"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." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1,
1787
"It
would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a
Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States;
and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a
power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly no such universal power was
meant to be given them. It [the Constitution] was intended to lace them up
straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means,
these powers could not be carried into effect." --Thomas Jefferson,
Opinion on a National Bank, 1791
"In
selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the
particular sect or denomination of the candidate -- look to his
character." --Noah Webster
"If
Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will
promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one,
possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular
exceptions." --James Madison, letter to Edmund Pendleton, 1792