GOVT 2665 Prelim 1 Quotes

“Less attention, I suppose, is paid to philosophy in the United States than in any other country of the civilized world. The Americans have no school of philosophy peculiar to themselves, and they pay hardly little attention to the rival European schools. Indeed, they hardly know their names.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. Americans lack a distinct philosophical education in the European sense

   1. independence from European schools of thought leads to a “blank slate” where they have to develop ideas on their own

3. American exceptionalism: democracy changes how people think at the core, not just their government

   1. practical, rather than theoretical approach to politics and society

   2. social equality produces intellectual consequences, because democracy encourages people to see themselves as independent from European hierarchy

“Nevertheless, it is noticeable that the people of the United States almost all have a uniform method and rules for the conduct of intellectual inquiries. So, though they have not taken the trouble to define the rules, they have a philosophical method shared by all.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. Americans, due to not following the aristocratic order, share a common way of approaching problems

3. American exceptionalism: democracy shapes citizens’ minds and creates a distinct intellectual culture

   1. ties into majority opinion, “tyranny of the majority”

“We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people– the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world… God has given to us, for a future inheritance, the broad domains of the political pagans, that shall yet come and lie down under the shade of our ark, without bloody hands being lifted. God has predestinated, mankind expects, great things from our race; and great things we feel in our souls… Long enough have we been skeptics with regard to ourselves, and doubted whether, indeed, the political Messiah had come. But he has come in us, if we would but give utterance to his promptings. And let us always remember, that with ourselves— almost for the first time in the history of the earth– national selfishness is unbounded philanthropy; for we cannot do a good to America but we give alms to the world.”

1. Melville, White Jacket

2. “Israel of our time:” Americans have a special relationship with God

   1. Bible

   2. “Arc of liberties:” protecting and spreading unique political institution

3. American exceptionalism

   1. Religion: Americans are a “chosen people” with a responsibility to preserve democracy and political institutions and share them with the rest of the world

   2. Manifest Destiny: spreading rhetoric

   3. Puritanism: Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill

   4. ties to Tocqueville, Winthrop

“Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. We have professed to enterprise these and those arrticles. We have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.”

1. Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”

2. the Puritan community has entered a “covenant with God” and have been given the mission to follow his wishes

   1. “if we shall neglect,” God will reject them, aka: don’t sin, don’t fail, and you will go to heaven

   2. success in the new world depends on their relationship with God and religion

3. American exceptionalism/“City Upon a Hill” rhetoric: the Puritan community has a special purpose to serve as an example what a good society looks like

   1. because people are obligated to God, they are expected to practice moral behavior

   2. Tocqueville: equality and lack of hierarchy

   3. Winthrop: unique connection to God

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested.”

1. Thomas Paine, Common Sense

2. universal human liberty: the American struggle for independence is not just about independence from Britain, it is a larger struggle over political freedom and human rights (“not local, but universal”)

3. American exceptionalism: America’s political struggle has a universal significance

   1. O’Sullivan: America’s destiny

   2. Paine: universal liberty

   3. Douglass: American ideas of liberty as a basis for judging if American is living up to its principles

“It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.”

1. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 1

2. America is a political experiment: can the government be created through “reflection and choice,” being that they are designing their political system through reason, debates, and decision-making over the aristocracy and God

   1. the Constitution is a chance to prove this

3. American exceptionalism: America has the opportunity to experiment with their government, usual situation in world history

   1. Tocqueville: lack of European philosophical thought, no aristocratic hierarchy

   2. the Constitution: need representation, checks and balances, separation of powers, federalism

“Our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only… we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity…”

1. John L. O’Sullivan, 1839

2. American exceptionalism: the American revolution created a whole new history of the world, experiment, chance to develop something and not succumb to the “past” of European aristocratic hierarchy

   1. “nation of futurity:” America’s significance relies on its future

3. America is fundamentally different from other nations: new political system

   1. Tocqueville: similar, America is different because of its equality of conditions and hierarchy

   2. Hamilton: American experiment

   3. Manifest Destiny: America’s destiny/future

“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”

1. Frederick Douglass, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”

2. using America’s founding principles to challenge slavery (the '“dark picture”)

   1. Declaration’s principles of human equality and liberty

   2. “arm of the lord” = religious component

3. American exceptionalism: America's founding principles create the possibility for the country to overcome its own injustices

   1. push towards greater equality

   2. Paine: universal human liberty

   3. Winthrop: religious understanding of America, convenant with God and obligations to fulfill

“I admit I saw in America more than America; it was the shape of democracy which I sought, its inclinations, character, prejudices, and passions; I wanted to understand it so as at least to know what we have to fear or hope therefrom.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. America is a case study whose equality of conditions can be used to understand democracy on a broader level

   1. social equality is the dominant condition of society

3. American exceptionalism: different from European aristocratic hierarchy

   1. Equality of Conditions: equality changes people’s relationships with one another, and therefore, their relationships with countries

“Long before the appointed day arrives, the [presidential] election becomes the greatest, and one might say the only, affair occupying the men’s minds… As the election draws near, intrigues grow more active and agitation is more lively and wider spread. The citizens divide up into several camps, each of which takes its name from its candidate. The whole nation gets into a feverish state, the election is the daily theme of comment in the newspapers and private conversations, the object of every action and the subject of every thought, and the sole interest for the moment. It is true that as soon as fortune has pronounced, the ardor is dissipated, everything calms down, and the river which momentarily overflowed its banks falls back to its bed. But was it not astonishing that such a storm could have arisen?”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. democratic political passions: elections consume American life, creating habits and passion amongst citizens

3. Equality of Conditions: government affects everyone, not just the aristocracy

   1. the government becomes everyone’s concern

   2. leads to potential partisan problems (see: Federalist Papers, Jefferson, Washington Farewell Address)

“No novelty in the United States struck me more vividly during my stay there than the equality of conditions. It was easy to see the immense influence of this basic fact on the whole course of society. It gives particular turn to public opinion and a particular twist to the laws, new maxims to those who governed and particular habits to the governed… it creates opinions, gives birth to feelings, suggests customs, and modifies whatever it did not create.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. identifies Equality of Conditions as an important and distinctive feature of American democracy

3. American exceptionalism: lack of European aristocratic hierarchy

   1. social equality creates tradeoffs, equality changes how people think and behave

“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short as their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.”

1. Madison, Federalist #10

2. people will naturally have different opinions and ideas, leading to factions

   1. political equality does not eliminate social and economic differences

   2. need to manage competing interests, not get rid of them

3. The Constitution: need for checks and balances, good institutional design

   1. Equality of Conditions: political equality does not eliminate differences between citizens

   2. Hamilton: American experiment

“I came into the world at the end of a long revolution which, after having destroyed the old order, created nothing that could last. When I began my life, aristocracy was already dead, and democracy still unborn. Therefore my instinct could not lead me blindly toward one or the other… I had no natural hatred or jealousy of the aristocracy and, since that aristocracy had been destroyed, I had no natural affection for it, for one can only be strongly attached to the living. I was near enough to know it intimately, and far enough to judge it dispassionately. I may say as much for the democratic element… In a word, I was so nicely balanced between the past and future that I did not feel instinctively drawn toward the one or the other. It required no great effort to contemplate quietly both sides.”

1. Tocqueville to Henry Reeve

2. transition from aristocracy to democracy

   1. background of Tocqueville: why he is able to understand both

3. Equality of Conditions: trying to understand what is gained and lost from different political systems

   1. American exceptionalism: understanding how democracies are different from aristocracies

   2. focus on analysis, rather than emotions

“A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst; everybody sees it, but by no means everybody judges it in the same way.” 

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. move towards greater equality and democracy

   1. focus on tradeoffs rather than linear progress

3. American exceptionalism: American experiment

   1. Equality of Conditions: erosion of aristocratic hierarchy

“Wherever one looks one finds the same revolution taking place throughout the Christian world.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. rise of equality and democracy

   1. America has progressed first, but it does not mean that equality of conditions will only progress there

3. American exceptionalism

   1. Equality of Conditions: “revolution” is the erosion of social hierarchy

   2. Puritanism: Winthrop and the religious obligation to be democratic, “City Upon a Hill”

“...effort to stop halt democracy appears as a fight against God Himself, and nations have no alternative but to acquiesce in the social state imposed by Providence.”

Tocqueville, Democracy in America

democracy is too powerful and cannot be stopped, God’s power/Providence

Puritanism: Winthrop and the religious obligation for America, “City Upon a Hill”

“This book has been written under the impulse of a kind of religious dread by contemplation of this irresistible revolution advancing century by century over every obstacle and even now going forward amid the ruins itself created.”

1. Tocqueville. Democracy in America

2. the democratic revolution is an irresistible force

   1. movement away from the aristocracy and towards equality has been happing for decades

3. Equality of Conditions: erosion of hierarchy

   1. American exceptionalism: example of the broader democratic revolution

“I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on these shores, as that of the whole human race in the first man.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. American exceptionalism: America has a democratic social condition and lack of European aristocratic hierarchy, Equality of Conditions

   1. Religion/Puritanism: moral discipline, self-restraint, and obligation to the community needed for citizens to govern themselves in a democratic society

3. connects American exceptionalism to the Equality of Conditions, religion to democracy

   1. Winthrop: Puritan origins of America, convenant with God and a special mission

   2. Tocqueville: social and political consequences

“But what most distinguished them from all others was the very aim of their enterprise… in facing the inevitable sufferings of exile they hoped for the triumph of an idea… The immigrants, or, as they so well names themselves, the Pilgrims, belonged to that English sect whose austere principles had led them to be called Puritans. Puritanism was not just a religious doctrine; in many respects it shared the most democratic and republican theories.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. American exceptionalism: Puritans play a special role in America’s distinctive political character

3. religion and democracy: religion gives the Puritans a shared moral purpose, which democracy relies on

   1. Winthrop: “City Upon a Hill”

“Thus, in the moral world everything is classified, coordinated, foreseen, and decided in advance. In the world of politics, everything is in turmoil, contested and uncertain. In the one case obedience is passive, though voluntary; in the other there is independence, contempt of experience and jealousy of all authority. Far from harming each other, these two apparently opposed tendencies work in harmony and seem to lend mutual support… Religion is considered the guardian of mores, and mores are regarded as the guarantee of the laws and pledge for the maintenance of freedom itself.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. “guardian of mores:” religion gives moral rules that encourage self-restraint and voluntary obedience

   1. religion and politics work in harmony

3. American exceptionalism: unique circumstances that make religion and democracy coexist together

   1. Equality of Conditions: too much individualism threatens social cohesion, religion gives individuals a shared moral standard

   2. Puritanism

“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

1. Mayflower Compact

2. “in the name of God:” religious purpose, religious and social dimensions to political life

   1. “Covenant and Combine ourselves together:” self government

3. Religion: religion can provide the moral foundation for self-government

   1. American exceptionalism: voluntary agreement and self-government, Constitution’s rules and organization

   2. Tocqueville: America’s democratic character was rooted in its social and religious institutions

“To make, ordeine, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, lawes, statutes, and ordinances, directions and instructions, not contrarie to the lawes of this our realm of England, as well for setling the forms and ceremonies of government and magistracy fit and necessary for said plantation, and the inhabitants there, and for naming and stiling of all sortes of officers, both superior and inferior, which they shall find needful for that government and plantation, and the distinguishing and setting forth of the several duties, powers, and lymytts of every such office and place.”

1. Royal Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony

2. “make, ordeine, and establish:” self-government, creating own laws, political self-rule

   1. “distinguishing and setting forth of the several duties…:” defining responsibilities, limited government

3. American exceptionalism: local self-government

   1. Religion/Puritanism: legal document that has the framework where Massachusetts Puritans can build a society around their religious principles

   2. Constitution: defining powers and limits of offices, creating structure

   3. Mayflower Compact: mutual agreement, covenant, and the common good

   4. Tocqueville: self/government

“Thus stands the cause between God and us, we are entered into Covenant with him for this work we have taken out a Commission…Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to this place we desire, then he hath ratified this Covenant ad sealed our Commission, and will expect a strict performance of the Articles contained in it, but if we shall neglect the observation of these Articles which are the ends we have propounded, and dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for our solves an dour posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us be revenged of such a perjured people and make us knowe the price of the breach of such a Covenant.”

1. Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”

2. Covenant with God: Puritans have a special agreement with God, religious mission

   1. Religious obligations: resisting “carnal intentions” and prioritizing religious and communal purposes, community responsibility

3. American exceptionalism: distinctive religious mission, uniqueness

   1. “City Upon a Hill:” foundation for Winthrop’s idea that the Puritan community will be watched by the world

   2. Mayflower Compact: covenant and collective obligation, political community through mutual agreement

“We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with out god in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God’s sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned to curses upon us till we are consumed out of this good land whether we are going.”

1. Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”

2. the Puritan settlement has a special religious mission, “the eyes of all people are upon us”

   1. covenant with God, collective responsibility

3. American exceptionalism: America has a distinctive purpose and destiny, Winthrop is more on the religious side

   1. Religion: religious morals must be practiced to maintain God’s favor

   2. Tocqueville: religion helps preserve democracy by creating moral habits and self-restraint

“The American Revolution broke out. The dogma of the sovereignty of the people came out from the township and took possession of the government; every class enlisted in its cause; the war was fought and victory obtained in its name; it became the law of laws.”

1. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

2. “sovereignty of the people:” popular sovereignty, political authority comes from the people

   1. “every class:” equality of conditions, American social hierarchy

3. American exceptionalism: America’s political development is distinctive because of its experience with self-government

   1. Constitution: principle of popular sovereignty becomes the foundation for a constitutional government

   2. Hamilton/Madison: Federalist, balancing popular government with the right protections against factions

“He is arrived on a new continent: a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from the old world. It is composed not as in Europe of great lords who possess everything and a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power, giving to a few very visible one, no great manufactures employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe.”

1. Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer

2. Equality of Conditions: no “great lords who possess everything,” smaller gap between the rich and poor

   1. “new continent:” American exceptionalism, absence from hierarchy and inherited privilege

3. American exceptionalism: points out differences from America and Europe, social and economic vs Winthrop’s religion

   1. Tocqueville: compare and contrast with America and Europe, social conditions shape people’s identities

“The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions… Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. . . . An immigrant when he first arrives... no sooner breathes our air than he forms new schemes, and embarks in designs he never would have thought of in his own country. . . . He begins to feel the effects of a sort of resurrection hitherto he had not lived, but simply vegetated; he now feels himself a man . . . Judge what an alteration there must arise in the mind and thoughts of this man . . . his heart involuntarily swells and glows; this first swell inspires him with those new thoughts which constitute an American.”

1. Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer

2. the American is a “new man” because American changes how an immigrant thinks, acts, and what he understands

   1. “melted into a new race of man:” people from different nations and backgrounds are brought together, shared social conditions and experiences

3. American exceptionalism: America can transform people due to its distinctiveness from social conditions rather than political institutions

   1. Tocqueville: equality of conditions creates democratic habits and individualism

   2. American identity can be acquired through experience

“Thus are our first steps trodden, thus are our first trees felled, in general, by the most vicious of our people, and thus the path is opened for the arrival of a second and better class, the true American freeholders; the most respectable set of people in this part of the world; respectable for their industry, their happy independence, the great share of freedom they possess, the good regulation of their families, and for extending the trade and the dominion of our mother-country.”

1. Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer

2. “the true American freeholders:” land ownership gives people a sense of independence and freedom

   1. “happy independence" allows people to support themselves, rather than depend on the social hierarchy/aristocrats

   2. Equality of Conditions

3. American exceptionalism: ordinary people can become independent landowners

   1. Tocqueville: equality of conditions, Crevecoeur: independent landowner (less broad)

   2. Jefferson: liberty and political independence, political virtue of the independent farmer

“What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him. His country is now that which gives him his land, bread, protection, and consequence. Ubi panis ibi patria is the motto of all emigrants… The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow, with equal steps, the progress of his labor. His labor is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest: can it want a stronger allurement?”

1. Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer

2. “ubi panis ibi patria:” where there is bread, there is country, immigrants naturally develop loyalty to the country that provides them with the resources needed to live, work, and prosper

   1. Equality of Conditions: labor and property ownership, self-interest

3. American exceptionalism: America transforms European immigrants

   1. Jefferson: independent property owners are important to liberty, avoiding aristocractic hierarchy

“After a foreigner from any part of Europe is arrived and becomes a citizen, let him devoutly listen to the voice of our great parent, which says to him, ‘Welcome to my shores distressed European; bless the hour in which though didst see my verdant fields, my fair navigable rivers, and my green mountains! If thou wilst work, I have bread for thee; if thou will be honest, sober, industrious, I have greater rewards to confer on thee—ease and independence. I will give thee fields to feed and clothe thee; a comfortable fire-side to sit by, and tell they children by what means thou has prospered and a decent bed to repose on. I shall endow thee besides with the immunities of a freeman, if thou whilst carefully educate thy children, teach them gratitude to God, and reverence to the government, that philanthropic government which has collected so many men and made them happy. I will also provide for thy progeny… Go thou, and work and till, thou shalt prosper provided thou be just, grateful, and industrious.’”

1. Crevecoeur, Letters

2. America gives the European immigrant a new life, with land, food and economic security, protection, and independence, thus changing his identity

   1. “gratitude to God:” Puritanism, devotion to religion leading to American morals

3. American exceptionalism: opportunity, independence, and freedom, transforming outsiders

   1. Equality of Conditions: greater social mobility and independence

   2. Religion: not separate from morality

   3. Winthrop: covenant with God created America’s special status

   4. Crevecoeur: social and economic conditions created America’s special status

“The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature, for the instruction, the trust, and government of society… May we not even say, that the form of government is the best, which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristo into the officer of government”

1. Jefferson, “Letter to John Adams (1813)”

2. “natural aristocracy” is people that possess qualities that make them capable of leading society, such as talent, virtue, ability, merit, etc

   1. opposition to aristocratic hierarchy

   2. selection of leaders: should use natural ability instead of social privilege

3. Equality of Conditions: political leadership should not be controlled by aristocratic families

   1. Constitution: questions of how a republic can select capable leaders while maintaining popular government

   2. Hamilton: disagreements with the relationship between the government, society, economics, and political power

   3. Tocqueville: Equality of Conditions

“It is certain in Theory, that the only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People. But to what an Extent Shall We carry this Principle? Shall We Say, that every Individual of the Community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly to every Act of Legislation? No, you will Say. This is impossible. How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority, against their Will? Whence arises the Right of the Men to govern Women, without their Consent? Whence the Right of the old to bind the Young, without theirs? Depend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open So fruitful a Source of Controversy and Altercation, as would be opened by attempting to alter the Qualifications of Voters. There will be no End of it. New Claims will arise. Women will demand a Vote. Lads from 12 to 21 will think their Rights not enough attended to, and every Man, who has not a Farthing, will demand an equal Voice with any other in all Acts of State. It tends to confound and destroy all Distinctions, and prostrate all Ranks, to one common Levell. I am &c.”

1. John Adams to James Sullivan

2. “the only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People”

   1. need to find a middle between general consent and the universal political participation

   2. majority vs minority, government needs representative institutions and established qualifications

   3. consent does not require everyone to vote on everything

3. Constitution: balancing popular sovereignty with institutional limits, use of representation

   1. Equality of Conditions: social and political equality are different things, have a tension between them

   2. Natural Aristocracy: Jefferson: talented and virtuous, Adams: political order and qualifications

   3. American exceptionalism: popular consent over monarchy

“A FIRM Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection. It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy.”

Federalist 9