And in a democracy, we allow a majority to make our decisions.
So, on one hand you have a government that is a Republic. “
The purpose of government,” said Thomas Jefferson, “
is to allow for the preservation of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Any other function assumed by government is usurpation and oppression.
"
It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure." James Madison, Federalist Paper # 51
Alexander Hamilton asserted that "
We are now forming a Republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of a dictatorship." Hamilton, in the last letter he ever wrote, warned that "
our real disease is DEMOCRACY."
Thomas Jefferson declared: "
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
Benjamin Franklin had similar concerns of a democracy when he warned that “
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” After the Constitutional Convention was concluded, in 1787, a bystander inquired of Franklin: "
Well, Doctor, what have we gota Republic or a Monarchy?" Franklin replied, "
A Republic, if you can keep it."
John Adams, our second president, wrote: “
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.”
James Madison, the father of the Constitution wrote in Federalist Paper No. 10 that pure democracies “
have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been 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.”
The Constitution itself, in Article IV, Section 4, declares: "
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” Obviously the Framers were not speaking of a political party, as no political parties existed at that time. The Pledge of Allegiance, although not a founding document, does strike the right chord when it asks Americans to
"pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands."
Maybe you're right. America was founded as an anti-democratic country. Then again, maybe there is a reason. A democracy, on the other hand, is a dangerous form of government.