Perhaps because of the unlucky number, Hamilton produced a relatively short F13 looking, I think, at the governance (as a managerial exercise) of several confederacies as compared to the Constitutional plan.
No well-informed man will suppose that the affairs of such a confederacy can be properly regulated by a government less comprehensive in its organs or institutions than that which has been proposed by the convention.
If Hamilton is saying what I think he is saying (that the work of government would be more (or at least as) complex and invasive on everyday life as the Philly’s Constitutional plan), he has produced an unexpected and strong argument for national government relevant to his peers and today’s thinkers.
Federalist 13 brings Publius’ attention to the economy in America. It seems to me he is using “economy” in the old sense of the word – from the Greek meaning of, basically, ‘the management of the household.’ I wonder what “economy” meant in the late 18th century – I’m not sure. Was it linked to the flow of money, as it is today? F13 seems more a discussion of the complexity of government than revenue and monetary flexibility, etc. This seems to be the gist, as the essay ends with
Nothing can be more evident than that the thirteen States will be able to support a national government better than one half, or one third, or any number less than the whole. This reflection must have great weight in obviating that objection to the proposed plan, which is founded on the principle of expense; an objection, however, which, when we come to take a nearer view of it, will appear in every light to stand on mistaken ground.
If, in addition to the consideration of a plurality of civil lists, we take into view the number of persons who must necessarily be employed to guard the inland communication between the different confederacies against illicit trade, and who in time will infallibly spring up out of the necessities of revenue; and if we also take into view the military establishments which it has been shown would unavoidably result from the jealousies and conflicts of the several nations into which the States would be divided, we shall clearly discover that a separation would be not less injurious to the economy, than to the tranquillity, commerce, revenue, and liberty of every part.
Some interesting notes from Hamilton’s discussion of the paths that states may take in absence of union:
Pennsylvania may not choose to confound her interests in a connection so adverse to her policy. As she must at all events be a frontier, she may deem it most consistent with her safety to have her exposed side turned towards the weaker power of the Southern, rather than towards the stronger power of the Northern, Confederacy. This would give her the fairest chance to avoid being the Flanders of America. Whatever may be the determination of Pennsylvania, if the Northern Confederacy includes New Jersey, there is no likelihood of more than one confederacy to the south of that State.
Lily mentioned the relevance of Germany as a contemporary comparative tool for the founders. Here, we see that Flanders was in the public conscious too. I wonder how often Flanders got trodded as an exemplar of the negative.
June 8, 2008 at 10:53 pm
I couldn’t make heads or tails of F13 until I got out a map of the colonies. It helped to get a visual on the different possible alliances of colonies in Ham’s confederacy calculus. He says, “The ideas of men who speculate upon the dismemberment of the empire, seem generally turned towards three confederacies: one consisting of the four northern, another of the four middle, and a third of the five southern States.” Then he tries to prove that this is unrealistic because of geopolitical concerns, and the most we would probably end up with would be two confederacies.
My original calculations as to Ham’s orginal three alliances didn’t work out too well, so I had to go to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_colonies), which enlightened me as follows:
North: NH, MA, RI, CT
Middle: NY, DE, PA, NJ
Southern: MD, GA, SC, NC, VA
Ham says, Naw, that won’t work. NY’s border along NH, MA, RI, etc. is too weak to defend, so NY will want to join the North, not the Middle. NJ is way too small to be a frontier colony, and PA’s culture and commerce mesh more easily with the north than with the south (plus, as Andrew notes, PA doesn’t want to be Flanders — i.e. the border country where all the wars happen). So NJ, NY, and PA will all throw their lot in with the North. DE wasn’t specifically discussed — presumably b/c Ham thought it was too small to matter? (Poor DE).