Comment by E Archer (2008) above on landownership is nonsense. Land was individually and privately owned under law in England from the 13th Century — enshrined in the principle of freehold in Common Law. It's the basis of British capitalism, the first industrialized economy in the world.The USA embraced those property right principles and is an English Common Law jurisdiction to this day. Hamilton's comment about the failings of democracy has been offered back to Plato and Socrates, decent into mob-rule (as in the US coup of 2021) is always a threat. Hamilton was the greatest realist in early US history, he is responsible for paying off the first federal debt; others like Washington and Jefferson profound slave-owning hypocrites. Americans need to face the truth of their origins instead of that childish good guys bad guys religious crap you readily absorb.