ties
throughout their State, and their State Conventions, and their
elections. They know that the voice of the majority of their own
people, uttered through the sacred ballot-box, is practically the Vox
Dei--and that all bow to it. They know also, that this State government
of theirs, with all its ramifications--whether as to its Executive, its
Legislative, its Judicial, and other officials, either elective or
appointed--is a Republican form of government, in the American sense--in
the sense contemplated by the Fathers, when they incorporated into the
revered Constitution of our Country the vital words: "The United States
shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of
government." But they do not realize the vastly different condition of
things in many States of the Solid South, nor how it affects themselves.

And what is this "republican" form of government, thus pledged? It is
true that there are not wanting respectable authorities whose
definitions of the words "republic," and "republican," are strongly
inharmonious with their true meaning, as correctly understood by the
great bulk of Americans. Thus, Brande asserts that "A republic may be
either a democracy or an aristocracy!"--and proceeds to say: "In the
former, the supreme power is vested in the whole body of the people, or
in representatives elected by the people; in the latter, it is vested in
a nobility, or a privileged class of comparatively a small number of
persons." John Adams also wrote: "The customary meanings of the words
republic and commonwealth have been infinite. They have been applied to
every Government under heaven; that of Turkey and that of Spain, as well
as that of Athens and of Rome, of Geneva and San Marino." But the true
meaning of the word "republican" as applied to a "form of government,"
and as commonly and almost invariably understood by those who, above all
others in the wide World, should best understand and appreciate its
blessings--to wit: the American People has none of the looseness and
indefiniteness which these authorities throw about it.

The prevailing and correct American idea is that "Republican" means: of,
or pertaining to, a Republic; that "Republic" means a thing, affair, or
matter, closely related to, and touching the "public;" and that the
"public" are the "people"--not a small proportion of them, but "the
people at large," the whole community, the Nation, the commonalty, the
generality. Hen