I can,
without buying it. It isn't worth it." But for all posterity the
"Federalist" must remain the most authoritative commentary upon the
Constitution that can be found; for it is the joint work of the
principal author of that Constitution and of its most brilliant
advocate.

In nothing could the flexibleness of Hamilton's intellect, or the
genuineness of his patriotism, have been more finely shown than in the
hearty zeal and transcendent ability with which he now wrote in defence
of a plan of government so different from what he would himself have
proposed. He made Madison's thoughts his own, until he set them forth
with even greater force than Madison himself could command. Yet no
arguments could possibly be less chargeable with partisanship than the
arguments of the "Federalist." The judgment is as dispassionate as could
be shown in a philosophical treatise. The tone is one of grave and lofty
eloquence, apt to move even to tears the reader who is fully alive to
the stupendous issues that were involved in the discussion. Hamilton was
supremely endowed with the faculty of imagining, with all the
circumstantial minuteness of concrete reality, political situations
different from those directly before him; and he put this rare power to
noble use in tracing out the natural and legitimate working of such a
Constitution as that which the Federal Convention had framed.

[Sidenote: Hamilton wins the victory, and New York ratifies, July 26.]

When it came to defending the Constitution before the hostile convention
at Poughkeepsie, he had before him as arduous a task as ever fell to the
lot of a parliamentary debater. It was a case where political management
was out of the question. The opposition were too numerous to be
silenced, or cajoled, or bargained with. They must be converted. With an
eloquence scarcely equalled before or since in America until Webster's
voice was heard, Hamilton argued week after week, till at last
Melanchthon Smith, the foremost debater of Clinton's party, broke away,
and came to the Federalist side. It was like crushing the centre of a
hostile army. After this the Antifederalist forces were confused and
easily routed. The decisive struggle was over the question whether New
York could ratify the Constitution conditionally, reserving to herself
the right to withdraw from the Union in case the amendments upon which
she had set her heart should not be adopted. Upon this point Hamilton
reinforced him