{"product_id":"2940012385857","title":"The Federalist","description":"HAMILTON\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo the People of the State of New York:\u003cbr\u003eAFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the\u003cbr\u003e subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on\u003cbr\u003e a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject\u003cbr\u003e speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences\u003cbr\u003e nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare\u003cbr\u003e of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many\u003cbr\u003e respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently\u003cbr\u003e remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this\u003cbr\u003e country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important\u003cbr\u003e question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of\u003cbr\u003e establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether\u003cbr\u003e they are forever destined to depend for their political\u003cbr\u003e constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the\u003cbr\u003e remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be\u003cbr\u003e regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a\u003cbr\u003e wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve\u003cbr\u003e to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.\u003cbr\u003eThis idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of\u003cbr\u003e patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and\u003cbr\u003e good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice\u003cbr\u003e should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests,\u003cbr\u003e unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the\u003cbr\u003e public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than\u003cbr\u003e seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations\u003cbr\u003e affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local\u003cbr\u003e institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects\u003cbr\u003e foreign to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little\u003cbr\u003e favorable to the discovery of truth.\u003cbr\u003eAmong the most formidable of the obstacles which the new\u003cbr\u003e Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the\u003cbr\u003e obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist\u003cbr\u003e all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument,\u003cbr\u003e and consequence of the offices they hold under the State\u003cbr\u003e establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men,\u003cbr\u003e who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of\u003cbr\u003e their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of\u003cbr\u003e elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial\u003cbr\u003e confederacies than from its union under one government.\u003cbr\u003eIt is not, however, my design to dwell upon observations of this\u003cbr\u003e nature. I am well aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve\u003cbr\u003e indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men (merely because\u003cbr\u003e their situations might subject them to suspicion) into interested or\u003cbr\u003e ambitious views. Candor will oblige us to admit that even such men\u003cbr\u003e may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted\u003cbr\u003e that much of the opposition which has made its appearance, or may\u003cbr\u003e hereafter make its appearance, will spring from sources, blameless\u003cbr\u003e at least, if not respectable--the honest errors of minds led astray\u003cbr\u003e by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so\u003cbr\u003e powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the\u003cbr\u003e judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the\u003cbr\u003e wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first\u003cbr\u003e magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would\u003cbr\u003e furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much\u003cbr\u003e persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a\u003cbr\u003e further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the\u003cbr\u003e reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the\u003cbr\u003e truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists.\u003cbr\u003e Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many\u003cbr\u003e other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as\u003cbr\u003e well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a\u003cbr\u003e question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation,\u003cbr\u003e nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which\u003cbr\u003e has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in\u003cbr\u003e politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making\u003cbr\u003e proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be\u003cbr\u003e cured by persecution.\u003cbr\u003eAnd yet, however just these sentiments will be allowed to be, we\u003cbr\u003e have already sufficient indications that it will happen in this as\u003cbr\u003e in all former cases of great national discussion. A torrent of\u003cbr\u003e angry and malignant passions will be let loose.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081255600368,"sku":"2940012385857","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012385857_p0.jpg?v=1763568355","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012385857","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}