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Basic Constitutional Concepts
instead of them. The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the
individuals composing it.’’
(4) Federalism makes it difficult for an unjust dictator or fanatical political party to seize power nationally and rule the whole country arbitrarily, having first taken the national capital (a process which has occurred repeatedly in centralized countries, among them France most
conspicuously). With a federal political structure, obedience to all orders
from a national capital is not automatic, and State or regional leaders can
resist political revolutions or coups d’etat through political means or per´
haps through State militia (as Thomas Jefferson thought Virginia’s State
militia might have occasion to resist the Federalist party in power at Washington). To gain dictatorial control over Germany in the 1930s, Adolf Hit-
Raising the Liberty Pole, 1776.
American revolutionaries frequently expressed their devotion to freedom by raising a
liberty pole in the town square. The Tree of Liberty and the Liberty Cap were other
favorite symbols. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)