It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.Alexander Hamilton
It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant of love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust.Alexander Hamilton
To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives.Alexander Hamilton
An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power and hostile to the principles of liberty.Alexander Hamilton
The powers contained in a constitution … ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.Alexander Hamilton
It is not a new observation that the people of any country (if, like the Americans, intelligent and wellinformed) seldom adopt and steadily persevere for many years in an erroneous opinion respecting their interests.Alexander Hamilton
The truth is that the great principles of the Constitution proposed by the convention may be considered less as absolutely new, than as the expansion of principles which are found in the articles of Confederation.Alexander Hamilton
The same idea, tracing the arguments to their consequences, is held out in several of the late publications against the new Constitution.Alexander Hamilton
The change proposed by the new Constitution is less a revolution in the government, than a revolution in the principles of government.Alexander Hamilton
In short, the people of this country are so intelligent, well-informed, and responsible that they are capable of deciding, through deliberation and choice, the question of whether or not they can establish a good government.Alexander Hamilton