seditions and insurrections are, unhappily, maladies as inseparable from the body politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body; - Alexander Hamilton
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seditions and insurrections are, unhappily, maladies as inseparable from the body politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body;
Alexander Hamilton (11 January 1755 or 1757 – 12 July 1804) was 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 Father of the United States Coast Guard, and the founder of The New York Post.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, John Trumbull (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Pen Names:
Publius
Alternative Names:
Hamilton
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Alexander Hamilton, US Treasury secretary
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A. Ham
There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.
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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One gentleman, whose name I never heard, was an earnest “friend of the people,” and descanted with much enthusiasm upon the glorious future then opening upon this new-born nation, and predicted the perpetuity of our institutions, from the purity and intelligence of the people, their freedom from interest or prejudice, their enlightened love of liberty, &c, &c. Alexander Hamilton was among the guests; and, his patience being somewhat exhausted, he replied with much emphasis, striking his hand upon the table, “Your people, sir,—your people is a great beast!” I have this anecdote from a friend, to whom it was related by one who was a guest at the table. After-dinner utterances have little value, unless, perhaps, their very levity makes them good indicators of the wind. We do not know the qualifying words which may have followed, or the tone and manner of that which was, perhaps, in part or in the whole, a jest.
