1787 Federalist 14 · Founding Made Plain

11787 Federalist No. 14

2Objections to the Proposed Constitution

3From Extent of Territory Answered

4From the New York Packet.

5Friday, November 30, 1787.

6MADISON

7To the People of the State of New York:

8WE HAVE seen the necessity of the Union,

9 as our bulwark against foreign danger,

10 as the conservator of peace among ourselves,

11 as the guardian of our commerce

12 and other common interests,

13 as the only substitute

14 for those military establishments

15 which have subverted the liberties

16 of the Old World,

17 and as the proper antidote for the diseases of faction,

18 which have proved fatal

19 to other popular governments,

20 and of which alarming symptoms

21 have been betrayed by our own.

22All that remains, within this branch of our inquiries,

23 is to take notice of an objection

24 that may be drawn from the great extent of country

25 which the Union embraces.

26A few observations on this subject will be the more proper,

27 as it is perceived that the adversaries

28 of the new Constitution

29 are availing themselves of the prevailing prejudice

30 with regard to the practicable sphere

31 of republican administration,

32 in order to supply, by imaginary difficulties,

33 the want of those solid objections

34 which they endeavor in vain to find.

35The error which limits republican government

36 to a narrow district

37 has been unfolded and refuted in preceding papers.

38I remark here only that it seems to owe its rise

39 and prevalence chiefly

40 to the confounding of a republic with a democracy,

41 applying to the former reasonings

42 drawn from the nature of the latter.

43The true distinction between these forms

44 was also adverted to on a former occasion.

45It is, that in a democracy,

46 the people meet and exercise the government in person;

47 in a republic, they assemble and administer it

48 by their representatives and agents.

49A democracy, consequently,

50 will be confined to a small spot.

51A republic may be extended over a large region.

52To this accidental source of the error

53 may be added the artifice of some celebrated authors,

54 whose writings have had a great share

55 in forming the modern standard

56 of political opinions.

57Being subjects either of an absolute or limited monarchy,

58 they have endeavored to heighten the advantages,

59 or palliate the evils of those forms,

60 by placing in comparison

61 the vices and defects of the republican,

62 and by citing as specimens of the latter

63 the turbulent democracies of ancient Greece

64 and modern Italy.

65Under the confusion of names,

66 it has been an easy task to transfer to a republic

67 observations applicable to a democracy only;

68 and among others, the observation

69 that it can never be established

70 but among a small number of people,

71 living within a small compass of territory.

72Such a fallacy may have been the less perceived,

73 as most of the popular governments of antiquity

74 were of the democratic species;

75 and even in modern Europe,

76 to which we owe the great principle

77 of representation,

78 no example is seen of a government wholly popular,

79 and founded, at the same time,

80 wholly on that principle.

81If Europe has the merit of discovering

82 this great mechanical power in government,

83 by the simple agency of which

84 the will of the largest political body

85 may be concentred,

86 and its force directed to any object

87 which the public good requires,

88 America can claim the merit of making the discovery

89 the basis of unmixed and extensive republics.

90It is only to be lamented

91 that any of her citizens should wish to deprive her

92 of the additional merit

93 of displaying its full efficacy

94 in the establishment of the comprehensive system

95 now under her consideration.

96As the natural limit of a democracy

97 is that distance from the central point

98 which will just permit the most remote citizens

99 to assemble as often

100 as their public functions demand,

101 and will include no greater number

102 than can join in those functions;

103 so the natural limit of a republic

104 is that distance from the centre

105 which will barely allow the representatives to meet

106 as often as may be necessary

107 for the administration of public affairs.

108Can it be said that the limits of the United States

109 exceed this distance?

110It will not be said by those who recollect

111 that the Atlantic coast

112 is the longest side of the Union,

113 that during the term of thirteen years,

114 the representatives of the States

115 have been almost continually assembled,

116 and that the members from the most distant States

117 are not chargeable with greater intermissions

118 of attendance

119 than those from the States

120 in the neighborhood of Congress.

121That we may form a juster estimate

122 with regard to this interesting subject,

123 let us resort to the actual dimensions of the Union.

124The limits, as fixed by the treaty of peace, are:

125 on the east the Atlantic,

126 on the south the latitude of thirty-one degrees,

127 on the west the Mississippi,

128 and on the north an irregular line

129 running in some instances

130 beyond the forty-fifth degree,

131 in others falling as low as the forty-second.

132The southern shore of Lake Erie lies below that latitude.

133Computing the distance

134 between the thirty-first and forty-fifth degrees,

135 it amounts to nine hundred

136 and seventy-three common miles;

137 computing it from thirty-one to forty-two degrees,

138 to seven hundred and sixty-four miles and a half.

139Taking the mean for the distance,

140 the amount will be eight hundred and sixty-eight miles

141 and three-fourths.

142The mean distance from the Atlantic to the Mississippi

143 does not probably exceed seven hundred and fifty miles.

144On a comparison of this extent

145 with that of several countries in Europe,

146 the practicability of rendering our system

147 commensurate to it

148 appears to be demonstrable.

149It is not a great deal larger than Germany,

150 where a diet representing the whole empire

151 is continually assembled;

152 or than Poland before the late dismemberment,

153 where another national diet

154 was the depositary of the supreme power.

155Passing by France and Spain,

156 we find that in Great Britain,

157 inferior as it may be in size,

158 the representatives of the northern extremity

159 of the island

160 have as far to travel to the national council

161 as will be required of those

162 of the most remote parts of the Union.

163Favorable as this view of the subject may be,

164 some observations remain

165 which will place it in a light

166 still more satisfactory.

167In the first place it is to be remembered

168 that the general government is not to be charged

169 with the whole power of making

170 and administering laws.

171Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects,

172 which concern all the members of the republic,

173 but which are not to be attained

174 by the separate provisions of any.

175The subordinate governments,

176 which can extend their care to all those other subjects

177 which can be separately provided for,

178 will retain their due authority and activity.

179Were it proposed by the plan of the convention

180 to abolish the governments of the particular States,

181 its adversaries would have some ground

182 for their objection;

183 though it would not be difficult to show

184 that if they were abolished

185 the general government would be compelled,

186 by the principle of self-preservation,

187 to reinstate them in their proper jurisdiction.

188A second observation to be made is

189 that the immediate object of the federal Constitution

190 is to secure the union

191 of the thirteen primitive States,

192 which we know to be practicable;

193 and to add to them such other States

194 as may arise in their own bosoms,

195 or in their neighborhoods,

196 which we cannot doubt to be equally practicable.

197The arrangements that may be necessary

198 for those angles and fractions of our territory

199 which lie on our northwestern frontier,

200 must be left to those

201 whom further discoveries and experience

202 will render more equal to the task.

203Let it be remarked, in the third place,

204 that the intercourse throughout the Union

205 will be facilitated by new improvements.

206Roads will everywhere be shortened,

207 and kept in better order;

208 accommodations for travelers

209 will be multiplied and meliorated;

210 an interior navigation on our eastern side

211 will be opened throughout,

212 or nearly throughout,

213 the whole extent of the thirteen States.

214The communication between the Western

215 and Atlantic districts,

216 and between different parts of each,

217 will be rendered more and more easy

218 by those numerous canals

219 with which the beneficence of nature

220 has intersected our country,

221 and which part finds it so little difficult

222 to connect and complete.

223A fourth and still more important consideration is,

224 that as almost every State will, on one side or other,

225 be a frontier,

226 and will thus find, in regard to its safety,

227 an inducement to make some sacrifices

228 for the sake of the general protection;

229 so the States which lie at the greatest distance

230 from the heart of the Union,

231 and which, of course, may partake least

232 of the ordinary circulation of its benefits,

233 will be at the same time immediately contiguous

234 to foreign nations,

235 and will consequently stand, on particular occasions,

236 in greatest need of its strength and resources.

237It may be inconvenient for Georgia,

238 or the States forming our western

239 or northeastern borders,

240 to send their representatives

241 to the seat of government;

242 but they would find it more so

243 to struggle alone against an invading enemy,

244 or even to support alone the whole expense

245 of those precautions

246 which may be dictated

247 by the neighborhood of continual danger.

248If they should derive less benefit, therefore,

249 from the Union in some respects

250 than the less distant States,

251 they will derive greater benefit from it

252 in other respects,

253 and thus the proper equilibrium will be maintained

254 throughout.

255I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considerations,

256 in full confidence that the good sense

257 which has so often marked your decisions

258 will allow them their due weight and effect;

259 and that you will never suffer difficulties,

260 however formidable in appearance,

261 or however fashionable the error

262 on which they may be founded,

263 to drive you into the gloomy and perilous scene

264 into which the advocates for disunion

265 would conduct you.

266Hearken not to the unnatural voice which tells you

267 that the people of America,

268 knit together as they are

269 by so many cords of affection,

270 can no longer live together

271 as members of the same family;

272 can no longer continue the mutual guardians

273 of their mutual happiness;

274 can no longer be fellowcitizens

275 of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire.

276Hearken not to the voice which petulantly tells you

277 that the form of government recommended

278 for your adoption

279 is a novelty in the political world;

280 that it has never yet had a place

281 in the theories of the wildest projectors;

282 that it rashly attempts

283 what it is impossible to accomplish.

284No, my countrymen,

285 shut your ears against this unhallowed language.

286Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys;

287 the kindred blood which flows

288 in the veins of American citizens,

289 the mingled blood which they have shed

290 in defense of their sacred rights,

291 consecrate their Union,

292 and excite horror at the idea

293 of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies.

294And if novelties are to be shunned, believe me,

295 the most alarming of all novelties,

296 the most wild of all projects,

297 the most rash of all attempts,

298 is that of rendering us in pieces,

299 in order to preserve our liberties

300 and promote our happiness.

301But why is the experiment of an extended republic

302 to be rejected, merely because it may comprise

303 what is new?

304Is it not the glory of the people of America,

305 that, whilst they have paid a decent regard

306 to the opinions of former times and other nations,

307 they have not suffered a blind veneration

308 for antiquity, for custom, or for names,

309 to overrule the suggestions

310 of their own good sense,

311 the knowledge of their own situation,

312 and the lessons of their own experience?

313To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted

314 for the possession, and the world for the example,

315 of the numerous innovations displayed

316 on the American theatre,

317 in favor of private rights and public happiness.

318Had no important step been taken

319 by the leaders of the Revolution

320 for which a precedent could not be discovered,

321 no government established

322 of which an exact model did not present itself,

323 the people of the United States might,

324 at this moment have been numbered

325 among the melancholy victims of misguided councils,

326 must at best have been laboring under the weight

327 of some of those forms

328 which have crushed the liberties

329 of the rest of mankind.

330Happily for America,

331 happily, we trust, for the whole human race,

332 they pursued a new and more noble course.

333They accomplished a revolution

334 which has no parallel in the annals of human society.

335They reared the fabrics of governments

336 which have no model on the face of the globe.

337They formed the design of a great Confederacy,

338 which it is incumbent on their successors

339 to improve and perpetuate.

340If their works betray imperfections,

341 we wonder at the fewness of them.

342If they erred most in the structure of the Union,

343 this was the work most difficult to be executed;

344 this is the work which has been new modelled

345 by the act of your convention,

346 and it is that act on which you are now

347 to deliberate and to decide.

348PUBLIUS.