Federalist No. 35 continues Alexander Hamilton’s defense of the Constitution’s taxing power, but it also opens into a second debate: whether the House of Representatives must include members from every occupational class in order to represent the people fairly. Hamilton argues that both fears are misguided. Restricting the Union to import duties alone would produce distortion and inequality, and demanding a legislature that mirrors every trade and profession is, in his view, impossible and unnecessary.
This paper matters because Hamilton is trying to keep representative government tied to reality instead of fantasy. He says taxation must be broad enough to avoid crushing particular sectors, and representation must be judged by whether interests are understood and protected, not by whether every trade sends one of its own to Congress.
1. Limiting federal taxation to a few objects would overload those objects
“if the jurisdiction of the national government, in the article of revenue, should be restricted to particular objects, it would naturally occasion an undue proportion of the public burdens to fall upon those objects.”
Hamilton begins with a straightforward warning: if you confine the federal government to too narrow a tax base, the burden lands too heavily on whatever is left. That leads to distortion instead of fairness.
2. Two evils follow from that kind of restriction
“Two evils would spring from this source: the oppression of particular branches of industry; and an unequal distribution of the taxes”
That is the thesis of the first half of the paper. Hamilton says narrow taxation would not just be inefficient. It would be unfair by region, by industry, and by class.
3. Import duties pushed too high would encourage smuggling
“Exorbitant duties on imported articles would beget a general spirit of smuggling”
Classic Hamilton practicalism. He says you cannot just keep ratcheting up tariffs forever and expect clean results. At some point people go around them.
4. High import duties can hurt fair traders and the revenue itself
“always prejudicial to the fair trader, and eventually to the revenue itself”
That is a strong line because it cuts both ways. Bad tariff policy hurts honest commerce and, in the end, hurts the treasury too.
5. Tariffs can create an unhealthy monopoly for some interests
“they tend to render other classes of the community tributary, in an improper degree, to the manufacturing classes”
Hamilton is warning that badly overused import duties can shift burdens unfairly and give some sectors artificial advantages at everyone else’s expense.
6. The merchant does not always pass the tax fully to the consumer
“the merchant, who is often obliged to pay them himself without any retribution from the consumer”
This is one of the smarter parts of the essay. Hamilton pushes back against the simplistic idea that the consumer always pays everything. Sometimes the merchant eats part of it and gets squeezed hard.
7. “The consumer is the payer” is not true enough to be the whole system
“The maxim that the consumer is the payer, is so much oftener true than the reverse”
“But it is not so generally true as to render it equitable, that those duties should form the only national fund.”
Hamilton is saying the slogan is partly true, but not true enough to justify making import duties the Union’s sole permanent revenue source.
8. Import-duty dependence would create inequality among states
“they are productive of inequality among the States”
Because importing states bear more of the burden directly, Hamilton says a system built mainly on tariffs would hit some states harder than others.
9. It would also create inequality between manufacturing and non-manufacturing states
“The confinement of the national revenues to this species of imposts would be attended with inequality”
“between the manufacturing and the non-manufacturing States.”
Another layer of unfairness. States that produce more of their own goods would contribute differently than states more dependent on imports.
10. The argument for every class sending its own members sounds nice but collapses on inspection
“it will appear to be made up of nothing but fair-sounding words.”
That is Hamilton sharpening the knife. He thinks the demand for exact class mirroring in the House has rhetorical shine but no practical substance.
11. Literal class-by-class representation is “altogether visionary”
“The idea of an actual representation of all classes of the people, by persons of each class, is altogether visionary.”
This is one of the headline lines from the paper. Hamilton says the notion that every occupation must elect one of its own is fantasy-politics.
12. Mechanics and manufacturers will often prefer merchants anyway
“Mechanics and manufacturers will always be inclined… to give their votes to merchants”
Hamilton’s reasoning is that many working and producing interests are closely tied to commerce, and that they will often trust merchants to defend those interests in public councils.
13. Merchants are described as the natural representatives of those classes
“We must therefore consider merchants as the natural representatives of all these classes of the community.”
That is a very Hamilton line, and a very eighteenth-century one. His point is not that merchants are magical saints, but that their knowledge and alignment with commercial and productive interests make them natural political agents for many groups.
14. The landed interest is broadly united on taxation
“Every landholder will therefore have a common interest to keep the taxes on land as low as possible”
“common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy.”
Hamilton argues that landowners, rich and poor, share enough fiscal interest that they do not need perfectly separate mirrors in the legislature to understand one another.
15. Representation does not require exact occupational likeness
“Where this is the case, the representative body… will be composed of landholders, merchants, and men of the learned professions.”
Hamilton says that in practice, free elections will usually elevate those broad groups. He sees that as normal and workable, not fatal.
16. What matters is whether interests are understood and attended to
“where is the danger that the interests and feelings of the different classes of citizens will not be understood or attended to”
This is really the core of the representation half of the paper. Hamilton says the true question is functional representation, not mirror-image representation.
17. Sympathy between representative and constituent comes from dependence and shared consequences
“This dependence, and the necessity of being bound himself, and his posterity, by the laws to which he gives his assent, are the true, and they are the strong chords of sympathy between the representative and the constituent.”
That is one of the best lines in the paper. Hamilton says the real bond is political dependence on voters and common subjection to the laws, not identical job titles.
18. Taxation especially requires broad knowledge and political economy
“There is no part of the administration of government that requires extensive information and a thorough knowledge of the principles of political economy, so much as the business of taxation.”
Strong closing principle. Hamilton says taxation is not a field where raw class instinct is enough. It requires judgment, information, and economic understanding.
Why Federalist No. 35 Works for Highlights
Federalist No. 35 works especially well as a highlights page because it combines two arguments that actually fit together: a bad tax structure can burden society unfairly, and a bad theory of representation can confuse symbolic likeness with practical competence. Hamilton wants a government that can raise money sensibly and deliberate competently.
It is also one of the more revealing Hamilton papers because it shows both his strengths and his style. He is practical, sharp, class-conscious, and not at all sentimental about the mechanics of representation. He wants a legislature that functions, not one that looks like a perfectly arranged occupational parade.
Related Links
- Federalist No. 35 Full Text
- Federalist Papers
- Alexander Hamilton
- Federalist No. 34
- United States Constitution
- Articles of Confederation