When occasions present themselves in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests to withstand the temporary delusion in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved the people from very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of their displeasure.

Years later when told that Hamilton may have misled him at the duel the ever-laconic Burr replied "Contemptible if true. Even though Hamilton did not like Jefferson and disagreed with him on many issues he viewed Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. Jay was president and Hamilton was the first secretary and later became president.

He attended King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City. When in the same contest Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college Hamilton helped defeat Burr whom he found unprincipled and elect Jefferson despite philosophical differences. However the Quasi-War although hard-fought at sea was never officially declared.