HKB
administration of government, let the revolt of a part of the State of North Carolina, the late menacing disturbances in Pennsylvania, and the actual insurrections and rebellions in Massachusetts, declare—!
So far is the general sense of mankind from corresponding with the tenets of those who endeavor to lull asleep our apprehensions of discord and hostility between the States, in the event of disunion, that it has from long observation of the progress of society become a sort of axiom in politics, that vicinity or nearness of situation, constitutes nations natural enemies. An intelligent writer expresses himself on this subject to this effect: “NEIGHBORING NATIONS (says he) are naturally enemies of each other unless their common weakness forces them to league in a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC, and their constitution prevents the differences that neighborhood occasions, extinguishing that secret jealousy which disposes all states to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their neighbors.”[11] This passage, at the same time, points out the EVIL and suggests the REMEDY.
PUBLIUS.
[1] Aspasia, vide Plutarch’s Life of Pericles.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid. Phidias was supposed to have stolen some public gold, with the connivance of Pericles, for the embellishment of the statue of Minerva.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Worn by the popes.
[6] Madame de Maintenon.
[7] Duchess of Marlborough.
[8] Madame de Pompadour.
[9] The League of Cambray, comprehending the Emperor, the King of France, the King of Aragon, and most of the Italian princes and states.
[10] The Duke of Marlborough.
[11] Vide Principes des Négociations par l’Abbé de Mably.
THE FEDERALIST. No. VII.
The Same Subject Continued
(Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States)
For the Independent Journal.
HAMILTON
To the People of the State of New York:
It is sometimes asked, with an air of seeming triumph, what inducements could the States have, if disunited, to make war upon each other? It would be a full answer to this question to say—precisely the same inducements which have, at different times, deluged in blood all the nations in the world. But, unfortunately for us, the question admits of a more particular answer. There are causes of differences within our immediate contemplation, of the tendency of which, even under the restraints of a federal constitution, we have had sufficient experience to enable us to form a judgment of what might be expected if those restraints were removed.