The Anti-Vaxxers and their [new] Out-of-Context, Excerpted, Arguments

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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)

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Warning to the reader: The text of this column, like the writing of Alexander Hamilton with which it is principally concerned, is especially dense. Do wade into it, if you will, with care. The reason why I have undertaken this particular task is made clear in the last paragraph, excerpted here:

". . . in terms of 'excerpting' [to make a particular point], if a political writer, on whatever side is going to excerpt some piece of published text to make a point, they should really be sure of the context from which the quote is taken. Because hey, you never know, someone just might look at the whole of the text."

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The Pro-COVID "anti-vaxx" movement is based on a variety of arguments. One of the principal ones is definitely unprovable: that the vaccines (or at least some of the increasingly different types of them) are going to produce some kind of irreversible harm(s) in its/their recipients 15 years or so down the road from now. Another principal one would seem to be provable, given the increasingly sophisticated computer-hacking technology available in this era (but it hasn't been, to date at least): that is that there is some kind of world-wide conspiracy among one or more of: one or more governments (including those of the US and the UK), Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci (operating separately from the U.S. government whose principal pandemic spokesman he currently is), the "pharmaceutical industry," George Soros (in some quarters of the anti-vaxx movement representing the "International Jewish Conspiracy" [a la the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a proven forgery, Columbia University Press, 1941]), and so on and so forth.

Recently another kind of argument has appeared, that in certain circumstances violence is OK. On the one hand, it is used to justify the increasingly violent and/or law-breaking types of protests like the illegal, right-wing funded , "Canadian Truckers demos.," a type currently being threatened to invade (literally) the United States. On the other hand, it is being used in the U.S., both to apply to any violent or potentially violent anti-vaxx protests,as well as retroactively to justify the Trumpsurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One justification used for this particular argument is based on an excerpt from Federalist Paper No. 28 (one of the many of the Papers attributed to Alexander Hamilton).

As it happened none of the Papers has a listed author, but over the years scholars have come to agreement over whom among Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay (assumed collectively to have written all of them) wrote which ones. As an aside, it is of interest that a) Jefferson was not in the group, and b) that Hamilton in particular was opposed to creating a Bill of Rights for the Constitution, for which, of course, Jefferson (in Paris at the time) was very much in favor. In the end, he inspired its creation and Madison wrote them.) At any rate, Hamilton did write a bunch for the Papers, and it is an excerpt from No. 28 that is being used by the anti-vaxxers.

It goes: "If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair."

Yes, that Hamilton Federalist Papers entry is being widely used by the insurrectionist (that is law-breaker) forces to justify their actions. (And of course, many of the Insurrectionists were anti-vaxxers [that could be seen from their signs] and since that time, the link between the two groups if anything has gotten stronger.) As it happens, I have read the Supreme Law of our Land, that is the Constitution, a number of times (and in fact wrote two books that are heavily focused on it and its meanings) and have never found in it any provisions justifying the actions that Hamilton seems to have endorsed. Except that he didn't.For the paragraph above, indeed taken from Hamilton's Federalist Paper, No. 28, is conveniently taken out of context. Here is the full paragraph:

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource 12 left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense, which is paramount to all positive forms of government; and which, against the usurpations 13 of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success, than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power became usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions or districts, of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defence. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair. [It goes on:] The usurpers, cloathed with the forms of legal authority, can too often crush the opposition in embryo. The smaller the extent of territory, the more difficult will it be for the people to form a regular or systematic plan of opposition; and the more easy will it be to defeat their early efforts. Intelligence can be more speedily obtained of their preparations and movements; and the military force in the possession of the usurpers, can be more rapidly directed against the part where the opposition has begun. In this situation, there must be a peculiar coincidence of circumstances to ensure success to the popular resistance [emphasis added]."

Now Hamilton's writing is rather dense, but as it happens the whole of this Federalist Paper (see the Appendix) is concerned with dealing with potential conflicts between the States and the Federal Government. In fact, in that regard, it is on how insurrections (Hamilton's term) might be dealt with (put down) by the Federal government. For example, see the first two paragraphs of No. 28 (very conveniently NOT quoted by insurrectionists and/or anti-vaxxers):

"THAT there may happen cases, in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force, it cannot be denied. Our own experience has corroborated the lessons taught by the examples of other nations; that emergencies of this sort will sometimes arise in all societies, however constituted; that seditions and insurrections are unhappily maladies as inseparable from the body politic, as tumours and eruptions from the natural body; that the idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors, whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction [emphasis added].

"Should such emergencies at any time happen under the national government, there could be no remedy but force [emphasis added ]. The means to be employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief. If it should be a slight commotion in a small part of a State, the militia of the residue would be adequate to its suppression: and the natural presumption is, that they would be ready to do their duty. An insurrection, whatever may be its immediate cause, eventually endangers all government: Regard to the public peace, if not to the rights of the Union, would engage the citizens, to whom the contagion had not communicated itself, to oppose the insurgents: And if the general government should be found in practice conducive to the prosperity and felicity of the people, it were irrational to believe that they would be disinclined to its support."

The lessons to be drawn from this? Most importantly on how to respond to the pandemic, that many people are being mis-led; some of them will die unnecessarily; some will be indirectly responsible for the deaths of other people and for the overloading of the health care delivery systems; and so on and so forth.

But also, as to lessons to be learned, in terms of "excerpting," if a political writer is going to excerpt some piece of published text to make a point, they should really be sure of the context from which the quote is taken. Because hey, you never know, someone just might look at the whole of the text.

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Appendix I: The Federalist Paper No. 28

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The Federalist No. 28, [26 December 1787]

The Federalist No. 281

[New York, December 26, 1787]

To the People of the State of New-York.

THAT there may happen cases, in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force,2 cannot be denied. Our own experience has corroborated the lessons taught by the examples of other nations; that emergencies of this sort will sometimes arise3 in all societies, however constituted; that seditions and insurrections are unhappily maladies as inseparable from the body politic, as tumours and eruptions from the natural body; that the idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries4 of those political doctors, whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.

Should such emergencies at any time happen under the national government, there could be no remedy but force. The means to be employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief. If it should be a slight commotion in a small part of a State, the militia of the residue would be adequate to its suppression: and the natural presumption is, that they would be ready to do their duty. An insurrection, whatever may be its immediate cause, eventually endangers all government: Regard to the public peace, if not to the rights of the Union, would engage the citizens, to whom the contagion had not communicated itself, to oppose the insurgents: And if the general government should be found in practice conducive to the prosperity and felicity of the people, it were irrational to believe that they would be disinclined to its support.

If on the contrary the insurrection should pervade a whole State, or a principal part of it, the employment of a different kind of force might become unavoidable. It appears that Massachusetts found it necessary to raise troops for repressing5 the disorders within that State;6 that Pennsylvania, from the mere apprehension of commotions among a part of her citizens, has thought proper to have recourse to the same measure.7 Suppose the State of New-York had been inclined to re-establish her lost jurisdiction over the inhabitants of Vermont;8 could she have hoped for success in such an enterprise from the efforts of the militia alone? Would she not have been compelled to raise and to maintain a more regular force for the execution of her design? If it must then be admitted that the necessity of recurring to a force different from the militia in cases of this extraordinary nature, is applicable to the State governments themselves, why should the possibility that the national government might be under a like necessity in similar extremities, be made an objection to its existence? Is it not surprising that men, who declare an attachment to the union in the abstract, should urge, as an objection to the proposed constitution, what applies with tenfold weight to the plan for which they contend; and what as far as it has any foundation in truth is an inevitable consequence of civil society upon an enlarged scale? Who would not prefer that possibility to the unceasing agitations and frequent revolutions which are the continual scourges of petty republics?

Let us pursue this examination in another light. Suppose, in lieu of one general system, two or three or even four confederacies were to be formed, would not the same difficulty oppose itself to the operations of either of these confederacies? Would not each of them be exposed to the same casualties; and, when these happened, be obliged to have recourse to the same expedients for upholding its authority, which are objected to a government for all the States? Would the militia in this supposition be more ready or more able to support the federal authority than in the case of a general union? All candid and intelligent men must upon due consideration acknowledge that the principle of the objection is equally applicable to either of the two cases; and that whether we have one government for all the States, or different governments for different parcels of them, or even if there should be an intire separation of the States,9 there might sometimes be a necessity to make use of a force constituted differently from the militia to preserve the peace of the community, and to maintain the just authority of the laws against those violent invasions of them which amount to insurrections and rebellions.

Independent of all other reasonings upon the subject, it is a full answer to those who require a more peremptory provision against military establishments in time of peace,10 that the whole power of the proposed government is to be in the hands of the representatives of the people. This is the essential, and after all the only efficacious security for the rights and privileges of the people which is attainable in civil society.*

If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource12 left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defence, which is paramount to all positive forms of government; and which, against the usurpations13 of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success, than against those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons entrusted with supreme power became usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions or districts, of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defence. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair. The usurpers, cloathed with the forms of legal authority, can too often crush the opposition in embryo. The smaller the extent of territory, the more difficult will it be for the people to form a regular or systematic plan of opposition; and the more easy will it be to defeat their early efforts. Intelligence can be more speedily obtained of their preparations and movements; and the military force in the possession of the usurpers, can be more rapidly directed against the part where the opposition has begun. In this situation, there must be a peculiar coincidence of circumstances to ensure success to the popular resistance.

The obstacles to usurpation and the facilities of resistance increase with the increased extent of the state; provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them. The natural strength of the people in a large community, in proportion to the artificial strength of the government, is greater than in a small; and of course more competent to a struggle with the attempts of the government to establish a tyranny. But in a confederacy the people, without exaggeration, may be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power; the General Government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments; and these will have the same disposition towards the General Government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other, as the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing the Union to preserve to themselves an advantage which can never be too highly prised!

It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority. Projects of usurpation cannot be masked under pretences so likely to escape the penetration of select bodies of men as of the people at large. The Legislatures will have better means of information. They can discover the danger at a distance; and possessing all the organs of civil power and the confidence of the people, they can at once adopt a regular plan of opposition, in which they can combine all the resources of the community. They can readily communicate with each other in the different states; and unite their common forces for the protection of their common liberty.

The great extent of the country is a further security. We have already experienced its utility against the attacks of a foreign power.14 And it would have precisely the same effect against the enterprises of ambitious rulers in the national councils. If the fÃ..."deral army should be able to quell the resistance of one state, the distant states would be able15 to make head with fresh forces. The advantages obtained in one place must be abandoned to subdue the opposition in others; and the moment the part which had been reduced to submission was left to itself its efforts would be renewed and its resistance revive.

We should recollect that the extent of the military force must at all events be regulated by the resources of the country. For a long time to come, it will not be possible to maintain a large army: and as the means of doing this increase, the population and natural strength of the community will proportionably increase. When will the time arrive, that the fÃ..."deral Government can raise and maintain an army capable of erecting a despotism over the great body of the people of an immense empire; who are in a situation, through the medium of their state governments, to take measures for their own defence with all the celerity, regularity and system of independent nations? The apprehension may be considered as a disease, for which there can be found no cure in the resources of argument and reasoning.

PUBLIUS.

The [New York] Independent Journal: or, the General Advertiser, December 26, 1787. This essay appeared on December 28 in both New-York Packet and The [New York] Daily Advertiser. On January 2, 1788, it appeared in The New-York Journal, and Daily Patriotic Register.

1. For background to this document, see "The Federalist. Introductory Note," October 27, 1787-May 28, 1788.

2. "under the necessity of resorting to force" substituted for "necessitated to restore to force" in Hopkins.

3. "exist" substituted for "arise" in McLean and Hopkins.

4. "reverie" substituted for "reveries" in Hopkins.

5. "suppressing" substituted for "repressing" in McLean and Hopkins.

6. See essay 6, note 15.

7. See essay 6, note 28.

8. See essay 7, note 9.

9. "or as many unconnected governments as there are states" substituted for "or even" through "states" in McLean and Hopkins.

10. "to say" inserted at this point in McLean and Hopkins.

11. The Federalist essays were, of course, predicated on the assumption that the ultimate security of the rights of the people lay in the fact that power was in the hands of their representatives. See, for example, essay 17.

12. In the newspaper, "source"; "resource" was substituted in McLean and Hopkins.

13. "usurpation" substituted for "usurpations" in Hopkins.

14. "enemy" substituted for "power" in Hopkins.

15. "have it in their power" substituted for "be able" in Hopkins.

Authorial notes

[The following note(s) appeared in the margins or otherwise outside the text flow in the original source, and have been moved here for purposes of the digital edition.]

* Its full efficacy will be examined hereafter.11

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