Alexander Hamilton on the Federal Army versus the Individual States

Found in: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), vol. 1

This quotation comes from one of the most important documents illustrating the evolution taking place in Alexander Hamilton’s thought from a fairly typical colonial American Whig to a concerned nationalist, worried about the viability of his newly independent country.

Origin of Government

The Confederation gives the States, individually, too much influence in the affairs of the army. They should have nothing to do with it. The entire formation and disposal of our military forces ought to belong to Congress. It is an essential cement of the union; and it ought to be the policy of Congress to destroy all ideas of State attachments in the army, and make it look up wholly to them. For this purpose all appointments, promotions, and provisions, whatsoever, ought to be made by them. It may be apprehended that this may be dangerous to liberty. But nothing appears more evident to me than that we run much greater risk of having a weak and disunited federal government, than one which will be able to usurp upon the rights of the people. (FROM: Alexander Hamilton to James Duane, September 3, 1780)

Thoughts

In the mid-1770s, Hamilton had argued strenuously in favor of colonial rights against the claims of Parliamentary supremacy and had even contended strongly against the maintenance of a standing imperial army, asserting that “such would be introduced under pretext of defending us, but, in fact, … make our bondage and misery complete.” (From “The Farmer Refuted,” February 23, 1775, in, The Revolutionary Writings of Alexander Hamilton, Richard B. Vernier, ed., Liberty Fund, 2007, p. 60). Having experienced the inefficiencies of the confederal government under the second Continental Congress while serving as an officer on General George Washington’s staff, Hamilton came to reconsider the need for preserving a uniform and coherent military force under national, and not state, controls. This letter was written to his fellow New Yorker, James Duane, who was serving as a representative to Congress. Duane was known for being of a more conservative disposition, concerned about the potentially destabilizing and disorderly tendencies of the more radical elements in the revolutionary movement. The letter anticipates Hamilton’s writings in both The Continentalist Essays in 1781 and 1782 and his later defense of the US Constitution at the end of the decade…in the Federalist Papers.

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