Federalist No. 27 is an essay by Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...

, the twenty-seventh of the Federalist Papers

Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...

. It was published on December 25, 1787 under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 Publius, the name under which all the Federalist Papers were published. This is the second of three essays discussing the threat to the common good stemming from excessive restraint on legislative authority. It is titled, "The Same Subject Continued: The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense Considered."

Precis

Hamilton argues that the combined forces of many states, under the direction of one federal government, will provide a much greater show of force and be more apt to discourage rebellion. He reasons that confederacies are more prone to violence and war, and that extending the authority of the federal government to the citizen, rather than the state, is the only way to have power.

External links