The main question “Brutus” is attempting to answer is the following:

“The first question that presents itself on the subject is, whether a confederated government be the best for the United States or not?”

• A confederated government is the government the United States had under the Articles of Confederation.

  • States had all the power and the central government had very little.

“Or in other words, whether the thirteen United States should be reduced to one great republic, governed by one legislature, and under the direction of one executive and judicial; or whether they should continue thirteen confederated republics, under the direction and control of a supreme federal head for certain defined national purposes only?”

• Brutus argued that a confederacy is better than the republic that the Constitution would establish.

• Necessary and Proper Clause (Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution): Congress can make any law which shall be necessary and proper to the execution of its enumerated powers.

• Supremacy Clause (Article 6): Federal laws have greater authority than state laws.

“It appears from these articles that there is no need of any intervention of the state governments, between the Congress and the people, to execute any one power vested in the general government, and that the constitution and laws of every state are nullified and declared void, so far as they are or shall be inconsistent with this constitution…”

• “All [power] that is reserved for the individual states must very soon be annihilated, except so far as they are barely necessary to the organization of the general government.”

  • Brutus’ main concern is that by creating a central authority who can by the necessary and proper clause pass any law imaginable by which the supremacy clause can overpower any state law, state governments will die.

“In the business therefore of laying and collecting taxes, the idea of confederation is totally lost, and that one entire republic is embraced. It is proper here to remark, that the authority to lay and collect taxes is the most important of any power that can be granted; it connects with it almost all other powers.”

• Any government that exists can only collect a small amount of taxes, otherwise the citizens will grow wary of that taxation and throw the government off.

If the federal government is going to collect taxes, and there’s only a small amount that people will tolerate, how will the states also collect taxes? If states cannot collect taxes, they’ll die with a powerful government remaining.

• If the federal courts trump state courts, then state courts will soon be rendered obsolete and unnecessary.

• Because of the size of the nation, a republican form of government is not well suited to be installed.

“It is natural to a republic to have only a small territory, otherwise it can not long subsist.”

• “Is it practicable for a country, so large and so numerous as they will soon become, to elect a representation, that will speak their sentiments, without their becoming so numerous as to be incapable of transacting public business? It certainly is not.”

  • With a nation as large as the United States, both in territory and in people, how can elected representatives possibly appeal to everyone they represent?

“The confidence which the people have in their rulers, in a free republic, arises from their knowing them, from their being responsible to them for their conduct, and from the power they have of displacing them when they misbehave: but in a republic of the extent of this continent, the people in general would be acquainted with very few of their rulers: the people at large would know little of their proceedings, and it would be extremely difficult to change them.”