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Federalism Quotes

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Federalism Quotes

“I wish not to be regarded as an advocate for the particular organizations of the several state governments . . . they carry strong marks of the haste, and still stronger marks of the inexperience, under which they were framed.”

StillsStatesGovernmentStrongWishParticularOrganizationMarkStrongerHasteState GovernmentFramedInexperienceFederalism
Book:The Federalist: On the New Constitution, Written in 1788
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“The public affairs of the union are spread throughout a very extensive region, and are extremely diversified by the local affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be learnt in any other place, than in the central councils, to which a knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even of the laws of all the states, ought to be possessed by the members from each of the states.”

StatesLawOughtMembersDifficultyUnionsAffairSpreadConnectedLocalsEmpiresRegionsPossessedRepresentativesCouncilFederalismPublic Affairs
Book:Selected Federalist Papers
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“The appointment of senators by the state legislatures . . . is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the state governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government, as must secure the authority of the former.”

GivingStatesGovernmentAuthorityAdvantageSecureFormerAgencySenatorsFederal GovernmentSelectFormationLegislatureAppointmentsState GovernmentFederalismState Legislatures
Book:Selected Writings of James Madison
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“It is superfluous to try by the standards of theory, a part of the constitution which is allowed on all hands to be the result not of theory, but "of a spirit of amity, and that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable" . . . the equal vote allowed to each state, is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual states, and an instrument for preserving that residuary sovereignty.”

TryingStatesHandsPoliticalSpiritIndividualResultsSituationTheoryEqualStandardsVoteConstitutionInstrumentsRecognitionMutualPortionsIndispensableSovereigntySuperfluousConcessionsDeferenceFederalismAmity
Author:James Madison
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“Another advantage accruing from this ingredient in the constitution of a senate, is the additional impediment it must prove against improper acts of legislation. No law or resolution can now be passed without the concurrence first of a majority of the people, and then of a majority of the states.”

PeopleFirstsStatesLawProveAdvantageConstitutionMajorityResolutionIngredientsSenateLegislationImpedimentsFederalismConcurrence
Book:America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights
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“That useful alterations will be suggested by experience, could not but be foreseen . . . . It moreover equally enables the general and state governments to originate the amendment of errors as they may be pointed out by the experience on one side or on the other.”

MayStatesGovernmentSidesErrorsAmendmentsState GovernmentAlterationsFederalismForeseen
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government could ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition.”

FeelsPersonsStatesGovernmentLossAuthorityAmbitionPoliceMereTemptationAdministrationDescriptionRegulationSlenderFederalism
Book:The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States
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“The administration of private justice between the citizens of the same state, the supervision of agriculture and of other concerns of a similar nature, all those things in short which are proper to be provided for by local legislation, can never be desirable cares of a general jurisdiction . . . the attempt to exercise these powers would be as troublesome as it would be nugatory; and the possession of them, for that reason, would contribute nothing to the dignity, to the importance, or to the splendour of the national government.”

StatesReasonGovernmentWould BeCareJusticeCitizensExerciseConcernDignityImportancePossessionLocalsAdministrationAgricultureLegislationDesirableTroublesomeSupervisionSplendourJurisdictionFederalism
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“The variety of more minute interests, which will necessarily fall under the superintendence of the local administrations . . . cannot be particularized without involving a detail too tedious and uninteresting to compensate for the instruction it might afford.”

MightFallInterestMinutesDetailsLocalsAdministrationVarietyInstructionInvolvingTediousFederalism
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“It may be laid down as a general rule, that their confidence in and obedience to a government, will be commonly proportioned to the goodness or badness of its administration . . . . Various reasons have been suggested in the course of these papers, to induce a probability that the general government will be better administered than the particular governments.”

MayHas BeensReasonGovernmentCoursesParticularGoodnessPaperVariousAdministrationObedienceProbabilityPapersBadnessFederalism
Book:The federalist papers
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“It will be well to advert to the proportion between the objects that will require a federal provision in respect to revenue; and those which will require a state provision. We shall discover that the former are altogether unlimited; and that the latter are circumscribed within very moderate bounds.”

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Book:The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution
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“Nothing can be more evident, than that an exclusive power of regulating elections for the National Government, in the hands of the State Legislatures, would leave the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy . . . . It is to little purpose to say that a neglect or omission of this kind [not letting the feds have elections], would be unlikely to take place. The constitutional possibility of the thing, without an equivalent for the risk, is an unanswerable objection.”

KindLittlesStatesHandsGovernmentWould BePurposeExistenceRiskPossibilityMercyElectionUnionsFedsNeglectEvidentUnlikelyExclusiveLegislatureObjectionsOmissionFederalismState Legislatures
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“The scheme of separate confederacies, which will always multiply the chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such influential characters in the State administrations as are capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the public weal.”

StatesCharacterChanceFailingAmbitionCapableAdministrationSchemesAdvancementInfluentialBaitFederalism
Book:The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus
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“The power of the people pervading the proposed system, together with the strong confederation of the states, will form an adequate security against every danger that has been apprehended.”

PeopleHas BeensStatesTogetherFormStrongPowerSecurityDangerUsaPropositionsAdequateApprehensionFederalismConfederation
Book:The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire: Late President of the State of Delaware, and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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“The proposed constitution, therefore, even when tested by the rules laid down by its antagonists, is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both. In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the government are drawn, it is partly federal, and partly national; in the operation of these powers, it is national, not federal; in the extent of them again, it is federal, not national; and finally, in the authoritative mode of introducing amendments, it is neither wholly federal, nor wholly national.”

GovernmentSourceOrdinaryConstitutionFoundationOperationsAmendmentsIntroducingCompositionTestedAntagonistFederalism
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several states, a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.”

StatesGovernmentCertainObjectsRelationSovereigntyJurisdictionFederalismGeneral WelfareNullification
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

StatesGovernmentConstitutionDefinedFederal GovernmentProperty RightsLimited GovernmentBill Of RightsState GovernmentFederalistLimiting GovernmentFederalist PapersConstitutional RightsUs ConstitutionFederalismSecessionGeneral WelfareConstitutional GovernmentStates RightsToo Much PowerPower GovernmentNullification
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“With calm, knowledgeable precision, Daniel Ziblatt wades into the adjacent swamps of federalism and nineteenth-century European history, emerging with hands full of gems. Beneath the tangle of great statesmen and national culture he discovers conflicting regional political interests, sharp regional variations in political capacity, fearful defenses against excessive democracy, coercive conquest of weak states, and unintended consequences galore. Read, think, and learn.”

ThinkingStatesHandsPoliticalCultureInterestDemocracyCenturyConsequenceCapacityWeakCalmDefenseFearfulConquestVariationEmergingStatesmenPrecisionNineteenth CenturyGemsKnowledgeableSwampsWadeFederalismEuropean HistoryUnintended ConsequencesNational Culture
Author:Charles Tilly
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“The interest which lay behind Federalism was that of well-to-do citizens in a stable political and social order, and this interest aroused them to favor and to seek some form of political organization which was capable of protecting their property and promoting its interest.”

WellsFormPoliticalOrderSocialInterestBehindsCitizensCapableOrganizationLaysPropertyFavorsStablePromotingSocial OrderFederalism
Book:The Promise of American Life
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