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SYLLABUS OF THE FEDERALIST.[1]
A. I. A republic, a word used in various senses, has been applied to aristocracies and monarchies.
1. To Rome, under the kings.
2. To Sparta, though a Senate for life.
3. To Carthage, though the same.
4. To United Netherlands, though Stadtholder, hereditary nobles.
5. To Poland, though aristocracy and monarchy.
6. To Great Britain, though monarchy, etc.
II. Again, great confusion about words democracy, aristocracy, monarchy.
I. Democracy defined by some, Rousseau, etc., a government exercised by the collective body of the people.
a. Delegation of their power has been made the criterion of democracy.
- ↑ This paper has been printed in both editions of the writings of Hamilton as a "Brief Argument on the Constitution of the United States." Study of it, however, indicates that it is a preliminary outline of The Federalist, from No. 39 to the end. As already mentioned in the Introduction, the beginning of the term of the New York Supreme Court compelled Hamilton to cease temporarily his work on The Federalist with No. 36, and he probably drew np this guide for Madison, who at that point assumed the task, and who closely followed in the succeeding essays the sequence here outlined. By merely transposing the last portions headed "Powers" and "Miscellaneous Advantages" so that they precede that headed "Review," we have the arrangement of ideas adopted in The Federalist. The syllabns is especially valuable in view of the dispnte over the authorship, for it shows how sharp a line Hamilton drew between the "Powers" and the "Revew" of the three departments, the latter being evidently considered by him as one synthetic whole. A comparison of No. 39 with "A" and "B" reveals how thoroughly Madison absorbed the syllabus in this number, and as that has been most quoted of all those from Madison's pen, the source of his ideas possesses much interest.
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