Author | Alexander Hamilton |
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Original title | The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection |
Language | English |
Series | The Federalist |
Publisher | The Independent Journal |
Publication date | November 21, 1787 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Newspaper |
Preceded by | Federalist No. 8 |
Followed by | Federalist No. 10 |
Text | Federalist No. 9 at Wikisource |
Federalist No. 9, titled "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection", is a political essay by Alexander Hamilton and the eighth of The Federalist Papers. It was first published in the Daily Advertiser and the Independent Journal on November 21, 1787, under the pseudonym used for all Federalist Papers, Publius. It expressed ideas that became the foundation of Federalist No. 10, the most influential in the series.
Federalist No. 9 was a rebuttal to an anti-federalist argument that a republic as large as the United States would be unsustainable. The argument was based on a similar premise by the political philosopher Montesquieu. Hamilton responded by quoting Montesquieu, presenting the argument that a larger republic could exist as a confederation of states like the one proposed in the constitution. Hamilton distinguished a potential American republic from the failed republics of ancient Greece and Italy, arguing insurrection from one state would be kept in check by the others, preventing tyranny from consuming the entire nation.