PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

state symbols exhausted their political interest. An interstate idea,
like the Confederation, represented a powerless abstraction. It was an
omnibus, rather than a symbol, and the harmony among divergent groups,
which the omnibus creates, is transient.
I have said that the idea of confederation was a powerless
abstraction. Yet the need of unity existed in the decade before the
Constitution was adopted. The need existed, in the sense that affairs
were askew unless the need of unity was taken into account. Gradually
certain classes in each colony began to break through the state
experience. Their personal interests led across the state lines to
interstate experiences, and gradually there was constructed in their
minds a picture of the American environment which was truly national
in scope. For them the idea of federation became a true symbol, and
ceased to be an omnibus. The most imaginative of these men was
Alexander Hamilton. It happened that he had no primitive attachment to
any one state, for he was born in the West Indies, and had, from the
very beginning of his active life, been associated with the common
interests of all the states. Thus to most men of the time the question
of whether the capital should be in Virginia or in Philadelphia was of
enormous importance, because they were locally minded. To Hamilton
this question was of no emotional consequence; what he wanted was the
assumption of the state debts because they would further nationalize
the proposed union. So he gladly traded the site of the capitol for
two necessary votes from men who represented the Potomac district. To
Hamilton the Union was a symbol that represented all his interests and
his whole experience; to White and Lee from the Potomac, the symbol of
their province was the highest political entity they served, and they
served it though they hated to pay the price. They agreed, says
Jefferson, to change their votes, "White with a revulsion of stomach
almost convulsive." [Footnote: _Works,_ Vol. IX, p. 87. Cited by
Beard, _Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy,_ p. 172.]
In the crystallizing of a common will, there is always an Alexander
Hamilton at work.
CHAPTER XIV
YES OR NO
1
Symbols are often so useful and so mysteriously powerful that the word
itself exhales a magical glamor. In thinking about symbols it is
tempting to treat them as if they possessed independent energy. Yet no