AP® United States Government and Politics · Unit 1 · Topic 1.3
Brutus No. 1 Against the Large Republic
Brutus No. 1 argued that a republic spread over a huge territory cannot hold together, and that the Constitution's necessary and proper clause gives the national government room to swallow the states' power over time.
Brutus, writing to oppose ratification, started from an old idea: republics work best small. People need shared values and habits to trust laws made on their behalf, and that trust gets thinner as distance and diversity grow. Spread one government over thirteen states with different economies, religions, and customs, Brutus argued, and it will either fall apart or crush local differences by force. Either way, the people lose control over the government closest to their lives.
His sharper worry was mechanical. The Constitution lets Congress make all laws necessary and proper for carrying out its listed powers, and the supremacy clause makes federal law win any conflict with state law. Brutus read 'necessary and proper' as having no fixed edge: almost any law can be defended as necessary to some enumerated power. Combine that elastic clause with supremacy, and the national government can keep taking authority the states once held, slowly and legally, until state governments are shells.
Federalist No. 10 answers the same fear of tyranny with the opposite diagnosis: Madison says a large, diverse republic is safer, because it multiplies factions so no single one can dominate. Brutus says largeness itself is the danger, because it forces uniform national power onto communities too different to be governed alike. Brutus was not against national government outright; he accepted the need for one. His objection, like that of other Anti-Federalists, was to unchecked scope. That objection pushed ratification supporters to promise written guarantees, which became the Bill of Rights.
Key terms
- Necessary and proper clause
- The constitutional clause letting Congress pass laws needed to carry out its enumerated powers.
- Supremacy clause
- The provision making federal law override conflicting state law.
- Faction
- A group of citizens pursuing a common interest that may harm others' rights or the public good.
- Anti-Federalist
- An opponent of ratifying the Constitution as written, often seeking stronger limits on national power.
Watch it explained
- How it worksWalk me through Brutus's claim that the necessary and proper clause swallows the states whole.
- How it worksHow do Federalist No. 10 and Brutus No. 1 reach opposite conclusions from the same fear of tyranny?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't an Anti-Federalist somebody who opposed having any national government at all?
- Ties togetherHow did the Anti-Federalist objections end up producing the Bill of Rights?
Check yourself
End of topic.