A Letter to Mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani

Montpelier, Virginia
The Year of our Lord 2025
Sir,
I have lately been informed that you avow yourself a Democratic Socialist, and that by this term you signify a wish that every citizen may live in dignity, secured from the extremes of want by the just offices of government. It is a sentiment born of benevolence; and I would not withhold my approbation from any scheme whose genuine aim is the enlargement of human happiness. Yet, experience admonishes us that the same hand which is stretched forth to relieve distress may, if unrestrained, become the instrument of new oppression.
In framing our Republic, it was ever our study to reconcile Liberty with Order — to render government strong enough to protect the rights of all, yet too limited to become the master of any. We had seen the passions of unbridled democracy on one side, and the pride of arbitrary power on the other, and we sought a middle path, wherein Justice should be the rule and the public good the end.
You have spoken of equality as a principal object of your system. Equality, Sir, is indeed the foundation of political right, but it must be the equality of rights, not of possessions. Men differ in talents, industry, and fortune; and while the laws must protect each alike in the enjoyment of his faculties and acquisitions, they ought not to level them by force. When property is made dependent upon the will of a majority, the security of every right is endangered; for the same power which can take from the rich because he is rich, may one day take from the poor because he is weak.
The true remedy for inequality lies not in the hand of confiscation, but in the diffusion of knowledge, the encouragement of industry, and the impartial administration of justice. A wise government may facilitate the means by which its citizens better their own condition; it may open the roads, establish the schools, and preserve that peace without which labor is vain. But when it undertakes to supply every want by its own bounty, it converts a free people into pensioners of the state, and substitutes dependence for liberty.
If by democratic socialism you intend that the people themselves should be vigilant over their rulers; that office should be accountable, corruption restrained, and the fruits of honest toil secured to all — then you espouse the very genius of republican government. But if under that name there lurks a design to place the whole economy of life under political direction, then I must warn that the cure will prove worse than the malady.
Let us therefore strive to perfect, not to overturn, the Republic. Let charity and public spirit flourish by persuasion and example; and let the laws guard, with impartial hand, both the property of the humble and the liberty of the powerful. Thus may we approach that condition wherein government, limited to its just functions, becomes the friend and not the master of man.
With respectful consideration,
I remain, Sir,
Your humble and obedient servant,
James Madison
Fourth President of the United States