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FEDERALIST No. 85

Concluding Remarks
From MCLEAN's Edition, New York.

HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:
ACCORDING to the formal division of the subject of these papers,
 announced in my first number, there would appear still to remain for
 discussion two points: ``the analogy of the proposed government to
 your own State constitution,'' and ``the additional security which
 its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and
 to property.'' But these heads have been so fully anticipated and
 exhausted in the progress of the work, that it would now scarcely be
 possible to do any thing more than repeat, in a more dilated form,
 what has been heretofore said, which the advanced stage of the
 question, and the time already spent upon it, conspire to forbid.
It is remarkable, that the resemblance of the plan of the
 convention to the act which organizes the government of this State
 holds, not less with regard to many of the supposed defects, than to
 the real excellences of the former. Among the pretended defects are
 the re-eligibility of the Executive, the want of a council, the
 omission of a formal bill of rights, the omission of a provision
 respecting the liberty of the press. These and several others which
 have been noted in the course of our inquiries are as much
 chargeable on the existing constitution of this State, as on the one
 proposed for the Union; and a man must have slender pretensions to
 consistency, who can rail at the latter for imperfections which he
 finds no difficulty in excusing in the former. Nor indeed can there
 be a better proof of the insincerity and affectation of some of the
 zealous adversaries of the plan of the convention among us, who
 profess to be the devoted admirers of the government under which
 they live, than the fury with which they have attacked that plan,
 for matters in regard to which our own constitution is equally or
 perhaps more vulnerable.
The additional securities to republican government, to liberty
 and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the plan under
 consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the
 preservation of the Union will impose on local factions and
 insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single
 States, who may acquire credit and influence enough, from leaders
 and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the
 diminution of the opportunities to foreign intrigue, which the
 dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the
 prevention of extensive military establishments, which could not
 fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited
 situation; in the express guaranty of a republican form of
 government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of
 titles of nobility; and in the precautions against the repetition
 of those practices on the part of the State governments which have
 undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted
 mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens, and have
 occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals.
Thus have I, fellow-citizens, executed the task I had assigned
 to myself; with what success, your conduct must determine. I trust
 at least you will admit that I have not failed in the assurance I
 gave you respecting the spirit with which my endeavors should be
 conducted. I have addressed myself purely to your judgments, and
 have studiously avoided those asperities which are too apt to
 disgrace political disputants of all parties, and which have been
 not a little provoked by the language and conduct of the opponents
 of the Constitution. The charge of a conspiracy against the
 liberties of the people, which has been indiscriminately brought
 against the advocates of the plan, has something in it too wanton
 and too malignant, not to excite the indignation of every man who
 feels in his own bosom a refutation of the calumny. The perpetual
 changes which have been rung upon the wealthy, the well-born, and
 the great, have been such as to inspire the disgust of all sensible
 men. And the unwarrantable concealments and misrepresentations
 which have been in various ways practiced to keep the truth from the
 public eye, have been of a nature to demand the reprobation of all
 honest men. It is not impossible that these circumstances may have
 occasionally betrayed me into intemperances of expression which I
 did not intend; it is certain that I have frequently felt a
 struggle between sensibility and moderation; and if the former has
 in some instances prevailed, it must be my excuse that it has been
 neither often nor much.
Let us now pause and ask ourselves whether, in the course of
 these papers, the proposed Constitution has not been satisfactorily
 vindicated from the aspersions thrown upon it; and whether it has
 not been shown to be worthy of the public approbation, and necessary
 to the public safety and prosperity. Every man is bound to answer
 these questions to himself, according to the best of his conscience
 and understanding, and to act agreeably to the genuine and sober
 dictates of his judgment. This is a duty from which nothing can
 give him a dispensation. 'T is one that he is called upon, nay,
 constrained by all the obligations that form the bands of society,
 to discharge sincerely and honestly. No partial motive, no
 particular interest, no pride of opinion, no temporary passion or
 prejudice, will justify to himself, to his country, or to his
 posterity, an improper election of the part he is to act. Let him
 beware of an obstinate adherence to party; let him reflect that the
 object upon which he is to decide is not a particular interest of
 the community, but the very existence of the nation; and let him
 remember that a majority of America has already given its sanction
 to the plan which he is to approve or reject.
I shall not dissemble that I feel an entire confidence in the
 arguments which recommend the proposed system to your adoption, and
 that I am unable to discern any real force in those by which it has
 been opposed. I am persuaded that it is the best which our
 political situation, habits, and opinions will admit, and superior
 to any the revolution has produced.
Concessions on the part of the friends of the plan, that it has
 not a claim to absolute perfection, have afforded matter of no small
 triumph to its enemies. ``Why,'' say they, ``should we adopt an
 imperfect thing? Why not amend it and make it perfect before it is
 irrevocably established?'' This may be plausible enough, but it is
 only plausible. In the first place I remark, that the extent of
 these concessions has been greatly exaggerated. They have been
 stated as amounting to an admission that the plan is radically
 defective, and that without material alterations the rights and the
 interests of the community cannot be safely confided to it. This,
 as far as I have understood the meaning of those who make the
 concessions, is an entire perversion of their sense. No advocate of
 the measure can be found, who will not declare as his sentiment,
 that the system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is,
 upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and
 circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as
 promises every species of security which a reasonable people can
 desire.
I answer in the next place, that I should esteem it the extreme
 of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national
 affairs, and to expose the Union to the jeopardy of successive
 experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never
 expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the
 deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a
 compound, as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense
 and wisdom, of the individuals of whom they are composed. The
 compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common
 bond of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as
 many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can perfection
 spring from such materials?
The reasons assigned in an excellent little pamphlet lately
 published in this city,1 are unanswerable to show the utter
 improbability of assembling a new convention, under circumstances in
 any degree so favorable to a happy issue, as those in which the late
 convention met, deliberated, and concluded. I will not repeat the
 arguments there used, as I presume the production itself has had an
 extensive circulation. It is certainly well worthy the perusal of
 every friend to his country. There is, however, one point of light
 in which the subject of amendments still remains to be considered,
 and in which it has not yet been exhibited to public view. I cannot
 resolve to conclude without first taking a survey of it in this
 aspect.
It appears to me susceptible of absolute demonstration, that it
 will be far more easy to obtain subsequent than previous amendments
 to the Constitution. The moment an alteration is made in the
 present plan, it becomes, to the purpose of adoption, a new one, and
 must undergo a new decision of each State. To its complete
 establishment throughout the Union, it will therefore require the
 concurrence of thirteen States. If, on the contrary, the
 Constitution proposed should once be ratified by all the States as
 it stands, alterations in it may at any time be effected by nine
 States. Here, then, the chances are as thirteen to nine2 in
 favor of subsequent amendment, rather than of the original adoption
 of an entire system.
This is not all. Every Constitution for the United States must
 inevitably consist of a great variety of particulars, in which
 thirteen independent States are to be accommodated in their
 interests or opinions of interest. We may of course expect to see,
 in any body of men charged with its original formation, very
 different combinations of the parts upon different points. Many of
 those who form a majority on one question, may become the minority
 on a second, and an association dissimilar to either may constitute
 the majority on a third. Hence the necessity of moulding and
 arranging all the particulars which are to compose the whole, in
 such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and
 hence, also, an immense multiplication of difficulties and
 casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final act. The
 degree of that multiplication must evidently be in a ratio to the
 number of particulars and the number of parties.
But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established,
 would be a single proposition, and might be brought forward singly.
 There would then be no necessity for management or compromise, in
 relation to any other point no giving nor taking. The will of the
 requisite number would at once bring the matter to a decisive issue.
 And consequently, whenever nine, or rather ten States, were united
 in the desire of a particular amendment, that amendment must
 infallibly take place. There can, therefore, be no comparison
 between the facility of affecting an amendment, and that of
 establishing in the first instance a complete Constitution.
In opposition to the probability of subsequent amendments, it
 has been urged that the persons delegated to the administration of
 the national government will always be disinclined to yield up any
 portion of the authority of which they were once possessed. For my
 own part I acknowledge a thorough conviction that any amendments
 which may, upon mature consideration, be thought useful, will be
 applicable to the organization of the government, not to the mass of
 its powers; and on this account alone, I think there is no weight
 in the observation just stated. I also think there is little weight
 in it on another account. The intrinsic difficulty of governing
 thirteen States at any rate, independent of calculations upon an
 ordinary degree of public spirit and integrity, will, in my opinion
 constantly impose on the national rulers the necessity of a spirit
 of accommodation to the reasonable expectations of their
 constituents. But there is yet a further consideration, which
 proves beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the observation is
 futile. It is this that the national rulers, whenever nine States
 concur, will have no option upon the subject. By the fifth article
 of the plan, the Congres will be obliged ``on the application of the
 legislatures of two thirds of the States ╒which at present amount to
 nineσ, to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be
 valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution,
 when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or
 by conventions in three fourths thereof.'' The words of this
 article are peremptory. The Congress ``shall call a convention.''
 Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body.
 And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to
 a change vanishes in air. Nor however difficult it may be supposed
 to unite two thirds or three fourths of the State legislatures, in
 amendments which may affect local interests, can there be any room
 to apprehend any such difficulty in a union on points which are
 merely relative to the general liberty or security of the people.
 We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to
 erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority.
If the foregoing argument is a fallacy, certain it is that I am
 myself deceived by it, for it is, in my conception, one of those
 rare instances in which a political truth can be brought to the test
 of a mathematical demonstration. Those who see the matter in the
 same light with me, however zealous they may be for amendments, must
 agree in the propriety of a previous adoption, as the most direct
 road to their own object.
The zeal for attempts to amend, prior to the establishment of
 the Constitution, must abate in every man who is ready to accede to
 the truth of the following observations of a writer equally solid
 and ingenious: ``To balance a large state or society ╒says heσ,
 whether monarchical or republican, on general laws, is a work of so
 great difficulty, that no human genius, however comprehensive, is
 able, by the mere dint of reason and reflection, to effect it. The
 judgments of many must unite in the work; experience must guide
 their labor; time must bring it to perfection, and the feeling of
 inconveniences must correct the mistakes which they INEVITABLY fall
 into in their first trials and experiments.''3 These judicious
 reflections contain a lesson of moderation to all the sincere lovers
 of the Union, and ought to put them upon their guard against
 hazarding anarchy, civil war, a perpetual alienation of the States
 from each other, and perhaps the military despotism of a victorious
 demagogue, in the pursuit of what they are not likely to obtain, but
 from time and experience. It may be in me a defect of political
 fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal
 tranquillity with those who affect to treat the dangers of a longer
 continuance in our present situation as imaginary. A nation,
 without a national government, is, in my view, an awful spectacle.
 The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by
 the voluntary ocnsent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the
 completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I can
 reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have,
 in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of the thirteen States,
 and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground,
 to recommence the course. I dread the more the consequences of new
 attempts, because I know that powerful individuals, in this and in
 other States, are enemies to a general national government in every
 possible shape.
PUBLIUS.
1 Entitled ``An Address to the People of the State of New
 York.''
2 It may rather be said TEN, for though two thirds may set on
 foot the measure, three fourths must ratify.
3 Hume's ``Essays,'' vol. i., page 128: ``The Rise of Arts and
 Sciences.''