The Founders held great mistrust for democracy. They did desire democratic principles. They did not want a democracy for our form of government. America’s founders were widely read. They knew the work of Plato who wrote in The Republic, “And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”
Our history from James Madison
As Plato decrees, a democracy can easily be commandeered. It is one short step from establishment of a totalitarian state. The Founders did grok this. They wholly and heartily rejected forming a democracy. That’s our history from the founding era.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 10 “… 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…”
Madison goes on to explain in Federalist 10 how this very same “erroneous” belief destroys property rights. Such belief held by collectivists destroys what is foundational to any free society:
“Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.”
Values and principles
In The Republic, Plato writes that the loss of principles sends a democracy spiraling into tyranny.
“[T]he neglect of other things,” writes Plato, “introduce the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny.”
Just as Samuel warned the Israelites as their principles and Faith wane, Plato too warns about what now befalls the United States. With each Presidential cycle, more Americans demand a powerful strongman to ease their suffering. Please take care of me. Falsely and foolishly believe we are a democracy.
“[T]he same disease magnified and intensified by liberty overmasters democracy … the truth being that the excessive increase in anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction… The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess slavery… And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”
Arthur Lee in Anti Federalist No. 64 gives a description of a democracy. “… A democracy, which, thus bereft of its powers, and shorn of its strength, will stand a melancholy monument of popular impotence…” This is not exactly raving support of such governmental structure. It sure seems to be disclosing the distain our Founders had for such a political structure.
Did you know?
Did you know the word “democracy” appears nowhere in either the Declaration of Independence? Were you aware it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution? In fact, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees “to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” This today seems remarkable given all the political rhetoric about “our democracy”.
James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, said it this way. We are to exist under “republican constitutions…” Madison was referencing both the Federal Constitution and the State Constitutions. He pointedly was not writing about constitutions under a democracy.
The functional deficiency of a democracy is unprotected majority rule; tyranny of the majority. The majority simply cannot rule otherwise. It can and will, simply vote in advantages. This will include the theft from and destruction of the minority. This is the reason for a moral compact recognizing Fundamental Right. This is why America’s Founders recognized our Natural Right. These were and are rights bestowed upon each individual by our Creator.
The one place in the world
America is the one place in the world where, regardless of majority opinion or vote, man’s Natural Rights remain, always. In America the natural rights of the individual are utterly undisturbed by others. Neither the government nor the majority can abridge or restrict them. The only purpose of our civil government is to protect the Natural Rights of the individual.
Adam Smith made this clear in 1759 writing in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” that, “… All government is but an imperfect remedy for the deficiency of [wisdom and virtue]…” He was acknowledging the fallen nature of man, as did our Founding Fathers.
The rights of the individual
Edward Erler, expounds this point, writing in “From Subjects to Citizens: The Social Compact Origins of American Citizenship” Quite often the voice of the majority is completely irrelevant.
“… The majority cannot invade the rights of the minority…Nor can unanimous consent ‘rightfully’ do what is intrinsically unjust…Majority rule itself can operate only within certain bounds…”
The voice of the majority is bound to the sovereign rights of the individual. The individual rights which God bequeaths upon each of us at Creation.
Jenna Ellis says it this way in “The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution” “… It does not matter to Divine Law whether an individual “agrees” with biblical principles … we are not free under Divine Law to negotiate the fixed, objective scientific and construct of law.” Natural Law, God’s Law, is immutable and immovable. This is why America is a conscious republic, not a democracy. The Founders held great mistrust for democracy.