PSAT Reading Practice Question 46

Question: 46

This passage is adapted from The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in 1788. In this piece, John Jay discusses maintaining the United States as a single nation or dividing the country into a collection of small independent sovereignties.
To the People of the State of New York: 
When the people of America reflect that they are 
now called upon to decide a question, which, in its 
consequences, must prove one of the most important 
05that ever engaged their attention, the propriety of their 
taking a very comprehensive, as well as a very serious, 
view of it, will be evident.
Nothing is more certain than the indispensable 
necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, 
10that whenever and however it is instituted, the people 
must cede to it some of their natural rights in order 
to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy of 
consideration therefore, whether it would conduce 
more to the interest of the people of America that they 
15should, to all general purposes, be one nation, under 
one federal government, or that they should divide 
themselves into separate confederacies, and give to the 
head of each the same kind of powers which they are 
advised to place in one national government.
20It has until lately been a received and uncontradicted 
opinion that the prosperity of the people of America 
depended on their continuing firmly united, and the 
wishes, prayers, and efforts of our best and wisest 
citizens have been constantly directed to that object. 
25But politicians now appear, who insist that this opinion 
is erroneous, and that instead of looking for safety and 
happiness in union, we ought to seek it in a division of 
the States into distinct confederacies or sovereignties. 
However extraordinary this new doctrine may appear, 
30it nevertheless has its advocates; and certain characters 
who were much opposed to it formerly, are at present 
of the number. Whatever may be the arguments or 
inducements which have wrought this change in the 
sentiments and declarations of these gentlemen, it 
35certainly would not be wise in the people at large to 
adopt these new political tenets without being fully 
convinced that they are founded in truth and sound 
policy.
It has often given me pleasure to observe that 
4040 independent America was not composed of detached 
and distant territories, but that one connected, fertile, 
wide-spreading country was the portion of our western 
sons of liberty. Providence has in a particular manner 
blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and
45watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and 
accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of 
navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its 
borders, as if to bind it together; while the most 
noble rivers in the world, running at convenient 
50distances, present them with highways for the easy 
communication of friendly aids, and the mutual 
transportation and exchange of their various 
commodities. With equal pleasure I have as often taken 
notice that Providence has been pleased to give this 
55one connected country to one united people—a people 
descended from the same ancestors, speaking the 
same language, professing the same religion, attached 
to the same principles of government, very similar 
in their manners and customs, and who, by their 
60joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by 
side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly 
established general liberty and independence.
This country and this people seem to have been 
made for each other, and it appears as if it was the 
65design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper 
and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each 
other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a 
number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.

In the context of the passage as a whole, Jay's references to "innumerable streams" (line 45), "navigable waters" (line 47), and "noble rivers" (line 49) primarily serve to

Show Answer