Question

MEDAL!! ENGLISH 4

Answer 1

Read this excerpt from Federalist Paper No. 1 and answer the question that follows:

Federalist Papers: No. 1
General Introduction
For the Independent Journal
Author: Alexander Hamilton

To the People of the State of New York:

AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.

Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government.

Answer 2

According to Hamilton’s writing in the second paragraph, what is one reason the new Constitution would be opposed?

Too many positions will be open for leaders in the newly created government.
Many people are interested in everyone being granted equal status.
People think it would be easier obtain powerful positions with a divided government.
The government already in place at the time was functioning well.

Which statement from the second paragraph indicates that Hamilton worries that men will oppose the formation of a stronger government because the confusion of fragmented government gives them a better chance at getting an authority position?

Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men…
…flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies…
…the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country…
…in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments…