The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton [319]
[ARTICLE XXVI.]
SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of age.
SECTION 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
[ARTICLE XXVII.]
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Notes on The Federalist Papers
Federalist 1
p. 28. Candorwill oblige us to admit…: In eighteenth-century usage, "candor" means not so much forthrightness as freedom from bias and malice, openness of mind, kindliness.
p. 31. Publius: This pen name, chosen by Alexander Hamilton, refers to one of the founders and heroes of the Roman republic, Publius Valerius Publicola, who was consul in 509, 508, 507, and 504 BC. The Greek biographer Plutarch (AD 46–120), in his Parallel Lives, compares Publius to Solon, the democratic lawgiver of Athens, and judges that Publius presents "the perfect example and looking glass" for the would-be ruler of a popular state. According to Plutarch, Publius assisted Lucius Junius Brutus in driving the Tarquin kings out of Rome, and helped save the republic from a conspiracy stirred up by Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. Subsequently, Publius was made consul four times, briefly serving as the sole ruler when his co-consul Brutus died in office. Publius used this moment of singular authority to stabilize the nascent republic, broaden its aristocratic leadership, and shore up its democratic base. He increased the Senate’s size; granted a defendant’s right to appeal a magistrate’s judgment to the people; lowered taxes; and ordered that the fasces, the bundle of rods (sometimes including a single-headed axe) carried by a consul’s lictors or attendants, be lowered in the assembly to emphasize the people’s, not the consul’s, majesty. The Roman people honored Publius with the name "Publicola," which means lover or cherisher of the people.
Federalist 2
p. 35. to exclaim, in the words of the Poet: "FAREWELL!ALONGFAREWELL,TOALLMYGREATNESS.": The quote is from William Shakespeare’s play King Henry VIII, Act 3, scene 2, line 351.
Federalist 3
p. 38. The case of thetreaty of peace with Britain: The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, ended the war between the United States and Great Britain. Many of the American states continued to defy its provisions, however, refusing to restore confiscated Tory or loyalist property, to allow British creditors to collect the debts owed them by Americans, or to forbid further prosecutions of Tories.
p. 39. In the year 1685, the state ofGenoa…: Genoa is a coastal city in northwest Italy. Like its rival, Venice, Genoa gained wealth and power in the early Middle Ages as a commercial republic. Genoa promoted the Crusades, won territory on the islands of the Mediterranean, and dominated her immediate neighbors. By the end of the fourteenth-century, however, the city had lost its competition with Venice, and constant political unrest left it a prey to foreign interlopers, especially France.
p. 39. having offendedLouis XIV, endeavored to appease him: A member of the Bourbon family, Louis XIV (1638–1715) was king of France from 1643. During his minority, the government was in the hands of Cardinal Mazarin, whose unpopularity was one cause of the rebellions known as the Fronde (1648–1653). During this tumultuous period, the Thirty Years’ War came to a close(1648), and by the peace of Westphalia, in which Mazarin played an important role, France gained the German province of Alsace. On the death of Mazarin(1661), Louis engaged Colbert as minister of finances but otherwise assumed the full burden of government. His policy was to increase the prestige and prosperity of the