Federalist #13

Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in Government  (Hamilton) 

Alexander Hamilton begins Federalist No. 13 by pointing out that if the thirteen states were not to unite into a single union, they would most likely be broken up into three confederacies based along regional or sectional lines (a northern confederacy, a middle confederacy and a southern confederacy).  Hamilton argues that as each of these confederacies would alone be larger than the Kingdom of Great Britain, it would stand to reason that the government of each would need to be at least as robust.  Hamilton then proceeds from that logic to point out that none of the three confederacies would be able to economically support or defend themselves as efficiently or effectively as the union would as a whole.  Thus union, from an economic perspective, is both simpler and stronger than the alternative.

Hamilton also makes the argument that even in the unlikely event that only two confederacies are formed instead of three (which apparently was a possibility were Pennsylvania to join the “Northern league”) the bureaucracy would be much easier to manage and more efficient under a union than otherwise.  This Hamilton argues is owed to the fact that these supposed confederacies would no doubt be required to interact with one another constantly, given common economic and defense interests outlined in some previous papers.  Two or three disunited civil services would be less able to do so with speed and efficiency than would a single entity answerable to a single central government capable of directing its action in a uniform manner across all thirteen states.

Hamilton concludes by arguing that, rather obviously, such a national government would only be strongest were all thirteen states to join together, and that the whole would be weakened should even a single former colony choose to remain outside the union.  In fact, one could infer that were North Carolina, for example, to decide to remain outside of the union that this would effectively divide the new nation in two and thus significantly reduce the above mentioned benefits that come with union in the first place.  Finally, union would help to avoid the kind of “jealousies and conflicts” that can so often arise between nations, hampering their ability to develop and prosper.