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To presume a want of motives for such contests . . . would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.

Alexander Hamilton

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Alexander Hamilton
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In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.
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Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.
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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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The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.
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In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.
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. . . [The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.
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The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!
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The Liberty of the press consists in the right to publish with impunity truth with good motives for justifiable ends, though reflecting on government, magistracy, or individuals.
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Hence, in a state of nature, no man had any moral power to deprive another of his life, limbs, property, or liberty nor the least authority to command or exact obedience from him, except that which arose from the ties of consanguinity.
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When human laws contradict or discountenance the means, which are necessary to preserve the essential rights of any society, they defeat the proper end of all laws, and so become null and void.
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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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A struggle for liberty is in itself respectable and glorious. . . . When conducted with magnanimity, justice and humanity, it ought to command the admiration of every friend to human nature. But if sullied by crimes and extravagancies, it loses its respectability.
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The Courts must declare the sense of the law and if they should be disposed to exercise will instead of judgement the consequences would be the substitution of their pleasure for that of the legislative body.
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Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?
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There is a contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to resist.
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It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.
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As the duties of superintending the national defense and of securing the public peace against foreign or domestic violence involve a provision for casualties and dangers to which no possible limits can be assigned, the power of making that provision ought to know no other bounds than the exigencies of the nation and the resources of the community.
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A promise must never be broken.
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Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.
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The praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity—war, by the influence of the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity, and they relapse into barbarism—war resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence.
Alexander Hamilton