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Federalist No. 20 by Alexander Hamilton & James Madison (1787)

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•Key terms • Court cases •Major arguments • State responses to federal mandates • Federalism by the numbers • Index of articles about federalism |
Federalist Number (No.) 20 (1787) is an essay by British-American politicians Alexander Hamilton and James Madison arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. The full title of the essay is "The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union." It was written as part of a series of essays collected and published in 1788 as The Federalist and later known as The Federalist Papers. These essays were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. They argued for ratification of the United States Constitution as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation.[1]
Background of the author
Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755-1804) was a British-American politician, lawyer, and military officer. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and is considered a Founding Father of the United States. Below is a summary of Hamilton's career:[2]
- 1775-1777: Officer in the New York Provincial Artillery Company
- 1777-1782: Officer in the Continental Army
- Including service as an adviser to General George Washington
- 1787: Delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pa.
- 1787-1788: Author of 51 of the 85 essays in The Federalist Papers
- 1789-1795: First secretary of the treasury of the United States
James Madison (1751-1836) was an American politician who served as the fourth president of the United States. He is considered a Founding Father of the United States and is also known as the Father of the Constitution due to his contributions to the development of the United States Constitution. Below is a summary of Madison's career:[3]
- 1775: Joined the Virginia militia as a colonel
- 1777-1779: Member of the Virginia Governor's Council
- 1780-1783: Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress
- 1784-1786: Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
- 1787: Virginia representative to the Constitutional Convention
- 1789-1797: Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia
- 1801-1809: Fifth U.S. secretary of state
- 1809-1817: Fourth president of the United States
Full text of Advantage of The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union
The full text of Federalist No. 20 reads as follows:[1]
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Background of the Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are the 85 articles and essays James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay published arguing for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the full replacement of the Articles of Confederation. All three writers published their papers under the collective pseudonym Publius between 1787-1788.[5]
The Articles of Confederation were an agreement among the original thirteen states in the United States to unite under a central government consisting of the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress proposed the Articles in 1777, and they became effective in March 1781.
The Articles primarily authorized the national government to govern diplomatic foreign relations and regulate and fund the Continental Army. Under the Articles, the Continental Congress lacked the power to levy taxes and could only request funds from the states. The inability of the national government to raise money caused the government to default on pension payments to former Revolutionary War soldiers and other financial obligations, resulting in unrest. Shay's Rebellion was a prominent example of unrest related to the weakness of the central government and the Continental Congress' inability to fulfill its obligations.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was convened to solve the problems related to the weak national government. Federalists, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, advocated for a completely new government under the United States Constitution. They rejected the Articles of Confederation as a weak governing document that needed fully replaced. The federalists thought the strengthened national government could help protect individual rights from factional conflicts at the state and local levels. They argued the Constitution would strengthen the federal government enough to allow for effective governance but not enough to infringe on the rights of individuals.[6][7][5]
Anti-federalists like Patrick Henry, Melancton Smith, and George Clinton argued that the national government proposed under the Constitution would be too powerful and would infringe on individual liberties. They thought the Articles of Confederation needed to be amended, not replaced.[6][7][5]
Full list of Federalist Papers
The following is a list of individual essays that were collected and published in 1788 as The Federalist and later known as The Federalist Papers. These essays were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. They argued for ratification of the United States Constitution as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Yale Law School, "The Federalist Papers: No. 20," accessed June 9, 2022
- ↑ Biography.com, "Alexander Hamilton," accessed March 6, 2018
- ↑ Biography.com, "James Madison," accessed June 16, 2018
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Federalist Papers, "THE ANTIFEDERALIST PAPERS," accesses May 27, 2022
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive, "Federalism," accessed July 27, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Middle Tennessee State University, "Anti-Federalists," accessed July 27, 2021
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