James Madison on republics vs. democracies (Tara Ross): December 18, 1825, James Madison writes a letter. In it, he takes a moment to discuss the reasons that our Constitution does *not* create a simple democracy. Instead, we have a republican government, with power divided between the national and state governments. The full quote is here: "All power in human hands is liable to be abused. In Governmts. independent of the people, the rights & interests of the whole may be sacrificed to the views of the Governmt. In Republics, where the people govern themselves, and where of course the majority Govern, a danger to the minority, arises from opportunities tempting a sacrifice of their rights to the interests real or supposed of the Majority. No form of Govt. therefore can be a perfect guard agst. the abuse of Power. The recommendation of the Republican form is that the danger of abuse is less than in any other; and the superior recommendation of the federo-Republican system is, that whilst it provides more effectually against external danger, it involves a greater security to the minority against the hasty formation of oppressive majorities."

James Madison - 4th U.S. President and primary author of the Constitution: "But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks--no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."

"In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any." --James Madison, Federalist No. 14, 1787 ..."Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution." --James Madison, Federalist No. 39, 1788

"There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; for the true idea of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.' That,as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the law, is the best of republics." --John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

"Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms." - Aristotle (384-322 BC)

"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query XIX, 1782

o The Constitution: A Nation of States - (PragerU Video 5:34) Kurt Lash - How did thirteen separate colonies become the United States of America? The answer is found in the second half of the American Constitution, Articles IV through VII. Kurt Lash, Professor of Law at the University of Richmond, explains. The first half of the Constitution, Articles I, II and III discuss the powers of the three branches of the national government. The second half of the Constitution, Articles IV through VII discuss the relationship between the national government and the states. These four articles don't get the attention of the first three, but that doesn't mean they're any less important. Take a closer look with the video.

o Republics and Democracies - By  Robert Welch ...Madison and Hamilton and Jay and their compatriots of the convention prepared and adopted a constitution in which they nowhere even mentioned the word democracy, not because they were not familiar with such a form of government, but because they were. The word democracy had not occurred in the Declaration of Independence, and does not appear in the constitution of a single one of our fifty states, which constitutions are derived mainly from the thinking of the Founding Fathers of the Republic, for the same reason. They knew all about democracies, and if they had wanted one for themselves and their posterity, they would have founded one.

   Look at all the elaborate system of checks and balances which they established; at the carefully worked-out protective clauses of the Constitution itself, and especially of the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights; at the effort, as Jefferson put it, to "bind men down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution," and thus to solidify the rule not of men but of laws. All of these steps were taken deliberately to avoid and to prevent a democracy, or any of the worst features of a democracy, in the United States of America. And so our republic was started on its way. And for well over a hundred years our politicians, statesmen, and people remembered that this was a republic, not a democracy, and knew what they meant when they made that distinction.

See Also: The Electoral College was designed as a major ingredient in the Republic, versus a democracy, to prevent "mob rule" in the states when electing the President.

"That Book (the Bible) is the rock on which our Republic rests."
Andrew Jackson

"It has been observed, by an honorable gentleman, that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position in politics is more false than this. The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure, deformity. When they assembled, the field of debate presented an ungovernable mob, not only incapable of deliberation, but prepared for every enormity." ~ Alexander Hamilton

Exodus 18:17-27 (BBE) - And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. Your strength and that of the people will be completely used up: this work is more than you are able to do by yourself. Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with you: you are to be the people's representative before God, taking their causes to him: Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work they have to do.

   But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men over them, to be captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens; And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all times: and let them put before you all important questions, but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the weight off you.

   If you do this, and God gives approval, then you will be able to go on without weariness, and all this people will go to their tents in peace. So Moses took note of the words of his father-in-law, and did as he had said. And he made selection of able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens. And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves. And Moses let his father-in-law go away, and he went back to his land.

How Liberty Flowed From Ancient Israel to the New America - By Paul Strand, Chris Mitchell ...One thing after another was revolutionary in this Hebrew Republic, such as the tribes electing their own leaders. And that all people were to be treated as equals. "Israel was the beginning of the concept of equality on planet earth," Federer said. It was also the first nation where everyone was taught to read, so they all could be taught the law. And each had a hand in enforcing it and maintaining it, along with the nation itself. So they didn't need a standing army, which in many nations becomes a tool in the hands of a power-hungry ruler. "You have a king, he has an army to enforce his will," Federer explained. "In Israel, every man was in the militia and armed and ready at a moment's notice to defend his family and his community." He added, "Israel had no police. Not only did everyone get taught the law, everyone was responsible to help enforce the law."

James Madison, Federalist No. 44 - "What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and  exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them...the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers."