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Reena Patel, Dhruv Sojitra, Sonali Shah

Summary
Federalist No. 13 is an essay by Alexander Hamilton, the thirteenth of The Federalist Papers.[1] It was published on November 28, 1787 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all The Federalist Papers were published, which was started with Federalist No. 1 by Hamilton himself.[2] It is titled, "Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in Government."[2]

This essay focuses on the view that a Union would be more economically sound than separate States.[3] Publius explains that rather than having many separate governments to support, a Union would have only one national government to support.[4] He describes this as being both simpler and more economical.[5] The essay further explains that in order to defend themselves, separate States would have to work together, but their support of one another would be disjointed.[6] Only a fully united government would provide the best defense for all the States and be able to support military establishments and necessary civil servants.[7]

Background
Prior to the Constitution, the thirteen states were bound together by the Articles of Confederation. After the Revolutionary War, Americans realized that it was not sufficient enough in order to maintain national unity. Even before the war ended, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison called for a change in the confederation of states; they urged the formation of a stronger central government. Those three men were As a result of the war, there was great economic disorder; debt and no national money system. Something had to be done to create order in the chaos, and so, the Constitution was introduced as a solution to the bring the broken nations together, but when critics rose in opposition of the Constitution, The Federalist Papers were written. Under the anonymous name, Publius, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison compiled eighty-five essays that addressed specific problems by proposing the most nationally beneficial solutions. Of the eighty-five essay, number thirteen addresses the advantages of the economy under a Union.

Publication
September 17, 1787 marked the signing of the final document. By its own Article Seven, the constitution drafted by the convention needed ratification by at least nine of the thirteen states, through special conventions held in each state. Anti-Federalist writers began to publish essays and letters arguing against ratification,[8] and Alexander Hamilton recruited James Madison and John Jay to write a series of pro-ratification letters in response.[9]

Like most of the Federalist essays and the vast majority of The Federalist Papers, No. 13 first appeared in popular newspapers. It was first printed in the Daily Advertiser under the name adopted by the Federalist writers, "Publius"; in this it was remarkable among the essays of Publius, as almost all of them first appeared in one of two other papers: the Independent Journal and the New-York Packet. Federalist No. 37, also by Madison, was the only other essay to appear first in theAdvertiser.[10]

Considering the importance later ascribed to the essay, it was reprinted only on a limited scale. On November 23, it appeared in the Packet and the next day in the Independent Journal. Outside New York City, it made four appearances in early 1788: January 2 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, January 10 in theHudson Valley Weekly, January 15 in the LansingburghNorthern Centinel, and January 17 in the Albany Gazette. Though this number of reprintings was typical for The Federalist essays, many other essays, both Federalist and Anti-Federalist, saw much wider distribution.[11]

On January 1, 1788, the publishing company J. & A. McLean announced that they would publish the first 36 of the essays in a single volume. This volume, titled The Federalist, was released on March 2, 1788. George Hopkins' 1802 edition revealed that Madison, Hamilton, and Jay were the authors of the series, with two later printings dividing the work by author. In 1818, James Gideon published a third edition containing corrections by Madison, who by that time had completed his two terms as President of the United States.[12]

Henry B. Dawson's edition of 1863 sought to collect the original newspaper articles, though he did not always find the first instance. It was much reprinted, albeit without his introduction.[13]Paul Leicester Ford's 1898 edition included a table of contents which summarized the essays, with the summaries again used to preface their respective essays. The first date of publication and the newspaper name were recorded for each essay. Of modern editions, Jacob E. Cooke's 1961 edition is seen as authoritative, and is most used today.[14]

Hamiltons Arguments
Hamilton argues that, if under separate and smaller confederations, each nation would have to compose and execute its own “civil list.” This, on its own, is very expensive and requires a lot of effort for one government; having a list for two or three individual nations will be too overwhelming because they would have projects too large and demanding to fund. If the people are not able to provide for the country, their government will crumble and cause a power struggle which will end poorly. Hamilton explains that a government and State that is smaller in size requires the same amount of energy as one in larger scale. As a comparison, he uses the island of Britain to show that they are a stable nation even with a much larger scale in population because they have one unified government. Hamilton also implies that as  a result of having three separate governments, the sum of the expenses to support each confederacy will be drastically larger than of the expenses of a union. The costs of funding a military is mentioned to be quite expensive for one government, but with three different militaries can result in even greater debt. With multiple militaries, each confederacy would have to protect their borders to regulate illegal contraband and such within the nation, but Hamilton suggests that instead of having to protect multiple borders, the strength of one unified military can sufficiently protect the national border together. Hamilton made is evident that with Union comes great prosperity and less damage to the nation's economy and overall state of being.

Counterarguments
The Anti-Federalists vigorously contested the notion that a republic of diverse interests could survive, but that a republic on the size of the Union would fail.15] In Federalist Paper 13, Hamilton pushes for a Union,  stating that the diverse interest in a single union would benefit the people. In this system the citizens would feel more secure and sacrifice less for the welfare of a single state.[1]   Through the system of a republic too many expenses would be set in place to maintain individual governments. Economic disputes are the main reason for why a union would prove to be more effective when compared to a Republic. There would not be as many challenges for the people to go up against when there is only a single nation. A cluster of small territories would prove to be an ineffective method to maintain the people with because it would be too burdening on the people.[1] What the Anti- Federalists did not take into account was that Britain had a single functioning system[1]. Although Britain was a lot smaller compared to the colonies, the system Britain was using could be devised on a larger scale. From this, Hamilton proved that it was in the people’s favor to accept a single union as it would minimize cost and maximize efficiency compared to having multiple republics.[1]

Modern Analysis/Application
The people agreed with Hamilton’s argument of having one national government instead of different confederacies, but it caused major problems later on into the life of the country. The American Civil War is the perfect example of this. This was when the country faced secession of eleven states. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in U.S history, making it seem like Hamilton was wrong to have suggested one national government compared to two or three confederacies because the war could have been avoided. The North and South was just too different to create “tranquillity” and “liberty of every part”[1]]in the early parts of the country.

Today the country shares Hamilton’s idea of having a firm union. The economy of the United States is the world’s largest national economy, showing that Hamilton had a revolutionary idea that was ahead of its time.