ly induced by a like motive to wish for a government which will
protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful. It can be
little doubted that, if the State of Rhode Island was separated from
the Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of right under the
popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed
by such reiterated oppressions of the factious majorities, that some
power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by
the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of
it."

Jefferson has also thus expressed himself in a letter to Madison: *g
"The executive power in our Government is not the only, perhaps not even
the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the Legislature
is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for
many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its
turn, but at a more distant period." I am glad to cite the opinion
of Jefferson upon this subject rather than that of another, because I
consider him to be the most powerful advocate democracy has ever sent
forth.

[Footnote g: March 15, 1789.]

Chapter XVI: Causes Mitigating Tyranny In The United States--Part I

Chapter Summary

The national majority does not pretend to conduct all business--Is
obliged to employ the town and county magistrates to execute its supreme
decisions.

I have already pointed out the distinction which is to be made between
a centralized government and a centralized administration. The former
exists in America, but the latter is nearly unknown there. If the
directing power of the American communities had both these instruments
of government at its disposal, and united the habit of executing its own
commands to the right of commanding; if, after having established the
general principles of government, it descended to the details of public
business; and if, having regulated the great interests of the country,
it could penetrate into the privacy of individual interests, freedom
would soon be banished from the New World.

But in the United States the majority, which so frequently displays the
tastes and the propensities of a despot, is still destitute of the more
perfect instruments of tyranny. In the American republics the activity
of the central Government has never as yet been extended beyond a
limited number of objects sufficiently prominent to call forth its
attention. The se