Those who had opposed the constitution thought their fears justified by theconduct of the government that began to function in 1789. Under the aggressiveleadership of Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, economicmeasures were taken that favored the few, while a effective party machine wasorganized and the army strengthened in such a way as to suggest an intent tocontrol rather than to represent the many. The whole tone of Washington'sadministration was aristocratic, favoring as it did the educated, the wealthy,the clergy, and the press, who were fearful of "mob rule" and preferred to seewhat Hamilton called "gentlemen of principle and property" in command. AsHamilton had at his service a newspaper - John Fenno's Gazette of the UnitedStates - to support his policies, his opponents, led by Jefferson and Madison,decided to establish a rival newspaper, the National Gazette. Philip Freneau,an experienced journalist of known democratic leanings, was chosen to edit thepaper. The editorial, reprinted here, is typical of those in which Freneaucriticized the Hamiltonian program from 1791 to 1793.

Source: American Museum, July 1792: "Rules for Changing a Limited RepublicanGovernment into an Unlimited Hereditary One."

Rules for changing a limited republican government into an unlimited hereditaryone.

1. It being necessary in order to effect the change, to get rid ofconstitutional shackles and popular prejudices, all possible means andoccasions are to be used for both these purposes.

2. Nothing being more likely to prepare the vulgar mind for aristocraticalranks and hereditary powers than titles, endeavor in the offset of thegovernment to confer these on its most dignified officers. If the principalmagistrate should happen to be particularly venerable in the eyes of thepeople, take advantage of that fortunate circumstance in setting the example.

3. Should the attempt fail through his republican aversion to it, or from thedanger of alarming the people, do not abandon the enterprise altogether, butlay up the proposition in the record. Time may gain it respect, and it will bethere always ready, cut and dried, for any favorable conjuncture that mayoffer.

4. In drawing all bills, resolutions, and reports, keep constantly in view thatthe limitations in the Constitution are ultimately to be explained away.Precedents and phrases may thus be shuffled in, without being adverted to bycandid or weak people, of which good use may afterward be made.

5. As the novelty and bustle of inaugurating the government will for some timekeep the public mind in a heedless and unsettled state, let the press duringthis period be busy in propagating the doctrines of monarchy and aristocracy.For this purpose it will be particular useful to confound a mobbish democracywith a representative republic, that by exhibiting all the turbulent examplesand enormities of the former, an odium may be thrown on the character of thelatter. Review all the civil contests, convulsions, factions, broils,squabbles, bickering, black eyes, and bloody noses of ancient, middle, andmodern ages; caricature them into the most frightful forms and colors that canbe imagined, and unfold one scene of horrible tragedy after another till thepeople be made, if possible, to tremble at their own shadows. Let thediscourses on Davila then contrast with these pictures of terror the quiethereditary succession, the reverence claimed by birth and nobility, and thefascinating influence of stars, and ribands, and garters, cautiouslysuppressing all the bloody tragedies and unceasing oppressions which form thehistory of this species of government. No pains should be spared in this partof the undertaking, for the greatest will be wanted, it being extremelydifficult, especially when a people have been taught to reason and feel theirrights, to convince them that a king, who is always an enemy to the people, anda nobility, who are perhaps still more so, will take better care of the peoplethan the people will take of themselves.

6. But the grand nostrum will be a public debt, provided enough of it can begot and it be medicated with the proper ingredients. If by good fortune a debtbe ready at hand, the most is to be made of it. Stretch it and swell it to theutmost 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 beraked and scraped together, and when you have got all you can, "advertise" formore, and have the debt made as big as possible. This object beingaccomplished, the next will be to make it as perpetual as possible; and thenext to that, to get it into as few hands as possible. The more effectually tobring 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-thirdsof one-third, and two-thirds of two-thirds; let there be 3 percents, and 4percents, and 6 percents, and present 6 percents, and future 6 percents. To bebrief, let the whole be such a mystery that a few only can understand it; andlet all possible opportunities and informations fall in the way of these few tocinch their advantages over the many.

7. It must not be forgotten that the members of the legislative body are tohave a deep stake in the game. This is an essential point, and happily isattended with no difficulty. A sufficient number, properly disposed, canalternately legislate and speculate, and speculate and legislate, and buy andsell, and sell and buy, until a due portion of the property of theirconstituents has passed into their hands to give them an interest against theirconstituents, and to ensure the part they are to act. All this, however, mustbe carried on under the cover of the closest secrecy; and it is particularlylucky that dealings in paper admit of more secrecy that any other. Should adiscovery take place, the whole plan may be blown up.

8. The ways in which a great debt, so constituted and applied, will contributeto the ultimate end in view are both numerous and obvious. (1) The favoritefew, thus possessed of it, whether within or without the government, will feelthe staunchest fealty to it, and will go through thick and thin to support itin all its oppressions and usurpations. (2) Their money will give themconsequence and influence, even among those who have been tricked out of it.(3) They will be the readiest materials that can be found for a hereditaryaristocratic order, whenever matters are ripe for one. (4) A great debt willrequire great taxes; great taxes, many taxgatherers and other officers; and allofficers are auxiliaries of power. (5) Heavy taxes may produce discontents;these may threaten resistance; and in proportion to this danger will be thepretense 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 themain object.

9. The management of a great funded debt and a extensive system of taxes willafford a plea, not to be neglected, for establishment of a great incorporatedbank. 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 anadmirable precedent for future misconstructions.

In fashioning the bank, remember that it is to be made particularlyinstrumental in enriching and aggrandizing the elect few, who are to be calledin due season to the honors and felicities of the kingdom preparing for them,and who are the pillars that must support it. It will be easy to throw thebenefit entirely into their hands, and to make it a solid addition of 50, or60, or 70 percent to their former capitals of 800 percent, or 900 percent,without costing them a shilling; while it will be difficult to explain to thepeople that this gain of the few is at the cost of the many, that the contrarymay be boldly and safely pretended. The bank will be pregnant with otherimportant advantages. It will admit the same men to be, at the same time,members of the bank and members of the government. The two institutions willthus be soldered together, and each made stronger. Money will be put under thedirection of the government, and government under the direction of money. Tocrown the whole, the bank will have a proper interest in swelling andperpetuating the public debt and public taxes, with all the blessings of both,because its agency and its profits will be extended in exact proportion.

10. "Divide and govern" is a maxim consecrated by the experience of ages, andshould be familiar in its use to every politician as the knife he carries inhis pocket. In the work here to be executed, the best effects may be producedby this maxim, and with peculiar facility. An extensive republic made up oflesser republics necessarily contains various sorts of people, distinguished bylocal and other interests and prejudices. Let the whole group be well examinedin all its parts and relations, geographical and political, metaphysical andmetaphorical; let there be first a northern and a southern section, by a linerunning east and west, and then an eastern and western section, by a linerunning north and south. By a suitable nomenclature, the landholderscultivating different articles can be discriminated from one another, all fromthe class of merchants, and both from that of manufacturers.

One of the subordinate republics may be represented as a commercial state,another as a navigation state, another as a manufacturing state, others asagricultural states; and although the great body of people in each be reallyagricultural, and the other characters be more or less common to all, still itwill be politic to take advantage of such an arrangement. Should the membersof the great republic be of different sizes, and subject to little jealousieson that account, another important division will be ready formed to your hand.Add again the division that may be carved out of personal interests, politicalopinions, and local parties. With so convenient an assortment of votes,especially with the help of the marked ones, a majority may be packed for anyquestion with as much ease as the odd trick by an adroit gamester, and anymeasure whatever carried or defeated, as the great revolution to be broughtabout may require.

It is only necessary, therefore, to recommend that full use be made of theresource; and to remark that, besides the direct benefit to be drawn from theseartificial divisions, they will tend to smother the true and natural one,existing in all societies, between the few who are always impatient ofpolitical equality and the many who can never rise above it; between those whoare to mount to the prerogatives and those who are to be saddled with theburdens of the hereditary government to be introduced - in one word, betweenthe general mass of the people, attached to their republican government andrepublican interests, and the chosen band devoted to monarchy and Mammon. Itis of infinite importance that this distinction should be kept out of sight.The success of the project absolutely requires it.

11. As soon as sufficient progress in the intended change shall have been made,and the public mind duly prepared according to the rules already laid down, itwill be proper to venture on another and a bolder step toward a removal of theconstitutional landmarks. Here the aid of the former encroachments and all theother precedents and way-paving maneuvers will be called in of course. But, inorder to render the success more certain, it will be of special moment to givethe most plausible and popular name that can be found to the power that is tobe usurped. It may be called, for example, a power for the common safety orthe public good, or, "the general welfare." If the people should not be toomuch enlightened, the name will have a most imposing effect. It will escapeattention that it means, in fact, the same thing with a power to do anythingthe government pleases "in all cases whatsoever." To oppose the power mayconsequently seem to the ignorant, and be called by artful, opposing the"general welfare", and may be cried down under that deception.

As the people, however, may not run so readily into the snare as might bewished, it will be prudent to bait it well with some specious popular interest,such as the encouragement of manufactures, or even of agriculture, taking duecare not even to mention any unpopular object to which the power is equallyapplicable, such as religion, etc.. By this contrivance, particular classes ofpeople may possibly be taken in who will be a valuable reinforcement.

With respect to the patronage of agriculture there is not indeed much to beexpected from it. It will be too quickly seen through by the owners andtillers of the soil, that to tax them with one hand and pay back a part onlywith the other is a losing game on their side. From the power overmanufactures more is to be hoped. It will not be so easily perceived that thepremium bestowed may not be equal to the circuitous tax on consumption whichpays it. There are particular reasons, too, for pushing the experiment on thisclass of citizens.

(1) As they live in towns and can act together , it is of vast consequence togain them over to the interest of monarchy. (2) If the power over them be onceestablished, the government can grant favors or monopolies, as it pleases; canraise or depress this or that place, as it pleases; in a word, by creating adependence in so numerous and important a class of citizens, it will increaseits own independence of every class and be more free to pursue the grand objectin contemplation. (3) The expense of this operation will not in the end costthe government a shilling, for the moment any branch of manufacture has beenbrought to a state of tolerable maturity the exciseman will be ready with hisconstable and his search warrant to demand a reimbursement, and as much more ascan be squeezed out of the article. All this, it is to be remembered, supposesthat the manufacturers will be weak enough to be cheated, in some respects, outof their own interests, and wicked enough, in others, to betray those of theirfellow citizens; a supposition that, if known, would totally mar theexperiment. Great care, therefore, must be taken to prevent it from leakingout.

12. The expediency of seizing every occasion of external danger for augmentingand perpetuating the standing military force is too obvious to escape. Soimportant is this matter that for any loss or disaster whatever attending thenational arms, there will be ample consolation and compensation in theopportunity for enlarging the establishment. A military defeat will become apolitical victory, and the loss of a little vulgar blood contribute to ennoblethat which flows in the veins of our future dukes and marquesses.

13. The same prudence will improve the opportunity afforded by an increase ofmilitary expenditures for perpetuating the taxes required for them. If theinconsistency and absurdity of establishing a perpetual tax for a temporaryservice should produce any difficulty in the business, Rule 10 must be resortedto. Throw in as many extraneous motives as will make up a majority, and thething is effected in an instant. What was before evil would become good aseasily as black could be made white by the same magical operation.

14. Throughout this great undertaking it will be wise to have some particularmodel constantly in view. The work can then be carried on more systematically,and every measure be fortified, in the progress, by apt illustrations andauthorities. Should there exist a particular monarchy against which there arefewer prejudices than against any other, should it contain a mixture of therepresentative principle so as to present on one side the semblance of arepublican aspect, should it, moreover, have a great, funded, complicated,irredeemable debt, with all the apparatus and appurtenances of excises, banks,etc., upon that a steady eye is to be kept. In all cases it will assist, andin most its statute books will furnish a precise pattern by which there may becut out any moneyed or monarchical project that may be wanted.

15. As it is not to be expected that the change of a republic into a monarchy,with the rapidity desired can be carried through without occasional suspicionsand alarms, it will be necessary to be prepared for such events. The bestgeneral rule on the subject is to be taken from the example of crying "Stopthief first - neither lungs nor pens must be spared in charging every man whowhispers, or even thinks, that the revolution on foot is meditated, with beinghimself an enemy to the established government and meaning to overturn it. Letthe charge be reiterated and reverberated till at last such confusion anduncertainty be produced that the people, being not able to find out where thetruth lies, withdraw their attention from the contest.

Many other rules of great wisdom and efficacy might be added; but it isconceived that the above will be abundantly enough for the purpose. This willcertainly be the case if the people can be either kept asleep so as not todiscover, or be thrown into artificial divisions so as not to resist, what issilently going forward. Should it be found impossible, however, to prevent thepeople from awaking and uniting; should all artificial distinctions give way tothe natural divisions between the lordly minded few and the well-disposed many;should all who have common interest make a common cause and show a inflexibleattachment to republicanism in opposition to a government of monarchy and ormoney, why then.....