Federalist No. 24 Explained: The Army That Scared Everyone

The Federalist Papers: Explained · Aug 27, 2026 · 31m

A standing army in peacetime was the single thing Americans of the founding generation feared most, and the new Constitution did not ban it. In this episode, Hamilton meets that fear head on. First he shows that the outcry is almost dishonest, because the new plan is actually more careful about armies than the state constitutions or the old government ever were, adding a rule that the army must be re-funded by elected representatives every two years. Then he argues that a flat ban would have been foolish anyway, because a young nation boxed in by Britain and Spain genuinely needed frontier…