7296. REPUBLIC, Definition of.—[further continued] .
The purest republican
feature in the government of our own State,
is the House of Representatives. The Senate
is equally so the first year, less the second,
and so on. The Executive still less, because
not chosen by the people directly. The judiciary
seriously anti-republican, because for
life; and the national arm wielded * * *
by military leaders, irresponsible but to themselves.
Add to this the vicious constitution of
our county courts (to whom the justice, the
executive administration, the taxation, police,
the military appointments of the county, and
nearly all our daily concerns are confided),
self-appointed, self-continued, holding their
authorities for life, and with an impossibility
of breaking in on the perpetual succession of
any faction once possessed of the bench.
They are in truth, the executive, the judiciary,
and the military of their respective counties,
and the sum of the counties makes the State.
And add, also, that one-half of our brethren
who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like
helots, from the rights of representation, as
if society were instituted for the soil, and not
for the men inhabiting it; or one-half of these
could dispose of the rights and the will of the
other half, without their consent.
[416]
—
To John Taylor. Washington ed. vi, 606.
Ford ed., x, 29.
(M.
1816)
