254
The Achievement of the Philadelphia Convention
Rome, for example, were called republics, but their limited franchise
gave them an aristocratic character. Venice was styled a republic though
absolute power was exercised by a small body of hereditary nobles. In
the modern world, the term republic is so much abused that even despotic
regimes apply it to their forms of government. Thus the Russians called
their system the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), implying
that it was both federal and republican. In actuality it was a centralized
form of government, governed by an elite cadre of Communist Party
members who were neither chosen by, nor politically responsible to, the
people.
James Madison, in The Federalist, stated that ‘‘The two points of difference between a democracy and a republic, are, first, the delegation of the
government, in the latter to a number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens and the greater sphere of country
over which the latter may be extended.’’ The American republic, according
to Madison, then, was more precisely understood as a democratic and extended (or federal) republic, encompassing a broad geographical area and
a large population. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, thought that ‘‘the
first principle of republicanism’’ was simply rule by the majority. Perhaps
the best definition is that offered by Judge Thomas Cooley of Michigan in
his classic work, Principles of Constitutional Law (1890): ‘‘By a republican
form of government is understood a government by representatives chosen by the people; and it contrasts on the one side with a democracy, in
which the people or community as one organized whole wield the sovereign powers of government, and, on the other side, with the rule of one
man, as king, emperor, czar, or sultan, or with that of one class of men, as
an aristocracy.’’
A republic seemed to be the only possibility for the United States in
1787. The Americans had no royal family, no hereditary nobility; and few
of the delegates were inclined toward the idea of a king, even if elected.
Most of the delegates did see the need, however, for an executive head
and a judiciary as well as a representative assembly—something lacking
under the Articles. The word ‘‘democracy’’ was often used in the convention as a term of opprobrium and disgrace, because ‘‘democracy’’ was
then understood to mean mob rule. Shays’ Rebellion, fresh in the minds
of the Framers and put down earlier that fateful year of 1787, was what