"It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis, at which we are arrived, may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act, may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the misfortune of mankind."

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1, published in the New York Independent Journal, 27 October 1787. Written under the pseudonym 'Publius'. The Federalist Papers were a series of 85 essays arguing for ratification of the proposed Constitution.