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Oar Government n Republic, not a Democracy.Seuator Clay, of Alabama, a leading member of the Democratic party, lately made a speech in the United States Senate, in which he contended that this Govern..lent is a Republic, not a Democracy.— “The proposition,” observes the Petersburg Intelligencer, “is true, beyond dispute. Of the three Departments of the Government, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, not one is constituted by a direct act of the people. The President is elected not by the people, but bv electors chosen by the people, and these Electors are free to vote for whom they please. The people have no agency at all in the designation of his Constitutional Ad risers. The Legislative Department is composed of two bodies, and the injeiioaone only is elected by the people. The Supreme Court (forming the third Department) ic entirely independent of the people. The lower House of the Legislative Department is the only branch of the Government that springs directly from, and immediately represents, the people—but see the checks upon it; first, the Senate; second, the Executive; third the Supreme Court—any one of which may defeat the action of this the only people’s branch of the Government.’Our fathers founded Republican Government in preference to Democracies, says Mr. Clay, not so much because it would be impracticable, as because it would be unwise and inexpedient for the people themselves to assemble and adopt laws. They were satisfied from reading and reflection, oF the truth of Mr. Madison's observation about pure democracies, that they “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personai security, or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.’ vMr. Clay jus.ly maintains ihat the great security of our right of life liberty and property, as in the responsibility of those who make, and of those who execute the law. “Establish as a principle,’says he, “that to give sa ction to law it must be approved by the majority at the ballot-box, and you take away this security, and surrender those rights to the most capricious, rapacious and cruel of tyrants. I regret to are the growing sgirit in Congress, and throughout the country, to democratize our Government, to submit every question, whether pertaining to organic or municipal laws, to the vote of the people. This is sheer radicalism. It is the Red Republicanism of revolutionary France, which appealed to the sections on all occasions, and not the American Republicanism of our fathers Their republicanism was stable and conservative; this is mutable and revolutionary. Theirs afforded a shield for the minority: this gives a »word to the majority. Theirs defended the rights of the weak; this surrenders them to the power of the strong. God forbid that the dernagogisin of the day should prevail over the philanthropic and philosophic statesmanship of our fathers.’The South should ever bear in mind and maintain the true theory of the Government, for in it lies her salvation. Our ancestors saw as much danger to Liberty in King Demos as King George, r.nd if we are wise, we shall resist the despot ism of numbers as resolutely as the tyranny of kings. Richmond Dis-patch.
Newspaper Details
Sandersville Central Georgian
Sandersville, Georgia, US
Thu, Apr 29, 1858
Page 2
Full Page
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Troy U.
USA 08 Oct 2024
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