Jan 20, 2018
January 20th, 2018
After full experience of the insufficiency of the subsisting
federal government, you are invited to deliberate on a New
Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks
its own importance; comprehending in its consequences, nothing less
than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the
parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire, in many
respects, the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently
remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this
country to decide, by their conduct and example, 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. If there be any truth in the
remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may, with propriety, be
regarded as the period when that decision is to be made; and a
wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve
to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind…
And yet, just as these sentiments must appear to candid men, we
have already sufficient indications, that it will happen in this as
in all former cases of great national discussion. A torrent of
angry and malignant passions will be let loose. 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 by the bitterness of their invectives. An
enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government, will
be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of power and
hostile to the principles of liberty…On the other hand, it will be
equally forgotten, that the vigor of government is essential to the
security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well
informed judgment, their interests can never be separated; and that
a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask
of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding
appearances of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.
History will teach us, that the former has been found a much more
certain road to the introduction of despotism, than the latter, and
that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics,
the greatest number have begun their career, by paying an
obsequious court to the people...commencing demagogues, and ending
tyrants.
-Publius