What are the chief sources of expense in every Government? … The answer, plainly is, war and rebellions – the support of those institutions which are necessary to guard the body politic, against those two most mortal diseases of society.

Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 34

… a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.

James Madison in Federalist No. 48

… all classes of citizens should have some of their own number in the representative body, in order that their feelings and interests may be better understood and attended to. 

Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35

… the executive department had not been innocent of frequent breaches of the Constitution. … The great proportion of the instances were either immediately produced by the necessities of war or recommended by Congress or the Commander in Chief. … In most of the other instances, they conformed either to the declared or the known sentiments of the legislative department.

James Madison in Federalist No. 48

… the most productive system of finance will always be the least burthensome.

Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35

The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

James Madison in Federalist No. 47

… the federal senate will never be able to transform itself, by gradual usurpation, into an independent and aristocratic body; we are warranted in believing that if such a revolution should ever happen from causes which the foresight of man cannot guard against, the house of representatives with the people on their side will at all times be able to bring back the constitution to its primitive form and principles.

James Madison in Federalist No. 63

Measures will too often be decided according to their probable effect, not on the national prosperity and happiness, but on the prejudices, interests and pursuits of the governments and people of the individual States. … The great interests of the nation have suffered … from an undue attention to the local prejudices, interests and views of the particular States.

James Madison in Federalist No. 46

Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most particularly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms an unusual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 74