The Federalists Reloaded: No. 2
Unity by Reflection and Choice: Mending the Frayed Seams
When I picked up Federalist No. 2 again, I’ll be honest — I expected a calm, polite endorsement of national unity. What I didn’t expect was how urgent it feels today.
John Jay, often the forgotten founding father in the Hamilton-Madison-Jay trio, wastes no time. He cuts right to the heart of the matter: Are we even capable of acting like one people? Or are we destined to spin off into factions, regions, tribes, and grievances?
Jay’s argument is simple but powerful. We didn’t just happen to live near each other. We weren’t a patchwork of random colonies stitched together by accident.
We were one land, one people, forged in the fires of revolution. Different backgrounds, sure, but a shared fight for liberty and a shared hope for something bigger than the sum of our parts.
In Jay’s mind, it wasn’t just practical to stay united. It was almost… providential. We were supposed to be together.
But even then, even at the beginning, cracks were showing. Ambition. Fear. Regional pride. Some leaders were already whispering that maybe we’d be better off breaking into little groups. Easier to control. Easier to win power.
Jay was not going gently into that good night.
"A Band of Brethren"
Jay’s words are careful, but you can feel the emotion underneath them.
He reminds Americans that they fought and bled side by side. They spoke the same language. Worshiped the same way. Dreamed the same dreams. They didn’t need to invent unity. They already had it.
And yet, he knew how fragile it was.
He warns that there are always going to be people: political schemers, regional loudmouths, frustrated cynics — who will tell you that division is natural. Maybe it’s better to split apart than to stick it out together. That perhaps they’ll get more power, more attention, more control if we all give up on “we the people” and go back to “us versus them.”
Jay’s answer to that?
Don’t fall for it.
"...It certainly would not be wise in the people at large to adopt these new political tenets without being fully convinced that they are founded in truth and sound policy."
In other words: don’t let someone sell you division on a handshake and a slogan.
Unity takes effort. It takes reflection, not reflex. It’s not automatic. It has to be chosen, protected, and maintained.
If you treat it like a given, you’re going to wake up one day and realize it’s gone.
Sound Familiar?
Jay couldn’t have predicted TikTok. He didn’t foresee social media outrage farms, 24/7 cable news, or political podcasts designed to keep you angry, scared, and loyal to your "side."
But he saw human nature. He knew how easy it was for people to turn inward, to sort themselves into groups, to resent the people on the other side of a line, whether real or imagined.
And he knew that if unity were allowed to rot from the inside, it wouldn’t be some foreign army that destroyed America. We’d do it ourselves.
Today, every incentive in media, politics, and culture pushes us toward separation. Ideological purity, not compromise. Lecturing, not persuasion. Disagreement makes enemies.
And like Jay said: it’s not that there aren’t real differences. It’s that the differences are being weaponized on purpose.
Because power is easier to grab when people feel like they're under siege.
Choosing Unity — For Real
Jay wasn’t asking for unquestioning loyalty to the government. He was asking for loyalty to the idea that, despite everything, we are still one people. That no election, no ideology, no news cycle should be enough to break that.
Unity isn’t warm fuzzies and inspirational quotes. It’s complicated, messy, deliberate work. It’s looking across the room or the aisle and seeing not an enemy, not a threat, but a fellow citizen who’s tied to your fate, whether you like it or not.
Jay’s point is brutal in its simplicity: You’re stuck with each other. So you better learn to act like it.
How We Start Stitching It Back Together
We don’t need a national slogan contest. We need to do the real, gritty work that unity demands:
🏘️ Start where you live: Fix your block, your neighborhood, your town. National politics is a mess because local life has gotten hollow.
🧠 Assume good faith — at least at first: Not everyone who disagrees with you is a traitor. Treat disagreement as something to engage with, not something to destroy.
📚 Teach real history: Not the curated version. Not the weaponized version. The messy, complicated, inspiring version that shows how hard this experiment has always been.
🧵 Reject outrage algorithms: If your media diet only serves you villains, it’s not news. It’s theater.
🇺🇸 Defend the “we” even when it’s inconvenient: Especially when it’s inconvenient!
Unity isn’t some misty ideal you achieve once and coast on forever. It’s a decision. Every generation has to make it again. And ours is running out of time to do it.
The Hangover
Jay believed the land, the people, and the cause were meant for each other.
He believed that the bonds forged in revolution were stronger than any faction, any fear, any fight.
But he also knew they could snap.
And if we’re honest, we’re tugging at them pretty hard right now.
The good news is: we still have a choice. Reflection. Deliberation. Commitment. The same tools Jay trusted, they’re still sitting right there, waiting for us to pick them up.
We’re not strangers. We’re not enemies. We’re Americans.
Let’s start acting like it.
Thanks for reading. Next up in The Federalists Reloaded: Federalist No. 3 — on peace, security, and why a fractured America was, and still is, a standing invitation for disaster.
Stay tuned. Stay serious. Stay together.
Ah, but the Federalist papers were written AFTER the people dumped the tea and the King. Those who remained were indeed of generally shared purpose whereas now, it remains to be seen whether there are enough bonds of common interest or if the time machine has landed a few decades prior to the writing of those papers.
Oh, all right, Scott, I will read the Federalists Papers again. Excellent commentary. Thanks for doing these.