Ratifying the U.S. Constitution was by no means an historical inevitability. Although most Americans agreed that the Articles of Confederation were insufficient, the new frame of government had many powerful critics. Without a doubt, though, the most important and influential defense of the document was The Federalist, a series of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym “Publius.” Published between October 1787 and April 1788, these papers shaped the debate in New York and beyond. They remain a guide to the Framers’ original intent as well as one of the best articulations of the American political tradition ever penned.
Both the Constitution and The Federalist were written in a period of genuine crisis for the young United States. Domestic insurrections, such as Shays’s Rebellion, threatened to tear the new nation apart at the seams. Meanwhile, foreign empires menaced the borders of the republic, eager to subvert the independence Americans won in the Revolution through both military force and political subterfuge. Publius argued that only a stronger union and more energetic federal government—restrained by suitable checks and balances to preserve liberty—could address this particularly daunting situation and others which may arise in the future to threaten American independence.
At the heart of The Federalist’s strategic vision is a realist understanding of human nature. In Federalist 3 and 4, for example, Publius outlines the ways that mankind’s native frailty inspires wars of conquest that independent republics must be prepared to resist. The Articles of Confederation failed because they did not give the Union sufficient strength to repel these foreign assaults on our freedom. They were simply too optimistic that the European empires would respect our independence once won. The Constitution, by contrast, created a strong and independent executive that Publius believed would be empowered to meet moments of crisis that unavoidably arise.
It is also important to note the kind of power Publius believed the federal government required to defend the republic. Rather than creating a permanent standing army or a leviathan security state, most of his recommendations concern the construction of a frigate navy. Such an institution, he argued, could project power abroad and protect commercial enterprises without endangering liberty at home. The process of building the U.S. Navy was always somewhat controversial in the Early Republic, but ultimately successes in conflicts such as the 1798–1800 Quasi-War with France and the nineteenth century Barbary Wars vindicated The Federalist’s advocacy of a strong navy.
But Publius was not a complete pessimist, and it is worth remembering his hopes for the future. The Constitution’s provisions “for the common defense,” he believed, were a step not just toward a stronger America but also to a freer globe. Hamilton’s wartime comrade the Marquis de Lafayette once wrote that “The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind.” And it is in that spirit that Publius prophesied in Federalist 11 that our national greatness would be a benefit to both “the old and the new world.”
