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Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions-a government of force, and a government of laws the first is the definition of despotism-the last, of liberty.

Alexander Hamilton

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Alexander Hamilton
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There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
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A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.
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The attributes of sovereignty are now enjoyed by every state in the Union.
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To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.
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Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer.
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You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.
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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.
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There is nothing absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league or alliance between independent nations for certain defined purposes precisely stated in a treaty regulating all the details of time, place, circumstance, and quantity leaving nothing to future discretion and depending for its execution on the good faith of the parties.
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[If you understood the natural rights of mankind,] [y]ou would be convinced that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and that civil liberty is founded in that, and cannot be wrested from any people without the most manifest violation of justice.
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Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.
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Allow a government to decline paying its debts and you overthrow all public morality-you unhinge all the principles that preserve the limits of free constitutions. Nothing can more affect national prosperity than a constant and systematic attention to extinguish the present debt and to avoid as much as possibly the incurring of any new debt.
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Here sir, the people govern.
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Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.
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Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
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Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.
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Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.
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The injury which may possibly be done by defeating a few good laws, will be amply compensated by the advantage of preventing a number of bad ones.
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I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.
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The institution of delegated power implies that there is a portion of virtue and honor among mankind which may be a reasonable foundation of confidence.
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If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general scene of anarchy, and the world a desert.
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