"How much tyranny are you willing to tolerate? When you give your consent to a corrupt government you volunteer to be their slave."
"Those that consent to tyranny lack the courage necessary to live free"
Federalists believed that the country should be ruled by “best people” – educated, wealthy, public-spirited men like themselves. Such people had the time, education, and background to run the country wisely. In the words of a prominent Federalist John Jay Bluntly, whom was the president of Congress and America's first Justice Of The peace:
“Those who own the country ought to govern it.”
-John Jay bluntly
This was precisely Hamilton's view. Government, directed by the wise such as himself, would guide the people toward what was good for them. Clinton Rossiter, a Cornell political scientist, catalogued how some version of "the general will" appears hundreds of times in Hamilton's speeches, letters, and writings… Hamilton more pointedly than any other political thinker of his time, introduced the concept of the "public good" into American thought. (p. 23, quoting Rossiter)[2] Hamilton did not secure what he wanted at the Convention, and in his contributions to the Federalist Papers, he sometimes for purposes of propaganda defended the limited government that he really rejected. But with the onset of the new government in 1789, he by no means abandoned his goal of centralized power. He had been, during the American Revolution, George Washington's military aide; and the new president appointed him secretary of the Treasury. In that capacity, he bombarded Washington with advice on interpreting the Constitution.
The powers of the central government in his view were not confined to those expressly delegated to it — far from it. The national government had also various powers "implied" by its express grants, though the logic of these implications escaped those not enamored of big government. "'Implied powers' are powers that are not actually in the Constitution but that statists like Hamilton wish were there" (p. 26). The government also had "resulting" powers: these were not even present in the Constitution by implication but "resulted" from new situations. If, e.g., the government conquered new territory, it acquired sovereign power over it. "'This would be rather the result from the whole mass of the government … than a consequence of … powers specially enumerated'" (p. 28, quoting Hamilton). As if this were not enough, Hamilton did not scruple to interpret the words of the Constitution against their plain sense. Congress was granted the power to pass laws "necessary and proper" for its enumerated powers. To Hamilton, "necessary" meant "convenient"; what was the small matter of the dictionary to stand in the way of the public interest?
In other words, such powers should be made up, even fabricated, on the whims of politicians posing as guardians of the "public good." He [Hamilton] went on to say that any act of government is to be permitted if it is not expressly prohibited by the Constitution, something he forgot to mention in The Federalist Papers. (p. 61) Thus, in his report to Washington on the constitutionality of a national bank, Hamilton held that, since Congress had the power to coin money, and in his opinion a national bank would be helpful for a monetary system, the bank passed the constitutional test. Jefferson disagreed. Regardless of whether Hamilton was right about the desirability of a bank — and Jefferson of course rejected Hamilton's view of the matter — a bank was not "necessary" and hence had no constitutional warrant. As his opinion on the bank suggests, much of Hamilton's centralizing plans aimed at economic goals. Once more in contrast to Jefferson, he believed that the government should guide the economy. He returned to the mercantilist system famously condemned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. (Murray Rothbard has noted that Smith failed completely to repudiate mercantilism; nevertheless, he strongly criticized the main planks of that system.)
For Hamilton, economics and politics were inextricably mixed. Here DiLorenzo follows Douglass Adair, perhaps the foremost 20th-century student of the Federalist Papers. By tying members of the business elite of the states to the new central government, in large part through their involvement in government debt, the power of the national government would be secured. "With devious brilliance, Hamilton set out, by a program of class legislation, to unite the propertied interests of the eastern seaboard into a cohesive administration party, while at the same time he attempted to make the executive dominant over the Congress by a lavish use of the spoils system." (pp. 45–46, quoting Adair)
"Changing your Congressman is like changing the bedroom furniture in a whore house."
"Petitioning the government is like asking your rapist to wear a condom."
"It is our duty to resist tyranny by refusing to comply with unjust laws."
"It is much easier to live a lie than it is to seek the truth."
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