The Intent of The Republic

 "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

- John Adams, April 15, 1814 letter to John Taylor.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.”

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. “From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.”

“During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

(1) From bondage to spiritual faith;
(2) From spiritual faith to great courage;
(3) From courage to liberty;
(4) From liberty to abundance;
(5) From abundance to complacency;
(6) From complacency to apathy;
(7) From apathy to dependence;
(8) From dependence back into bondage”

- Alexander Fraser Tytler, 1787. Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh.

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"There is no good government but what is republican. That the only
valuable part of the British constitution is so; for the true idea
of a republic is "an empire of laws, and not of men." That, as
a republic is the best of governments, so that particular
arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words, that form
of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and
exact execution of the law, is the best of republics."

- John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

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"Virtue and Simplicity of Manners are indispensably necessary in a Republic among all orders and Degrees of Men. But there is so much Rascallity, so much Venality and Corruption, so much Avarice and Ambition such a Rage for Profit and Commerce among all Ranks and Degrees of Men even in America, that I sometimes doubt whether there is public Virtue enough to Support a Republic. There are two Vices most detestably predominant in every Part of America that I have yet seen which are as incompatible with the Spirit of a Commonwealth, as Light is with Darkness; I mean Servility and Flattery. A genuine Republican can no more fawn and cringe than he can domineer. Shew me the American who cannot do all. I know two or Three, I think, and very few more. However, it is the Part of a great Politician to make the Character of his People, to extinguish among them the Follies and Vices that he sees, and to create in them the Virtues and Abilities which he sees wanting. I wish I was sure that America has one such Politician but I fear she has not."

- John Adams, Jan. 8, 1776 letter to Mercy Warren. [Warren-Adams Letters, Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren. Vol. 2, 1778--1814. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. 73. [Boston:] Massachusetts Historical Society, 1925.]

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"The history of ancient and modern republics had taught them that many of the evils which those republics suffered arose from the want of a certain balance, and that mutual control indispensable to a wise administration. They were convinced that popular assemblies are frequently misguided by ignorance, by sudden impulses, and the intrigues of ambitious men; and that some firm barrier against these operations was necessary. They, therefore, instituted your Senate."

- Alexander Hamilton, New York Ratifying Convention, June 1788.

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re·pub·lic, republic;

1. a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president.

    b. A nation that has such a political order.

2. a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.

There seems to be a popular notion that the United States is a democracy. This notion of a democracy is FALSE(i). For it is specifically shown in The Federalist Papers(ii), that a democracy is abhorrent to the Framers Intentions. It is demonstrated, in The Federalist,  how a democracy could easily subvert the Principles laid out, by a simple majority vote(iii). The Framers Intentions were for a Constitutional Republican(iv) form of government. With each state Constituted under the Federal, to form a Union(v). The body of the Union being the states, and the head being the federal.  The objective was for the RULE of LAW, based upon Principles designed to bind the Union together. The United States of America has a form of government in which the Peoples representives are elected by Popular democratic vote. The United States Constitution with the attached Amendments, IS The RULE of LAW for Our Country. And ALL levels of government and We The People are BOUND by the aforementioned RULE of LAW without exception(vi). Every state that joined the Union, AGREED to be BOUND by this RULE of LAW - The Constitution of The United STATES of America.

"The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promotes democracy, but checks it."

- Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York in 1863 to 1864.

(Seymour became a leading Northern opponent of President Abraham Lincoln's administration during the American Civil War. Seymour protested Lincoln's restriction of civil liberties during the Civil War and the Union's military draft. He did, however, remain loyal to the Union).

THE INTENDED WAY;

"The additional securities to republican government, to liberty and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the plan under consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the preservation of the Union will impose on local factions and insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single States, who may acquire credit and influence enough, from leaders and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the diminution of the opportunities to foreign intrigue, which the dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the prevention of extensive military establishments, which could not fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited situation; in the express guaranty of a republican form of government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of titles of nobility; and in the precautions against the repetition of those practices on the part of the State governments which have undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens, and have occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals."
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 85

(i) "From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

"A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union."

"The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State."

"In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists." - James Madison, Federalist #10

"The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government. If the plan of the convention, therefore, be found to depart from the republican character, its advocates must abandon it as no longer defensible." - James Madison, Federalist #39

(iv) Who are the Best Keepers of the People's Liberties? by James Madison, published on December 20, 1792, in the The National Gazette of Philadelphia.