breaches of moral obligation and social justice.
The probability of incompatible alliances between the different
States or confederacies and different foreign nations, and the
effects of this situation upon the peace of the whole, have been
sufficiently unfolded in some preceding papers. From the view they
have exhibited of this part of the subject, this conclusion is to be
drawn, that America, if not connected at all, or only by the feeble
tie of a simple league, offensive and defensive, would, by the
operation of such jarring alliances, be gradually entangled in all
the pernicious labyrinths of European politics and wars; and by the
destructive contentions of the parts into which she was divided,
would be likely to become a prey to the artifices and machinations
of powers equally the enemies of them all. Divide et
impera1 must be the motto of every nation that either hates or
fears us.2 PUBLIUS.
1 Divide and command.
2 In order that the whole subject of these papers may as soon as
possible be laid before the public, it is proposed to publish them
four times a week--on Tuesday in the New York Packet and on
Thursday in the Daily Advertiser.


FEDERALIST No. 8

The Consequences of Hostilities Between the States
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, November 20, 1787.

HAMILTON