3 - “A Vigorous National Government”: Hamilton on Security, War, and Revenue

Summary

Alexander Hamilton’s essays in The Federalist on the need for an energetic central government have long stood in the shadow of James Madison’s essays on interest-group conflicts, the structure of government, the perils of majority rule, and the protection of minority rights. This privileging of Madison over Hamilton in the interpretation of both The Federalist and, by extension, the founding began more than a century ago, when Charles Beard presented Federalist 10 as the essence of Federalist political philosophy. In his Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, Beard even claimed that his own view of the Constitution as the outcome of clashing economic interest groups, ultimately rooted in “the various and unequal distribution of property,” was “based upon the political science of James Madison.” The central thrust of Madison’s intervention, The Federalist, and the Constitution, Beard said, was to promote material gain by providing greater safeguards for private property rights.