CHECKS ON DEMOCRACY

Most places in Massachusetts, however, had only a Congregational church, which, therefore, was maintained at public expense.

that Pennsylvania and Georgia were a trifle more liberal with the franchise than the compact statement in the text would indicate. The first gave the suffrage to the grown-up sons of freeholders, and the second to certain classes of skilled artisans. whether taxpayers or not.

271. Qualifications were often graded. Commonly, a man had to have more property to vote for the upper than for the lower House of the legislature. This was one device to make the senates special protectors of property interests. Commonly, too, there was a still higher qualification for sitting in the legislature, often more for the upper House than for the lower, and yet more for a governor. In several States, the upper House was chosen by the lower. In Massachusetts, all men who could vote for one House could vote for the other also, but in choosing the senate, the votes were so apportioned that a rich man counted for several poor men: the richer any part of the State, the more senatorial districts it had. North Carolina pretty well lost her democracy in these gradations. To vote for a representative, a man had only to be a taxpayer; but to vote for senator, he must own 50 acres of land; to sit as representative, he must have 100 acres; as senator, 300 acres ; and as governor, £1000 of real estate.

272. Here were four ingenious checks upon a dangerously encroaching democracy: (1) an upper House so chosen as to be a stronghold for the aristocracy1; (2) indirect election of the executive and judiciary; (3) property qualifications, sometimes graded, for voting; and (4) higher qualifications for holding office. All these had been developed in the colonial period. On the whole the new States weakened the checks (and no State increased them); but every State retained some of them.

273. Vermont, it is true, was a real democracy; but she was not one of the thirteen colonies, nor did she become a State of the Union until 1791. Her territory had belonged to New York and New Hampshire; but neither government was satisfactory to the inhabitants, and, during the early Revolutionary disorders, the Green Mountain districts set up a government of their own (adopting, as their hasty statement put it, "the laws of God and Connecticut, until we have time to frame better"). This "Vermont "" was not "recognized" by Congress or by any State govern

1 In the seventeenth century, aristocracy was so strong that the aristocratic "Council" (whether elected as in Massachusetts, or appointed as in Virginia) dominated a one-House Assembly. The change to two Houses was set in motion everywhere by the democratic element, as a step toward greater freedom of action (§§ 54, 102). When we reach the Revolution, democracy has gained in power; and it was the aristocracy which preserved the two-House system, in order that property and station might intrench themselves safely in it.

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ment; but, in 1777, it adopted a constitution with manhood suffrage. This democracy was due to the fact that Vermont, as a whole, was a frontier community, "back counties" of New Hampshire and Connecticut.

274. Half these first constitutions had no provision for amendment. In South Carolina the legislature gave ninety days' notice of a proposed change in the constitution (that public opinion might be known), and then acted as in passing any law. In Maryland, an amendment became part of the constitution if passed by two successive legislatures. In Delaware five sevenths of one house and seven ninths of the other were required to carry an amendment. In Pennsylvania, amendments could be proposed only at intervals of seven years, and only in a peculiar fashion. (As a result, in these last two States, amendment was finally accomplished by new conventions, with disregard of the constitutional provisions.) Georgia and Massachusetts provided for the calling of constitutional conventions in a modern fashion.

Compare the Bill of Rights in your State with the original

Virginia Bill of Rights.

CHAPTER XXIV

CONGRESS AND THE WAR

275. England's task was a difficult one, even if she had had only America to deal with. Great Britain had then eight million people, or about three times as many as the colonies had. But she had to wage war across three thousand miles of ocean in an age when it took eight or ten weeks to cross and when no ship carried more than four or five hundred people. The Americans, too, inhabited a large and scattered territory, with no vital centers. To conquer it, an invading army must hold much of it at one time. At one time or another, English troops held Boston, New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Savan nah but never more than one or two at once.

276. The first great danger to the colonies lay, not in England's strength, but in American disunion. The Revolution was more of a civil war than was even the great "Civil War" of 1861. In 1776 every community was divided, and neighbor warred on neighbor. In New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia the Loyalists were a majority, and in the colonies as a whole they made at least every third man.

277. The Tories came mainly (1) from the commercial, capitalistic, and professional classes, always timid regarding change, and (2) from the easy-going, well-contented part of society. On the whole, they represented respectability and refinement. Society was moving rapidly: not all could keep the same pace. In July, 1776, the line was drawn. Men who that month stood where Washington or Jefferson had stood seven or eight months before (§ 258) were Tories.

278. The other great danger to America was the inefficiency of Congress. Even with every third man siding with England, if we had had a central government able to gather and wield our

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resources, the British armies could have been driven into the sea in six months.

From their 500,000 able-bodied White males, the Americans should have put in the field an army of 100,000 men. But, if we leave out the militia, which now and again swarmed out for a few days to repel a local raid, the continental forces hardly reached a third that number at any time. For the greater part of the war, indeed, the American armies numbered only about 10,000 men, and at times they sank to 5000.

Even these few were ill-paid, ill-fed, and worse clothed. And this, not so much from the poverty of the country, as from lack of organization.

As John Fiske well says, in referring to the dreadful sufferings of Washington's army at Valley Forge, which "have called forth the pity and admiration of historians": "The point of the story is lost unless we realize that this misery resulted from gross mismanagement rather than from the poverty of the country. As the soldiers marched on the seventeenth of December to their winter quarters, their route could be traced on the snow by the blood that oozed from bare, frost-bitten feet. Yet, at the same moment, . . . hogsheads of shoes, stockings, and clothing were lying at different places on the route and in the woods, perishing for want of teams."

1

...

279. Fortunately the English commanders were of second or third rate ability. Among the Americans, the war developed some excellent generals of the second rank,- Greene, Arnold, Marion, but many officers were incompetent or self-seeking or treacherous. After the first months, the faithful endurance of the common soldier was splendid. Said one observer, “Barefoot, he labors through Mud and Cold with a Song in his Mouth, extolling War and Washington." Yet at times even this soldiery was driven to conspiracy or open mutiny by the jealous unwillingness of Congress to make provision for their needs in the field or for their families at home.2

1 Lord North is reported to have said of the British generals, "I don't know whether they frighten the enemy, but I am sure they frighten me."

2 Said Washington: "In other countries, the prejudice against standing armies exists only in time of peace, and this because the troops are a distinct