The merit of the statesmen
of 1787 is that they did not destroy or deface the work of
Providence, but accepted it, and organized the government in
harmony with the real orders the real elements given them. They
suffered themselves in all their positive substantial work to be
governed by reality, not by theories and speculations. In this
they proved themselves statesmen, and their work survives; and
the republic, laugh as sciolists may, is, for the present and
future, the model republic--as much so as was Rome in her day;
and it is not simply national pride nor American self-conceit
that pronounces its establishment the beginning of a new and
more advanced order of civilization; such is really the fact.
The only apparently weak point in the system is in the
particular States themselves. Feudalism protected the feudal
aristocracy effectively for a time against both the king and the
people, but left the king and the, people without protection
against the aristocracy, and hence it fell. It was not adequate
to the wants of civil society, did not harmonize all social
elements, and protect all social and individual rights and
interests, and therefore could not but fail. The General
government takes care of public authority and rights; the State
protects private rights and personal freedom as against the
General government: but what protects the citizens in their
private rights, their personal freedom and independence, against
the particular State government? Universal suffrage, answers
the democrat.
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