The Framers of our Constitution were hard-nosed realists about the manners of mankind, and they weren’t about to launch a moral rearmament crusade when they set out to design a corruption-free government in the summer of 1787. The notes of their deliberations at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia were kept secret and not published until all the delegates had died, which allowed them to state their opinions of their fellow citizens with remarkable candor. “Take mankind in general,” said Alexander Hamilton, “they are vicious—their passions may be operated upon.”5 That was a little
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