Federalist Papers No 12 The Utility of the Union In Respect to Revenue

To the People of the State of New York:

THE effects of Union upon the commercial prosperity of the States have been sufficiently delineated. Its tendency to promote the interests of revenue will be the subject of our present inquiry.

The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares. By multiplying the means of gratification, by promoting the introduction and circulation of the precious metals, those darling objects of human avarice and enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the channels of industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and copiousness. The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the active mechanic, and the industrious manufacturer,—all orders of men, look forward with eager expectation and growing alacrity to this pleasing reward of their toils. The often-agitated question between agriculture and commerce has, from indubitable experience, received a decision which has silenced the rivalship that once subsisted between them, and has proved, to the satisfaction of their friends, that their interests are intimately blended and interwoven. It has been found in various countries that, in proportion as commerce has flourished, land has risen in value. And how could it have happened otherwise? Could that which procures a freer vent for the products of the earth, which furnishes new incitements to the cultivation of land, which is the most powerful instrument in increasing the quantity of money in a state—could that, in fine, which is the faithful handmaid of labor and industry, in every shape, fail to augment that article, which is the prolific parent of far the greatest part of the objects upon which they are exerted? It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an adversary; and it is one, among a multitude of proofs, how apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and refinement, is to lead men astray from the plainest truths of reason and conviction.

The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity render the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite supplies to the treasury. The hereditary dominions of the Emperor of Germany contain a great extent of fertile, cultivated, and populous territory, a large proportion of which is situated in mild and luxuriant climates. In some parts of this territory are to be found the best gold and silver mines in Europe. And yet, from the want of the fostering influence of commerce, that monarch can boast but slender revenues. He has several times been compelled to owe obligations to the pecuniary succors of other nations for the preservation of his essential interests, and is unable, upon the strength of his own resources, to sustain a long or continued war.

Read the rest below.

Federalist Papers No 12 Union and Revenue from Chuck Thompson

We have the complete series of the Federalist Papers on audio in our Podcasts page.  Check it out.

Related articles

• Federalist Papers No. 11, Commercial Interests
• Anti Federalist Papers No. 11 - Unrestricted Power Over Commerce Should Not Be Given The National Government
• Federalist Papers No. 10 The Union as a Safeguard Against Faction and Insurrection
• Anti Federalist Papers No 10, On The Preservation of Parties, Public Liberty Depends
• Federalist Papers No. 9 The Union As A Safeguard Against Faction And Insurrection
• Anti Federalist Papers No. 9 A Consolidated Government Is A Tyranny

Anti Federalist Papers No. 9 A Consolidated Government Is A Tyranny

MONTEZUMA," regarded as a Pennsylvanian, wrote this essay which showed up in the Independent Gazetteer on October 17, 1787.

We the Aristocratic party of the United States, lamenting the many inconveniences to which the late confederation subjected the well-born, the better kind of people, bringing them down to the level of the rabble-and holding in utter detestation that frontispiece to every bill of rights, "that all men are born equal"-beg leave (for the purpose of drawing a line between such as we think were ordained to govern, and such as were made to bear the weight of government without having any share in its administration) to submit to our Friends in the first class for their inspection, the following defense of our monarchical, aristocratical democracy.

Anti Federalist Papers No 9 A Consolidated Government is a Tyranny from Chuck Thompson

To read the entire text of this document, please left click the icon at the bottom far right hand side of the Slideshare container.  To exit full screen mode, just hit the escape key on your keyboard.  Free downloads of this document are available on our Slideshare site.  Liberty Education Series here on Gloucester, Virginia Links and News website.  

Related articles

• Anti Federalist Papers No 8 Suppressing Insurrections
• Anti Federalist Paper No. 5 - Scotland and England - A Case In Point
• Anti Federalist papers No 4 Patrick Henry, And Foreign Wars
• Federalist Papers No. 9 The Union As A Safeguard Against Faction And Insurrection
• Federalist Papers Nu. 4 Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence
• Federalist Papers Number 3, John Jay, Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence

Federalist Papers No. 9 The Union As A Safeguard Against Faction And Insurrection

To the People of the State of New York:

A FIRM Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection. It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy. If they exhibit occasional calms, these only serve as short-lived contrast to the furious storms that are to succeed. If now and then intervals of felicity open to view, we behold them with a mixture of regret, arising from the reflection that the pleasing scenes before us are soon to be overwhelmed by the tempestuous waves of sedition and party rage. If momentary rays of glory break forth from the gloom, while they dazzle us with a transient and fleeting brilliancy, they at the same time admonish us to lament that the vices of government should pervert the direction and tarnish the lustre of those bright talents and exalted endowments for which the favored soils that produced them have been so justly celebrated.

Read the rest of the document below.

Federalist Papers No 9 Union As Safeguard Against Insurrection from Chuck Thompson

To read the document in full screen mode, left click the icon at the bottom right hand side of the SlideShare container.  To exit full screen mode, hit the escape key on your keyboard.  Free downloads of this and other documents and ebooks are available from our SlideShare site or our ebook section located above.

To get the free download, you will have to sign in to SlideShare with either a Facebook account or a LinkedIn account.  Or you can set up a free account on SlideShare.  From our ebooks section, download links are already set up.

Liberty Education Series.  Gloucester, Virginia Links and News.

Related articles

• Federalist Papers No 6, Concerning Dangers From Dissensions Between The States
• Anti Federalist Papers No 8 Suppressing Insurrections
• Federalist Papers No 8, The Consequences of Hostilities Between The States
• Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence - The Federalist Papers No 2
• Anti Federalist papers No 4 Patrick Henry, And Foreign Wars
• Federalist Papers No 7 - Dangers From Dissensions Between The States

Anti Federalist Papers No 8 Suppressing Insurrections

By the Articles of Confederation, the congress of the United State was vested with powers for conducting the common concerns of the continent. They had the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war; of sending and receiving ambassadors; of entering into treaties and alliances; and of pointing out the respective quotas of men and men which each state should furnish. But it was expressly provided that the money to be supplied by each state should be raised by the authority and direction of the legislature thereof-- thus reserving to the states the important privilege of levying taxes upon their citizens in such manner as might be most conformable to their peculiar circumstances and form of government.

  Read the rest in the SlideShare container below.

Anti Federalist Papers No 8 - Suppressing Insurrections from Chuck Thompson

To read the full Anti Federalist Papers No. 8 above, just left click the icon on the far right bottom of the SlideShare container.  This will open the document into full screen mode.  To exit full screen mode, just hit the escape key on your keyboard.  Free downloads are available on this document from our SlideShare site.  Liberty Education Series.

Related articles

• The Anti Federalist Papers Number 2 - Building A New Nation
• Anti Federalist Papers Number 3 - A Farmer
• Anti Federalist Paper No. 5 - Scotland and England - A Case In Point
• Federalist Papers Number 3, John Jay, Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence
• Federalist Papers No 8, The Consequences of Hostilities Between The States
• Federalist Papers Nu. 4 Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence

Federalist Papers No 8, The Consequences of Hostilities Between The States

ASSUMING it therefore as an established truth that the several States, in case of disunion, or such combinations of them as might happen to be formed out of the wreck of the general Confederacy, would be subject to those vicissitudes of peace and war, of friendship and enmity, with each other, which have fallen to the lot of all neighboring nations not united under one government, let us enter into a concise detail of some of the consequences that would attend such a situation.

War between the States, in the first period of their separate existence, would be accompanied with much greater distresses than it commonly is in those countries where regular military establishments have long obtained. The disciplined armies always kept on foot on the continent of Europe, though they bear a malignant aspect to liberty and economy, have, notwithstanding, been productive of the signal advantage of rendering sudden conquests impracticable, and of preventing that rapid desolation which used to mark the progress of war prior to their introduction. The art of fortification has contributed to the same ends. The nations of Europe are encircled with chains of fortified places, which mutually obstruct invasion.

 Campaigns are wasted in reducing two or three frontier garrisons, to gain admittance into an enemy's country. Similar impediments occur at every step, to exhaust the strength and delay the progress of an invader. Formerly, an invading army would penetrate into the heart of a neighboring country almost as soon as intelligence of its approach could be received; but now a comparatively small force of disciplined troops, acting on the defensive, with the aid of posts, is able to impede, and finally to frustrate, the enterprises of one much more considerable. The history of war, in that quarter of the globe, is no longer a history of nations subdued and empires overturned, but of towns taken and retaken; of battles that decide nothing; of retreats more beneficial than victories; of much effort and little acquisition.

Federalist Papers No 8 Consequences of Hostilities Between The States" target="_blank">Federalist Papers No 8 Consequences of Hostilities Between The States from Chuck Thompson

The Federalist Papers No. 8 in full above.  To read the entire document in full screen, please left click the icon at the bottom right hand side of the SlideShare container of this document.  To escape full screen view, please hit your escape key on your keyboard.  Liberty Education Series here on Gloucester, Virginia Links and News.

Oil on canvas portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Federalist Papers Nu. 4 Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence
• Federalist Papers No 6, Concerning Dangers From Dissensions Between The States
• Federalist Papers No 7 - Dangers From Dissensions Between The States
• Anti Federalist Papers Number 3 - A Farmer
• Anti Federalist Paper No. 5 - Scotland and England - A Case In Point
• Anti Federalist Papers No. 6 Anarchy

Federalist Papers No 7 - Dangers From Dissensions Between The States

Oil on canvas portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Alexander Hamilton; Federalist Papers No. 7:

To the People of the State of New York:

IT IS sometimes asked, with an air of seeming triumph, what inducements could the States have, if disunited, to make war upon each other? It would be a full answer to this question to say—precisely the same inducements which have, at different times, deluged in blood all the nations in the world. But, unfortunately for us, the question admits of a more particular answer. There are causes of differences within our immediate contemplation, of the tendency of which, even under the restraints of a federal constitution, we have had sufficient experience to enable us to form a judgment of what might be expected if those restraints were removed.

Territorial disputes have at all times been found one of the most fertile sources of hostility among nations. Perhaps the greatest proportion of wars that have desolated the earth have sprung from this origin. This cause would exist among us in full force. We have a vast tract of unsettled territory within the boundaries of the United States. There still are discordant and undecided claims between several of them, and the dissolution of the Union would lay a foundation for similar claims between them all. It is well known that they have heretofore had serious and animated discussion concerning the rights to the lands which were ungranted at the time of the Revolution, and which usually went under the name of crown lands. The States within the limits of whose colonial governments they were comprised have claimed them as their property, the others have contended that the rights of the crown in this article devolved upon the Union; especially as to all that part of the Western territory which, either by actual possession, or through the submission of the Indian proprietors, was subjected to the jurisdiction of the king of Great Britain, till it was relinquished in the treaty of peace.

 This, it has been said, was at all events an acquisition to the Confederacy by compact with a foreign power. It has been the prudent policy of Congress to appease this controversy, by prevailing upon the States to make cessions to the United States for the benefit of the whole. This has been so far accomplished as, under a continuation of the Union, to afford a decided prospect of an amicable termination of the dispute. A dismemberment of the Confederacy, however, would revive this dispute, and would create others on the same subject. At present, a large part of the vacant Western territory is, by cession at least, if not by any anterior right, the common property of the Union.

 If that were at an end, the States which made the cession, on a principle of federal compromise, would be apt when the motive of the grant had ceased, to reclaim the lands as a reversion. The other States would no doubt insist on a proportion, by right of representation. Their argument would be, that a grant, once made, could not be revoked; and that the justice of participating in territory acquired or secured by the joint efforts of the Confederacy, remained undiminished. If, contrary to probability, it should be admitted by all the States, that each had a right to a share of this common stock, there would still be a difficulty to be surmounted, as to a proper rule of apportionment. Different principles would be set up by different States for this purpose; and as they would affect the opposite interests of the parties, they might not easily be susceptible of a pacific adjustment.

Federalist Papers No 7 Dangers From Dissensions Between The States from Chuck Thompson

Read the entire text above in our SlideShare document above.  To view in full screen mode, left click the icon at the far bottom right side of the container.  To exit full screen, hit the escape key on your keyboard.  Free downloads are available from our SlideShare site.  You will either need to log in with your Facebook account or LinkedIn account.  Or you can create a free account on SlideShare.  

Liberty Education Series here on Gloucester, Virginia Links and News website.

Related articles

• Federalist Papers No 6, Concerning Dangers From Dissensions Between The States
• Federalist Papers No 5 - Dangers From Foreign Force And Influence
• Anti Federalist Papers No. 6 Anarchy
• Anti Federalist Paper No. 5 - Scotland and England - A Case In Point
• Anti Federalist papers No 4 Patrick Henry, And Foreign Wars
• Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence - The Federalist Papers No 2

Anti Federalist Papers No. 6 Anarchy

'A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.'

The evils of anarchy have been portrayed with all the imagery of language in the growing colors of eloquence; the affrighted mind is thence led to clasp the new Constitution as the instrument of deliverance, as the only avenue to safety and happiness. To avoid the possible and transitory evils of one extreme, it is seduced into the certain and permanent misery necessarily attendant on the other. A state of anarchy from its very nature can never be of long continuance; the greater its violence the shorter the duration.

 Order and security are immediately sought by the distracted people beneath the shelter of equal laws and the salutary restraints of regular government; and if this be not attainable, absolute power is assumed by the one, or a few, who shall be the most enterprising and successful. If anarchy, therefore, were the inevitable consequence of rejecting the new Constitution, it would be infinitely better to incur it, for even then there would be at least the chance of a good government rising out of licentiousness. But to rush at once into despotism because there is a bare possibility of anarchy ensuing from the rejection, or from what is yet more visionary, the small delay that would be occasioned by a revision and correction of the proposed system of government is so superlatively weak, so fatally blind, that it is astonishing any person of common understanding should suffer such an imposition to have the least influence on his judgment; still more astonishing that so flimsy and deceptive a doctrine should make converts among the enlightened freemen of America, who have so long enjoyed the blessings of liberty.

 But when I view among such converts men otherwise pre-eminent it raises a blush for the weakness of humanity that these, her brightest ornaments, should be so dimsighted to what is self-evident to most men, that such imbecility of judgment should appear where so much perfection was looked for. This ought to teach us to depend more on our own judgment and the nature of the case than upon the opinions of the greatest and best of men, who, from constitutional infirmities or particular situations, may sometimes view an object through a delusive medium; but the opinions of great men are more frequently the dictates of ambition or private interest.

Anti Federalist Papers number 6, partial post.

Anti Federalist Papers No 6 - Anarchy from Chuck Thompson

To read the entire text in full screen mode, please left click on the icon at the far bottom right of the above container.  To leave full screen mode, hit the escape key.  Free downloads are available on our SlideShare site.

Interesting video to go along with the series.  Liberty Education Series.  Gloucester, Virginia Links and News.

Related articles

English: The official emblem of the anarchy symbol, the Black Rose, with the quotation "Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas" (Latin for: Greed is the root of all evils). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Anti Federalist Paper No. 5 - Scotland and England - A Case In Point
• Anti Federalist Papers Number 3 - A Farmer
• Anti Federalist papers No 4 Patrick Henry, And Foreign Wars
• The Anti Federalist Papers Number 2 - Building A New Nation
• Federalist Papers Nu. 4 Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence
• Federalist Papers Number 3, John Jay, Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence