A Federalists Speech essays

A Federalist's Speech essays A Federalist's Speech (I made this up actually) Many of us are overreacting; the Constitution is not meant to oppress us. As of now, our states are vulnerable. Do you honestly think that one of our states can maintain their independence from the British on its own? Survival as a respected nation requires the transfer of important, though limited, powers to a central government, and this can be done without destroying the identity or autonomy of separate states. I am like you; none of us wants to replace one oppressive monarchy with another centralized, unrestrained regime. But our Articles of Confederation were unstable and disorganized, and they allowed for petty jealousy and competition between states. Americans, we must unite; but I see that we must also have a balance of power. This Constitution allows for this new kind of balance, never achieved elsewhere. Indeed, the Federalist Papers themselves indicate a balance or compromise between the national propensities of Mr. Hamilton- who reflects the commercial interests of a port city, New York- and the wariness of Mr. Madison, who shares the suspicion of distant authority widely held by Virginia farmers. Rather than the absolute sovereignty of each state granted by those Articles, the states will retain a residual sovereignty in all those areas that do not require national concern. The very process of ratification of the Constitution symbolizes the concept of federalism rather than nationalism. As our friend Mr. Madison puts it: This assent and ratification is to be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and individual States to which they respectively belong... The act therefore establishing the Constitution will not be a national but a federal act. Under this Constitution, we will have a concurrency of powers between the national and state governments, analogous to the planets revolving around the sun...