The Rights of the People

NOTE

Nothing in this chapter is to be constructed to convey the idea that in the action of “the people of the United States” the States are ignored. Not at all. The people of the United States, acting as such, do not act as a whole, but in divisions according to their respective States. The government of the United States, though distinct and separate from that of the States, is yet not a democracy in which the people act in a mass; but it is as truly a republic in which the people act through representatives, as is the government of the States. In all things in which the people act as the people of the United States, they do so through representatives chosen by themselves from within their respective States. Even the President, who, more than any other, is the representative of all the people, is not. directly chosen-voted for-by the people. No; the people in their respective States vote for electors chosen from among themselves in their respective States, and these electors elect the President. In all things the form of government, whether State or national, is republican; that is, the form in which the people govern and act is through representatives chosen by themselves. ROP 80.7