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FEDERALIST No. 2

Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence
For the Independent Journal.

JAY

To the People of the State of New York:
WHEN the people of America reflect that they are now called upon
 to decide a question, which, in its consequences, must prove one of
 the most important that ever engaged their attention, the propriety
 of their taking a very comprehensive, as well as a very serious,
 view of it, will be evident.
Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of
 government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however
 it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural
 rights in order to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy
 of consideration therefore, whether it would conduce more to the
 interest of the people of America that they should, to all general
 purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, or that they
 should divide themselves into separate confederacies, and give to
 the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to
 place in one national government.
It has until lately been a received and uncontradicted opinion
 that the prosperity of the people of America depended on their
 continuing firmly united, and the wishes, prayers, and efforts of
 our best and wisest citizens have been constantly directed to that
 object. But politicians now appear, who insist that this opinion is
 erroneous, and that instead of looking for safety and happiness in
 union, we ought to seek it in a division of the States into distinct
 confederacies or sovereignties. However extraordinary this new
 doctrine may appear, it nevertheless has its advocates; and certain
 characters who were much opposed to it formerly, are at present of
 the number. Whatever may be the arguments or inducements which have
 wrought this change in the sentiments and declarations of these
 gentlemen, it certainly would not be wise in the people at large to
 adopt these new political tenets without being fully convinced that
 they are founded in truth and sound policy.
It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent
 America was not composed of detached and distant territories, but
 that one connected, fertile, widespreading country was the portion
 of our western sons of liberty. Providence has in a particular
 manner blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and
 watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and
 accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of navigable waters
 forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together;
 while the most noble rivers in the world, running at convenient
 distances, present them with highways for the easy communication of
 friendly aids, and the mutual transportation and exchange of their
 various commodities.
With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence
 has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united
 people--a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same
 language, professing the same religion, attached to the same
 principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs,
 and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side
 by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established
 general liberty and independence.
This country and this people seem to have been made for each
 other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an
 inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united
 to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a
 number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.
Similar sentiments have hitherto prevailed among all orders and
 denominations of men among us. To all general purposes we have
 uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere
 enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a
 nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished
 our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made
 treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with
 foreign states.
A strong sense of the value and blessings of union induced the
 people, at a very early period, to institute a federal government to
 preserve and perpetuate it. They formed it almost as soon as they
 had a political existence; nay, at a time when their habitations
 were in flames, when many of their citizens were bleeding, and when
 the progress of hostility and desolation left little room for those
 calm and mature inquiries and reflections which must ever precede
 the formation of a wise and wellbalanced government for a free
 people. It is not to be wondered at, that a government instituted
 in times so inauspicious, should on experiment be found greatly
 deficient and inadequate to the purpose it was intended to answer.
This intelligent people perceived and regretted these defects.
 Still continuing no less attached to union than enamored of
 liberty, they observed the danger which immediately threatened the
 former and more remotely the latter; and being pursuaded that ample
 security for both could only be found in a national government more
 wisely framed, they as with one voice, convened the late convention
 at Philadelphia, to take that important subject under consideration.
This convention composed of men who possessed the confidence of
 the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by
 their patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the minds
 and hearts of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season
 of peace, with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many
 months in cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally,
 without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passions
 except love for their country, they presented and recommended to the
 people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous councils.
Admit, for so is the fact, that this plan is only RECOMMENDED,
 not imposed, yet let it be remembered that it is neither recommended
 to BLIND approbation, nor to BLIND reprobation; but to that sedate
 and candid consideration which the magnitude and importance of the
 subject demand, and which it certainly ought to receive. But this
 (as was remarked in the foregoing number of this paper) is more to
 be wished than expected, that it may be so considered and examined.
 Experience on a former occasion teaches us not to be too sanguine
 in such hopes. It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded
 apprehensions of imminent danger induced the people of America to
 form the memorable Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain
 measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom;
 yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem
 with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not
 only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of
 personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of
 consequences, or the undue influence of former attachments, or whose
 ambition aimed at objects which did not correspond with the public
 good, were indefatigable in their efforts to pursuade the people to
 reject the advice of that patriotic Congress. Many, indeed, were
 deceived and deluded, but the great majority of the people reasoned
 and decided judiciously; and happy they are in reflecting that they
 did so.
They considered that the Congress was composed of many wise and
 experienced men. That, being convened from different parts of the
 country, they brought with them and communicated to each other a
 variety of useful information. That, in the course of the time they
 passed together in inquiring into and discussing the true interests
 of their country, they must have acquired very accurate knowledge on
 that head. That they were individually interested in the public
 liberty and prosperity, and therefore that it was not less their
 inclination than their duty to recommend only such measures as,
 after the most mature deliberation, they really thought prudent and
 advisable.
These and similar considerations then induced the people to rely
 greatly on the judgment and integrity of the Congress; and they
 took their advice, notwithstanding the various arts and endeavors
 used to deter them from it. But if the people at large had reason
 to confide in the men of that Congress, few of whom had been fully
 tried or generally known, still greater reason have they now to
 respect the judgment and advice of the convention, for it is well
 known that some of the most distinguished members of that Congress,
 who have been since tried and justly approved for patriotism and
 abilities, and who have grown old in acquiring political
 information, were also members of this convention, and carried into
 it their accumulated knowledge and experience.
It is worthy of remark that not only the first, but every
 succeeding Congress, as well as the late convention, have invariably
 joined with the people in thinking that the prosperity of America
 depended on its Union. To preserve and perpetuate it was the great
 object of the people in forming that convention, and it is also the
 great object of the plan which the convention has advised them to
 adopt. With what propriety, therefore, or for what good purposes,
 are attempts at this particular period made by some men to
 depreciate the importance of the Union? Or why is it suggested that
 three or four confederacies would be better than one? I am
 persuaded in my own mind that the people have always thought right
 on this subject, and that their universal and uniform attachment to
 the cause of the Union rests on great and weighty reasons, which I
 shall endeavor to develop and explain in some ensuing papers. They
 who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct
 confederacies in the room of the plan of the convention, seem
 clearly to foresee that the rejection of it would put the
 continuance of the Union in the utmost jeopardy. That certainly
 would be the case, and I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly
 foreseen by every good citizen, that whenever the dissolution of the
 Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of
 the poet: ``FAREWELL! A LONG FAREWELL TO ALL MY GREATNESS.''
PUBLIUS.