Why Are People Separating Us Today?

A lot of folks ask, “How can you know what was going through the Founders minds when it was so long ago?” One way is to read the Federalist papers that clearly explain things. But, some of the Federalist papers were written by John Jay, who wasn’t present at the Constitutional Convention. Jay is not that much different from you or I. The papers were written to explain to citizens exactly what the words of the Constitution meant.

Federalist number two was written by Jay. It’s interesting, because it talks a lot about a centralized government and unity.

Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy of consideration therefore, whether it would conduce more to the interest of the people of America that they should, to all general purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, or that they should divide themselves into separate confederacies, and give to the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to place in one national government.

Jay goes on to talk about how the nation is physically structured. Our rivers, oceans etc bind us together. He also talks about how people joined together, fought a war of independence, and are bound together. Interestingly, today we talk about sects and different groups more than we talk about America in sum. Can you imagine a leader saying this today?

This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties

Jay alludes mostly to the wholeness of America, and the benefits from being together. It’s too bad that in our day and age people are continually trying to separate us. I wonder what people thought of Federalist number two in 1859?

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