In the Federalist No. 51 James Madison wrote:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men,the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
As we know all too well there are no angels.
And this quote from James Monroe seems all the more pertinent in this angel-less time:
"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."
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