Jefferson and Madison were no fans of Hamilton, who seems to have been a linear ancestor of the Crony Capitalists of today. It's worth noting that the Cronies are non-partisan; they'll polish the knobs of anyone in office because their god is money.
Anyhoo, their methodology was laid out in 1972 in this newspaper editorial.
1. It being necessary in order to effect the change, to get rid
of constitutional shackles and popular prejudices, all possible
means and occasions are to be used for both these purposes....
4. In drawing all bills, resolutions, and reports, keep
constantly in view that the limitations in the Constitution are
ultimately to be explained away. Precedents and phrases may thus
be shuffled in, without being adverted to by candid or weak
people, of which good use may afterward be made.
5. As the novelty and bustle of inaugurating the government will
for some time keep the public mind in a heedless and unsettled
state, let the press during this period be busy in propagating
the doctrines of monarchy and aristocracy. For this purpose it
will be particular useful to confound a mobbish democracy with a
representative republic, that by exhibiting all the turbulent
examples and enormities of the former, an odium may be thrown on
the character of the latter....
6. But the grand nostrum will be a public debt, provided enough
of it can be got and it be medicated with the proper ingredients.
If by good fortune a debt be ready at hand, the most is to be
made of it. Stretch it and swell it to the utmost the items will
bear. Allow as many extra claims as decency will permit. Assume
all the debts of your neighbors - in a word, get as much debt as
can be raked and scraped together, and when you have got all you
can, "advertise" for more, and have the debt made as big as
possible. This object being accomplished, the next will be to
make it as perpetual as possible; and the next to that, to get it
into as few hands as possible. The more effectually to bring
this about, modify the debt, complicate it, divide it, subdivide
it, subtract it, postpone it, let there be one-third of
two-thirds, and two-thirds of one-third, and two-thirds of
two-thirds; let there be 3 percents, and 4 percents, and 6
percents, and present 6 percents, and future 6 percents. To be
brief, let the whole be such a mystery that a few only can
understand it; and let all possible opportunities and
informations fall in the way of these few to cinch their
advantages over the many....
[8].... (4) A great debt will require great taxes; great
taxes, many taxgatherers and other officers; and all officers are
auxiliaries of power. (5) Heavy taxes may produce discontents;
these may threaten resistance; and in proportion to this danger
will be the pretense for a standing army to repel it. (6) A
standing army, in its turn, will increase the moral force of the
government by means of its appointments, and give it physical
force by means of the sword, thus doubly forwarding the main
object.
9. The management of a great funded debt and a extensive system
of taxes will afford a plea, not to be neglected, for
establishment of a great incorporated bank. the use of such a
machine is well understood. If the Constitution, according to
its fair meaning, should not authorize it, so much the better.
Push it through by a forced meaning and you will get in the
bargain an admirable precedent for future misconstructions.
There's more at the link.
Why yes, indeed! Those old dead white guys actually understood human nature!
Who'da'thunk??
HT: Cold Fury
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