7293. REPUBLIC, Definition of.—
It
must be acknowledged that the term republic
is of very vague application in every language.
Witness the self-styled republics of
Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland.
Were I to assign to this term a precise and
definite idea, I would say, purely and simply,
it means a government by its citizens in mass,
acting directly and personally, according to
rules established by the majority; and that
every other government is more or less republican,
in proportion as it has in its compo
sition more or less of this ingredient of the
direct action of the citizens. Such a government
is evidently restrained to very narrow
limits of space and population. I doubt if
it would be practicable beyond the extent of
a New England township.—
To John Taylor. Washington ed. vi, 605.
Ford ed., x, 28.
(M.
1816)
