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A. Now that we have established that life, liberty, and property must be secure if people are to
obtain happiness, the question now become what are the necessary conditions for making these
rights secure.
Madison and Hamilton both make it clear that people have an evil side, that is, all people are
potentially harmful to others and to themselves. This is a part of human nature, and not
something that is only true of some people.
So recognition of this fact of human nature (they would say) is itself a necessary barrier or
condition for the security of rights, because if we don’t recognize that people have an evil side,
we will not consider it necessary to guard against it.
B-D. This extended quotation from Hamilton establishes that there is something called the law
of nature, which can be summed up as “do not harm people.” This sets up a standard of right and
wrong that is valid for all human beings, in all places and at all times. It is always wrong to
harm people, because this prevents them from obtaining the goal of human life, which is
happiness.
This clear standard of right and wrong is another barrier that protects us from the evil side of
people, because people will be safer if is recognized by all that it is wrong to hurt people.