February 18, 2026
I am rarely on Facebook and when I do go there, the last thing I want to do is argue about politics with my friends. I have been rereading the Federalist Papers for the umpteenth time and as the unprecedented federal incursions into state functions continue to make headlines, I’ve been taking an excerpt here and there from Hamilton and posting it, hoping to provoke some thought. A couple of good attorney friends liked what I posted, so I’m sharing the most recent one here:
…A note for those unfamiliar with the origin of the The Federalist Papers……
In 1777, a loosely-coalescing group of 13 U.S. states realized that they had common interests and adopted the Articles of Confederation; the Articles kept states’ independence intact and established a weak central government, a reluctant alliance the adopting states called a “league of friendship” Why the reluctance? BC after all the b*llshit and oppression of British colonial rule, the LAST thing states wanted was to surrender control to a new “sovereign”, i.e., a still-amorphous federal government.
The Articles of Confederation fully took effect in 1791 but it didn’t take long to see that the growing states needed to speak with a single voice on matters of substance long ignored. As this became increasingly obvious, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay – collectively writing under the pseudonym “Publius” – cranked out 85 essays (51 one of them Hamilton’s) designed to persuade citizens for the need for a more cohesive and stronger federal government.
But here’s the thing most people don’t understand: their intent was not to REMOVE power from the states and give it to the federal government; their purpose was to create a solid central federal government which would administer expressly NATIONAL matters affecting all states without gutting the self-governance of each individual state. The papers were crucial in turning the tide of public opinion, particularly in New York and Virginia, to support the newly proposed Constitution, and introduced the critical concept of “Separation of Powers” which has fueled American democracy since the Constitution was adopted.
I post these excerpts from the Federalist Papers here to make a simple point: while arguing for a STRONGER federal government, the authors of the Federalist Papers were not seeking to WEAKEN or DILUTE states’ independence and self-governance, but, rather create an efficient federal government to address issues common to all states, such as a national currency, thus freeing states to focus on their SPECIFIC needs individually. This was proactively affirmed when the 10th Amendment was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, establishes that powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution—nor prohibited to the states—are reserved for the states or the people. It reinforces the principle of federalism, limiting the scope of federal power and protecting state sovereignty.
Given all that, seeing this historical, effective balance between federal government powers and state powers twisted beyond all recognition these days, I look to the Federalist Papers to remind myself that our Founding Fathers had a clear vision when advancing the need for a stronger federal government, and that it definitely did not contemplate a federal government usurping the Constitutional rights expressly assigned to states.
Federalist No. 10, Madison:
“It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.”
Attorney José E. Latour
