The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the peopl… - Alexander Hamilton

But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

Men often oppose a thing, merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. But if they have been consulted, and have happened to disapprove, opposition then becomes, in their estimation, an indispensable duty of self-love. They seem to think themselves bound in honor, and by all the motives of personal infallibility, to defeat the success of what has been resolved upon contrary to their sentiments. Men of upright, benevolent tempers have too many opportunities of remarking, with horror, to what desperate lengths this disposition is sometimes carried, and how often the great interests of society are sacrificed to the vanity, to the conceit, and to the obstinacy of individuals, who have credit enough to make their passions and their caprices interesting to mankind. Perhaps the question now before the public may, in its consequences, afford melancholy proofs of the effects of this despicable frailty, or rather detestable vice, in the human character.

All the genius I have lives in this: when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded by it. Then the effort that I've made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of thought and labor.