Alexander Hamilton Federalist No. 1 Analysis

As the Revolutionary War reached its completion, the United States (U.S.) sought to form a permanent and strong nation. This prompted Alexander Hamilton to write the article, “Federalist No. 1” in supplication of the citizens of New York to ratify the Constitution. Hamilton believed that the Constitution would unite the United States under one central government and it was the duty of the American citizens to determine their form of government based off of the common good. He creates his argument by establishing the important choice U.S. citizens have, emphasizing that learning all information about both sides is crucial, and voicing his concern that one must not be swayed by their self-interests or cathartic ideals. It is through the creation
1” by voicing his beliefs that the U.S. will only survive with the creation of a Constitution. Without it, the country will not grow nor become the independent nation it strives to be, “The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the union, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the father of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world” (Hamilton). Hamilton displays that the nation will only stand with a Constitution and it is the obligation of its citizens to form a government based on reason. Each society will choose to create a government that derives from fact or from force. Hamilton works to depict that the people of the United States are unlike any of their predecessors due to the ability to form a country that stems from logic and reason, “[T]o decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force” (Hamilton). It is due to their unique and crucial position which enables them to make decisions from reason, that the U.S. citizens must recount all information from both sides of the governmental
He attempts to highlight those who oppose him so that the people of New York can understand the motives behind the resistance to the Constitution. Hamilton distinguishes his challengers by categorizing them into two different forms, the first as “[A] certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power emolument, and consequences of the offices they hold under the State establishments” (Hamilton). This group of men is in opposition to the establishment of the Constitution due to their fear of a loss of power which is given to them by the states. Their power will be lessened due to the Constitution working as the supreme law of the land and forming a union that reduces the control of individual states. The second group of men that Hamilton describes are those who resist the forming of the Constitution so that they may take advantage of the nation, “[A]nother class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government” (Hamilton). It is by establishing the opposition, that Hamilton simplifies the arguments of those who are against him. He then goes on to display that these men who act wrongly, however,