The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1931-04-01
Continued
OURS IS A REPUBLICAN FORM OF
GOVERNMENT
CONTINUED


racy. 10 is q Republican. or representa-
tire form OF government, so guaranteed
By the constitution. What is q represent
alive form of government? It is a govern
ment conducted by representatives who
are chosen directly or indirectly by the
people TO perform legislative, judicial or
executive functions; and while Jefferson
and Hamilton were as far apart as night
and day on many questions, on that sub
ject they agreed. and the proposition was
we'll stated by Thomas Jefferson himself
when he said.
The equal rights of men and the
happiness of every individual can be
secured only through government by
the people, acting not in person. but
BY REPRESENTATIVES CHOSEN
BY THEMSELVES.
And by Hamilton who said:
That the difference most relied on
between the American and other re-
publics consists in the principle of
representation which is the pivot
upon which the former moves and
which was unknown to the latter.
There has been some tendency in legis-
lation both state and national to estab-
lish q pure democracy and submit every
proposition to vote of the people. Such
was never the intention of the founders
of our nation; and why was it not their
intention? Because those statesmen knew
that every pure democracy had failed;
because laws enacted under such pro-
cedure, consisting of measures designed
by self-choSen committees had to be taken
without change, without discussion and
without amendment; and such laws were
very often based upon passion and preJu-
dice, while laws Of a representative form
of government such as ours, enacted in an
la,~1rt Nv n hnT ut M
women chosen because of their education,
experience, and fairness, and only passed
after reflection and fullest discussion, are
much more likely to be wise and bene-
fetal. Let me also quote Elihu II. Root,
the greatest lawyer and statesman OF his
time a man whom no one can call dry.
The man who was the leading lawyer OF
those attacking the validity OF the Eight
zenith Amendment in the supreme court
case to which l have several times re-
ferred. and who raised every question pos
sible to be raised in opposition to the
Eighteenth Amendment He said:
The expedient of representative gov
eminent found its beginning in the
Saxons. It was lost in the Norman
conquest. Tt was restored step by step
through the centuries in which par
lament granted its power in with
holding and aiding taxation for the
kings use. It was brought to America
by the colonists. 1t was the practice
of the colonies which formed the fed
eral union. Tt entered into the con-
stitution as matter of course, be-
cause it was the method by which
modern liberty had been steadily
growing stronger and broader for six
centuries and was established as OPP
posed to the direct, unrepresentative
form of government in which the
Greek and Roman and italian re-
public had failed.
This representative system has in
its turn impressed itself upon the ma
tions which derived their political
ideas from the Romans and has af-
forded the method through which
popular liberty has been moving for
ward in its struggle against royal and
aristocratic power and privilege the
world over.
And I also quote from DR.. Nicholas
Murray Butler, who is, perhaps, the great
est foe of prohibition in this nation:
We begin the destruction of the
fundamental principles of representa-
tive government in this country when
we reduce the representatives to the
position of mere delegates; when we
begin, as is now quite commonly the
case, to instruct a representative as
to what he is to do when elected; when
we begin to pledge him in advance of
his election that if chosen, he will do