But nowhere else than in this valley, doubtless, is that paternalism so
thoroughly informed of the individualistic spirit. Chesterton said of
democracy that it "is not founded on pity for the common man.... It does
not champion man because man is miserable, but because man is so sublime."
It "does not object so much to the ordinary man being a slave as to his
not being a king." Indeed, democracy is ever dreaming of "a nation of
kings." [Footnote: G. K. Chesterton, "Heretics," p. 268.] And that
characteristic is truer of the democracy that came stark out of the
forests and out of the furrows than of the democracy which sprang from
protest against and fear of single kings.
The constitution east of the mountains was made in fear of a system which
permitted an immediate and complete expression of the will of the people.
The movement in American democracy which is most conspicuous is the effort
to get that will accurately and immediately expressed--that is, a movement
toward what might be called more democracy--toward a direct control of
"politics" by the people--and that movement has had its rise and strength
in the Mississippi Valley and beyond.
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