The Founders of our country were realistic men who understood human nature, who recognized that people weren’t infinitely changeable, that they had certain traits born into them. In The Federalist #51, James Madison famously said that men were not angels—that they were ambitious but rational, and that we therefore needed to construct a system of government that pitted ambition against ambition. John Adams knew government had to be limited, since “it is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.” Thomas Jefferson agreed.
