The Federalist 1 & 2

As promised, I started reading the Federalist last night.

No. 1, written by Hamilton, was a recognition that a nation under the Articles of Confederation was not really a nation at all, and laid out a very basic plan to change that bythe founding of a stronger national government. Nothing contained therein that I found particularly deserving of a quotation.


Not so with No. 2, written by Jay, celebrates the national character of the states united, with an eye towards formalizing the relationship under the aegis of a strong national government. A few lines did stand out to my eye:

"They considered that the Congress [of 1774] was composed of many wise and experienced men. That, being converted from different parts of the country,thye 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."

A far cry from the myopic, self-interested yeahoos who come to Congress to slice portions out of the national plate for their Hypenated-american constituencies. When was the last time you watched any of them on CSPAN communicating useful information or accurate knowledge? Yeah, I can't remember such a thing, either.

Jay closed with another line possessed of a certain prescience that is almost freightening:

"They who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct confederacies in the room of the plan of the [Constitutuional] 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."

Think about the people in Congress today, and the people who sent them, and more importantly, the asshattery they propound, and tell me it isn't true.