But true it is, whatever a people constantly assert they come to
believe, and whatever they believe will at last crystallize itself in
action. And thus, with the oft-repeated and ever-increasing assertion
that 'man is his own end,' and 'is sufficient unto himself,' and with
that other assertion that the will of the people is law and must act
directly upon its object, we have gradually lost out of mind the true
significance of the constitutional system. Those numberless intermediary
institutions--which logically _grew_ out of the Christian idea of
mediation, as the oak naturally grows out of the acorn, and which
wonderfully reconciled liberty with authority, freedom with order, the
finite with the infinite--have become more and more obsolete, and less
and less understood. They have crumbled away like the stately columns of
a magnificent but neglected cathedral. They have become dead branches
that must be lopped off. They are rubbish that must be removed--relics
of monarchy or aristocracy, cunningly devised inventions of priestcraft
or kingcraft, that retard the triumph of democracy.
If the will of the people is supreme, then away with your high and
life-long judges, or at least let them be elected by the people and for
very brief terms. Let grand juries be voted a humbug, and trial by jury
a nuisance. Let electoral colleges be abolished as meaningless and
cumbersome anomalies. Let the President be the direct representative of
a mighty people, and act without let or hindrance--only let him act with
gigantic energy and swift execution.
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