the supply of our markets.

96But would not her navigation be materially injured

97 by the loss of the important advantage

98 of being her own carrier in that trade?

99Would not the principal part of its profits

100 be intercepted by the Dutch,

101 as a compensation for their agency and risk?

102Would not the mere circumstance of freight

103 occasion a considerable deduction?

104Would not so circuitous an intercourse

105 facilitate the competitions of other nations,

106 by enhancing the price of British commodities

107 in our markets,

108 and by transferring to other hands

109 the management of this interesting branch

110 of the British commerce?

111A mature consideration of the objects

112 suggested by these questions

113 will justify a belief

114 that the real disadvantages to Britain

115 from such a state of things,

116 conspiring with the pre-possessions

117 of a great part of the nation

118 in favor of the American trade,

119 and with the importunities

120 of the West India islands,

121 would produce a relaxation in her present system,

122 and would let us into the enjoyment of privileges

123 in the markets of those islands elsewhere,

124 from which our trade would derive

125 the most substantial benefits.

126Such a point gained from the British government,

127 and which could not be expected without an equivalent

128 in exemptions and immunities in our markets,

129 would be likely to have a correspondent effect

130 on the conduct of other nations,

131 who would not be inclined to see themselves

132 altogether supplanted in our trade.

133A further resource for influencing the conduct

134 of European nations toward us, in this respect,

135 would arise from the establishment of a federal navy.

136There can be no doubt

137 that the continuance of the Union

138 under an efficient government

139 would put it in our power,

140 at a period not very distant,

141 to create a navy

142 which, if it could not vie

143 with those of the great maritime powers,

144 would at least be of respectable weight

145 if thrown into the scale

146 of either of two contending parties.

147This would be more peculiarly the case

148 in relation to operations in the West Indies.

149A few ships of the line,

150 sent opportunely to the reinforcement of either side,

151 would often be sufficient to decide the fate

152 of a campaign,

153 on the event of which interests

154 of the greatest magnitude were suspended.

155Our position is, in this respect, a most commanding one.

156And if to this consideration we add

157 that of the usefulness of supplies from this country,

158 in the prosecution of military operations

159 in the West Indies,

160 it will readily be perceived

161 that a situation so favorable

162 would enable us to bargain with great advantage

163 for commercial privileges.

164A price would be set not only upon our friendship,

165 but upon our neutrality.

166By a steady adherence to the Union

167 we may hope, erelong, to become the arbiter

168 of Europe in America,

169 and to be able to incline the balance

170 of European competitions in this part of the world

171 as our interest may dictate.

172But in the reverse of this eligible situation,

173 we shall discover that the rivalships of the parts

174 would make them checks upon each other,

175 and would frustrate all the tempting advantages

176 which nature has kindly placed within our reach.

177In a state so insignificant

178 our commerce would be a prey

179 to the wanton intermeddlings of all nations

180 at war with each other;

181 who, having nothing to fear from us,

182 would with little scruple or remorse,

183 supply their wants by depredations on our property

184 as often as it fell in their way.

185The rights of neutrality will only be respected

186 when they are defended by an adequate power.

187A nation, despicable by its weakness,

188 forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.

189Under a vigorous national government,

190 the natural strength and resources of the country,

191 directed to a common interest,

192 would baffle all the combinations of European jealousy

193 to restrain our growth.

194This situation would even take away the motive

195 to such combinations,

196 by inducing an impracticability of success.

197An active commerce, an extensive navigation,

198 and a flourishing marine

199 would then be the offspring

200 of moral and physical necessity.

201We might defy the little arts of the little politicians

202 to control or vary

203 the irresistible and unchangeable course of nature.

204But in a state of disunion,

205 these combinations might exist

206 and might operate with success.

207It would be in the power of the maritime nations,

208 availing themselves of our universal impotence,

209 to prescribe the conditions of our political existence;

210 and as they have a common interest

211 in being our carriers,

212 and still more in preventing our becoming theirs,

213 they would in all probability combine

214 to embarrass our navigation

215 in such a manner as would in effect destroy it,

216 and confine us to a PASSIVE COMMERCE.

217We should then be compelled to content ourselves

218 with the first price of our commodities,

219 and to see the profits of our trade snatched from us

220 to enrich our enemies and persecutors.

221That unequaled spirit of enterprise,

222 which signalizes the genius

223 of the American merchants and navigators,

224 and which is in itself

225 an inexhaustible mine of national wealth,

226 would be stifled and lost,

227 and poverty and disgrace would overspread a country

228 which, with wisdom,

229 might make herself the admiration and envy

230 of the world.

231There are rights of great moment to the trade of America

232 which are rights of the Union--

233 I allude to the fisheries,

234 to the navigation of the Western lakes,

235 and to that of the Mississippi.

236The dissolution of the Confederacy would give room

237 for delicate questions

238 concerning the future existence of these rights;

239 which the interest of more powerful partners

240 would hardly fail to solve to our disadvantage.

241The disposition of Spain with regard to the Mississippi

242 needs no comment.

243France and Britain are concerned with us in the fisheries,

244 and view them as of the utmost moment

245 to their navigation.

246They, of course, would hardly remain long indifferent

247 to that decided mastery,

248 of which experience has shown us to be possessed

249 in this valuable branch of traffic,

250 and by which we are able to undersell those nations

251 in their own markets.

252What more natural than that they should be disposed

253 to exclude from the lists such dangerous competitors?

254This branch of trade ought not to be considered

255 as a partial benefit.

256All the navigating States may, in different degrees,

257 advantageously participate in it,

258 and under circumstances of a greater extension

259 of mercantile capital,

260 would not be unlikely to do it.

261As a nursery of seamen, it now is,

262 or when time shall have more nearly assimilated

263 the principles of navigation in the several States,

264 will become, a universal resource.

265To the establishment of a navy, it must be indispensable.

266To this great national object, a NAVY,

267 union will contribute in various ways.

268Every institution will grow and flourish

269 in proportion to the quantity and extent of the means

270 concentred towards its formation and support.

271A navy of the United States,

272 as it would embrace the resources of all,

273 is an object far less remote

274 than a navy of any single State

275 or partial confederacy,

276 which would only embrace the resources

277 of a single part.

278It happens, indeed,

279 that different portions of confederated America

280 possess each some peculiar advantage

281 for this essential establishment.

282The more southern States furnish in greater abundance

283 certain kinds of naval stores--

284 tar, pitch, and turpentine.

285Their wood for the construction of ships

286 is also of a more solid and lasting texture.

287The difference in the duration of the ships

288 of which the navy might be composed,

289 if chiefly constructed of Southern wood,

290 would be of signal importance,

291 either in the view of naval strength

292 or of national economy.

293Some of the Southern and of the Middle States

294 yield a greater plenty of iron, and of better quality.

295Seamen must chiefly be drawn from the Northern hive.

296The necessity of naval protection

297 to external or maritime commerce

298 does not require a particular elucidation,

299 no more than the conduciveness

300 of that species of commerce

301 to the prosperity of a navy.

302An unrestrained intercourse between the States themselves

303 will advance the trade of each

304 by an interchange of their respective productions,

305 not only for the supply

306 of reciprocal wants at home,

307 but for exportation to foreign markets.

308The veins of commerce in every part will be replenished,

309 and will acquire additional motion and vigor

310 from a free circulation

311 of the commodities of every part.

312Commercial enterprise will have much greater scope,

313 from the diversity in the productions

314 of different States.

315When the staple of one fails

316 from a bad harvest or unproductive crop,

317 it can call to its aid the staple of another.

318The variety, not less than the value,

319 of products for exportation

320 contributes to the activity of foreign commerce.

321It can be conducted upon much better terms

322 with a large number of materials of a given value

323 than with a small number of materials

324 of the same value;

325 arising from the competitions of trade

326 and from the fluctations of markets.

327Particular articles may be in great demand

328 at certain periods, and unsalable at others;

329 but if there be a variety of articles,

330 it can scarcely happen that they should all be

331 at one time in the latter predicament,

332 and on this account the operations of the merchant

333 would be less liable

334 to any considerable obstruction or stagnation.

335The speculative trader will at once perceive

336 the force of these observations,

337 and will acknowledge

338 that the aggregate balance of the commerce

339 of the United States

340 would bid fair to be much more favorable

341 than that of the thirteen States

342 without union or with partial unions.

343It may perhaps be replied to this,

344 that whether the States are united or disunited,

345 there would still be an intimate intercourse

346 between them

347 which would answer the same ends;

348 this intercourse would be fettered, interrupted,

349 and narrowed by a multiplicity of causes,

350 which in the course of these papers

351 have been amply detailed.

352A unity of commercial, as well as political, interests,

353 can only result from a unity of government.

354There are other points of view

355 in which this subject might be placed,

356 of a striking and animating kind.

357But they would lead us too far

358 into the regions of futurity,

359 and would involve topics

360 not proper for a newspaper discussion.

361I shall briefly observe,

362 that our situation invites

363 and our interests prompt us

364 to aim at an ascendant

365 in the system of American affairs.

366The world may politically, as well as geographically,

367 be divided into four parts,

368 each having a distinct set of interests.

369Unhappily for the other three,

370 Europe, by her arms and by her negotiations,

371 by force and by fraud,

372 has, in different degrees,

373 extended her dominion over them all.

374Africa, Asia, and America,

375 have successively felt her domination.

376The superiority she has long maintained

377 has tempted her to plume herself

378 as the Mistress of the World,

379 and to consider the rest of mankind

380 as created for her benefit.

381Men admired as profound philosophers have, in direct terms,

382 attributed to her inhabitants a physical superiority,

383 and have gravely asserted

384 that all animals, and with them the human species,

385 degenerate in America--

386 that even dogs cease to bark

387 after having breathed awhile in our atmosphere.[1]

388Facts have too long supported

389 these arrogant pretensions of the Europeans.

390It belongs to us to vindicate

391 the honor of the human race,

392 and to teach that assuming brother, moderation.

393Union will enable us to do it.

394Disunion will will add another victim to his triumphs.

395Let Americans disdain to be the instruments

396 of European greatness!

397Let the thirteen States,

398 bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union,

399 concur in erecting one great American system,

400 superior to the control

401 of all transatlantic force or influence,

402 and able to dictate the terms of the connection

403 between the old and the new world!

404PUBLIUS.

405[1] "Recherches philosophiques sur les Americains."