Rebutting The Federalist - Brutus IX
In Brutus IX, an anonymous Anti-Federalist author responds to some of Alexander Hamilton’s arguments in Federalist #24.
Brutus IX
January 17, 1787
In Brutus IX, an anonymous Anti-Federalist author continues his attack on the Constitution's provision for raising a standing army.
The writer attempts to demonstrate that the framers of the Constitution knew that certain limits must be put on the Federal Government and they willingly chose not to limit armies.
Furthermore, he goes on that attack in response to certain claims made by Publius (the Federalist Papers) which he felt insulted by.
Regulations
Brutus starts off Essay IX by admitting the framers of the Constitution did some things right.
Specifically, he notes that they put limits on certain aspects of the Federal Government.
He then goes on to question why similar limits were not put on standing armies, a topic he dove into thoroughly in his previous paper.
Power to the People?
Brutus spends most of this paper directly responding to Federalist #24.
He quotes Alexander Hamilton directly and is disgusted by the idea that a standing army doesn’t need restrictions because it is controlled by the people.
Why then, Brutus asks, would the Constitution need restrictions on anything? Should not the people control all governmental excesses of power?
Why even have a Constitution at all?
Preying on Fear
Brutus continues by responding to an attack against him (and other Anti-Federalist authors) with the accusation that he is preying on the people’s fears of a tyrannical Government to prevent the Constitution from ratification.
Brutus responds that the Federalists are the ones preying on people’ fears by telling them they are defenseless against any attack without the protection of a standing army.
Furthermore, he demonstrates that instead of attacking the Constitution from a radical perspective, he is rationally reviewing every measure based on experience.
Correcting the Federalist
Lastly, Brutus denies the idea, put forth in Federalist #24, that the individual States already have standing armies.
He points to the provision under the Articles of Confederation regulating each State’s limit on their army to the amount of soldiers needed to secure each State’s forts.
This final assessment is used as another demonstration that the nation could be protected while placing specific regulations on just how large a standing army could be and what it could be used for.
This series is only part of my regular publications, so…
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Here is a link to the earlier Essays of Brutus I have covered:
