es of
the country and the material prosperity of the people are a factor that
cannot be ignored. To these must in a measure be ascribed the uncritical
attitude of mind, the prevailing indifference to political conditions,
and the almost universal optimism which have characterized the American
people. This lack of general attention to and interest in the more
serious and profound questions of government has been favorable to the
inculcation and acceptance of ideas of the system utterly at variance
with its true character. Still, with all due allowance for these
favoring conditions, it is hard to find a satisfactory explanation of
the process by which the worshipers of democracy came to deify an
undemocratic constitution. The desire of the conservative classes to
preserve and perpetuate the system by presenting it in the guise of
democracy, and their influence upon the political thought of the people
generally must be regarded as the chief factor in bringing about this
extraordinary change in public opinion. Hostile criticism of the
Constitution soon "gave place to an undiscriminating and almost blind
worship of its principles ... and criticism was estopped.... The divine
right of kings never ran a more prosperous course than did this
unquestioned prerogative of the Constitution to receive universal
homage. The conviction that our institutions were the best in the world,
nay more, the model to which all civilized states must sooner or later
conform, could not be laughed out of us by foreign critics, nor shaken
out of us by the roughest jars of the system."[142]

CHAPTER VII

UNDEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT

It has been shown that the main purpose of the Constitution was to limit
the power of the people. The recognition of this fact enables us to
understand much of the subsequent development of our political
institutions--a development for which the generally accepted theory of
our system affords no adequate explanation. The erroneous view of the
Constitution so generally inculcated has thus far misled the public as
to the true source of our political evils. It would indeed be strange if
some of the abuses incident to every form of minority rule had not made
their appearance under the operation of a system such as has been
described. Where the influence of public opinion has been so restricted,
it would be but reasonable to expect that the practical working of the
government would reflect something of the spirit of the