The Federalist Papers · Chapter
XIX: The Same Subject Continued (The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union) explained
This chapter continues the argument that the present Confederation is insufficient to preserve the Union by examining the Germanic body as a modern example of a confederacy.
What happens
This chapter continues the argument that the present Confederation is insufficient to preserve the Union by examining the Germanic body as a modern example of a confederacy. It details the historical evolution of the Germanic empire from Charlemagne through the feudal system to its current federal structure, highlighting the fundamental flaw of treating sovereign states as the units of government. The chapter describes the empire's weakness, internal wars, foreign interference, and inability to enforce its laws, concluding that such a system is incapable of maintaining order or defending against external dangers.
Themes in this chapter
Federalism and the Necessity of Union
The chapter uses the Germanic empire to demonstrate that a confederacy of sovereign states is inherently weak and incapable of preserving union, reinforcing the need for a stronger national government.
National Security and Foreign Relations
The Germanic empire's inability to defend itself against foreign powers and its susceptibility to foreign intrigues highlight the security risks of a weak confederation.
Control of Faction and Majority Tyranny
The internal wars and conflicts among the German states, including religious wars and private feuds, illustrate the dangers of faction and the need for a government capable of maintaining order.
Constitutional Interpretation and Authority
The chapter criticizes the fundamental principle of the Germanic constitution—that laws are addressed to sovereigns rather than individuals—as the root of its ineffectiveness.
Characters to notice
- Publius
The authorial voice presenting the argument against confederacies, using the Germanic empire as a case study.
- James Madison
Co-author of this paper, continuing the critique of confederacies with historical examples.
- Alexander Hamilton
Co-author of this paper, contributing to the analysis of the Germanic confederacy's failures.
- Charlemagne
Mentioned as the monarch who conquered Germany and established a vast empire, later dismembered.
- The Amphictyons
Referenced indirectly through the discussion of ancient confederacies in the previous paper, but not directly in this excerpt.
Key passages
“The fundamental principle on which it rests, that the empire is a community of sovereigns, that the diet is a representation of sovereigns and that the laws are addressed to sovereigns, renders the empire a nerveless body, incapable of regulating its own members, insecure against external dangers, and agitated with unceasing fermentations in its own bowels.”
Because the empire treats its members as sovereigns and only addresses laws to them as such, it becomes a weak, powerless entity that cannot control its own parts, protect itself from outside threats, and is constantly disturbed by internal conflicts.
This is the central critique of the Germanic confederacy, illustrating the flaw of a system based on sovereign states.
“The history of Germany is a history of wars between the emperor and the princes and states; of wars among the princes and states themselves; of the licentiousness of the strong, and the oppression of the weak; of foreign intrusions, and foreign intrigues; of requisitions of men and money disregarded, or partially complied with; of attempts to enforce them, altogether abortive, or attended with slaughter and desolation, involving the innocent with the guilty; of general imbecility, confusion, and misery.”
Germany's past is filled with conflicts between the emperor and the various states, as well as among the states themselves, where the powerful acted without restraint and the weak were crushed, foreign powers meddled and schemed, demands for troops and funds were ignored or only partly met, and efforts to enforce them either failed completely or led to bloody chaos that harmed everyone, resulting in overall weakness, disorder, and suffering.
This vivid description summarizes the disastrous consequences of the Germanic confederacy's structure.
“In Donawerth, a free and imperial city of the circle of Suabia, the Abbé de St. Croix enjoyed certain immunities which had been reserved to him. In the exercise of these, on some public occasions, outrages were committed on him by the people of the city. The consequence was that the city was put under the ban of the empire, and the Duke of Bavaria, though director of another circle, obtained an appointment to enforce it. He soon appeared before the city with a corps of ten thousand troops, and finding it a fit occasion, as he had secretly intended from the beginning, to revive an antiquated claim, on the pretext that his ancestors had suffered the place to be dismembered from his territory, he took possession of it in his own name, disarmed, and punished the inhabitants, and reannexed the city to his domains.”
In the city of Donawerth, an abbé had special rights that were violated by the townspeople. As a result, the empire banned the city, and the Duke of Bavaria was appointed to enforce the ban. He arrived with 10,000 troops and, using the opportunity to revive an old claim that the city had been taken from his ancestors, seized the city for himself, disarmed and punished the residents, and annexed it to his own territory.
This example shows how the confederacy's enforcement mechanism could be abused by a powerful member for personal gain.
