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FEDERALIST No. 27

The Same Subject Continued
(The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to
 the Common Defense Considered)
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, December 25, 1787.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:
IT HAS been urged, in different shapes, that a Constitution of
 the kind proposed by the convention cannot operate without the aid
 of a military force to execute its laws. This, however, like most
 other things that have been alleged on that side, rests on mere
 general assertion, unsupported by any precise or intelligible
 designation of the reasons upon which it is founded. As far as I
 have been able to divine the latent meaning of the objectors, it
 seems to originate in a presupposition that the people will be
 disinclined to the exercise of federal authority in any matter of an
 internal nature. Waiving any exception that might be taken to the
 inaccuracy or inexplicitness of the distinction between internal and
 external, let us inquire what ground there is to presuppose that
 disinclination in the people. Unless we presume at the same time
 that the powers of the general government will be worse administered
 than those of the State government, there seems to be no room for
 the presumption of ill-will, disaffection, or opposition in the
 people. I believe it may be laid down as a general rule that their
 confidence in and obedience to a government will commonly be
 proportioned to the goodness or badness of its administration. It
 must be admitted that there are exceptions to this rule; but these
 exceptions depend so entirely on accidental causes, that they cannot
 be considered as having any relation to the intrinsic merits or
 demerits of a constitution. These can only be judged of by general
 principles and maxims.
Various reasons have been suggested, in the course of these
 papers, to induce a probability that the general government will be
 better administered than the particular governments; the principal
 of which reasons are that the extension of the spheres of election
 will present a greater option, or latitude of choice, to the people;
 that through the medium of the State legislaturesτwhich are select
 bodies of men, and which are to appoint the members of the national
 Senateτthere is reason to expect that this branch will generally be
 composed with peculiar care and judgment; that these circumstances
 promise greater knowledge and more extensive information in the
 national councils, and that they will be less apt to be tainted by
 the spirit of faction, and more out of the reach of those occasional
 ill-humors, or temporary prejudices and propensities, which, in
 smaller societies, frequently contaminate the public councils, beget
 injustice and oppression of a part of the community, and engender
 schemes which, though they gratify a momentary inclination or
 desire, terminate in general distress, dissatisfaction, and disgust.
 Several additional reasons of considerable force, to fortify that
 probability, will occur when we come to survey, with a more critical
 eye, the interior structure of the edifice which we are invited to
 erect. It will be sufficient here to remark, that until
 satisfactory reasons can be assigned to justify an opinion, that the
 federal government is likely to be administered in such a manner as
 to render it odious or contemptible to the people, there can be no
 reasonable foundation for the supposition that the laws of the Union
 will meet with any greater obstruction from them, or will stand in
 need of any other methods to enforce their execution, than the laws
 of the particular members.
The hope of impunity is a strong incitement to sedition; the
 dread of punishment, a proportionably strong discouragement to it.
 Will not the government of the Union, which, if possessed of a due
 degree of power, can call to its aid the collective resources of the
 whole Confederacy, be more likely to repress the FORMER sentiment
 and to inspire the LATTER, than that of a single State, which can
 only command the resources within itself? A turbulent faction in a
 State may easily suppose itself able to contend with the friends to
 the government in that State; but it can hardly be so infatuated as
 to imagine itself a match for the combined efforts of the Union. If
 this reflection be just, there is less danger of resistance from
 irregular combinations of individuals to the authority of the
 Confederacy than to that of a single member.
I will, in this place, hazard an observation, which will not be
 the less just because to some it may appear new; which is, that the
 more the operations of the national authority are intermingled in
 the ordinary exercise of government, the more the citizens are
 accustomed to meet with it in the common occurrences of their
 political life, the more it is familiarized to their sight and to
 their feelings, the further it enters into those objects which touch
 the most sensible chords and put in motion the most active springs
 of the human heart, the greater will be the probability that it will
 conciliate the respect and attachment of the community. Man is very
 much a creature of habit. A thing that rarely strikes his senses
 will generally have but little influence upon his mind. A
 government continually at a distance and out of sight can hardly be
 expected to interest the sensations of the people. The inference
 is, that the authority of the Union, and the affections of the
 citizens towards it, will be strengthened, rather than weakened, by
 its extension to what are called matters of internal concern; and
 will have less occasion to recur to force, in proportion to the
 familiarity and comprehensiveness of its agency. The more it
 circulates through those channls and currents in which the passions
 of mankind naturally flow, the less will it require the aid of the
 violent and perilous expedients of compulsion.
One thing, at all events, must be evident, that a government
 like the one proposed would bid much fairer to avoid the necessity
 of using force, than that species of league contend for by most of
 its opponents; the authority of which should only operate upon the
 States in their political or collective capacities. It has been
 shown that in such a Confederacy there can be no sanction for the
 laws but force; that frequent delinquencies in the members are the
 natural offspring of the very frame of the government; and that as
 often as these happen, they can only be redressed, if at all, by war
 and violence.
The plan reported by the convention, by extending the authority
 of the federal head to the individual citizens of the several
 States, will enable the government to employ the ordinary magistracy
 of each, in the execution of its laws. It is easy to perceive that
 this will tend to destroy, in the common apprehension, all
 distinction between the sources from which they might proceed; and
 will give the federal government the same advantage for securing a
 due obedience to its authority which is enjoyed by the government of
 each State, in addition to the influence on public opinion which
 will result from the important consideration of its having power to
 call to its assistance and support the resources of the whole Union.
 It merits particular attention in this place, that the laws of the
 Confederacy, as to the ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE objects of its
 jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the land; to the
 observance of which all officers, legislative, executive, and
 judicial, in each State, will be bound by the sanctity of an oath.
 Thus the legislatures, courts, and magistrates, of the respective
 members, will be incorporated into the operations of the national
 government AS FAR AS ITS JUST AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS;
 and will be rendered auxiliary to the enforcement of its laws.%n1%n
 Any man who will pursue, by his own reflections, the consequences
 of this situation, will perceive that there is good ground to
 calculate upon a regular and peaceable execution of the laws of the
 Union, if its powers are administered with a common share of
 prudence. If we will arbitrarily suppose the contrary, we may
 deduce any inferences we please from the supposition; for it is
 certainly possible, by an injudicious exercise of the authorities of
 the best government that ever was, or ever can be instituted, to
 provoke and precipitate the people into the wildest excesses. But
 though the adversaries of the proposed Constitution should presume
 that the national rulers would be insensible to the motives of
 public good, or to the obligations of duty, I would still ask them
 how the interests of ambition, or the views of encroachment, can be
 promoted by such a conduct?
PUBLIUS.
 The sophistry which has been employed to show that this will tend to
 the destruction of the State governments, will, in its will, in its
 proper place, be fully detected.