The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1952-06-20

emerging from the final meeting
of the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia in 1887, a woman in
the crowd outside independence
Hall asked what kind of a govern
ment they had set up for the
country. He replied, "a Republic,
if you can keep it." Our forefath-
ers, by and through the establish
ment of a Constitutional Republic,
set up a government of law and
not of men. But the present gen.
Grafton seems unaware that our
government was intended to be a
Constitutional Republic.
More Than A Word
Recently, in examining a Sc
lected group of high school gradu-
ates for scholarships, out of more
than thirty students, all Of nearly
straight "a" rank, every candi-
date, when asked what the Ameri-
can form of government is, replied:
"a Democracy" Finding many of
these boys and girls had been Boy
Scouts or Girl Scouts, / asked them
to repeat the pledge to the flag
you all know it: 81 pledge allegi-
ance to the Flag of the United
States of America, and to the
Republic for which it stands )"
When this was called to their at
tention that they had pledged al
Iegiance to a Republic and not to
a Democracy, they said, "Our
school teachers taught US that the
United States is a Democracy"
But the word democracy" no.
where appears in the Declaration
of independence, in the Constitu-
ton of the United States, in Wash
ington's Farewell Address, in JEFF
ferson's Inaugural, nor in Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address. AS applied to
our Federal Government, it did not
come into general use until Wood
row Wilson's famous pronounce
ment of World War I, make the
world safe for democracy"
The difference is very important
and not merely one of words.
Democracy means majority rule. 1t
means a government controlled and
dominated by the will and the po-
litical desires of the particular
existing majority. A simplest form
of this was the old New England
Town Meeting and its government
by particular majority voting as
a group. 1t was under this kind
of rule that Roger Williams was
banned from Massachusetts and
under which history has recorded
many other instances Of the depri-
walton of personal liberty. A DEM
Ocracy is not so much a govern
ment of law in which the rights of
all citizens, whether in the minor
ity or not, are protected by law
as it is a government of the men
in power. Under a Republic, al
though, as in a Democracy, the ex-
ecutive and all other powers of
government are derived from the
people and exercised through their
duly elected representatives, I'M
like a Democracy, Republic is
required to operate within the
framework of constitutional guar
antees and judicial precedents
which are designed to protect the
rights of the minority against the
excuses of majority. Our found
ers clearly understood this differ
ence between a Democracy and a
Republic. They understood clearly
and definitely that the so-called
examples of Democracy in past
history has usually degenerated
into tyrannies by temporary ma
jorities. They understood that ty-
ranny or absolutism on the part of
a political majority could override
the rights and liberties of all the
people and be quite as unreason-
able, self-willed, corrupt and vi
cious and as destructive of indi-
vidual freedom as the tyranny of
Ruling Houses.
Lincoln himself said in his first
inaugural: "If a majority should
deprive a minority of any clearly
defined constitutional right, it
might in a moral point of view
justify revolution certainly it
would if such a right were a vital
one."
Glaring Deficiency
Not only have our public schools
in recent years, under the influence
of a so-called new liberalism"
mistaught our boys and girls as to
the nature of our government, but
in many instances the schools have
not taught them anything regard
ing the American Government or
American Constitutional History
and have failed to give them any
knowledge or appreciation of the
American Constitution Of the Bill
of Rights.
Since the time of World War ]
the so-called 'social studies" of
politics, economies, sociology and