will determine that.' Many nations have been called republics whose forms of government did not fulfil our conception of this term. Holland was called a republic, but no particle of its supreme authority was derived from the people. Rome was called a republic, but Rome, under the republic, was organized on a military basis, and the power of the people was very limited. Venice was called a republic, but in Venice absolute power was exercised over the great body of the people by a small body of hereditary nobles. Poland was called a republic, but the government of Poland was a bad mixture of aristocracy and monarchy. Athens was called a republic, but in Athens there were ten slaves to one freeman: the ruling citizenship was a mere handful. Thus we may recognize, from the history of political science, several kinds of republics :

An Oligarchic Republic, like Venice. This was a republic only in name; only a handful of nobles exercised their oppressions under an honorable title.

Varieties of

A Military Republic, like Rome. This was Republics. organized on a military plan for military purposes, that the whole power of the State might be used in quick, united action in conquest or defence.

A Federal Republic, like Switzerland or the United States, made up of minor states, also republics, united for common purposes.

A Centralized or National Republic, like France, with all powers of government exercised by the Central Government. The United States is, as we shall see, partly a Federal and partly a National Republic.

'Cooley, Constitutional Law, p. 195; Luther vs. Borden (1848); 7 Howard 42 (Rhode Island case), Federalist, Nos. 21, 43; Boyd, Cases on Constitutional Law, pp. 647-652; Cooley, Principles of Constitutional Law, pp. 194-198; Boutwell, The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century, pp. 343-350; Texas vs. White, Supreme Court Decision, 7 Wall 700.

A Democratic Republic, like Switzerland or the United States, in which the sovereign power is derived from and is exercised, either directly or indirectly, by the great body of the people.

Madison, in The Federalist, after noticing various misapplications of the term, defines a republic, in substance, as follows:

Madison's

"A Republic is a government which derives all its powers, directly or indirectly, from the great body of the people. It is administered by persons holding their offices Definition of either during pleasure or for a limited period, or Republic. during good behavior. It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from a small proportion or favored class. It is sufficient for such a government that the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just specified." "

Briefly, then, we may say, that a republic is a state in which the governmental power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives. This power, while it is derived from the people, must be exercised under a system of legal and constitutional restraints. The republic implies that the political and social impulses of the people are to be restrained by constitutional forms through which, only, the rule of the people may be made effective. Republican government may virtually exist under monarchical forms, as in England. There the government is essentially republican while nominally monarchical. But in the United States the republican form is specifically guaranteed by the Constitution.

The republican theory demands that every part of the people shall duly influence the acts of the state. The government shall not be in the hands of a class, or of a The Federalist, No. 39.

combination of classes. If a class can do what it will in the state it will often do less than justice toward other classes. The republic requires, for instance, that the state shall not act in such a way as to bring the nation into a war for the benefit of its aristocracy, or of its commercial class, while the war must be paid for with the money and lives of all the people. It will therefore stand, not only for equality of civil rights but for an equal distribution of political power.'

It will be seen, from what has been said, that ours is not an aristocratic republic, nor an oligarchic republic, but, rather, a democratic republic, a state in which the mass of the people are represented in the government. For this reason our nation is sometimes called a democracy.

A Democracy is the form of the state in which the sovereign power is exercised by the people

themselves.

A

Democracy.

The

may Be either Absolute or

tive.

In a Pure, or an Absolute Democracy, the government is by the simple direct action of the people, without other control than such as their own temperance or moral restraint may impose at the time of their Democracy assembly. It will be understood that a pure democracy cannot exist over any considerable Representaextent of territory. Only in little city republics, like those of ancient Greece or mediæval Italy, could all the citizens come together to make the laws. Although we may imagine the whole body of the people in a very little state making the laws it is very difficult, if not impossible, to imagine them as executing the laws. They must have their agents to do this.

"The whole people cannot operate the government any more than the whole of twenty people in an omnibus can drive the horses. Some one must drive as some one must govern.' 2 Ibid., p. 239.

1 Hosmer, The People and Politics.

The representative idea being introduced we find the Pure Democracy shading into

The Representative Democracy. Under this form the people, besides making the laws, elect executive and judicial agents to carry out the laws. This is a government in which the actual governing power is but one step removed from the people. The laws are ordered by and the governing agents are appointed by, and are directly responsible to, the people. In a government under the Initiative and Referendum, by which the people may secure a vote upon a proposal, and by their vote may issue a mandate to the law-forming body to incorporate the approved measure into law, and under which the enacting, executive, and judicial officers are appointed by, and are directly responsible to, the people,—such a government would be a Representative Democracy. Ours is sometimes called a Constitutional Democracy. This may be defined as a government in which the power of the people is exercised through representatives under constitutional restraints; a state in which the people have prescribed for themselves in a constitution the ways and means by which the people shall govern. The difference between the Constitutional Democracy and the Democratic Republic cannot be clearly defined. Broadly speaking, the distinction lies in the extent and directness of popular power. In proportion as the people rule directly, in that proportion do we tend from the Republican to the Democratic form. The election of the President, of United States Senators, and of Supreme Court Judges by direct vote of the people would, of course, make our Government more democratic.

Looking at this subject historically, it is clearly evident that the American Republic has grown much more democratic than it was in 1787. It was not the intention of the framers of the Constitution to form a Representative Democracy. The power was not to be easily and immedi

ately exercised at the popular behest. The final exercise of power was, in most cases, remote from the people. The government created by the Constitution

Our Fathers

stitutional

Republic,

sentative Democracy.

was a republic, with many and strong constitu- Made a Contional safeguards against the excesses of democracy. The framers of our Constitution felt not a Reprethat the evils from which they were then suffering had "their origin in the turbulence and follies of democracy, that the people would be the dupes of demagogues, and should have very little to do directly with the government. "They therefore proposed to "refine popular power by successive filtrations," as Madison expressed it. They would let popular power filter up and thereby become purer and safer at the top. The people might choose a State Legislature; the State Legislature might choose the National House of Representatives; the House might choose the Senate; the Senate might elect the President, and the President might appoint the Supreme Court, and the latter body, with its important functions of interpreting and applying the law, would be considered safely enough removed from the people. As Mr. Bryce says:

"The spirit of 1787 was conservative and its constitution was the least democratic of democracies."

Popular power democratic government was not

"filtered" so much as the illustration above would indicate; but the principle of the Constitutional Republic with its limitations on popular government is clearly involved in the Constitution,-as seen in the election of the President, the election of the Senate and the appointment of the Supreme Court. In the Republic, as distinguished from the Democracy, not only are the people constitu'Randolph, Sherman, and Gerry in the Constitutional Convention of

'Bryce, American Commonwealth, vol. i., p. 307.