"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purpose of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty."
He even brought his own household staff from Virginia to Philadelphia, so as not to burden the Government with providing same--a fact which has now apparently led some dysron in the National Park Service, to make a completely unnecessary social statement, which will give touring kids precisely the wrong impression of the gesture. But Washington was the perfect example of a statesman, who put his people first, and himself second. We have not often seen his like in human history.