Selling things is more like it. Hamilton was one of the original big gubmint elitists. Hell, if he'd had his way, senators, presidents and judges would ALL have been appointed for life. Hamilton hated states' rights, and mocked and heaped scorn upon those who defended states' rights and resisted consolidation of power. He referred to the antifederalists derisively as "The most bigoted idolizers of State authority ". And for what reason? They resisted the supreme powers being given to the federal judiciary.
The Federalist Papers are a catalog of things that aren't true. The national government's powers are "few and defined"? What a joke. What kind of sucker could say that with a straight face, and worse yet, who would believe him? Especially when the truth was out there. See Antifederalist 78-84 and Antifederalist 39. Also see Patrick Henry's June 5, 1788 speech to the Virginia Convention. Hamilton deserves scorn, not praise. His words ring hollow and are obviously untrue. But his aim was to crush state power and create a centralized, supreme, consolidated government. Hamilton--one of America's founding LIBERALS.
I have both the Federalist and the anti-Federalist papers. I tend to agree with the anti-Federalist much more for the very reasons you state. But there is solid truth in both, and what Hamilton had to say about the legislature not passing laws that did not apply to itself is one of them.