The explanation of this peculiar result in the case of America is the unifying influence of Hamilton's measures.

They interested in the support of the government economic forces strong enough to counteract the separatist tendencies that had always before broken up states unless they were held together by sheer might of power in their rulers.

The means employed have been cited as evidence in support of the economic interpretation of history now in fashion.

Government, it is true, like every other form of life, must meet the fundamental needs of subsistence and defense, but this truism supplies no explanation of the particular mode of doing so that may be adopted.

Those needs account for motion but not for direction.