Alexander Hamilton

Constitution Sunday: “Publius,” The Federalist XXII

“Publius,” The Federalist XXII [Alexander Hamilton] New-York Packet, December 14, 1787 A well-functioning democracy must be capable of recognizing and dealing with the friction that occurs between the minority and the majority on any given issue. As Alexander Hamilton wrote, in the Federalist XXII, the difference between a vote requiring a simple majority versus a […]

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Constitution Sunday: “Publius,” The Federalist IX [Alexander Hamilton]

“Publius,” The Federalist IX [Alexander Hamilton] Independent Journal (New York), November 21, 1787 Following are excerpts from Alexander Hamilton’s writings in the Federalist Papers: “When Montesquieu recommends a small extent for republics, the standards he had in view were of dimensions, far short of the limits of almost every one of these States.

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Constitution Sunday: “Publius,” The Federalist VIII [Alexander Hamilton]

“Publius,” The Federalist VIII [Alexander Hamilton] New-York Packet, November 20, 1787 Following are excerpts from The Federalist VIII, authored by Alexander Hamilton: “Assuming it therefore as an established truth that the several States, in case of disunion, or such combinations of them as might happen to be formed out of the wreck of the general confederacy,

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War Between the Governors and Governed

The debate surrounding the adoption of the Bill of Rights revealed to many Americans the stark differences between Federalists and Antifederalists. Edmund Pendleton, in the Virginia Convention, stated that opposition to the Constitution “rested on ‘mistaken apprehensions of danger, drawn from observations on government which do not apply to us.’” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the […]

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