In Federalist 5, John Jay continues to discuss the need for a United States vs 13 individual states, or several groups of states.
This time Jay brings us practical lessons from the nation American had just won it’s freedom from, Great Britain. Here he speaks of the time when a union was being formed between England and Scotland, and how many issues and conflicts were solved through this union.
Jay rightfully warns that a divided America would experience these troubles, and then some. One must remember that trouble was already brewing at the time, with the several states often arguing amongst themselves over trade, and other issues. With the British to the north, and the French and Spanish to the south and west, it would be very easy for foreign interlopers to interfere and insight trouble between the divided, but sovereign, states.
Just as self important men nowadays think only of their own power, and not of the nation they pretend to serve, so too did these types exist during our new nation’s earliest days. Many were advocating a different solution than the one finally agreed to, hoping to build on their own power base. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Federalist No. 5
The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence
For the Independent Journal.
Author: John Jay
To the People of the State of New York:
QUEEN ANNE, in her letter of the 1st July, 1706, to the Scotch Parliament, makes some observations on the importance of the UNION then forming between England and Scotland, which merit our attention. I shall present the public with one or two extracts from it: "An entire and perfect union will be the solid foundation of lasting peace: It will secure your religion, liberty, and property; remove the animosities amongst yourselves, and the jealousies and differences betwixt our two kingdoms. It must increase your strength, riches, and trade; and by this union the whole island, being joined in affection and free from all apprehensions of different interest, will be ENABLED TO RESIST ALL ITS ENEMIES." "We most earnestly recommend to you calmness and unanimity in this great and weighty affair, that the union may be brought to a happy conclusion, being the only EFFECTUAL way to secure our present and future happiness, and disappoint the designs of our and your enemies, who will doubtless, on this occasion, USE THEIR UTMOST ENDEAVORS TO PREVENT OR DELAY THIS UNION."
It was remarked in the preceding paper, that weakness and divisions at home would invite dangers from abroad; and that nothing would tend more to secure us from them than union, strength, and good government within ourselves. This subject is copious and cannot easily be exhausted.
The history of Great Britain is the one with which we are in general the best acquainted, and it gives us many useful lessons. We may profit by their experience without paying the price which it cost them. Although it seems obvious to common sense that the people of such an island should be but one nation, yet we find that they were for ages divided into three, and that those three were almost constantly embroiled in quarrels and wars with one another. Notwithstanding their true interest with respect to the continental nations was really the same, yet by the arts and policy and practices of those nations, their mutual jealousies were perpetually kept inflamed, and for a long series of years they were far more inconvenient and troublesome than they were useful and assisting to each other.
Should the people of America divide themselves into three or four nations, would not the same thing happen? Would not similar jealousies arise, and be in like manner cherished? Instead of their being "joined in affection" and free from all apprehension of different "interests," envy and jealousy would soon extinguish confidence and affection, and the partial interests of each confederacy, instead of the general interests of all America, would be the only objects of their policy and pursuits. Hence, like most other BORDERING nations, they would always be either involved in disputes and war, or live in the constant apprehension of them.
The most sanguine advocates for three or four confederacies cannot reasonably suppose that they would long remain exactly on an equal footing in point of strength, even if it was possible to form them so at first; but, admitting that to be practicable, yet what human contrivance can secure the continuance of such equality? Independent of those local circumstances which tend to beget and increase power in one part and to impede its progress in another, we must advert to the effects of that superior policy and good management which would probably distinguish the government of one above the rest, and by which their relative equality in strength and consideration would be destroyed. For it cannot be presumed that the same degree of sound policy, prudence, and foresight would uniformly be observed by each of these confederacies for a long succession of years.
Whenever, and from whatever causes, it might happen, and happen it would, that any one of these nations or confederacies should rise on the scale of political importance much above the degree of her neighbors, that moment would those neighbors behold her with envy and with fear. Both those passions would lead them to countenance, if not to promote, whatever might promise to diminish her importance; and would also restrain them from measures calculated to advance or even to secure her prosperity. Much time would not be necessary to enable her to discern these unfriendly dispositions. She would soon begin, not only to lose confidence in her neighbors, but also to feel a disposition equally unfavorable to them. Distrust naturally creates distrust, and by nothing is good-will and kind conduct more speedily changed than by invidious jealousies and uncandid imputations, whether expressed or implied.
The North is generally the region of strength, and many local circumstances render it probable that the most Northern of the proposed confederacies would, at a period not very distant, be unquestionably more formidable than any of the others. No sooner would this become evident than the NORTHERN HIVE would excite the same ideas and sensations in the more southern parts of America which it formerly did in the southern parts of Europe. Nor does it appear to be a rash conjecture that its young swarms might often be tempted to gather honey in the more blooming fields and milder air of their luxurious and more delicate neighbors.
They who well consider the history of similar divisions and confederacies will find abundant reason to apprehend that those in contemplation would in no other sense be neighbors than as they would be borderers; that they would neither love nor trust one another, but on the contrary would be a prey to discord, jealousy, and mutual injuries; in short, that they would place us exactly in the situations in which some nations doubtless wish to see us, viz., FORMIDABLE ONLY TO EACH OTHER.
From these considerations it appears that those gentlemen are greatly mistaken who suppose that alliances offensive and defensive might be formed between these confederacies, and would produce that combination and union of wills of arms and of resources, which would be necessary to put and keep them in a formidable state of defense against foreign enemies.
When did the independent states, into which Britain and Spain were formerly divided, combine in such alliance, or unite their forces against a foreign enemy? The proposed confederacies will be DISTINCT NATIONS. Each of them would have its commerce with foreigners to regulate by distinct treaties; and as their productions and commodities are different and proper for different markets, so would those treaties be essentially different. Different commercial concerns must create different interests, and of course different degrees of political attachment to and connection with different foreign nations. Hence it might and probably would happen that the foreign nation with whom the SOUTHERN confederacy might be at war would be the one with whom the NORTHERN confederacy would be the most desirous of preserving peace and friendship. An alliance so contrary to their immediate interest would not therefore be easy to form, nor, if formed, would it be observed and fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Nay, it is far more probable that in America, as in Europe, neighboring nations, acting under the impulse of opposite interests and unfriendly passions, would frequently be found taking different sides. Considering our distance from Europe, it would be more natural for these confederacies to apprehend danger from one another than from distant nations, and therefore that each of them should be more desirous to guard against the others by the aid of foreign alliances, than to guard against foreign dangers by alliances between themselves. And here let us not forget how much more easy it is to receive foreign fleets into our ports, and foreign armies into our country, than it is to persuade or compel them to depart. How many conquests did the Romans and others make in the characters of allies, and what innovations did they under the same character introduce into the governments of those whom they pretended to protect.
Let candid men judge, then, whether the division of America into any given number of independent sovereignties would tend to secure us against the hostilities and improper interference of foreign nations.
PUBLIUS.
Then, as now, a strong UNITED States, was the best defense from foreign entanglements of all sorts. Our founders were practical men, and understood what caused wars, and while they knew some were unavoidable, they hoped to make those situations rare indeed. They also understood the best route was to remain united in one common cause.
There are all sorts of lessons to be learned from John Jay’s wisdom, but this is one of the finest, and one that applies today, just as well as it did in his day.
While we are indeed at war with radical Islam, with fighting forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, we are also at war with radical Marxism that exists within, and actually controls our federal government, and has elements scattered throughout the 50 states.
The goal of the radical Marxists, from Barack Obama on down to the lowliest Marxist-democrat bureaucrat drone, is to divide America, to pit American against American. Barack Obama, using the vile ideology he learned studying Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky seeks to divide us all by stoking race wars, class wars, and gender wars.
If Obama and his evil regime can get the various races at one another's throat, while creating massive class envy, by painting the "rich" as evil, and those not so well off as noble, while turning men against women, and gays against straights, he and his regime know the people will be too distracted fighting their own little battles to realize they have lost the war!
It is Obama’s stated intention to destroy America. To tear down the very fabric of modern civil society and remake it in his own psychotic image. Unfortunately, the greatest nation the world has ever known, the gold standard for Freedom and Liberty around the globe, the only nation that has ever celebrated Individual Freedom and Self Reliance, is about to be no more.
Obama is simply the culmination of a century’s worth of Marxist infiltration into every area of our lives, our media, our schools. Unfortunately, Obama and the radical Marxists are winning this war. They have successfully divided us.
At least half the country has been conditioned to hate anyone who makes more money than they do, rather than to try and move up the ladder of success themselves.
The Obama regime, and it’s media partners, play the race card at every opportunity. Not only that, but if someone, say a Black, or Hispanic, happens to not fall in line with the teachings of Marx and Alinsky, and doesn’t bow to the almighty Obama, they are branded a "race traitor" by the very people who purport to be for them.
Of course the gender wars have been carried out for decades with disastrous results, not only to relationships between men and women, but for the family unit as a whole, the destruction of which being a stated goal of Marxist ideology.Marxism teaches the State in the family.
Just as John Jay warned the American people in his day of the danger of a divided America, we need to stop and realize what the divisions, encouraged by the radical left, have done to us.
There’s a reason why the bible warns of envy. I don’t care who you are, you will always find someone smarter, stronger, better looking, and making more money. It’s time for ALL Americans to realize the beauty of America, The guarantees afforded to all by our Constitution, is the promise we all have an equal chance. We do not have the promise of equal results however. The results you achieve out of life are based on the effort that you, and you alone, put in.
But Gary...that isn’t FAIR! Life isn’t fair, get over it. Buy a helmet! Some people have it easier than others, so what? The American story is filled with tales of people who came from nothing, sometimes less than nothing, who would reach the very pinnacle of society. They have faced unspeakable hardships, and yet, excelled to the highest levels possible. We have to remind people that you are only limited by the effort you wish to expend.
If we don’t do that, the Obama regime will succeed in remaking society to a point when no matter how much effort you put out, you will never succeed, as success will be outlawed and in it’s place will be nothing but mediocrity for all.
We must stop the racial nonsense. We must not allow those whose living is predicating on the continuous racial strife to remain.. They must be expelled from society, thrown out of the country, if that’s what it takes. We simply can’t afford to indulge the race baiters any longer. We have two problems, the good old fashioned raced baiting by the usual suspects, and multi-culturalism.
Much of the first issue can be traced back to the previous ailment, stoked by class warfare and the myth that the world somehow owes some people something. It’s that simple. The other is more synthetic, than organic. Somewhere during the course of time, we stopped being Americans. All of a sudden, people who couldn’t find Africa on a map, and whose families have been Americans for generations, became "African-Americans." Even worse, this label was soon applied to any black person, no matter where their ancestors may have come from. We have "Mexican-Americans" "Native-Americans" and so on.
Frankly, and this will get some letters, the "Native-American" label particularly strikes me as wrong. I realize this is used to describe "Indians" the folks who were here before the Europeans showed up. I’m part Cherokee myself, but the thing is, ANYONE born in America is a "Native-American"
Here’s the thing, whether by birth, or through naturalization, we are all simply Americans. The hyphen is quite distasteful, as it is used. This multi-culturalism is yet another way to further divide us and make us weaker.
This is not to say we shouldn’t celebrate the diversity of our people. Quite the contrary, the rich traditions that not only the natives, Indians, have, but traditions from people from all over the world have brought with them, are what has helped make America great. The thing is, while we mustn’t allow anyone to lose their tradition and personal identity, we must remember why America is called "the world’s great melting pot." People come here from all over the world, with the desire to become Americans! We must encourage these people to assimilate, to learn our national customs and traditions, and to participate as an American. No hyphen required.
We must also develop the notion that we are all one race, the human race, and move on. As long as we allow the radical left to divide us, they can and will conquer us all. We all will be equal for sure then. Equally enslaved and equally miserable.
As for gender, well, men and women have tried to figure one another out since the beginning of time. Somehow I doubt they ever will. I do think we can all agree that men and women should treat each other with respect, and in the workforce be paid an equal day’s wage for an equal day’s work. Past that, there are fundamental differences between men and women, and yes, that can lead to great frustration at times, but it’s part of the mystery of life that makes it worth living.
As a deeply divided nation, Obama and his minions are beating us. We are easy prey for whatever they wish to impose on us. In order to survive, we must find a way to come together and unite on the things that make us all the same, and work on the things that make us different. If not, we as a nation, and a people, will perish from the earth.
As always, please visit Constituting America for further discussion, and more thoughts on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.
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