The Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 26 summary

What happens

1. Hamilton argues that distrust of government can produce restrictions that endanger the public rather than protect liberty.
2. He traces American suspicion of peacetime armies to English struggles against royal power and the settlement of 1688.
3. He distinguishes limits on a monarch from restrictions on elected legislatures and questions the force of merely cautionary provisions.
4. He defends the Constitution’s two-year limit on military appropriations as a practical safeguard requiring repeated public decisions.
5. He argues that opposition members, State legislatures, elections, and visible military expansion make a sustained conspiracy difficult.
6. He acknowledges dangers from armies required by emergencies but argues that union reduces the need for dangerously large forces.

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