Federalist 7: The Causes of War

WHAT INDUCEMENTS WOULD THE STATES of a disunited America have to make war upon each other? Precisely the same inducements which have deluged in blood all the nations of the world at various times.

Disputes Over Territory Can Cause War 

Territorial disputes have at all times been one of the most fertile sources of hostility among nations.  The greatest proportion of wars that have desolated the earth have sprung from this origin. This cause would exist among us in full force.  Disputes have already arisen concerning the rights to the “crown lands,” which had not been granted at the time of the Revolution.  Congress appeased this controversy by prevailing upon the States to cede territories to the United States for the benefit of the whole.  Dismemberment of the United States would revive these disputes.  

The wide field of western territory provides ample theater for hostile pretensions, absent any umpire or common judge to interpose between the contending parties. If the past guides the future, the sword would sometimes be appealed to as the arbiter of these differences.  

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What inducements would the States of a disunited America have to make war upon each other?  Precisely the same inducements which have deluged in blood all the nations of the world at various times.

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Commercial Competition Can Cause War 

The competitions of commerce would be another fruitful source of contention.  The States less favorably circumstanced would be desirous of escaping from the disadvantages of local situation, and of sharing in the advantages of their more fortunate neighbors. Each State or separate confederacy would pursue a system of commercial policy peculiar to itself.  This would occasion distinctions, preferences, and exclusions, which would beget discontent.  The habits of intercourse, on the basis of equal privileges, to which we have been accustomed since the earliest settlement of the country, would give a keener edge to those causes of discontent than they would naturally have independent of this circumstance.  We should be ready to denominate injuries those things which were in reality the justifiable acts of independent sovereignties consulting a distinct interest.  

Each State or separate confederacy would pursue a system of commercial policy peculiar to itself.  The unbridled spirit of American enterprise would pay little respect to a State trade regulation intended to secure exclusive benefits to its own citizens.  Infractions of such regulations by one side – and the efforts to prevent and repel them on the other – would naturally lead to outrages, reprisals and wars.

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There is nothing humans differ so readily about as the payment of money. There is nothing more likely to disturb the tranquility of nations than their being bound to mutual contributions for any common object that does not yield an equal and coincident benefit. 

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Nonpayment of Debts Can Cause War 

A further cause of collision between separate States or confederacies of States would arise from the retirement of the public debt of the expired Union under the Articles of Confederation. The apportionment of those debts in the first instance, and their progressive extinguishment afterward, would be productive alike of ill-humor and animosity.  Settling on a rule would be postponed by real differences of opinion. The citizens of the States would clamor; foreign powers would urge for the satisfaction of their just demands, and the peace of the States would be hazarded to the double contingency of external invasion and internal contention.

There is nothing more likely to disturb the tranquility of nations than their being bound to mutual contributions for any common object that does not yield an equal and coincident benefit.  There is nothing humans differ so readily about as the payment of money.

Contract Violations Can Cause War

Laws in violation of private contracts are aggressions on the rights of those States whose citizens are injured by them.  Such laws are another probable source of hostility.  In some circumstances, a war of parchment would give rise to one of the sword, in order to chastise such atrocious breaches of moral obligation and social justice.

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Divide and command must be the motto of every nation that either hates us or fears us.

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Political Machinations Can Cause War 

A disunited America gradually would become entangled in all the pernicious labyrinths of European politics and wars; and by the destructive contentions of the parts into which she was divided.  Divided states or confederacies would likely become a prey to the artifices and machinations of powers which are equally the enemies of them all.   

Divide and command must be the motto of every nation that either hates us or fears us.

Hamiltonoriginal Federalist 7