7270. REPRESENTATION, Democratic.—
The full experiment of a government
democratical, but representative, was
and is still reserved for us. The idea (taken,
indeed, from the little specimen formerly existing
in the English constitution, but now
lost) has been carried by us, more or less,
into all our legislative and executive departments;
but it has not yet, by any of us, been
pushed into all the ramifications of the system,
so far as to leave no authority existing
not responsible to the people; whose rights,
however, to the exercise and fruits of their
own industry, can never be protected against
the selfishness of rulers not subject to their
control at short periods. The introduction of
this new principle of representative democracy
has rendered useless almost everything written
before on the structure of government;
and, in a great measure, relieves our regret,
if the political writings of Aristotle, or of any
other ancient, have been lost, or are unfaithfully
rendered or explained to us.—
To Isaac H. Tiffany. Washington ed. vii, 32.
(M.
1816)
