Federalist No. 26 is an essay by Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...

, the twenty-sixth of the Federalist Papers

Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...

. It was published on December 22, 1787 under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 Publius, the name under which all the Federalist Papers were published. This is the first of three essays discussing the threat to the common good stemming from excessive restraint on legislative authority. It is titled, "The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense Considered."

Precis

Publius outlines the fallacy of restricting the government's power to control the military. He reasons that restricting the size of standing armies is necessary for a people's government to function, but preventing standing armies altogether is outright foolish. He argues that the new system would require the Congress to consider the necessity of standing armies every two years. He states that the majority of laws meant to prevent standing armies are vague and ineffective.

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