The Federalist No. 8

by Allison Jones

20 November 1787 Alexander Hamilton concluded the argument for union based on safety in this paper.  He addresses the consequences of the states being separate nations with “vicissitudes of peace and war, of friendship and enmity with each other”.  

At the time he was writing, because the states were not well established countries, war between them would be more costly than the European wars they were familiar with.  Those older nations were fortified and invasions could not get very far into a country before they were stopped.  But the states had no such fortifications and would thus be far more vulnerable in the event of war.  Thus each state would be safer with a unifying central government to prevent violent conflicts between the states.

With neither fortification nor a shared government, invasion and plunder would be profitable to aggressors among the states.  Since “safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct,” this would lead to more vulnerable states sacrificing liberty for safety.  

Hamilton thinks that the constant threat of war would drive the states toward monarchies and large standing armies.  “It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.”  It follows from human nature that the weaker states would start building up armies to protect themselves from the perceived threat from stronger states and the stronger states would soon follow that trend to stay superior to the others.

While Hamilton concedes the necessity of at least some active military, he warns that standing armies would corrupt the country.  He worries that members of a standing military would become a higher class than civilian citizens and help oppress them.  There is some truth to that concern as can be seen in the many military coups that have occurred in other countries in modern times.

Another concern with standing armies that Hamilton has is that the military mindset is opposed to the civilian entrepreneurial mindset.  “The industrious habits of the people of the present day, absorbed in the pursuits of gain, and devoted to improvements of agriculture and commerce are incompatible with the condition of a nation of soldiers, which was the true condition of the people of those [ancient] republics.”  He advocates a small standing army that can hold off invaders before the militia (reserves) can be mobilized and after the war return to civilian life.

If the states were united under a federal government they would not be invading or instigating wars amongst themselves and they would not need large armies and the freedoms the citizens then enjoyed would not be sacrificed to security.