AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 115 



nothing was to be hoped from any attempt at reform 

 which should stop short with the mere amending of 

 the confederation ; it must be entirely superseded by 

 a stronger government. On every proposal which 

 looked toward amendment he took the affirmative and 

 argued with his accustomed power that nothing was 

 accomplished. This winter's experience doubtless in- 

 creased his disgust at the jealousies and the perpetual 

 jarring between the states. Hamilton's own position 

 was peculiar in so far as he was not a native of any one 

 of the states, and had from his first connection with 

 public affairs felt more interest in the country as a 

 whole than in any part of it. His attitude, therefore, 

 was such as to enable him to move much more freely 

 and directly toward the construction of a national 

 government than any of his contemporaries. Another 

 effect of so much fruitless discussion may well have 

 been to confirm his distrust of popular government. 

 For what an Athenian would have called the rule of 

 the many-headed King Demos he never had much 

 liking. He could see much more clearly than the 

 men around him many of the things that were needed 

 and the most efficient means for obtaining them ; and 

 there was in his temperament an impatience and an 

 imperiousness that made him irk at the dulness of his 

 fellow-creatures and the length of time required to set 

 their common sense to work in the right direction. 

 He was a devoted friend to free government ; not, 

 however, to that kind of free government in which the 

 people rule, but the kind in which they are ruled by 

 an upper class, with elaborate safeguards against the 

 abuse of power. To such views Hamilton was pre- 

 disposed by nature ; his intimate experience of the 



