This article discusses the ideas of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, as set forth in Cato’s Letters, and explores their implications for American constitutionalism and public administration. The article examines their views on the role of human passions in politics and how conflicts among such passions might be constructively harnessed to protect freedom. It is argued here that Cato’s Letters advanced an agonistic view of democratic governance, one echoed by the founders of the Constitution, in which conflicts among contesting groups, each motivated by their particular passions, serve to promote responsible governance. Therefore, if we truly wish to legitimate public administration in our constitutional practices, we must accept and, to a significant extent, embrace the conflict and contestation that these practices engender.