Founders Quote

"If a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority...the majority...must conform to the views of the minority.... Hence, tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; contemptible compromises of he public good." --

...It has been said that more than a majority ought to have been required for a quorum; and in particular cases, if not in all, more than a majority of a quorum for a decision. That some advantages might have resulted from such a precaution, cannot be denied. It might have been an additional shield to some particular interests, and another obstacle generally to hasty and partial measures. But these considerations are outweighed by the inconveniences in the opposite scale. In all cases where justice or the general good might require new laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority. Were the defensive privilege limited to particular cases, an interested minority might take advantage of it to screen themselves from equitable sacrifices to the general weal, or, in particular emergencies, to extort unreasonable indulgences. ..

F58, PUBLIUS (PUBLIUS wrote 22, too, who's that Hamilton dude?)

I am always leery of quote with multitple ellipses. Here is the original quote, which spans two sentences, in its context.

The necessity of unanimity in public bodies, or of something approaching towards it, has been founded upon a supposition that it would contribute to security. But its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent or corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority. In those emergencies of a nation, in which the goodness or badness, the weakness or strength of its government, is of the greatest importance, there is commonly a necessity for action. The public business must in some way or other go forward. If a pertinacious minority can controul the opinion of a majority respecting the best mode of conducting it; the majority in order that something may be done, must conform to the views of the minority; and thus the sense of the smaller number will over-rule that of the greater, and give a tone to the national proceedings. Hence tedious delays--continual negotiation and intrigue--contemptible compromises of the public good. And yet in such a system, it is even happy when such compromises can take place: For upon some occasions, things will not admit of accommodation; and then the measures of government must be injuriously suspended or fatally defeated. It is often, by the impracticability of obtaining the concurrence of the necessary number of votes, kept in a state of inaction. Its situation must always savour of weakness--sometimes border upon anarchy.

Hamilton was captain of a battery of New York artillery. Captain Hamilton's battery was markedly better than Captain Ogden's battery because Hamilton drilled his men relentlessly after that disaster in New York City.

Hamilton's artillery battery had failed to land a single ball on an entire fleet of British ships that were all well within cannon range. Hamilton was furious, put his men through the wringer, and at Princeton his battery pulled off some feats of accuracy that were astounding for that era. His boys planted a ball smack on a portrait of King George in one of the Princeton halls, and the British surrendered on the spot because they thought the hit was a sign of "divine favour."

That's what marksmanship can do for you.

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