The Federalist Papers · Federalist No. 20 · paragraph 12

Such is the nature of the celebrated Belgic confederacy, as delineated on parchment. What are the characters which practice has stamped upon it? Imbecility in the government; discord among the provinces; foreign influence and indignities; a precarious existence in peace, and peculiar calamities from war.

Publius · Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison · 1787–1788
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