They disseminate erroneous opinions from their authoritative positions in state affairs. But it would be utopian to ignore the fact that they are always present. They were present at the Constitutional Convention, Publius says, when the so-called New Jersey Plan was advanced with the objective of turning the Convention away from writing its new Constitution. Publius even admits that those who are on the right side of a question may have bad motives as well as those who are on the wrong side. It would be unwarranted for either side to be intolerant toward the other.
Discussion can only continue when anger is held in check.
And yet, the sides will be intolerant, as political partisans usually are. Angry and malignant passions will be let loose. This description prefigures not only the ratification debates, but the continuing partisanship that has characterized America's Constitutional life. The Anti-federalist mistake, Publius notes, is more a fault of the head than the heart. An example he takes up later reveals his meaning.