The views of the Founders on the subject of democracy are complicated and difficult to articulate in sound bites. On the one hand, the Founders championed seating power in the people of the nation rather than an aristocracy or a monarch. On the other hand, they all feared the power of King Mob and the tyranny of the majority over a minority. To that end, the Constitution is filled with a number of measures that prevent the majoritarian rule of simple democracy.
The government was never seen by the Founders as a provider of anything but a very generalized common security. Laws were seen as more important than men. At best, the government was seen as a necessary evil to allow for the continued functioning of a peaceful society. Those who sought power through the government, rather than seeking to serve their countrymen, were implicitly distrusted.
“It has been observed by an honorable gentleman, that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved, that no position in politics is more false than this. The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”
Alexander Hamilton, Speech to Congress, June 21, 1788
“When annual elections end, there slavery begins.”
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
“Great confusion about the words democracy, aristocracy, monarchy…Democracy in my sense, where the whole power of the government in the people, whether exercised by themselves or by representatives, chosen by them either mediately or immediately and legally accountable to them…Consequence, the proposed government a representative democracy…Constitution revocable and alterable by the people. This representative democracy as far as is consistent with its genius has all the features of good government.”
Alexander Hamilton, on the Constitution, 1788
“It always has been, and will continue to be, my earnest desire to learn and to comply, as far as is consistent, with the public sentiment; but it is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.”
George Washington, Letter to Edward Carrington, May 1, 1796
“Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow – but the people will be right at last.”
George Washington, Letter to Marquis de Lafayette, July 25, 1785
“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to W. C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Hunter, 1790
“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
For more quotes on government check out the complete Founding Fathers quotes collection here.
New submission :
Fuck the fucking fuckers , before the fucking fuckers fuck you.
Founder S.E.A.L. Team Six – Demo Dickie.
Huh?
I think that’s Stucky.
Stucky founded Seal Team Six eh?
Meal team six, aka, the gravy seals
He loves the Fbombs as much as Leftist Female comedians.
Richard Marcinko
The Rogue Warrior® ‘s first few books were quite hilarious too – I knew several of the types he’d often disparage.
They were brilliant because they understood human behavior. But they were fallible (also published on TBP):
Trump’s Kangaroo court and the Judge that should be disbarred reviewed very well by an old pro.
“Today there is no check on partisan reporting of trials and exaggerations and personal opinions are rampant. The American public is the loser.”
https://nypost.com/2024/05/21/opinion/i-was-inside-the-court-when-the-judge-closed-the-trump-trial-and-what-i-saw-shocked-me/
From (wikipedaphile)
The Franklin Prophecy, sometimes called the Franklin Forgery, is an antisemitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warning of the supposed dangers of admitting Jews to the nascent United States. The speech was purportedly transcribed by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but was unknown before its appearance in 1934 in the pages of William Dudley Pelley’s Silver Legion pro-Nazi magazine Liberation. No evidence exists for the document’s authenticity, and some of Pelley’s claims have actively been disproven.[1]
SpeechThe setting for the speech is a dinner table discussion purportedly recorded by Pinckney during the convention of the Continental Congress. Primarily, it is a polemic arguing against permitting Jewish immigration into the newly formed United States. The text is as follows:[2]
Democracy is a process, not a form of government.
In a Constitutional Republic, almost all law is supposed to be dictated by the Constitution. The small minority of issues that are not covered by the Constitution, can be voted on by the people.
99% of all laws passed by Congress, are unconstitutional, and should never have been passed in the first place.
The real problem is, that the Congress has become a tyrannical body of dictators. Congress was never empowered with any decision making powers. They were intended to be the representatives of their Districts and States, and to vote in Congress based on the consensus of their Constituent’s. When was the last time your Congressman or Senator polled you on your opinion on anything?
When elected Representatives take upon themselves the power to make decisions, they then become subject to corruption, and having their votes influenced by monied interests, that is why they were never intended to be decision makers.