Federalist 14: The Geographical Size of the United States Is No Detriment to Union

THE UNION OF THE UNITED STATES will be our bulwark against foreign danger, conservator of peace among ourselves, guardian of our commerce and other common interests, and as the only substitute for those military establishments which have subverted the liberties of the Old World.  

Union is the proper antidote for the diseases of faction, which have proved fatal to other popular governments, and of which alarming symptoms are present in our own.  All that remains within this branch of our inquiries is to take notice of an objection that may be drawn from the great extent of country which the union embraces. A few observations on this subject are proper to refute this objection, which is based on prejudice rather than fact.

The error of the objection results from confusing a republic with a democracy.  In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents.  A democracy must be confined to a small spot, while a republic may be extended over a large region.

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Union is the proper antidote for the diseases of faction, which have proved fatal to other popular governments, and of which alarming symptoms are present in our own.

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To this confusion may be added the error of some celebrated authors whose writings informed the modern standard of political opinions. Since the subjects these authors studied were either absolute or limited monarchies, they endeavored to heighten the advantages – or palliate the evils of monarchical forms – by identifying the vices and defects of republican government, but citing as specimens the turbulent democracies of ancient Greece and modern Italy.  Their conclusions – republics can only be established among a small number of people living within a small compass of territory – are applicable to democracies only. 

The natural limit of a democracy is that distance from the central point which will just permit the most remote citizens to assemble as often as their public functions demand, and will include no greater number than can join in those functions.  So too the natural limit of a republic is that distance from the center which will barely allow the representatives to meet as often as may be necessary for the administration of public affairs.  

Can it be said that the limits of the United States exceed this distance? The size of the United States is commensurate with several European countries. At present it is not a great deal larger than Germany, where a diet representing the whole empire is continually assembled; or than Poland before the late dismemberment, where another national diet was the depositary of the supreme power.  In Great Britain, the representatives of the northern extremity of the island have as far to travel to the national council as will be required of those of the most remote parts of the present United States. 

Additional observations further ameliorate the objection based on the physical size of the union.  In the first place, the Federal government is not charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.  The subordinate State governments, which can extend their care to all those other subjects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity. 

A second observation, concerning expansion, is that the immediate object of the Federal Constitution is to secure the union of the thirteen original States, which we know to be practicable.  Further discoveries and experience will render the addition of new States equally practicable.

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In the first place, the Federal government is not charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any. 

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In the third place, intercourse throughout the union will be facilitated by new improvements. Roads will everywhere be shortened, and kept in better order; accommodations for travelers multiplied and ameliorated; and interior navigation on our eastern side opened throughout, or nearly throughout, the whole extent of the thirteen States, as demonstrated by those numerous canals which nature’s beneficence has intersected our country, and which are not difficult to connect and complete.

A fourth and still more important consideration is that those distant States bordering foreign nations should be willing to exchange the burden of traveling to the capital for the general protection of the union, of which they will have the greatest need. 

Hearken not to the unnatural voice which tells you the People of America, knit together as they are by so many cords of affection, can no longer live together as members of the same family, nor continue the mutual guardians of their mutual happiness, nor be fellow citizens of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire.  Hearken not to the voice which petulantly tells you the form of government recommended for your adoption is a novelty in the political world; that it has never yet had a place in the theories of the wildest projectors; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible to accomplish.  No, my countrymen, shut your ears against this unhallowed language, and shut your hearts against the poison it conveys.

Madisonoriginal Federalist 14