"When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune,

[elleng]

bold in his temper . . . despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.'"
- Alexander Hamilton

[redwitch]

1. This is so perfect!

Thanks for sharing.

[Luna_selene]

2. Luna_selene

I would like to have a citation to pass on to certain friends who lean Trump. This is very good. Thank you.

[Silver Gaia]

6. Go here in the National Archives:

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0184-0002

Search that document for the word despotic, and you will find this quote. From that source, you should be able to form whatever type of citation you need.

Hope that helps!

[dmr]

22. Thank you for this link.

What a treasure.

[Silver Gaia]

23. You are most welcome.

I use the National Archives a lot with students. It's an awesome resource!

[summer_in_TX]

14. Alexander Hamilton's words are online through the Library of Congress.

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0184-0002

[enclosure]5
Objections and Answers respecting the Administration
of the Government

That's the bulk of a paragraph perhaps 2/3 of the way down the page, Part of Objection XIV.. The Founding Fathers understood people and anticipated a lot. They just didn't put it firmly enough in our laws.

When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

[WhiteTara]

18. welcome to DU!

[erronis]

28. And a huge welcome to you Luna_selene.

You sound like our type of people.

[soldierant]

3. It is so good

that I can just see MAGAts objecting that it was said by a [expltive] Puerto Rican.

[electric_blue68]

15. Bwah! I get it

[soldierant]

25. Glad you liked it.

Yeah, I figured they would only kow Hamilton from the stage.

[NNadir]

4. Wow. What a spectacular quote for our times. Thanx!!!!!!!!!!!

[AllaN01Bear]

5. ding.

[UTUSN]

7. k

[niyad]

8. KNR and bookmarking.

[moondust]

9. Prophetic.

A 'prophetic' Alexander Hamilton note described Trump almost to a T

[Deuxcents]

11. You and I had the same thoughts..my apologies as I did not mean to step on your post

[moondust]

13. No prob.

[Deuxcents]

10. It's like Mr Hamilton could see into the future to warn us. I think he nailed it for our current situation

Good post and I’m passing it on

[orangecrush]

12. Eerie

Uncanny.

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread elleng.

[LudwigPastorius]

17. "...his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind'."

...and if he can't direct the whirlwind himself...well, he's got a Sharpie that can.

[anamnua]

19. He can always nuke it😀😀😀

[malaise]

21. Nicely played

Rec😀

[malaise]

20. That was written for

The Slobfather

[RandomNumbers]

24. The really bad news though

is that there are far too many people in this country who think they WANT that "whirlwind".

Won't do any of us much good by the time they find out how wrong they were.

[OAITW r.2.0]

26. Wow, he speaking to us today, through his words.

Thanks for posting!

[intrepidity]

27. Has any screenwriter yet written a time-travel episode explaining this quote?

For any of those scifi series that deal in time travel and history, this would be a great premise for an episode: Hamilton somehow gets to present time and witnesses tfg.