What did Alexander Hamilton mean by an “energetic” government? How does this kind of government protect individual liberty AND restrict it? Use examples from Hamilton and current examples.

Alexander Hamilton was one of the United States of America’s founding fathers.
Hamilton is considered one of the most influential interpreters and advocates of the Constitution. He was one of the common writers of the Federalist papers, writing 51 out of the 85 papers. The Federalist papers were propaganda published in journals or newspapers, and their purpose was to educate citizens on why the Constitution should be ratified. They were always published under the pseudonym Publius to preserve their names from the public. In Federalist #23, Hamilton writes of how the Constitution must be energetic in order to have an energetic government. An energetic government would be one that is effective and powerful in their actions. In order to create and preserve an energetic government and protect and limit the citizens individual liberty, the fundamental purposes of the Union are the common defense of the members, the preservation of public peace and external attacks, and the regulation of commerce between the states and other nations.
The government will naturally divide itself into three branches in order to keep itself balanced and prevent one force from becoming too powerful. These three branches would ultimately become the Executive branch (President), Legislative (Congress and House of Representatives), and Judicial (Supreme Courts and lower Courts). The Legislative and Judicial branch will be organized under the succeeding head, the Executive branch, but the two branches working under the Executive branch will be granted powers that the Executive branch does not possess. This will ultimately create a checks and balances system, so the three branches of government can each limit each other, thus keeping control of each others power. It is essential we do not allow one or all of the branches to become too powerful because what we had seen and broken away from in Britain were mainly due to a single powerful figure, the King. Although it may seem that most of the countries powers are vested to these three branches, the people of The United States definitely have a say as well. As the Declaration of Independence stated, it is up to the people of the country to keep their government in check, and overthrow and create a new government if theirs is becoming destructive. “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government” (Declaration of Independence).
The Union will provide common defense of all the members to help preserve peace and prevent and protect from external attacks. Hamilton states that is up to the Union to raise armies, build and equip fleets, prescribe rules for the government of both, direct their operations, and provide for their support. Hamilton claims that these powers ought to exist without limitations, because “it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them” (Federalist #23 pg. 107). Having no limits on this will help us if there is a crisis and we must act quickly, “The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed” (Federalist #23 pg. 107). Unless this will directly threatens the public safety limitations will not be necessary to put in place.
Hamilton brings up the argument of whether the federal government should be entrusted with this common defense, and at the time he believed it needed to be, and that we need to trust the government to execute out what is best for our country. These common defense powers will lie in the power of the Legislative branch, and they will be granted powers to do what is necessary to preserve the “common defense and general welfare” of the Union. The Legislative branch is more commonly referred to as Congress and their main powers will be to declare war and enact legislation.
In Federalist paper # 11, Hamilton states that the country must have “An unrestrained e commerce clause in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution was one of the more significant powers the framers of the Constitution gave to the federal government, it was something that was lacked in the Articles of Confederation. T
It is necessary to have a government that will both protect and restrict individual liberties. Every power that can and will be invested into the three branches of government are done so to protect and limit the citizens. The powers that were initially put in place do little to threaten the liberties of individuals. It would, however be naive to say that sometimes the government does not step out of its boundaries and pass laws that do limit people’s intercourse between the States themselves will advance the trade of each by an interchange of their respective productions, not only for the supply of reciprocal wants at home, buy for the exportation to foreign markets...Commercial enterprise will have much greater scope from the diversity in the productions of different States.” (Federalist #11). Th he power of commerce was put in the hands of
Congress. The framers defined commerce as trade and exchange, giving Congress the power to control trade and exchange between states and other nations. Other parts of Article 1 Section
8 outlined Congress’s power with money, it is important to note that commerce and money were two separate things to the framers. liberties. A recent example would be the Patriot Act that was passed by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks. This act undermined our basic rights and freedoms by allowing the FBI to observe the citizens more than usual and invade their privacy by doing things such as monitoring emails and phone calls without a court order. Although acts like these are passed in good faith and to help fix a bigger issue, they still nonetheless limit our freedoms. The Supreme Court deemed most of the provisions in this act unconstitutional over the years.
Striking legislation as unconstitutional in the courts is a way the government protects individual liberties. The thing we turn to when our government is infringing our rights is in fact the government itself. In the end, we rely a lot of democratic government to have the tools to protect people’s rights. We depend on positive parts of government to help when abusive parts of government are trying to limit our liberties. This is something that anti government proponents will always ignore, yes government can and does limit our rights at times, but democratic government also functions as the main preserver of our freedoms and rights. The government always has intentions to protect and preserve its citizens; it just may not seem to always like it.
Hamilton outlined what an energetic government entails and its duties in his Federalist paper #23. Hamilton felt very strongly about the Constitution and he worked hard writing propaganda to get it passed. With his help along with the other Constitution's framers, the Federalists and Anti Federalist were able to compromise passing the Constitution with a guaranteed Bill of Rights. Framers like Hamilton did not want a Bill of Rights because they already thought the Constitution guaranteed enough and it would be unnecessary to have to write out the rights of the people. However, that was the only way the Constitution would be passed. Hamilton wanted an energetic government and that is what he got, one that is effective and powerful in its actions. The ideas that Hamilton lied out in the Federalist papers are used a lot present day. The framers distributed the power well between the branches of government and because of that we have a government that both protects and limits our personal liberties. While it is not always good that the government limits our personal freedoms, it is always important to note that we do turn to the government when they limit our liberties. We hope that certain parts of governments, like the courts, can help resolve those issues. Government is an essential, inevitable part of our everyday lives and we owe a lot to the framers of the constitution, like Hamilton, for creating and promoting the Constitution of the United States of America.