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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 1547078" data-attributes="member: 56035"><p>here ill quote the founding fathers themselves:</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>"When I mention the public, I mean to include only the rational part of it. The ignorant and vulgar are as unfit to judge of the modes [of government], as they are unable to manage [its] reins."</strong></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>President of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay "The people who own the country ought to govern it."</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>In the debates on the Constitution, Madison pointed out that if elections in England" were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place," giving land to the landless. The Constitutional system must be designed to prevent such injustice and "secure the permanent interests of the country," which are property rights.</strong></span></strong></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>The people are a "great beast" that must be tamed, his colleague Alexander Hamilton declared. Rebellious and independent farmers had to be taught, sometimes by force, that the ideals of the revolutionary pamphlets were not to be taken too seriously. The common people were not to be represented by countrymen like themselves, who know the people's sores, but by gentry, merchants, lawyers, and other "responsible men" who could be trusted to defend privilege.</strong></span></strong></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Among Madisonian scholars, there is a consensus that "the Constitution was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period," delivering power to a "better sort" of people and excluding those who were not rich, well born, or prominent from exercising political power (Lance Banning). The primary responsibility of government is "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority," Madison declared. That has been the guiding principle of the democratic system from its origins until today.</strong></span></strong></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Madison foresaw that the threat of democracy was likely to become more severe over time because of the increase in "the proportion of those who will labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings." They might gain influence, Madison feared. He was concerned by the "symptoms of a leveling spirit" that had already appeared, and warned "of the future danger" if the right to vote would place "power over property in hands without a share in it." Those "without property, or the hope of acquiring it, cannot be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its rights," Madison explained. His solution was to keep political power in the hands of those who "come from and represent the wealth of the nation," the "more capable set of men," with the general public fragmented and disorganized...</strong></span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 1547078, member: 56035"] here ill quote the founding fathers themselves: [SIZE=3][B]"When I mention the public, I mean to include only the rational part of it. The ignorant and vulgar are as unfit to judge of the modes [of government], as they are unable to manage [its] reins."[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B]President of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay "The people who own the country ought to govern it."[/B] [B][SIZE=3][B]In the debates on the Constitution, Madison pointed out that if elections in England" were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place," giving land to the landless. The Constitutional system must be designed to prevent such injustice and "secure the permanent interests of the country," which are property rights.[/B][/SIZE][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3] [B][SIZE=3][B]The people are a "great beast" that must be tamed, his colleague Alexander Hamilton declared. Rebellious and independent farmers had to be taught, sometimes by force, that the ideals of the revolutionary pamphlets were not to be taken too seriously. The common people were not to be represented by countrymen like themselves, who know the people's sores, but by gentry, merchants, lawyers, and other "responsible men" who could be trusted to defend privilege.[/B][/SIZE][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3] [B][SIZE=3][B]Among Madisonian scholars, there is a consensus that "the Constitution was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period," delivering power to a "better sort" of people and excluding those who were not rich, well born, or prominent from exercising political power (Lance Banning). The primary responsibility of government is "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority," Madison declared. That has been the guiding principle of the democratic system from its origins until today.[/B][/SIZE][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][SIZE=3][B]Madison foresaw that the threat of democracy was likely to become more severe over time because of the increase in "the proportion of those who will labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings." They might gain influence, Madison feared. He was concerned by the "symptoms of a leveling spirit" that had already appeared, and warned "of the future danger" if the right to vote would place "power over property in hands without a share in it." Those "without property, or the hope of acquiring it, cannot be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its rights," Madison explained. His solution was to keep political power in the hands of those who "come from and represent the wealth of the nation," the "more capable set of men," with the general public fragmented and disorganized...[/B][/SIZE] [/B][/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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