“A Republic, if you can keep it,” was the answer Benjamin Franklin gave to a Mrs. Powel, when asked whether the Constitutional Convention had produced a Republic or a Monarchy. A Republic–not a Monarchy. A Republic–not a democracy or a rule by simple majority. Regarding democracy, the founders ranked it among the worst forms of government. As Alexander Hamilton put it during the Constitutional Convention, “real liberty is [not] found in . . . the extremes of Democracy.” A Republican form of government was so important to the framers–that it was guaranteed to the States by Article 4, Section 4, which states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government. . .”

Several of the Founders warned in the Constitutional Convention, in essence: “If the time ever comes that both houses of Congress are elected directly by the people, immediately schemes for the redistribution of the wealth shall arise.” Their aim of the Founders was to make the Senate a statesmen-like check on pure democracy, as you know.

Thus, we might call another seed of dissolution, therefore, the amendment clause, when used unwisely.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury.”

Juvenal stated it more succinctly in his work Satires:

“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things – bread and circuses!”