In short, the Constitution created a national state that was simultaneously weak and strong. . . . This was precisely what the expansionist states and Anglo-American settlers wanted. Their libertarian streak ran only as far as self-interest, for they welcomed a strengthened federal state as long as it was an imperialist one, focused on projecting power against the Indians rather than against its citizens. The Hamiltonians would solve the problem of Indian affairs by committing the federal state to empowering, not
