The federalist Essay Example for Free

The federalist Essay If there would have been no credible arguments against the proposed constitution then there would have been no need for the intense material of The Federalist. And, if there would have been no Federalist then understanding the Constitution would have been significantly reduced. The Constitution is a concise manuscript which is not suitable for an argument or for an explanation. The Federalist makes us understand the minds of the creators. Madison commented that The Federalist offers â€Å"the most authentic exposition of the text of the Federal Constitution, as understood by the Body which prepared and the authority which accepted it. † The Federalist justifies why the authors found the Articles of Confederation unacceptable; why they wanted to separate the powers of the government’s branches; why they split the national legislature into two different houses; why they thought that a federal court for the final appeal was desirable and necessary; why they banned titles of nobility; why they said that a bill of rights was a needless addition, and why a lot of other permissions and prohibitions were written into the Constitution or excludes completely. â€Å"As a contribution to the ratification debate, The Federalist is an extended exercise in exposition, explanation, and persuasion. As a work of political theory, then, The Federalist flies fairly close to the ground, rarely soaring into the stratosphere of philosophical abstraction. † Articles of Confederation If the Articles of Confederation would not have failed then there would have been no Constitution and surely no Federalist Papers. After two centuries it is not easy to picture the hectic state of America in the post revolutionary era. There was so much going on. America won a war but still the eastern seaboard was susceptible to attackers. Then the economy was weighed down by numerous currencies and tariffs, the state governments were bankrupt, and the central government was only central in name. Everything was hap hazard and nothing was going right. Since 1776 till 1787 America was an uncontrolled union of states which were ruled by the Articles of Confederation, which had a serious defect and that was the individual states had power and that power remained with them. The central government was just there to be called central. It could do nothing. It could neither increase revenues nor pass and ratify legislation necessary for independent states. To pass laws, nine votes out of thirteen states were necessary and an undisputed and agreed by all votes was essential to effect any basic change in the Articles. Making a central government with such weakness was deliberate because the American colonists had angrily rejected the British crowns authority to control trade and collect taxes. The governmental body created under the Articles of Confederation was basically immobilized, and there was no executive or judicial branch as well. What is more, the thirteen states had distinct political and commercial concerns and therefore a brief duration of artificial harmony among these states proved to be unsuccessful in producing a nationalized identity. What is surprising is that nine states had navies; seven printed their own currency, and the majority had tariff and customs laws. Also, New York was charging duties on ships transporting firewood or farm produce to and from neighboring states such as, New Jersey and Connecticut. When the soldiers mentioned that â€Å"New Jersey is our country, they were endorsing the prevailing emotions of other states. The insolvent state governments also contributed largely to the political turmoil of the 1780s. Hamilton harshly attacked the Articles of Confederation when he stated in Federalist No. 9 that the states promoted little, jealous, clashing, tumultuous commonwealths, the wretched nurseries of unceasing discord. Madison when writing Federalist No. 10 had the insolvent states in mind as well because he portrays the requirement to secure the national councils against any danger from a rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project. In a letter to Jefferson in France on October 24, 1787 Madison wrote, about the unstable state government contributed more to that uneasiness which produced the convention, and prepared the public mind for a general reform, than those which accrued to our national character and interest from the inadequacy of the confederation to its immediate objects.