The Spirit of American Government
A STUDY OF THE CONSTITUTION: ITS ORIGIN,INFLUENCE AND RELATIONTO DEMOCRACY
BY
J. ALLEN SMITH, LL.B., Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCEUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
The Chautauqua Press
CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK
MCMXI
Copyright, 1907,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Printed April, 1907. Reprinted March, 1911.
Norwood Press:
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE
[Pg v]It is the purpose of this volume to trace the influence of ourconstitutional system upon the political conditions which exist in thiscountry to-day. This phase of our political problems has not receivedadequate recognition at the hands of writers on American politics. Veryoften indeed it has been entirely ignored, although in the short periodwhich has elapsed since our Constitution was framed and adopted, theWestern world has passed through a political as well as an industrialrevolution.
In the eighteenth century the majority was outside of the pale ofpolitical rights. Government as a matter of course was the expression ofthe will of a minority. Even in the United States, where hereditary rulewas overthrown by the Revolution, an effective and recognized minoritycontrol still survived through the property qualifications for thesuffrage and for office-holding, which excluded a large proportion ofthe people from participation in political affairs. Under suchconditions there could be but little of what is now known as democracy.Moreover, slavery continued to exist upon a large scale for nearly[Pg vi]three-quarters of a century after the Constitution was adopted, and wasfinally abolished only within the memory of many now living.
It could hardly be expected that a political system set up for acommunity containing a large slave population and in which the suffragewas restricted, even among the free whites, should in any large measureembody the aims and ideas of present day democracy. In fact the AmericanConstitution did not recognize the now more or less generally acceptedprinciple of majority rule even as applying to the qualified voters.Moreover, it was not until several decades after the Constitution wasadopted that the removal of property qualifications for voting allowedthe people generally to have a voice in political affairs.
The extension of the suffrage was a concession to the growing belief indemocracy, but it failed to give the masses an effective control overthe general government, owing to the checks in the Constitution onmajority rule. It had one important consequence, however, which shouldnot be overlooked. Possession of the suffrage by the people generallyled the undiscriminating to think that it made the opinion of themajority a controlling factor in national politics.
Our political writers have for the most part passed lightly over theundemocratic features of the Constitution and left the uncritical readerwith the impression that universal suffrage under[Pg vii] our system ofgovernment ensures the rule of the majority. It is this conservativeapproval of the Constitution under the guise of sympathy with