Federalist No. 25 Explained: Who Should Hold the Army

The Federalist Papers: Explained · Sep 3, 2026 · 30m

Almost everyone agreed the young country would need some soldiers. The real fight was over who should hold them: the national government, or the individual states. In this episode, Hamilton argues that the option most people found comforting, keeping the army close to home under the states, is actually the far more dangerous one. It would dump the whole cost of defense onto a few exposed border states, breed armed jealousy between rival neighbors, and put military power in exactly the hands a free people watches least. Then he turns to a deeper point that still lands today: why a constitution…