35. THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL.—We have not purchased strength and stability at the expense of personal freedom, for both Federal and state constitutions specifically safeguard the rights of the individual. The fundamental guarantees set forth in the Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights were cherished by the American colonists, and in 1791 they formed the basis of the first ten Amendments to the Federal Constitution. Provisions similarly designed to safeguard individual rights are found in the constitution of every state in the Union. [Footnote: For an enumeration of these rights, see the first ten Amendments to the Federal Constitution, Appendix. Consult also the Bill of Rights in the constitution of your state.] From the beginning of our national history a fundamental principle of American government has been to allow the individual as much freedom of thought and action as is compatible with the general welfare.

36. CONTROL BY THE PEOPLE.—Under American constitutional government, sovereignty resides with the people as a whole, though the people act through their chosen representatives. There is no power in American government beyond that created or permitted by the people themselves. The suffrage, so narrowly restricted in the eighteenth century, has since widened to include the great majority of adults, both male and female. Elections are frequent, so that ill-chosen officials may not long abuse their position. The Initiative, the Referendum and the Recall are methods of popular control which in many sections are spreading. Constitutional amendment in the United States is not easy; on the other hand, if any considerable percentage of the voters evince a sustained desire for change, an amendment is the normal result. [Footnote: In Part IV of the text we shall consider the dangers of an over-extension of popular control; here it is only necessary to point out that American government is essentially government by the people.]

37. EFFICIENCY.—The division of functions between the Federal and state governments on the one hand, and between state and local governments on the other, provides a solid foundation for the economical administration of government.

The Federal government attends to most matters which are of national importance, and which cannot properly be looked after by the states individually. For example, foreign relations, the postal service, and the coinage of money, are Federal functions. The separation of Federal and state functions is not always clear, but such matters as contracts, property rights, crime, and education are probably best administered by the state. There is, similarly, no sharp dividing line between the functions of state and local governments, but at present it appears that the local authorities are the most efficient administrators of roads and bridges, water and paving, the elementary schools, and similar concerns.

The essential economy of this threefold division of functions is that each of the three sets of officials tends to concern itself with those matters with which it is best acquainted, and which are most advantageously administered by it.

38. UNITY.—The earlier European critics of our government declared that the division of powers between Federal and state governments would encourage civil strife. It is true that this division of powers has resulted in a decentralized rather than in a centralized form of government. It is equally true that the quarrel over states' rights was the fundamental cause of the Civil War. But that war settled the question of states' rights once and for all, and there has never again been any serious question as to the proper status of states and Union. American democracy has been found compatible with unity.

Nor has the decentralized character of American government kept us from presenting a united front in foreign wars. The concentration of war powers in the hands of President Lincoln during the Civil War was matched by the temporary dictatorship wielded by President Wilson during the World War. In both cases, the national executive became, for the period of the emergency, as powerful and as efficient as the executive of a highly centralized monarchy. This ability to exhibit unity of control and singleness of purpose in war-time enables us to claim for our form of government one of the most important assets of the centralized monarchy.

39. THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS.—Certainly one test of good government is the extent to which it renders the masses of the people happy and prosperous. American government has not yet exhausted the possibilities of helpfulness, but one of the chief aims of our political system is to encourage the individual in every pursuit which is legal and honorable. Lord Bryce has called America the land of Hope, because in spite of the defects of American government, a feeling of buoyancy and optimism is characteristic of our political institutions. America might also be called the land of Sane Endeavor, for we lend force and justification to our optimism by consistently working for the attainment of our ideals. To improve every condition of American life, and yet to work in harmony with the principles of constitutional government, that is our ideal. Progress must come through authorized channels, for, as Abraham Lincoln has said, "a majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing with the deliberate changes of popular opinion and sentiment, is the only true sovereign of a free people, and whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or despotism."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. Upon what does the fate of a democracy depend?