Talk:Federalist No. 21

Central and general
"Central" government can be taken as a loaded phrase, as in a "centralized" government. However, the Founders specifically gave us a de-centralized, not centralized government. Federalist 45, among others Federalist Papers(and the Convention), highlights this fact. "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." The States were to handle pretty much everything(de-centralized) as opposed to the general government handling everything.(centralized)

More importantly, the text of Federalist 21 uses the word "central" a grand total of zero times. The new government is referred to either as a "general government" or a "national government" in the Federalist, just as they did during the 89 days of the Constitutional Convention.

The Founders did not have a centralized government in mind when they built the constitution as it was basically just a decade prior that they had fought a war against King George's big centralized government. Progressingamerica (talk) 23:20, 20 July 2017 (UTC)