Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Number Six

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Federalist number six written by Alexander Hamilton addresses concerns held by the people that even though conflicts of foreign origin were temporarily behind them, dissention or disagreement between the individual states could arise if the correct system of government was not chosen. Hamilton argued that the only way the states could live at peace with one another was through federalizing beneath a united national government. This was in opposition to the other existing view of the day by the Anti-Federalists that interstate commerce interests alone would be enough to keep the interactions between states civil and in turn here was no need for a federal government as proposed. Hamilton successfully argues his Federalist point of view because he connects with the reader logically and emotionally while also refuting the opposite position. Hamilton very persuasively uses logic or Aristotelian logos by providing factual historical examples to win his argument. “Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics; two of them, Athens and Carthage, of the commercial kind. Yet were they as often engaged in wars, offensive and defensive, as the neighboring monarchies of the same times” (Hamilton 1). Using references throughout the essay to nearly ten different countries Hamilton …show more content…
Hamilton argued that the only way the states could live at peace with one another was through federalizing beneath a united national government, a position opposite the Anti-Federalists that interstate commerce interests alone could keep interactions between states civil preventing the need for federal government as proposed. Hamilton successfully argues his Federalist point of view because he connects with the reader both logically and emotionally while also refuting the Anti-Federalist