What constitutes a State?
Not high-raised battlements, or lahor'd mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd;
No: men, high-minded men;
Men, who their duties know;
But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
These constitute a State.'
In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also,
a principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
found nugatory.
If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government
be the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other
measure), it must be agreed that our governments have much less of
republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the
people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights
and their interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of
republican dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to
a submission of true principle to European authorities, to speculators
on government, whose fears of the people have been inspired by the
populace of their own great cities, and were unjustly entertained
against the independent, the happy, and therefore orderly citizens of
the United States.
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