This distribution of independent powers of government, according to the respective needs of local and general administration, all comprehended in organic union, is the contribution of America to the advance of political science, and it has been evolved from the old Whig doctrine. CHAPTER V CLASS RULE THE Constitutional history of the United States begins with the establishment of the government of the masses by the classes. It was expected as a matter of course that the gentry would control every branch of the government. "The administration of government, in its larger sense," remarked Hamilton, "comprehends all the operations of the body politic, whether legislative, executive, or judiciary." This unity was to be maintained by the fact that the conduct of public affairs would be a part of the activity of good society, enmeshed in its usual ambitions, enjoyments, and habits of intercourse. Who, save the gentry, would have the means or ability to attend to such matters? The common people were not regarded as having any direct part in the government at all. It was admitted that "there are strong minds in every walk of life that will rise superior to the disadvantages of their situation, and will command the tribute due to their merit, not only from the classes to which they particularly belong, but from the society in general," but these "are exceptions to the rule." 1 The Federalist, No. 72. "The representative body, with too few exceptions to have any influence on the spirit of the government, will be composed of landholders, merchants, and men of the learned professions." 1 The checks and balances of the constitution were regarded, not as restraints upon the government itself, but as restraints upon the classes who would have possession of the government, to keep them from abusing their trusts for individual advantage. By giving a different constitution to the various branches of government, it was intended to counteract class selfishness by creating antagonistic interests. "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition," said Madison. "The interests of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place."2 John Adams wrote, "It is the true policy of the common people to place the whole executive power in one man, to make him a distinct order in the state, from whence arises an inevitable jealousy between him and the rest of the gentlemen; this forces him to become the father and protector of the common people, and to endeavor always to humble every proud aspiring senator, or other officer in the state, who is in danger of acquiring an influence too great for the law or the spirit of the constitution." 3 And again, "If the people are sufficiently enlightened to see all the dangers that 1 The Federalist, Nos. 35, 36. 2 Ibid., No. 51. surround them, they will always be represented by a distinct personage to manage the whole executive power; a distinct Senate, to be guardians of property against levellers for the purposes of plunder, to be a repository of the national tradition of public maxims, customs, and manners, and to be controllers in turn both of kings and ministers on one side, and the representatives of the people on the other, when either discover a disposition to do wrong; and a distinct House of Representatives, to be the guardian of the public purse and to protect the people, in their turn, against both kings and nobles." 1 A government constituted on these principles was obviously not a republic, in the sense in which we use the word, as implying popular rule. A title fairly descriptive of its nature was that applied to it by John Adams, in some correspondence with Roger Sherman, at the time of the adoption of the constitution. He called it "a monarchical republic"; but it must not be supposed that there is in the term any intimation of a hybrid or unique species of government. In his writings on government, Adams had classified England under the same title; and in now applying it to America he meant simply that it, too, was a monarchy, in that the custody of the executive power was an individual trust, and that it was also republican, inasmuch as the constitution provided for the represen1 Adams' Works, Vol. VI., pp. 117, 118. tation of the people. It is quite plain that this was the view taken by the authors of the Federalist, though not so bluntly stated. The new government is always referred to as republican; but Madison explained that by republic he means "a government in which the scheme of representation takes place"-a definition which includes England quite as well as America. He argued that the new government should by no means be classed with the democratic republics of antiquity, in which the people ruled. "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Means must be provided "to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens whose wisdom may best discern the true interests of their country."1 "The true distinction between these (ancient republics) and the American governments lies in the total exclu 1 The Federalist, No. 10. Adams in one of his letters remarks that in England a republican was regarded as unamiably as a witch or blasphemer. According to Jefferson's Anas something of this prejudice against the word lingered in Washington's mind. Jefferson relates that on May 23, 1793, Washington called his attention to the word "republic" in the draft of a state paper, with the remark that it was a word "which he had never before seen in any of our public communications." On November 28, Jefferson records his satisfaction that the expression "our republic" had |