Problems in American Democracy Part 73

6. Make a study of the forms of propaganda utilized in a single copy of any metropolitan newspaper.

7. To what extent does your local press give both sides of debatable questions?

II

8. The nature of Public Opinion. (Lowell, _Public Opinion and Popular Government_, chapters i and ii.)

9. Relation of Public Opinion to law. (Forman, _The American Democracy_, pages 235-238.)

10. Government by Public Opinion. (Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_, vol. ii, chapter lxxvii.)

11. The type of questions to which Public Opinion can apply. (Lowell, _Public Opinion and Popular Government_, chapter iv.)

12. The relation of tradition to Public Opinion. (Bryce, _Modern Democracies_, vol. i, chapter xiii.)

13. Private a.s.sociations for the advancement of group interests.

(Young, _The New American Government and its Work_, chapter xxvii.)

14. Tyranny of the majority. (Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_, vol.

ii, chapters lx.x.xiv and lx.x.xv.)

15. Att.i.tude of the individual in a democracy. (Speare and Norris, _World War Issues and Ideals_, pages 170-182.)

16. The obligations of citizenship. (Cleveland, _Organized Democracy_, chapter viii; Brewer, _American Citizenship_, chapters i-iv.)

17. The hindrances to good citizenship. (Bryce, _The Hindrances to Good Citizenship_.)

18. Leadership in a democracy. (Bryce, _Modern Democracies_, vol. ii, chapter lxxvi.)

19. Relation between freedom and responsibility. (Hadley, _The Relation between Freedom and Responsibility in the Evolution of Democratic Government_.)

20. The influence of ideals upon civic conduct. (Adams, _The Power of Ideals in American History_.)

21. Wherein Public Opinion fails. (Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_, vol. ii, chapter lx.x.xvi.)

22. Wherein Public Opinion succeeds. (Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_, vol. ii, chapter lx.x.xvii.)

FOR CLa.s.sROOM DISCUSSION

23. Suppose the public highways in your locality were in bad condition. How would you go about it to remedy the situation?

24. Which has more influence upon the opinions of people, the school or the press?

25. Are the Initiative and the Referendum adequate methods of ascertaining the prevailing state of Public Opinion?

26. Is freedom of speech an adequate safeguard of the rights of minorities?

27. To what extent, if to any, should Federal and state authorities distribute free literature concerning the nature and functions of American government?

28. How might cooperation in the study of civic problems be promoted in your community?

PART V--THE MECHANISM OF GOVERNMENT

A. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER x.x.xIX

THE FEDERAL SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

A. BACKGROUND OF THE FEDERAL CONSt.i.tUTION [Footnote: For a fuller discussion of the background of the Federal Const.i.tution, see Chapters II and III.]

493. COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS.--It is possible to cla.s.sify the American colonies as charter, royal, and proprietary, and to point out important differences between these three types.

But these differences fade in importance before the broad and fundamental similarities existing among the colonies. Just as there was among the colonies a substantial unity of race, language, and religion, so there was a basic similarity in political inst.i.tutions.

All of the colonies were under relatively the same degree of control by England, and consequently all of them had much the same degree of freedom in managing their own affairs. In each colony a governor acted as chief executive. In each colony, likewise, there was a legislature.

In most of the colonies this legislature consisted of two houses, the lower of which was elected by the people. Colonial jurisprudence everywhere grounded upon the common law of England. In each colony there was a system of courts, largely following English judicial procedure. In local government there was a good deal of variation among the colonies, but everywhere the English model was followed, and everywhere the principle of local autonomy was a.s.serted and championed.

494. EARLY ATTEMPTS AT UNION.--These fundamental similarities, together with the rise of common problems and the pressure of outside enemies, encouraged federation among the colonies. A notable attempt at union was made in 1643, when Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven united in a league of friendship, primarily for mutual defense against the Indians. This league rendered effective service during the forty years of its life. In 1754 delegates from seven colonies met at Albany and adopted a plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin. The project was never carried through, but it is significant as indicating the trend toward union. Still later (1765) the Stamp Act Congress showed that the delegates of at least nine colonies could join in a protest against England's taxation policy.

The two Continental Congresses may also be considered as steps toward union. The first of these (1774) concerned itself chiefly with a declaration of rights and grievances, but the second (1775-1781) went so far as to a.s.sume and exercise revolutionary powers.

495. THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.--Impelled by the necessity of a united front against England, the Second Continental Congress sought to give force to the Declaration of Independence by drawing up a comprehensive plan of union. This plan, embodied in the Articles of Confederation, was put into operation on March 1, 1781. The new government was a confederation or league of states, rather than a federal government such as we have to-day. The states gave up such important powers as the right to declare war, and the right to borrow and coin money, but the Articles specifically declared that "each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this federation delegated to the United States in Congress a.s.sembled."

The Confederation government was seriously defective. There was no national executive and no judiciary. All authority was concentrated in a one-chambered congress, the delegates to which were entirely under the control of the state legislatures which chose them. The central government had no real authority or power. Its congress could reach the individual only through the action of the state governments, and these it could not coerce. The Confederation government managed to carry the states through the last two years of the war, and then declined rapidly in power and influence. The Congress could not force the states to cooperate with one another in matters of national interest. The inability of the central government, either to pay the interest on the national debt or to force the states to observe treaties which we made with foreign powers, cost us the respect of Europe. "We were bullied by England," writes John Fiske of this period, "insulted by France, and looked askance at in Holland."

The defects of the Articles could not be remedied, for amendment was by unanimous consent only, and on every occasion that an amendment was proposed, one or more states refused their a.s.sent. By 1786 it was the conviction of most American statesmen that if the country were to be saved from anarchy and ruin the central government would have to be reorganized.

496. THE CONSt.i.tUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787.--In May, 1787, delegates from every state except Rhode Island came together in Philadelphia to consider "means necessary to render the Const.i.tution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

Early in the session Edmund Randolph introduced what has been called the Virginia plan. This called for an abandonment of the Articles of Confederation and demanded the establishment of a strong national government. The Virginia plan favored the larger and more populous states by providing a national Congress of two houses, in both of which representation was to be on the basis of population.

Of the several other plans put before the Convention the most notable was that proposed by William Paterson of New Jersey. The adherents of this plan wished to retain the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were to be revised so as to give greater powers to the central government, but in most practical concerns the states were to continue sovereign. The New Jersey plan opposed the idea of a two-chambered legislature in which the states were to be represented on the basis of population. If representation in both houses of Congress were on the basis of population, it was declared, the larger and more populous states would be able to dominate the National government and the rights of the smaller states would be inadequately safeguarded.

After a long debate a compromise plan was adopted. It was agreed that there should be established a strong national government, but one sufficiently checked by const.i.tutional provisions to safeguard the rights of the states. The national legislature was to consist of two houses. In the upper house the states were to be represented equally, while in the lower chamber representation was to be on the basis of population.

497. THE NEW GOVERNMENT.--The Convention completed the Const.i.tution on September 17, 1787, and the doc.u.ment was immediately placed before the states. By the summer of 1788 the necessary number of states had ratified the Const.i.tution, and on April 30, 1789, the new government was put to work under George Washington as first President.

The English statesman Gladstone has implied that our Const.i.tution was an original creation, "struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." But as a matter of fact the Const.i.tution was not so much the result of political originality as it was a careful selection from British and colonial experience. The trial of the Confederation government had proved especially valuable, and in drawing up the Federal Const.i.tution, the members of the Const.i.tutional Convention were careful to avoid the defects of the Articles of Confederation.

The most fundamental difference between the Confederation government and the new Federal government was that the Federal Const.i.tution provided for an adequate executive and judiciary to enforce the Federal laws directly upon the individual. The Confederation government, it will be remembered, had been obliged to rely upon the states for the enforcement of all laws.

B. FRAMEWORK OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT