The purpose of the Federalist Papers was to express concern about the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, the document that outlined the first government of the United States of America. Alexander Hamilton, among others, wrote the Federalist Papers to persuade doubtful New Yorkers to vote in favor of the stronger federal government proposed in the United States Constitution.
Read this excerpt from Federalist Paper No. 1 and answer the question that follows:
Federalist Papers: No. 1
General Introduction
For the Independent Journal
Author: Alexander Hamilton
To the People of the State of New York:
AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.
Based on this sentence from the first paragraph, why does Hamilton think it is important for the United States to be successful?
A. Its success will give more power to other rulers around the world.
B. Without the United States, governments around the world will fall apart.
C. Its success will show that it is possible for people to make their own government.
D. Without the United States, people will have no reason to behave civilly.