review shall form the subject of some ensuing papers.

PUBLIUS

FEDERALIST No. 18

The Same Subject Continued (The Insufficiency of the Present
Confederation to Preserve the Union) For the New York Packet. Friday,
December 7, 1787

MADISON, with HAMILTON

To the People of the State of New York:

AMONG the confederacies of antiquity, the most considerable was that of
the Grecian republics, associated under the Amphictyonic council. From
the best accounts transmitted of this celebrated institution, it bore
a very instructive analogy to the present Confederation of the American
States.

The members retained the character of independent and sovereign states,
and had equal votes in the federal council. This council had a general
authority to propose and resolve whatever it judged necessary for the
common welfare of Greece; to declare and carry on war; to decide, in
the last resort, all controversies between the members; to fine the
aggressing party; to employ the whole force of the confederacy against
the disobedient; to admit new members. The Amphictyons were the
guardians of religion, and of the immense riches belonging to the temple
of Delphos, where they had the right of jurisdiction in controversies
between the inhabitants and those who came to consult the oracle. As a
further provision for the efficacy of the federal powers, they took an
oath mutually to defend and protect the united cities, to punish
the violators of this oath, and to inflict vengeance on sacrilegious
despoilers of the temple.

In theory, and upon paper, this apparatus of powers seems amply
sufficient for all general purposes. In several material instances,
they exceed the powers enumerated in the articles of confederation. The
Amphictyons had in their hands the superstition of the times, one of the
principal engines by which government was then maintained; they had a
declared authority to use coercion against refractory cities, and were
bound by oath to exert this authority on the necessary occasions.

Very different, nevertheless, was the experiment from the theory.
The powers, like those of the present Congress, were administered by
deputies appointed wholly by the cities in their political capacities;
and exercised over them in the same capacities. Hence the weakness,
the disorders, and finally the destruction of the confederacy. The
more powerful members, instead of being kept in awe and subordination,
tyrannized successively