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FEDERALIST No. 60
The Same Subject Continued
(Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of Members)
From the Independent Journal.
Saturday, February 23, 1788.
HAMILTON
To the People of the State of New York:
WE HAVE seen, that an uncontrollable power over the elections to the
federal government could not, without hazard, be committed to the State
legislatures. Let us now see, what would be the danger on the other
side; that is, from confiding the ultimate right of regulating its own
elections to the Union itself. It is not pretended, that this right
would ever be used for the exclusion of any State from its share in the
representation. The interest of all would, in this respect at least, be
the security of all. But it is alleged, that it might be employed in
such a manner as to promote the election of some favorite class of men
in exclusion of others, by confining the places of election to
particular districts, and rendering it impracticable to the citizens at
large to partake in the choice. Of all chimerical suppositions, this
seems to be the most chimerical. On the one hand, no rational
calculation of probabilities would lead us to imagine that the
disposition which a conduct so violent and extraordinary would imply,
could ever find its way into the national councils; and on the other, it
may be concluded with certainty, that if so improper a spirit should
ever gain admittance into them, it would display itself in a form
altogether different and far more decisive.
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