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Alexander Hamilton Quotes about War

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Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war,

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.

Alexander Hamilton
Running, Powerful, War
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.38, Coventry House Publishing

It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Authority, Increase
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2014). “The Federalist Papers”, p.33, Courier Corporation

In this distribution of powers the wisdom of our constitution is manifested. It is the province and duty of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a state of War.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Blessing, Distribution Of Power
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.410

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Practice, Perserverance
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2014). “The Federalist Papers”, p.119, Courier Corporation

To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace.

Alexander Hamilton
Peace, Powerful, War
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.159, Coventry House Publishing

Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

Alexander Hamilton
War, Mean, Men
Alexander Hamilton, Morton J. Frisch (1985). “Selected writings and speeches of Alexander Hamilton”, Aei Pr

Jurors should acquit, even against the judge's instruction . . . if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.

Alexander Hamilton
Honesty, War, Exercise

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Ambition, May
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2009). “The Federalist”, p.208, Harvard University Press

The praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity;—war, by the influence of the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity, and they relapse into barbarism;—war resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Age, Violence
Alexander Hamilton (1904). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton”

The laws of certain states . . . give an ownership in the service of Negroes as personal property . . . . But being men, by the laws of God and nature, they were capable of acquiring liberty - and when the captor in war . . . thought fit to give them liberty, the gift was not only valid, but irrevocable.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Men, Law
"Papers of Alexander Hamilton". Book by Alexander Hamilton, November 22, 1961.

[W]ar is a question, under our constitution, not of Executive, but of Legislative cognizance. It belongs to Congress to say whether the Nation shall of choice dismiss the olive branch and unfurl the banners of War.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Choices, Olive Branches
Alexander Hamilton, Harold Coffin Syrett, Jacob Ernest Cooke (1969). “Papers: Harold C. Syrett, Editor; Jacob E. Cooke, Associate Editor”

The history of human conduct does not warrant that 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 be a president of the United States.

Alexander Hamilton
Wise, War, President
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1831). “The Federalist on the New Constitution”, p.373

If the Constitution is adopted (and it was) the Union will be in fact and in theory an association of States or a Confederacy.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Unions, Association

The inhabitants of territories, often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subject to frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their sense of those rights; and by degrees, the people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors but as their superiors.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Rights, People
Alexander Hamilton (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution ... by A. Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. With an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus (A. Hamilton) and Helvidius (J. Madison), on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793; the Original Articles of Confederation ... Sixth Edition, Etc”, p.27

[In the event of war, Americans would] resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they, at length, become willing to run the risk of being less free.

Alexander Hamilton
Running, War, Rights
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.45, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Exercise, Government
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2007). “The Federalist Papers”, p.565, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

The idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Simple, Doctors
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.133, Coventry House Publishing

There are still to be found visionary or designing men, who stand ready to advocate the paradox of perpetual peace between the states, though dismembered and alienated from each other.... The genius of republics, say they, is pacific; the spirit of commerce has a tendency to soften the manners of men, and to extinguish those inflammable humours which have so often kindled into wars. Commercial republics, like ours, will never be disposed to waste themselves in ruinous contentions with each other. They will be governed by mutual interest, and will cultivate a spirit of mutual amity and concord.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Men, Mutual Interest
"The Federalist on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788, with an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793".

The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the land and naval forces, as first general and admiral ... while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war and to the raising and regulating of fleets and armies - all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.

Alexander Hamilton
Kings, War, Army
Alexander Hamilton (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution ... by A. Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. With an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus (A. Hamilton) and Helvidius (J. Madison), on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793; the Original Articles of Confederation ... Sixth Edition, Etc”, p.278

There can be no profit in the making or selling of things to be destroyed in war. Men may think that they have such profit, but in the end the profit will turn out to be a loss.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Loss, Men

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