Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamiltonwas a Founding Father of the United States, chief staff aide to General George Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the world's first voter-based political party, the founder of the United States Coast Guard, and the founder of The New York Post newspaper. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth11 January 1757
CountryUnited States of America
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.
That there may happen cases in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force, cannot be denied.
[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.
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
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.
When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.
The representatives of the people, in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience and disgust at the least sign of opposition from any other quarter; as if the exercise of its rights, by either the executive or judiciary, were a breach of their privilege and an outrage to their dignity.
Opinion, whether well or ill-founded, is the governing principle of human affairs
Learn to think continentally.
Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.
Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.