Is it true that 'our democratic institutions are now on trial?'
Everybody, or nearly everybody, says so. _The London Times_ says so, and
is or has been gloating over their failure. Many of our 'able editors'
say so, and are trying desperately to prove that they will not fail.
Thus, while there is a wide difference in opinion as to what may be the
result, there seems to be a quite general agreement as to the fact that
the trial is going on. There appears to be no suspicion that the
question is not properly stated. Doubtless the assertion will excite
surprise, if heeded at all, that in fact the great struggle here and now
is _not_ between aristocracy or despotism on the one hand, and democracy
on the other. Most people in the United States have come to entertain
the fixed idea that the only natural political antagonisms are
democratic as opposed to despotic in any and all shapes. And this idea
has become so ingrained in the American mind that it will be difficult
to gain credence for the assertion that the terms constitutionalism and
absolutism represent the forces or systems which, have really been
antagonistic ever since Christianity began to affect and animate social
and political relations.
It may be a new idea to many readers that absolutism can be democratic,
as well as aristocratic or autocratic. Yet such is the fact, and the
whole history of Greece and Rome proves it. Plato, the friend of the
people, taught the absolute power of the state--of the power holder,
whoever that might be, whether the people, the aristocracy, the
triumvirate, the archon, or the consul.
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