“It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object.”

Oh great. Another aphorism for the liberals to thrown in our face: " . . . the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object . . ."
That along with the Constitution's " . . . and promote the general Welfare . . ."

In context, this gets 5 plus stars. as a stand alone statement, it gets a thrumb's down. Madison promoted the natural law (law of nature and of nature's God) application of a representative republic (such being contrary to giving a dole derived from booty, forcefully stolen from We The People - the 2nd plank of the communist manifesto and other such immoral practices is neither in the public good or fits into the original understanding of real welfare) Per the original intent of "real welfare" Jefferson said: To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.

And so, the 'general welfare' clause has been stretched above and beyond its original intent to include anything and everything the government says is for our own good. It is not so much that we have forgotten what purpose the government was for as much as we have completely turned it around to mean everything.