Hamiltonian Power and "Behaving Responsibly"

A light went on when I made a connection between Ellis' comments on force being used to get "both individuals and sovereign states...to behave responsibly" and his report of Alexander Hamilton's dangerous quest for power.

Ellis reports on page 250...

In collusion with disaffected and disloyal members of Adams's cabinet, Hamilton had hatched a scheme to transform the Provisional army into a permanent military establishment and an instrument for his expanded power within the Federalist Party. To be fair, Hamilton had convinced himself that Napoleon's imperial ambitions did include North America....[H]e envisioned marching his army through Virginia, thereby intimidating the Republican leadership in its major sanctuary, then launching a preemptive invasion of Florida and the Louisiana Territory....

He goes on to report that "Washington was unwittingly providing the imprimatur of his name to this wild scheme...playing directly into Hamilton's hands....At any rate, the moment exposed the dangerous tendencies of Hamilton's genius once released from Washington's control."

Whoa. Hold up. The dangerous tendencies of Hamilton's genius? More like the dangerous logic of the idea of forcing people to "behave responsibly". Hamilton's scheme strikes me as terribly consistent with that premise.