by Robert Daniel Smith II

Created on: March 01, 2011

The beauty of our system of government is federalism, the shared sovereignty of both state and national government; each is supreme in their own respects. Without the federal government, many of America’s most important accomplishments would have been lost.  

Firstly look to pre-constitutional times, when the states were divided. Under the Articles of Confederation, each state was considered sovereign and the national government was week. The national government could not raise an army, tax citizens, or ratify treaties with foreign powers. It was up to the states to regulate their militias, collect taxes and decide on how much to give the national government, and formulate foreign policy. The result was disaster; the national government was worthless. In 1786, Shay’s Rebellion of Revolutionary War veterans shut down Massachusetts courts to prevent them from collecting on debts. The state government was overwhelmed by the rebellion and the national government was powerless to stop it. Shays Rebellion helped convince the public that we needed a stronger central government. During the Civil War, the southern confederation realized that its states could not fight the war as separate entities.  

Clearly the Federal government can accomplish momentous undertakings. When Hitler launched his war on Europe, would the 50 states of America have risen to stop him? Together, as Americans, as a national force, the US can rise to meet a challenge. What if, after the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941, only some of the states felt they needed to fight the Japanese? The very course of history would have been altered. The same goes for World War I and so on. When the Soviet Union spread its tentacles across the globe, where would a global force for capitalism and democracy come from? The United States of America can represent a moral force in the world, the 50 states, not so much.

Imagine the implications divided states would have had on domestic policy. The United States owes much of its economic productivity to its efficient national distribution infrastructure. Without the interstate highway system and federal funding on transportation infrastructure, the US would be full of small, sparsely connected roads and would resemble the roadways of Europe. Bottom line, the economics of a large nation work better than a collection of smaller entities. The US can operate by the laws of comparative advantage within its own borders. The North and Northern-Midwest can manufacture, South and Midwest produce agriculture, and West is abundant with raw materials. United there are so many more actions the national government can take.

Without national supremacy, issues like slavery and civil rights would not have been resolved when they were. On balance, the federal government has always been ahead of the states. While it is that true Montana gave women the right to vote before the 19th Amendment was ratified, Women would have remained disenfranchised for longer in other states if not for the federal government. Child Labor Laws, Social Security, Environmental Protection, Consumer Protection Acts – the list goes on forever. Even the development of the western states wouldn’t have happened without the aggressive force of manifest destiny and the idea of an American continent.

“E Plurbus Unum” – out of many, one; One United States of American that can rise to meet any challenge, Foreign or domestic.

Learn more about this author, Robert Daniel Smith II.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.