The distinction, however,
thus qualified, must be admitted to leave a most advantageous
superiority in favor of the United States. But to insure to this
advantage its full effect, we must be careful not to separate it from
the other advantage, of an extensive territory. For it cannot be
believed, that any form of representative government could have
succeeded within the narrow limits occupied by the democracies of
Greece.
In answer to all these arguments, suggested by reason, illustrated by
examples, and enforced by our own experience, the jealous adversary of
the Constitution will probably content himself with repeating, that a
senate appointed not immediately by the people, and for the term of six
years, must gradually acquire a dangerous pre-eminence in the
government, and finally transform it into a tyrannical aristocracy.
To this general answer, the general reply ought to be sufficient, that
liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the
abuses of power; that there are numerous instances of the former as well
as of the latter; and that the former, rather than the latter, are
apparently most to be apprehended by the United States.
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