[Steve,]

Here here. I could not have said it better or more concisely myself. It is interesting to note that the pretext has become that war's most enduring result. I do not think that Madison's style, however, is any more or less bombastic than we are accustomed to hearing in George Bush or Al Gore. His just seems more vacuous to our ears because it speaks the political language of another time and place. Surely the political nonsense of our age will sound as parochial and empty in 200 years as Madison's sounds today. (Empty is a relative term, and I do not mean to suggest that Madison is communicating nothing.)

[David Robert Foss]