The Federalist Papers | Page 6

a number of unsocial,
jealous, and alien sovereignties.
Similar sentiments have hitherto prevailed among all orders and
denominations of men among us. To all general purposes we have
uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying

the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation we
have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished our
common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made
treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with
foreign states.
A strong sense of the value and blessings of union induced the people,
at a very early period, to institute a federal government to preserve and
perpetuate it. They formed it almost as soon as they had a political
existence; nay, at a time when their habitations were in flames, when
many of their citizens were bleeding, and when the progress of hostility
and desolation left little room for those calm and mature inquiries and
reflections which must ever precede the formation of a wise and
wellbalanced government for a free people. It is not to be wondered at,
that a government instituted in times so inauspicious, should on
experiment be found greatly deficient and inadequate to the purpose it
was intended to answer.
This intelligent people perceived and regretted these defects. Still
continuing no less attached to union than enamored of liberty, they
observed the danger which immediately threatened the former and
more remotely the latter; and being pursuaded that ample security for
both could only be found in a national government more wisely framed,
they as with one voice, convened the late convention at Philadelphia, to
take that important subject under consideration.
This convention composed of men who possessed the confidence of the
people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by their
patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the minds and
hearts of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season of peace,
with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many months in
cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally, without having
been awed by power, or influenced by any passions except love for
their country, they presented and recommended to the people the plan
produced by their joint and very unanimous councils.
Admit, for so is the fact, that this plan is only RECOMMENDED, not
imposed, yet let it be remembered that it is neither recommended to

BLIND approbation, nor to BLIND reprobation; but to that sedate and
candid consideration which the magnitude and importance of the
subject demand, and which it certainly ought to receive. But this (as
was remarked in the foregoing number of this paper) is more to be
wished than expected, that it may be so considered and examined.
Experience on a former occasion teaches us not to be too sanguine in
such hopes. It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded apprehensions of
imminent danger induced the people of America to form the memorable
Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain measures to their
constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; yet it is fresh in our
memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly
papers against those very measures. Not only many of the officers of
government, who obeyed the dictates of personal interest, but others,
from a mistaken estimate of consequences, or the undue influence of
former attachments, or whose ambition aimed at objects which did not
correspond with the public good, were indefatigable in their efforts to
pursuade the people to reject the advice of that patriotic Congress.
Many, indeed, were deceived and deluded, but the great majority of the
people reasoned and decided judiciously; and happy they are in
reflecting that they did so.
They considered that the Congress was composed of many wise and
experienced men. That, being convened from different parts of the
country, they brought with them and communicated to each other a
variety of useful information. That, in the course of the time they passed
together in inquiring into and discussing the true interests of their
country, they must have acquired very accurate knowledge on that head.
That they were individually interested in the public liberty and
prosperity, and therefore that it was not less their inclination than their
duty to recommend only such measures as, after the most mature
deliberation, they really thought prudent and advisable.
These and similar considerations then induced the people to rely
greatly on the judgment and integrity of the Congress; and they took
their advice, notwithstanding the various arts and endeavors used to
deter them from it. But if the people at large had reason to confide in
the men of that Congress, few of whom had been fully tried or generally

known, still greater reason have they now to respect the judgment and
advice of the convention, for it