Summary and Analysis
Section II: Advantages of Union:
Federalist No. 13 (Hamilton)
Summary
A firm union would bring economy in the operations and costs of government. There would be just "one national civil list" to support. Some men were talking of dividing the country into three confederacies, "one consisting of the four northern, another of the four middle, and a third of the five southern States." Each of these confederacies would be at the expense of supporting a whole elaborate governmental apparatus.
Hamilton then speculated on the difficult problems certain states would face in the event of dismemberment, which be used to point his conclusion that "separation would be not less injurious to the economy than to the tranquillity, commerce, revenue and liberty of every part."
Analysis
No one could deny Hamilton's argument here that the costs of supporting a national governmental apparatus would be less if the country remained united, instead of being split into two or three sovereign confederacies, each of which would have to have its own governmental apparatus.