In Honour Of Memorial Day Democracy The Democratic system of government has been attempted many times in this world’s history. Often it failed in its infant form; mercilessly destroyed by more powerful factions. Indeed, many are the tragic stories to be told of those who have pursued this elusive, utopian form of government. Even so, there exist today many successful countries that operate under some form of democracy. However this point in history was not easily attained, many have tried and failed, many have fought desperately and many have paid the ultimate price to bring about the modern state of democracy; and still today there are those who die to uphold it. This essay is for all those who have put themselves aside so that the ones who come after them may enjoy freedom, liberty and equality. 1. The Ancients’ Influence. “A state arises as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing but we all have many wants” ~Plato It was the Greeks who first declared that all men are equal, and that no one must be set above others by birth or unjust rank. Now first it must be understood that this idea was proposed merely to cure social ills. It wasn’t until about 550 B.C. When an Athenian aristocrat named Solon was made sole archon (a king with limited power) in Athens that these ideas were adapted into government. As soon as he became archon, Solon allowed middle class citizens to hold important administrative positions. He also allowed the lower classes to have a voice in the “assembly”. Solon continued his crusade by prohibiting slavery as a means of paying debts. However, these reforms were not well received by the people and Solon left Athens under threat of revolt; the city was soon thrown into chaos. Nevertheless this was the first crucial step towards freedom and equality. The city-state, Sparta had an interesting form of government strangely like that of the current U.S. system; two “Kings” (much like the president and vice president) ruled together and though they were the official rulers their power was limited mainly to war and religious affairs. The real power lay with the five Ephors, or overseers. They were elected by the people and they looked after the day to day running of the state. Their duties were somewhat like those of members of the president’s cabinet; only with much more power .Then there was the Gerousia (the counsel). The counsel was made up of twenty-eight men who were elected for life and given power like that of the modern legislative and judicial branches. The assembly was made up of all citizens thirty and older. They voted on all the counsels proposals by shouting out yes or no, the loudest group would win. The Athenians however, eventually created the more successful democracy. In Athens every citizen had an equal vote in what was called the assembly. The assembly met about once every ten days; but at least six thousand people were required to hold a meeting of the assembly. The meetings were held to vote on proposals put forth by a council of five hundred men. The council was made up of ten groups of fifty citizens from each Athenian tribe. They were chosen annually by casting lots. Each group took turns leading the council and each group was also responsible for representing the needs of their tribe to the council. Athens also had a more advanced legal system; even though there were no lawyers the court system remained fair because each jury was made up of over two hundred people (and was therefore impossible to corrupt.) One juror was chosen by lot to be judge. But his job was merely to maintain order. The accused would stand and present his case to the jury. The jury would vote and the majority vote would win. Though Athens took great leaps towards a functioning democracy, they became militarily weak and were eventually destroyed by the more powerful Spartans. 2. The middle Ages and Further “The pen is mightier than the sword” ~Edward George Bulwer Lytton The cry for democracy then waned with its father the Greeks. Soon it died and democracy lay complacent for almost a thousand years. Ironically it was the ruthless Vikings who revived democracy. Starting in about 600 A.D. they stoked the fire with their emphasis on individual rights. Each man was entitled to his own property, loot and land; and each man was expected to defend or attack as required by the chief. The chief of each tribe was elected by a voting population made up of men about twenty or older. Though little else is known about the Viking government; the Vikings way of life marked the first real experiment in democracy in the new millennium. Here again democracy grew still; the Middle Ages passed with virtually no political advances. Although the Christian idea that all men are created equal was prominent, noblemen decided that “wiser” men must rule over the common folk and the common folk must serve the “wiser” men. Despite the supremacy of feudalism the people were allowed certain rights and a court system to defend those rights, farther down the road this would evolve into the British parliament, and much, much farther down the road this would inspire the judicial branch of the U.S. government. Though the freedoms gained during this period may have been fleeting for those living during the period, the feudal age produced a much improved court system that allows for indiscriminate justice and equality. Many years later, the British began to look back and consider the merits of democracy. Steps were taken to guarantee the rights and freedoms of the British people. In the year 1215 the noblemen of England forced the oppressive king John to sign the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta stated that the king was not above the written law and that a law-making body (now known as parliament) would be created to allow the peoples participation and to further limit the power of the royal family. Over the next few hundred years’ great leaps were taken towards a ‘government by the governed.’ The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 declared that it was unlawful to detain a legal citizen unless he is charged with a crime; it also established that no one should be imprisoned unless convicted in a court of law. The Petition of Right restricted the king from raising taxes without the express consent of Parliament. The Bill of Rights (signed 1689) allowed free speech and banned cruel or unusual punishment. Even after these improvements Britain was by no means a democracy. The legislature (parliament) was ordained by the Magna Carta in order that the people might have a say in their government but over time it became dominated by noblemen who cared little for the wants and needs of the people. To this day Britain is not a fully democratic nation but it is an undisputable fact that Britain left an indelible mark on the history of democracy The political acts mentioned in the preceding paragraph were certainly fueled if not framed by the works of chiefly three well known thinkers of the day. In 1690 a British political philosopher by the name of John Locke released a book called: Two Treatises on Government. In it he argued that it was the responsibility of the government to protect the ‘natural rights’ of its citizens. Locke also said that every citizen had “The right to life, liberty and the ownership of property.” Not long after Mr. Locke released his book, Sir William Blackstone, a prominent Englishmen and a professor at Oxford, wrote a book entitled: Commentaries On The Laws Of England. Blackstone said in his book that there are two types of law: the law of nature and revealed law. Blackstone defined these laws as follows; the law of nature is law dictated by God and written on the human soul. Revealed law is law revealed to man by God out of compassion. Since, according to Blackstone, these laws were written or revealed by God it was heresy to make laws contrary to them. Around this time a Frenchman, the Baron De Montesquieu expressed admiration for the British government but also realized the need for improvement. In his book The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu suggested the separation of powers into three co-equal branches of government; executive, legislative, and judicial. This was to have an enormous influence on the American government to come. In the future, these three works would be mentioned and even cited by the framers of the constitution of the United Sates of America. 3. Democracy Reaches the New World “The Puritans other-worldliness was not a withdrawal from the world but a living in the world in accordance with other-worldly standards” ~Ralph Barton Perry Despite all these reforms there was still unrest in Britain. This was due mainly to the oppressive Church of England. A group of reformers know as the Puritans tried for decades to ‘purify’ the church of numerous doctrinal problems but after years of ups and downs, the Puritans became the Separatists. In 1620 the first group of Puritans sailed for the Americas. Here they hoped to live out their simple lives in peace. The Puritans knew from the beginning that they needed some basic laws to insure that order prevailed. These laws were ordained in the form of The Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed before anyone was allowed on shore. It established mainly two principles: 1. Order should be maintained by the will of the majority and 2. Just laws should be enforced for the general good. These ideals were later reinforced in 1639 with the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which among other things instated a representative government and established term limits for public officials and a process by which to elect them. In the following years the Puritans were slowly overwhelmed by the never-ending flood of immigrants, and eventually the Puritans began to disappear as a people. Doctrinal differences split them into several smaller groups and soon they were not even a major denomination. But as the Puritans faded, their political ideas flourished in the new world. Indeed almost all of the American colonies adapted local governments similar to those established under the Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This was also to have influence on the future U.S. government. 4. The Birth of the United Sates Government “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of divinity itself, and cannot be erased or obscured by mortal power” ~Alexander Hamilton For a number of years Thomas Jefferson had the following inscription on his personal notepaper: ‘Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.’ This was indeed the prevalent school of thought in the American colonies in the 1770s. After several new taxes were introduced (and deemed by the colonists to be unjust), the colonists challenged the British government’s right to tax the colonies, because the colonies had no representation in Parliament. For several years the colonists protested and for several years the British government ignored them. Eventually after many boycotts and protests, King George sent troops to the colonies to enforce the taxes and ‘maintain order’. But the presence of soldiers only served to worsen the situation and eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre. Soon after the massacre, the British, fearing rebellion, attempted to seize all guns and gunpowder. The people of Lexington refused to surrender their arms, and were fired on. So began the revolutionary war. The war carried on for a year after the battle of Lexington before the colonists decided that there was no turning back, that they must become an independent nation. On July 4, 1776, the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain. It was only after seven more years of war that Britain recognized the colonies as a nation, cutting them loose to sink or swim on their own. Before the war ended, in 1781, the first continental congress wrote the Articles of Confederation. While the Articles managed to keep the colonies alive for eight years it established a weak federal government. It appealed to the independent nature of the colonists, soothing their fear of oppressive government but it did not meet the practical needs of a struggling young nation. Six years after the Articles of Confederation were ratified and four years after the war ended, congress ordered a second continental congress for the purpose of revising the Articles. Upon arriving at the convention the delegates soon decided that the articles were beyond repairer and that they must be thrown out completely. With this new mentality, the first order of business was the question of the legislature. Edmond Randolph, governor of Virginia, was the first official speaker of the second continental congress and he proposed what became know as the Virginia plan. This plan called for a legislature based on the population of each individual state. This frightened the delegates from New Jersey and so the small state proposed their own plan which suggested equal representation for all the states. This was done out of fear that the government would trample the rights of the smaller states. After much deliberation and many heated debates, the convention agreed on a compromise in which there would be two branches of legislature, one in which the number of representatives would be decided by population and one with equal representation for all states. This resulted in the two houses of congress and became known as the Great Compromise. The great compromise was the first of many compromises, the like of which dictated the entirety of the Constitution. The constitution in its final form was an incredible achievement. The framers of the constitution managed to keep the states-rights intact enough to satisfy the very paranoid states representatives while still ensuring that the federal government had national supremacy. It was indeed a juggling act trying to create a realistic, respectable government while trying to keep disgruntled delegates from leaving the convention and still keeping in mind that it must please the people as well. Perhaps the wisest (and most appeasing) thing the delegates did was to provide for the amendment of the constitution. This was a practical and necessary action designed to allow for the constant improvement of the constitution. Yet while allowing for improvement the founding fathers were not naïve enough to believe that it would ever become seamless or perfect. In the very first sentence of the constitution they acknowledged this fact: “We the people of The United States, in order to form a more perfect union….” Every one of the thirty-nine signers of the constitution were fully aware that no matter how many amendments and no matter how advanced the constitution became it would never raise the human race above its fallen nature. There are no perfect democracies waiting to be discovered, the delegates knew this well but they also knew that they had a better chance than any before them. The Greeks tried valiantly to make democracy work but destroyed each other before they could prove the system. The Vikings experimented with democracy but their brutal nature prevented it from catching on. The Middle ages saw much thought and debate about proper government but yielded little real improvement. The Puritans’ Christian background ensured equality and created a fair and intelligent government of their own, but their meek, withdrawn nature prevented the immediate evolution of their ideas. So it was that the founding fathers discovered a climate very favorable to the advancement of the democratic hypothesis. Marooned, as it were on a new continent there were few who could stop the new nation from thriving. All they had to do was to get over the first hill. In the opening statement of the constitution the founding fathers state that one of the purposes of the constitution was to: “…secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” We, their posterity, have certainly enjoyed the promised liberty. It didn’t come quickly and it wouldn’t have happened without great loss and much personal sacrifice on the part of selfless patriots who are far too many to name. Though the founding fathers might object to some of the amendments we’ve made they would be eternally proud of those who still labor on for a more perfect union. And though it may be over-whelming we must learn from all those who came before us by carrying on the work they started. For though much has been handed to us there is still much to be done. “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation”. ~ Robert Kennedy | 
