| FEDERALIST NO. 85 Concluding Remarks - Alexander Hamilton |
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To the People of the State of New York:
ACCORDING to the formal division of the subject of these papers, announced in my first number, there would appear
still to remain for discussion two points: "the analogy of the proposed government to your own State constitution," and
"the additional security which its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and to property." But these
heads have been so fully anticipated and exhausted in the progress of the work, that it would now scarcely be possible
to do any thing more than repeat, in a more dilated form, what has been heretofore said, which the advanced stage of
the question, and the time already spent upon it, conspire to forbid.
It is remarkable, that the resemblance of the plan of the convention to the act which organizes the government of this
State holds, not less with regard to many of the supposed defects, than to the real excellences of the former. Among the
pretended defects are the re-eligibility of the Executive, the want of a council, the omission of a formal bill of rights, the
omission of a provision respecting the liberty of the press. These and several others which have been noted in the
course of our inquiries are as much chargeable on the existing constitution of this State, as on the one proposed for the
Union; and a man must have slender pretensions to consistency, who can rail at the latter for imperfections which he
finds no difficulty in excusing in the former. Nor indeed can there be a better proof of the insincerity and affectation of
some of the zealous adversaries of the plan of the convention among us, who profess to be the devoted admirers of the
government under which they live, than the fury with which they have attacked that plan, for matters in regard to which
our own constitution is equally or perhaps more vulnerable.
The additional securities to republican government, to liberty and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the
plan under consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the preservation of the Union will impose on local
factions and insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single States, who may acquire credit and
influence enough, from leaders and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the diminution of the opportunities
to foreign intrigue, which the dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the prevention of extensive
military establishments, which could not fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited situation; in the
express guaranty of a republican form of government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of titles of nobility;
and in the precautions against the repetition of those practices on the part of the State governments which have
undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens,
and have occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals.
Thus have I, fellow-citizens, executed the task I had assigned to myself; with what success, your conduct must
determine. I trust at least you will admit that I have not failed in the assurance I gave you respecting the spirit with which
my endeavors should be conducted. I have addressed myself purely to your judgments, and have studiously avoided
those asperities which are too apt to disgrace political disputants of all parties, and which have been not a little
provoked by the language and conduct of the opponents of the Constitution. The charge of a conspiracy against the
liberties of the people, which has been indiscriminately brought against the advocates of the plan, has something in it too
wanton and too malignant, not to excite the indignation of every man who feels in his own bosom a refutation of the
calumny. The perpetual changes which have been rung upon the wealthy, the well-born, and the great, have been such
as to inspire the disgust of all sensible men. And the unwarrantable concealments and misrepresentations which have
been in various ways practiced to keep the truth from the public eye, have been of a nature to demand the reprobation
of all honest men. It is not impossible that these circumstances may have occasionally betrayed me into intemperances
of expression which I did not intend; it is certain that I have frequently felt a struggle between sensibility and
moderation; and if the former has in some instances prevailed, it must be my excuse that it has been neither often nor
much.
Let us now pause and ask ourselves whether, in the course of these papers, the proposed Constitution has not been
satisfactorily vindicated from the aspersions thrown upon it; and whether it has not been shown to be worthy of the
public approbation, and necessary to the public safety and prosperity. Every man is bound to answer these questions to
himself, according to the best of his conscience and understanding, and to act agreeably to the genuine and sober
dictates of his judgment. This is a duty from which nothing can give him a dispensation. 'T is one that he is called upon,
nay, constrained by all the obligations that form the bands of society, to discharge sincerely and honestly. No partial
motive, no particular interest, no pride of opinion, no temporary passion or prejudice, will justify to himself, to his
country, or to his posterity, an improper election of the part he is to act. Let him beware of an obstinate adherence to
party; let him reflect that the object upon which he is to decide is not a particular interest of the community, but the very
existence of the nation; and let him remember that a majority of America has already given its sanction to the plan which
he is to approve or reject.
I shall not dissemble that I feel an entire confidence in the arguments which recommend the proposed system to your
adoption, and that I am unable to discern any real force in those by which it has been opposed. I am persuaded that it
is the best which our political situation, habits, and opinions will admit, and superior to any the revolution has produced.
Concessions on the part of the friends of the plan, that it has not a claim to absolute perfection, have afforded matter of
no small triumph to its enemies. "Why," say they, "should we adopt an imperfect thing? Why not amend it and make it
perfect before it is irrevocably established?" This may be plausible enough, but it is only plausible. In the first place I
remark, that the extent of these concessions has been greatly exaggerated. They have been stated as amounting to an
admission that the plan is radically defective, and that without material alterations the rights and the interests of the
community cannot be safely confided to it. This, as far as I have understood the meaning of those who make the
concessions, is an entire perversion of their sense. No advocate of the measure can be found, who will not declare as
his sentiment, that the system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that
the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security
which a reasonable people can desire.
I answer in the next place, that I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our
national affairs, and to expose the Union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a
perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective
bodies must necessarily be a compound, as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom, of the
individuals of whom they are composed. The compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond
of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can
perfection spring from such materials?
The reasons assigned in an excellent little pamphlet lately published in this city (1) are unanswerable to show the utter
improbability of assembling a new convention, under circumstances in any degree so favorable to a happy issue, as
those in which the late convention met, deliberated, and concluded. I will not repeat the arguments there used, as I
presume the production itself has had an extensive circulation. It is certainly well worthy the perusal of every friend to
his country. There is, however, one point of light in which the subject of amendments still remains to be considered, and
in which it has not yet been exhibited to public view. I cannot resolve to conclude without first taking a survey of it in
this aspect.
It appears to me susceptible of absolute demonstration, that it will be far more easy to obtain subsequent than previous
amendments to the Constitution. The moment an alteration is made in the present plan, it becomes, to the purpose of
adoption, a new one, and must undergo a new decision of each State. To its complete establishment throughout the
Union, it will therefore require the concurrence of thirteen States. If, on the contrary, the Constitution proposed should
once be ratified by all the States as it stands, alterations in it may at any time be effected by nine States. Here, then, the
chances are as thirteen to nine (2) in favor of subsequent amendment, rather than of the original adoption of an entire
system.
This is not all. Every Constitution for the United States must inevitably consist of a great variety of particulars, in which
thirteen independent States are to be accommodated in their interests or opinions of interest. We may of course expect
to see, in any body of men charged with its original formation, very different combinations of the parts upon different
points. Many of those who form a majority on one question, may become the minority on a second, and an association
dissimilar to either may constitute the majority on a third. Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the
particulars which are to compose the whole, in such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and hence,
also, an immense multiplication of difficulties and casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final act. The degree of
that multiplication must evidently be in a ratio to the number of particulars and the number of parties.
But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established, would be a single proposition, and might be brought
forward singly. There would then be no necessity for management or compromise, in relation to any other point no
giving nor taking. The will of the requisite number would at once bring the matter to a decisive issue. And consequently,
whenever nine, or rather ten States, were united in the desire of a particular amendment, that amendment must infallibly
take place. There can, therefore, be no comparison between the facility of affecting an amendment, and that of
establishing in the first instance a complete Constitution.
In opposition to the probability of subsequent amendments, it has been urged that the persons delegated to the
administration of the national government will always be disinclined to yield up any portion of the authority of which they
were once possessed. For my own part I acknowledge a thorough conviction that any amendments which may, upon
mature consideration, be thought useful, will be applicable to the organization of the government, not to the mass of its
powers; and on this account alone, I think there is no weight in the observation just stated. I also think there is little
weight in it on another account. The intrinsic difficulty of governing thirteen States at any rate, independent of
calculations upon an ordinary degree of public spirit and integrity, will, in my opinion constantly impose on the national
rulers the necessity of a spirit of accommodation to the reasonable expectations of their constituents. But there is yet a
further consideration, which proves beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the observation is futile. It is this that the
national rulers, whenever nine States concur, will have no option upon the subject. By the fifth article of the plan, the
Congress will be obliged "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the States which at present amount to
nine, to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof."
The words of this article are peremptory. The Congress "shall call a convention." Nothing in this particular is left to the
discretion of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to a change vanishes in air.
Nor however difficult it may be supposed to unite two thirds or three fourths of the State legislatures, in amendments
which may affect local interests, can there be any room to apprehend any such difficulty in a union on points which are
merely relative to the general liberty or security of the people. We may safely rely on the disposition of the State
legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority. If the foregoing argument is a fallacy,
certain it is that I am myself deceived by it, for it is, in my conception, one of those rare instances in which a political
truth can be brought to the test of a mathematical demonstration. Those who see the matter in the same light with me,
however zealous they may be for amendments, must agree in the propriety of a previous adoption, as the most direct
road to their own object.
The zeal for attempts to amend, prior to the establishment of the Constitution, must abate in every man who is ready to
accede to the truth of the following observations of a writer equally solid and ingenious: "To balance a large state or
society, whether monarchical or republican, on general laws, is a work of so great difficulty, that no human genius,
however comprehensive, is able, by the mere dint of reason and reflection, to effect it. The judgments of many must
unite in the work; experience must guide their labor; time must bring it to perfection, and the feeling of inconveniences
must correct the mistakes which they INEVITABLY fall into in their first trials and experiments." (3) These judicious
reflections contain a lesson of moderation to all the sincere lovers of the Union, and ought to put them upon their guard
against hazarding anarchy, civil war, a perpetual alienation of the States from each other, and perhaps the military
despotism of a victorious demagogue, in the pursuit of what they are not likely to obtain, but from time and experience.
It may be in me a defect of political fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal tranquillity with those
who affect to treat the dangers of a longer continuance in our present situation as imaginary. A nation, without a national
government, is, in my view, an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the
voluntary consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I
can reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of
the thirteen States, and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground, to recommence the course. I
dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know that powerful individuals, in this and in other
States, are enemies to a general national government in every possible shape.
PUBLIUS.
1. Entitled "An Address to the People of the State of New York."
2. It may rather be said TEN, for though two thirds may set on foot the measure, three fourths must ratify.
3. Hume's "Essays," vol. i., page 128: "The Rise of Arts and Sciences."
ACCORDING to the formal division of the subject of these papers, announced in my first number, there would appear
still to remain for discussion two points: "the analogy of the proposed government to your own State constitution," and
"the additional security which its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and to property." But these
heads have been so fully anticipated and exhausted in the progress of the work, that it would now scarcely be possible
to do any thing more than repeat, in a more dilated form, what has been heretofore said, which the advanced stage of
the question, and the time already spent upon it, conspire to forbid.
It is remarkable, that the resemblance of the plan of the convention to the act which organizes the government of this
State holds, not less with regard to many of the supposed defects, than to the real excellences of the former. Among the
pretended defects are the re-eligibility of the Executive, the want of a council, the omission of a formal bill of rights, the
omission of a provision respecting the liberty of the press. These and several others which have been noted in the
course of our inquiries are as much chargeable on the existing constitution of this State, as on the one proposed for the
Union; and a man must have slender pretensions to consistency, who can rail at the latter for imperfections which he
finds no difficulty in excusing in the former. Nor indeed can there be a better proof of the insincerity and affectation of
some of the zealous adversaries of the plan of the convention among us, who profess to be the devoted admirers of the
government under which they live, than the fury with which they have attacked that plan, for matters in regard to which
our own constitution is equally or perhaps more vulnerable.
The additional securities to republican government, to liberty and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the
plan under consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the preservation of the Union will impose on local
factions and insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single States, who may acquire credit and
influence enough, from leaders and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the diminution of the opportunities
to foreign intrigue, which the dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the prevention of extensive
military establishments, which could not fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited situation; in the
express guaranty of a republican form of government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of titles of nobility;
and in the precautions against the repetition of those practices on the part of the State governments which have
undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens,
and have occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals.
Thus have I, fellow-citizens, executed the task I had assigned to myself; with what success, your conduct must
determine. I trust at least you will admit that I have not failed in the assurance I gave you respecting the spirit with which
my endeavors should be conducted. I have addressed myself purely to your judgments, and have studiously avoided
those asperities which are too apt to disgrace political disputants of all parties, and which have been not a little
provoked by the language and conduct of the opponents of the Constitution. The charge of a conspiracy against the
liberties of the people, which has been indiscriminately brought against the advocates of the plan, has something in it too
wanton and too malignant, not to excite the indignation of every man who feels in his own bosom a refutation of the
calumny. The perpetual changes which have been rung upon the wealthy, the well-born, and the great, have been such
as to inspire the disgust of all sensible men. And the unwarrantable concealments and misrepresentations which have
been in various ways practiced to keep the truth from the public eye, have been of a nature to demand the reprobation
of all honest men. It is not impossible that these circumstances may have occasionally betrayed me into intemperances
of expression which I did not intend; it is certain that I have frequently felt a struggle between sensibility and
moderation; and if the former has in some instances prevailed, it must be my excuse that it has been neither often nor
much.
Let us now pause and ask ourselves whether, in the course of these papers, the proposed Constitution has not been
satisfactorily vindicated from the aspersions thrown upon it; and whether it has not been shown to be worthy of the
public approbation, and necessary to the public safety and prosperity. Every man is bound to answer these questions to
himself, according to the best of his conscience and understanding, and to act agreeably to the genuine and sober
dictates of his judgment. This is a duty from which nothing can give him a dispensation. 'T is one that he is called upon,
nay, constrained by all the obligations that form the bands of society, to discharge sincerely and honestly. No partial
motive, no particular interest, no pride of opinion, no temporary passion or prejudice, will justify to himself, to his
country, or to his posterity, an improper election of the part he is to act. Let him beware of an obstinate adherence to
party; let him reflect that the object upon which he is to decide is not a particular interest of the community, but the very
existence of the nation; and let him remember that a majority of America has already given its sanction to the plan which
he is to approve or reject.
I shall not dissemble that I feel an entire confidence in the arguments which recommend the proposed system to your
adoption, and that I am unable to discern any real force in those by which it has been opposed. I am persuaded that it
is the best which our political situation, habits, and opinions will admit, and superior to any the revolution has produced.
Concessions on the part of the friends of the plan, that it has not a claim to absolute perfection, have afforded matter of
no small triumph to its enemies. "Why," say they, "should we adopt an imperfect thing? Why not amend it and make it
perfect before it is irrevocably established?" This may be plausible enough, but it is only plausible. In the first place I
remark, that the extent of these concessions has been greatly exaggerated. They have been stated as amounting to an
admission that the plan is radically defective, and that without material alterations the rights and the interests of the
community cannot be safely confided to it. This, as far as I have understood the meaning of those who make the
concessions, is an entire perversion of their sense. No advocate of the measure can be found, who will not declare as
his sentiment, that the system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that
the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security
which a reasonable people can desire.
I answer in the next place, that I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our
national affairs, and to expose the Union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a
perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective
bodies must necessarily be a compound, as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom, of the
individuals of whom they are composed. The compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond
of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can
perfection spring from such materials?
The reasons assigned in an excellent little pamphlet lately published in this city (1) are unanswerable to show the utter
improbability of assembling a new convention, under circumstances in any degree so favorable to a happy issue, as
those in which the late convention met, deliberated, and concluded. I will not repeat the arguments there used, as I
presume the production itself has had an extensive circulation. It is certainly well worthy the perusal of every friend to
his country. There is, however, one point of light in which the subject of amendments still remains to be considered, and
in which it has not yet been exhibited to public view. I cannot resolve to conclude without first taking a survey of it in
this aspect.
It appears to me susceptible of absolute demonstration, that it will be far more easy to obtain subsequent than previous
amendments to the Constitution. The moment an alteration is made in the present plan, it becomes, to the purpose of
adoption, a new one, and must undergo a new decision of each State. To its complete establishment throughout the
Union, it will therefore require the concurrence of thirteen States. If, on the contrary, the Constitution proposed should
once be ratified by all the States as it stands, alterations in it may at any time be effected by nine States. Here, then, the
chances are as thirteen to nine (2) in favor of subsequent amendment, rather than of the original adoption of an entire
system.
This is not all. Every Constitution for the United States must inevitably consist of a great variety of particulars, in which
thirteen independent States are to be accommodated in their interests or opinions of interest. We may of course expect
to see, in any body of men charged with its original formation, very different combinations of the parts upon different
points. Many of those who form a majority on one question, may become the minority on a second, and an association
dissimilar to either may constitute the majority on a third. Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the
particulars which are to compose the whole, in such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and hence,
also, an immense multiplication of difficulties and casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final act. The degree of
that multiplication must evidently be in a ratio to the number of particulars and the number of parties.
But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established, would be a single proposition, and might be brought
forward singly. There would then be no necessity for management or compromise, in relation to any other point no
giving nor taking. The will of the requisite number would at once bring the matter to a decisive issue. And consequently,
whenever nine, or rather ten States, were united in the desire of a particular amendment, that amendment must infallibly
take place. There can, therefore, be no comparison between the facility of affecting an amendment, and that of
establishing in the first instance a complete Constitution.
In opposition to the probability of subsequent amendments, it has been urged that the persons delegated to the
administration of the national government will always be disinclined to yield up any portion of the authority of which they
were once possessed. For my own part I acknowledge a thorough conviction that any amendments which may, upon
mature consideration, be thought useful, will be applicable to the organization of the government, not to the mass of its
powers; and on this account alone, I think there is no weight in the observation just stated. I also think there is little
weight in it on another account. The intrinsic difficulty of governing thirteen States at any rate, independent of
calculations upon an ordinary degree of public spirit and integrity, will, in my opinion constantly impose on the national
rulers the necessity of a spirit of accommodation to the reasonable expectations of their constituents. But there is yet a
further consideration, which proves beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the observation is futile. It is this that the
national rulers, whenever nine States concur, will have no option upon the subject. By the fifth article of the plan, the
Congress will be obliged "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the States which at present amount to
nine, to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof."
The words of this article are peremptory. The Congress "shall call a convention." Nothing in this particular is left to the
discretion of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to a change vanishes in air.
Nor however difficult it may be supposed to unite two thirds or three fourths of the State legislatures, in amendments
which may affect local interests, can there be any room to apprehend any such difficulty in a union on points which are
merely relative to the general liberty or security of the people. We may safely rely on the disposition of the State
legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority. If the foregoing argument is a fallacy,
certain it is that I am myself deceived by it, for it is, in my conception, one of those rare instances in which a political
truth can be brought to the test of a mathematical demonstration. Those who see the matter in the same light with me,
however zealous they may be for amendments, must agree in the propriety of a previous adoption, as the most direct
road to their own object.
The zeal for attempts to amend, prior to the establishment of the Constitution, must abate in every man who is ready to
accede to the truth of the following observations of a writer equally solid and ingenious: "To balance a large state or
society, whether monarchical or republican, on general laws, is a work of so great difficulty, that no human genius,
however comprehensive, is able, by the mere dint of reason and reflection, to effect it. The judgments of many must
unite in the work; experience must guide their labor; time must bring it to perfection, and the feeling of inconveniences
must correct the mistakes which they INEVITABLY fall into in their first trials and experiments." (3) These judicious
reflections contain a lesson of moderation to all the sincere lovers of the Union, and ought to put them upon their guard
against hazarding anarchy, civil war, a perpetual alienation of the States from each other, and perhaps the military
despotism of a victorious demagogue, in the pursuit of what they are not likely to obtain, but from time and experience.
It may be in me a defect of political fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal tranquillity with those
who affect to treat the dangers of a longer continuance in our present situation as imaginary. A nation, without a national
government, is, in my view, an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the
voluntary consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I
can reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of
the thirteen States, and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground, to recommence the course. I
dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know that powerful individuals, in this and in other
States, are enemies to a general national government in every possible shape.
PUBLIUS.
1. Entitled "An Address to the People of the State of New York."
2. It may rather be said TEN, for though two thirds may set on foot the measure, three fourths must ratify.
3. Hume's "Essays," vol. i., page 128: "The Rise of Arts and Sciences."
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