The President, The Members Of Congress, And To A Still
Greater Extent The Members Of The State Legislatures, Are The
Delegates
of a tyrannical majority rather than the representatives of the people.
The million succeeds in exacting an amount of
Cringing political
subserviency, in attempting to obtain which, in a like degree, few despots
have been successful.
The absence of a property qualification, the short term for which the
representatives are chosen, and the want, in many instances, of a
pecuniary independence among them, combined with a variety of other
circumstances, place the members of the Legislatures under the direct
control of the populace; they are its servile tools, and are subject to
its wayward impulses and its proverbial fickleness; hence the remarkable
absence of any fixed line of policy. The public acts of America are
isolated; they appear to be framed for the necessities of the moment,
under the influence of popular clamour or pressure; and sometimes seem
neither to recognise engagements entered into in the past, or the probable
course of events in the future. America does not possess a traditional
policy, and she does not recognise any broad and well-defined principle as
the rule for her conduct. The national acts of spoliation or meanness
which have been sanctioned by the Legislature may be distinctly traced to
the manner in which the primary elections are conducted. It is difficult,
if not impossible, for the European governments to do more than guess at
the part which America will take on any great question - whether, in the
event of a collision between nations, she will observe an impartial
neutrality, or throw the weight of her influence into the scale of liberty
or despotism.
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