FEDERALIST No. 20



The Same Subject Continued

(The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union)

From the New York Packet.

Tuesday, December 11, 1787.



MADISON, with HAMILTON



To the People of the State of New York:



THE United Netherlands are a confederacy of republics, or rather of

aristocracies of a very remarkable texture, yet confirming all the

lessons derived from those which we have already reviewed.



The union is composed of seven coequal and sovereign states, and each

state or province is a composition of equal and independent cities. In

all important cases, not only the provinces but the cities must be

unanimous.



The sovereignty of the Union is represented by the States-General,

consisting usually of about fifty deputies appointed by the provinces.

They hold their seats, some for life, some for six, three, and one

years; from two provinces they continue in appointment during pleasure.



The States-General have authority to enter into treaties and alliances;

to make war and peace; to raise armies and equip fleets; to ascertain

quotas and demand contributions. In all these cases, however, unanimity

and the sanction of their constituents are requisite. They have

authority to appoint and receive ambassadors; to execute treaties and

alliances already formed; to provide for the collection of duties on

imports and exports; to regulate the mint, with a saving to the

provincial rights; to govern as sovereigns the dependent territories.

The provinces are restrained, unless with the general consent, from

entering into foreign treaties; from establishing imposts injurious to

others, or charging their neighbors with higher duties than their own

subjects. A council of state, a chamber of accounts, with five colleges

of admiralty, aid and fortify the federal administration.



The executive magistrate of the union is the stadtholder, who is now an

hereditary prince. His principal weight and influence in the republic

are derived from this independent title; from his great patrimonial

estates; from his family connections with some of the chief potentates

of Europe; and, more than all, perhaps, from his being stadtholder in

the several provinces, as well as for the union; in which provincial

quality he has the appointment of town magistrates under certain

regulations, executes provincial decrees, presides when he pleases in

the provincial tribunals, and has throughout the power of pardon.



As stadtholder of the union, he has, however, considerable prerogatives.



In his political capacity he has authority to settle disputes between

the provinces, when other methods fail; to assist at the deliberations

of the States-General, and at their particular conferences; to give

audiences to foreign ambassadors, and to keep agents for his particular

affairs at foreign courts.



In his military capacity he commands the federal troops, provides for

garrisons, and in general regulates military affairs; disposes of all

appointments, from colonels to ensigns, and of the governments and posts

of fortified towns.



In his marine capacity he is admiral-general, and superintends and

directs every thing relative to naval forces and other naval affairs;

presides in the admiralties in person or by proxy; appoints

lieutenant-admirals and other officers; and establishes councils of war,

whose sentences are not executed till he approves them.



His revenue, exclusive of his private income, amounts to three hundred

thousand florins. The standing army which he commands consists of about

forty thousand men.



Such is the nature of the celebrated Belgic confederacy, as delineated

on parchment. What are the characters which practice has stamped upon

it? Imbecility in the government; discord among the provinces; foreign

influence and indignities; a precarious existence in peace, and peculiar

calamities from war.



It was long ago remarked by Grotius, that nothing but the hatred of his

countrymen to the house of Austria kept them from being ruined by the

vices of their constitution.



The union of Utrecht, says another respectable writer, reposes an

authority in the States-General, seemingly sufficient to secure harmony,

but the jealousy in each province renders the practice very different

from the theory.



The same instrument, says another, obliges each province to levy certain

contributions; but this article never could, and probably never will, be

executed; because the inland provinces, who have little commerce, cannot

pay an equal quota.



In matters of contribution, it is the practice to waive the articles of

the constitution. The danger of delay obliges the consenting provinces

to furnish their quotas, without waiting for the others; and then to

obtain reimbursement from the others, by deputations, which are

frequent, or otherwise, as they can. The great wealth and influence of

the province of Holland enable her to effect both these purposes.



It has more than once happened, that the deficiencies had to be

ultimately collected at the point of the bayonet; a thing practicable,

though dreadful, in a confedracy where one of the members exceeds in

force all the rest, and where several of them are too small to meditate

resistance; but utterly impracticable in one composed of members,

several of which are equal to each other in strength and resources, and

equal singly to a vigorous and persevering defense.



Foreign ministers, says Sir William Temple, who was himself a foreign

minister, elude matters taken ad referendum, by tampering with the

provinces and cities. In 1726, the treaty of Hanover was delayed by

these means a whole year. Instances of a like nature are numerous and

notorious.



In critical emergencies, the States-General are often compelled to

overleap their constitutional bounds. In 1688, they concluded a treaty

of themselves at the risk of their heads. The treaty of Westphalia, in

1648, by which their independence was formerly and finally recognized,

was concluded without the consent of Zealand. Even as recently as the

last treaty of peace with Great Britain, the constitutional principle of

unanimity was departed from. A weak constitution must necessarily

terminate in dissolution, for want of proper powers, or the usurpation

of powers requisite for the public safety. Whether the usurpation, when

once begun, will stop at the salutary point, or go forward to the

dangerous extreme, must depend on the contingencies of the moment.

Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power,

called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than

out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.



Notwithstanding the calamities produced by the stadtholdership, it has

been supposed that without his influence in the individual provinces,

the causes of anarchy manifest in the confederacy would long ago have

dissolved it. "Under such a government," says the Abbe Mably, "the Union

could never have subsisted, if the provinces had not a spring within

themselves, capable of quickening their tardiness, and compelling them

to the same way of thinking. This spring is the stadtholder." It is

remarked by Sir William Temple, "that in the intermissions of the

stadtholdership, Holland, by her riches and her authority, which drew

the others into a sort of dependence, supplied the place."



These are not the only circumstances which have controlled the tendency

to anarchy and dissolution. The surrounding powers impose an absolute

necessity of union to a certain degree, at the same time that they

nourish by their intrigues the constitutional vices which keep the

republic in some degree always at their mercy.



The true patriots have long bewailed the fatal tendency of these vices,

and have made no less than four regular experiments by EXTRAORDINARY

ASSEMBLIES, convened for the special purpose, to apply a remedy. As many

times has their laudable zeal found it impossible to UNITE THE PUBLIC

COUNCILS in reforming the known, the acknowledged, the fatal evils of

the existing constitution. Let us pause, my fellow-citizens, for one

moment, over this melancholy and monitory lesson of history; and with

the tear that drops for the calamities brought on mankind by their

adverse opinions and selfish passions, let our gratitude mingle an

ejaculation to Heaven, for the propitious concord which has

distinguished the consultations for our political happiness.



A design was also conceived of establishing a general tax to be

administered by the federal authority. This also had its adversaries and

failed.



This unhappy people seem to be now suffering from popular convulsions,

from dissensions among the states, and from the actual invasion of

foreign arms, the crisis of their distiny. All nations have their eyes

fixed on the awful spectacle. The first wish prompted by humanity is,

that this severe trial may issue in such a revolution of their

government as will establish their union, and render it the parent of

tranquillity, freedom and happiness: The next, that the asylum under

which, we trust, the enjoyment of these blessings will speedily be

secured in this country, may receive and console them for the

catastrophe of their own.



I make no apology for having dwelt so long on the contemplation of these

federal precedents. Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its

responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred. The

important truth, which it unequivocally pronounces in the present case,

is that a sovereignty over sovereigns, a government over governments, a

legislation for communities, as contradistinguished from individuals, as

it is a solecism in theory, so in practice it is subversive of the order

and ends of civil polity, by substituting VIOLENCE in place of LAW, or

the destructive COERCION of the SWORD in place of the mild and salutary

COERCION of the MAGISTRACY.



PUBLIUS