>FEDERALIST No. 2 (Jay)                                        .



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.





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