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THE FEDERALIST PAPERS

ducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged
than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, charac-
terized political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is
equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and
sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecu-
tion.

And yet, however just these sentiments will be allowed
to be, we have already sufficient indications that it will
happen in this as in all former cases of great national dis-
cussion. A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be
let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties,
we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to
evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the
number of their converts by the loudness of their declama-
tions and the bitterness of their invectives. An enlightened
zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stig-
matized as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power
and hostile to the principles of liberty. An over-scrupulous
jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more
commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be
represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait for
popularity at the expense of the public good. It will be for-
gotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concom-
itant of love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt
to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust.
On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor
of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in
the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment,
their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous
ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of
zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden
appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of gov-
ernment. History will teach us that the former has been
found a much more certain road to the introduction of des-
potism than the latter, and that of those men who have
overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number

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