Federalist No. 75 – Janine Turner
Howdy from the Constituting America RV! We are on the road from California to Arizona!! We filmed Jacob Wood and he is a truly special young man. Check out his music on our site and our behind the scene footage and photos.
I am determined to catch up on the Federalist Papers as I have yet to fall behind until I was in pre-production for our Cross Country RV Road Trip!!
Alexander Hamilton and our Constitutional forefathers had such a remarkable insight into the human psyche and even better, a realization as to how important a role it played into the art of politics. Inalienable rights, they taught us, are given by God, not government and the powers of government are being delegated to men, who are not angels. They understood the fallibilities and temptations of men and these weaknesses were the driving force in their insistence on separation of powers.
Hence, the Constitutional designations regarding the negotiating of treaties.
Alexander Hamilton states in Federalist Paper No. 75,
“But that a man raised from the station of private citizen, to the rank of chief magistrate, possessed of but a moderate or slender fortune, and looking forward to a period not very remote, when he may probably be obliged to return the station from which he was taken, might sometimes be under temptations to sacrifice duty to interest, which it would require superlative virtue to withstand. An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the state for the acquisition of wealth.”
Checks and balances. Temptations never die, whatever the age. We fool ourselves if we think our representatives are immune to them. Human nature is eternally flawed and even though we are not under the rule of a monarchy our Republic is still, and always will be at risk.
Alexander Hamilton states it best,
“The history of human conduct does not warrant the exalted opinion of human virtue, which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a magistrate created and circumstanced as would the president of the United States”
God Bless,
Janine Turner
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
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