Student worksheet – Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
Name:_______________
Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
1. For what purpose did Hamilton, Madison, and Jay write the Federalist papers?
2. Out of the 85 essays which make up the Federalist papers, how many did Hamilton write?
3. What analogy did Hamilton use to describe the role of the states and the federal government?
4. What does bicameral mean? How do Hamilton and Madison view the possible temperaments
of the House and Senate?
5. What qualities of human nature does Hamilton see as needing regulation?
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Student worksheet – Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
Name:_______________
Excerpt From Federalist Paper #8 by Hamilton
Look up the words in bold letters- define these
If we are wise enough to preserve the Union we may for ages enjoy an advantage similar to that of
an insulated situation. Europe is at a great distance from us. Her colonies in our vicinity will be likely to
continue too much disproportioned in strength to be able to give us any dangerous annoyance. Extensive
military establishments cannot, in this position, be necessary to our security. But if we should be disunited,
and the integral parts should either remain separated, or, which is most probable, should be thrown
together into two or three confederacies, we should be, in a short course of time, in the predicament of the
continental powers of Europe -- our liberties would be a prey to the means of defending ourselves against
the ambition and jealousy of each other.
This is an idea not superficial or futile, but solid and weighty. It deserves the most serious and mature
consideration of every prudent and honest man of whatever party. If such men will make a firm and
solemn pause, and meditate dispassionately on the importance of this interesting idea; if they will
contemplate it in all its attitudes, and trace it to all its consequences, they will not hesitate to part with
trivial objections to a Constitution, the rejection of which would in all probability put a final period to the
Union. The airy phantoms that flit before the distempered imaginations of some of its adversaries would
quickly give place to the more substantial forms of dangers, real, certain, and formidable.
Excerpt from Anti-Federalist Article No. 3
The following was published in the Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser, March 7, 1788. The true identity of
the author is unknown.
...As to any nation attacking a number of confederated independent republics ... it is not to be expected,
more especially as the wealth of the empire is there universally diffused, and will not be collected into any
one overgrown, luxurious and effeminate capital to become a lure to the enterprizing ambitious. That
extensive empire is a misfortune to be deprecated, will not now be disputed. The balance of power has long
engaged the attention of all the European world, in order to avoid the horrid evils of a general government.
The same government pervading a vast extent of territory, terrifies the minds of individuals into meanness
and submission. All human authority, however organized, must have confined limits, or insolence and
oppression will prove the offspring of its grandeur, and the difficulty or rather impossibility of escape
prevents resistance.
6. What are the two points of views in these two articles?
7. Given what you know about history since these were written, comment on the historical events
which have proved these arguments to be true/false.
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