The Federalist | Page 8

given number whatever.
One government can collect and avail itself of the talents and
experience of the ablest men, in whatever part of the Union they may
be found. It can move on uniform principles of policy. It can harmonize,
assimilate, and protect the several parts and members, and extend the
benefit of its foresight and precautions to each. In the formation of
treaties, it will regard the interest of the whole, and the particular
interests of the parts as connected with that of the whole. It can apply
the resources and power of the whole to the defense of any particular
part, and that more easily and expeditiously than State governments or
separate confederacies can possibly do, for want of concert and unity of
system. It can place the militia under one plan of discipline, and, by
putting their officers in a proper line of subordination to the Chief
Magistrate, will, as it were, consolidate them into one corps, and
thereby render them more efficient than if divided into thirteen or into
three or four distinct independent companies.
What would the militia of Britain be if the English militia obeyed the
government of England, if the Scotch militia obeyed the government of
Scotland, and if the Welsh militia obeyed the government of Wales?
Suppose an invasion; would those three governments (if they agreed at
all) be able, with all their respective forces, to operate against the
enemy so effectually as the single government of Great Britain would?
We have heard much of the fleets of Britain, and the time may come, if

we are wise, when the fleets of America may engage attention. But if
one national government, had not so regulated the navigation of Britain
as to make it a nursery for seamen--if one national government had not
called forth all the national means and materials for forming fleets,
their prowess and their thunder would never have been celebrated. Let
England have its navigation and fleet--let Scotland have its navigation
and fleet--let Wales have its navigation and fleet--let Ireland have its
navigation and fleet--let those four of the constituent parts of the
British empire be be under four independent governments, and it is
easy to perceive how soon they would each dwindle into comparative
insignificance.
Apply these facts to our own case. Leave America divided into thirteen
or, if you please, into three or four independent governments--what
armies could they raise and pay--what fleets could they ever hope to
have? If one was attacked, would the others fly to its succor, and spend
their blood and money in its defense? Would there be no danger of their
being flattered into neutrality by its specious promises, or seduced by a
too great fondness for peace to decline hazarding their tranquillity and
present safety for the sake of neighbors, of whom perhaps they have
been jealous, and whose importance they are content to see diminished?
Although such conduct would not be wise, it would, nevertheless, be
natural. The history of the states of Greece, and of other countries,
abounds with such instances, and it is not improbable that what has so
often happened would, under similar circumstances, happen again.
But admit that they might be willing to help the invaded State or
confederacy. How, and when, and in what proportion shall aids of men
and money be afforded? Who shall command the allied armies, and
from which of them shall he receive his orders? Who shall settle the
terms of peace, and in case of disputes what umpire shall decide
between them and compel acquiescence? Various difficulties and
inconveniences would be inseparable from such a situation; whereas
one government, watching over the general and common interests, and
combining and directing the powers and resources of the whole, would
be free from all these embarrassments, and conduce far more to the
safety of the people.

But whatever may be our situation, whether firmly united under one
national government, or split into a number of confederacies, certain it
is, that foreign nations will know and view it exactly as it is; and they
will act toward us accordingly. If they see that our national government
is efficient and well administered, our trade prudently regulated, our
militia properly organized and disciplined, our resources and finances
discreetly managed, our credit re-established, our people free,
contented, and united, they will be much more disposed to cultivate our
friendship than provoke our resentment. If, on the other hand, they find
us either destitute of an effectual government (each State doing right or
wrong, as to its rulers may seem convenient), or split into three or four
independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, one
inclining to Britain, another to France, and a third to Spain, and perhaps
played off against each other by the three, what a poor,