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Super. Considering the long length of most of the Federalist Papers, which also appeared in newspapers, I was surprised to find this concise column.

If I have the timeline right, he wrote this after an intense period of study in 1791. He dove into political philosophy and history, including Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Strabo, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Livy, and Plutarch. His modern sources included Montesquieu, Gibbon.

Anyway, he came away agreeing with Aristotle that the preservation or destruction of the constitution depended on the maintenance and renewal of its principles.

the preservation or destruction of the constitution depended on the maintenance and renewal of its principles.

Couldn't be a more timely, or important, statement than that.

16 posted on 02/05/2011 9:08:33 AM PST by EternalVigilance (Is this a Tea Party, like the kind that happened in 1773, or the kind where they serve crumpets?)