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Why is the word "democracy" not in the preamble of the US Constitution?

Last Updated: 16.06.2025 09:20

Why is the word "democracy" not in the preamble of the US Constitution?

To Indians: “Pack up what belongings you can carry and start walking to Oklahoma. Your fertile lands are ours now. We voted fair and square and your side lost.”

Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them to despise and undervalue the rights of private persons.

—Alexis de Tocqueville

If we do not know the name of the father of a child, e.g. a foundling, an illegitimate, etc., then to whom should the bin or the binti of the child's name be applied?

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Majority-rules democracy is the way that majorities run roughshod over minorities, destroying rights and all ideas of equality under the law. No fair-minded person wants anything to do with democracy.

Meanwhile, when the Democratic Party formed in 1828, it was with a Tory outlook keen on robbing others of their rights:

Can being annoyed be a sign of getting angry?

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

[with republicanism being the rights-protecting form of governance afforded us by our Constitution]

To slaves: “You can forget your notions of freedom. We voted fair and square and your side lost.”

Why do men think all women are the same?

—Benjamin Franklin

Why? Try these on for size:

—Thomas Jefferson

What is your favourite summer outfit? Why?

To blacks: “You can’t drink from that water fountain… eat in this cafeteria… ride this bus… go to this school. We voted fair and square and your side lost.

I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either.

—John Adams

What can I do after 18 cops raided my home, without a warrant, seeking a person who didn't live there and wasn't there, and also went through all of my stuff? The person wasn't on the lease, and they didn't see him enter.

In other words, our Founding Fathers and other Whig intellects of that time well understood that democratic methods are the surefire means to do serious damage to the rights guaranteed under republican self-government.