Federalist No. 27 Explained: Why Good Government Needs No Army

The Federalist Papers: Explained · Sep 17, 2026 · 28m

The critics of the Constitution had a stark warning: a national government this powerful could never simply be obeyed. It would have to be enforced at the point of a bayonet, an army standing behind every tax and every law. In Federalist No. 27, Hamilton turns that fear on its head. A government that is competently run and woven into the ordinary business of everyday life, he argues, earns obedience the way any good institution does, and it enforces its laws through the courts and sworn officials that every state already has, not through soldiers. This episode traces his surprising claim that…