Republic
vs. Democracy
by David
Barton
We have grown accustomed to
hearing that we are a democracy; such was never the intent. The form of
government entrusted to us by our Founders was a republic, not a democracy. 1
Our Founders had an opportunity to establish a democracy in
[D]emocracies 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. 2 James
Madison
Remember, democracy
never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was
a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. 3 John Adams
A democracy is a
volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will
produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. 4 The known
propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the
ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty. 5 Fisher
We have seen the
tumult of democracy terminate . . . as [it has] everywhere terminated, in
despotism. . . . Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of
folly and guilt. 6 Gouverneur Morris,
Signer and Penman of the Constitution
[T]he experience of
all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most
unstable, fluctuating and short-lived. 7 John Quincy
A simple democracy
. . . is one of the greatest of evils. 8 Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration
In democracy . . .
there are commonly tumults and disorders. . . . Therefore a pure democracy is
generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on
earth. 9 Noah Webster
Pure democracy
cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state, it is very subjet to
caprice and the madness of popular rage. 10 John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration
It may generally be
remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they
abound with disorder and confusion. 11 Zephaniah Swift, Author of
Many Americans today seem to
be unable to define the difference between the two, but there is a difference,
a big difference. That difference rests in the source of authority.
A pure democracy operates by
direct majority vote of the people. When an issue is to be decided, the entire
population votes on it; the majority wins and rules. A republic differs in that
the general population elects representatives who then pass laws to govern the
nation. A democracy is the rule by majority feeling (what the Founders described
as a "mobocracy" 12); a republic
is rule by law. If the source of law for a democracy is the popular feeling of
the people, then what is the source of law for the American republic? According
to Founder Noah Webster:
[O]
The transcendent values of
Biblical natural law were the foundation of the American republic. Consider the
stability this provides: in our republic, murder will always be a crime, for it
is always a crime according to the Word of God. however,
in a democracy, if majority of the people decide that murder is no longer a
crime, murder will no longer be a crime.
[W]here there is no
law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which
is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the
community. 15
In the American republic, the
"principles which did not change" and which were "certain and
universal in their operation upon all the members of the community" were
the principles of Biblical natural law. In fact, so firmly were these
principles ensconced in the American republic that early law books taught that
government was free to set its own policy only if God had not ruled in an area. For example, Blackstone's Commentaries explained:
To instance in the
case of murder: this is expressly forbidden by the Divine. . . . If any human
law should allow or enjoin us to commit it we are bound to transgress that
human law. . . . But, with regard to matters that are . . . not commanded or
forbidden by those superior laws such, for instance, as exporting of wool into
foreign countries; here the . . . legislature has scope and opportunity to
interpose. 16
The Founders echoed that
theme:
All [laws],
however, may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine. 2) Human. . . .
But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for
men or for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God. .
. . Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law
which is Divine. 17 James
Wilson, Signer of the Constitution;
[T]he law . . .
dictated by God Himself is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It
is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and
at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this. 18
Alexander Hamilton, Signer of the
Constitution
[T]he . . . law
established by the Creator . . . extends over the whole globe, is everywhere
and at all times binding upon mankind. . . . [This] is the law of God by which
he makes his way known to man and is paramount to all human control. 19
Rufus King, Signer of the Constitution
The Founders understood that
Biblical values formed the basis of the republic and that the republic would be
destroyed if the people's knowledge of those values should ever be lost.
A republic is the highest
form of government devised by man, but it also requires the greatest amount of
human care and maintenance. If neglected, it can deteriorate into a variety of
lesser forms, including a democracy (a government run by a small council or a
group of elite individuals): or dictatorship (a government run by a single
individual). As John Adams explained:
[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an
anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life
or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these
will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues
and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science,
to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable]
cruelty of one or a very few. 20
Understanding the foundation
of the American republic is a vital key toward protecting it.
1. An example
of this is demonstrated in the anecdote where, having concluded their work on
the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin walked outside and seated himself on a
public bench. A woman approached him and inquired, "Well, Dr. Franklin,
what have you done for us?"
2. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, The Federalist on the New Constitution
(Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1818), p. 53, #10, James Madison.
3. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second
President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles
C. Little and James Brown, 1850), Vol. VI, p. 484, to John Taylor on April 15,
1814.
4. Fisher Ames, Works
of Fisher Ames (Boston: T. B. Wait & Co., 1809), p. 24, Speech on
Biennial Elections, delivered January, 1788.
5.
6. Gouverneur Morris, An
Oration Delivered on Wednesday, June 29, 1814, at the Request of a Number of
Citizens of New-York, in Celebration of the Recent Deliverance of Europe from
the Yoke of Military Despotism (New York: Van Winkle and Wiley, 1814), pp.
10, 22.
7. John Quincy
8. Benjamin
Rush, The Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H.
Butterfield, editor (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the American
Philosophical Society, 1951), Vol. I, p. 523, to John Adams on
9. Noah
Webster, The American Spelling Book:
Containing an Easy Standard of Pronunciation: Being the First Part of a
Grammatical Institute of the English Language, To Which is Added, an Appendix,
Containing a Moral Catechism and a Federal Catechism (Boston: Isaiah Thomas
and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1801), pp. 103-104.
10. John Witherspoon, The
Works of John Witherspoon (Edinburgh: J. Ogle, 1815), Vol. VII, p. 101,
Lecture 12 on Civil Society.
11. Zephaniah Swift, A
System of the Laws of the State of
12. See, for example, Benjamin Rush, Letters, Vol. I, p. 498, to John Adams on
13. Noah Webster, History
of the
14. George
Bancroft, History of the
15. Rush, Letters,
Vol. I, p. 454, to David Ramsay, March or April 1788.
16. Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of
17. James
Wilson, The Works of the Honorable James
Wilson, Bird Wilson, editor (Philadelphia: Lorenzo Press, 1804), Vol. I, pp. 103-105, "Of the General Principles of Law and
Obligation."
18. Alexander Hamilton, The
Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett,
editor (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), Vol. I, p. 87,
19. Rufus King,
The Life and Correspondence of Rufus
King, Charles R. King, editor (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900), Vol.
VI, p. 276, to C. Gore on
20. John Adams, The Papers of
John Adams, Robert J. Taylor, editor (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977), Vol.
I, p. 83, from "An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, with the Author's
Comment in 1807," written on