cams_benton_b028_f012_002_015

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15.

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If it were practicable, it were better, that every
public officer, from highest to lowest – in every
department of the government – should be chosen
by a direct vote of the people they are to represent & serve; – & that, at no very
long intervals. Power & station should be often
surrendered into the hands from which it they
was were received. Long terms of office are unwise.
I am We need never be afraid of the action of the people –
take it all in all. The argument that judges
of courts, & certain other officers, chosen by popular vote, are apt to be
influenced by that fact – is an argument
for the proceeding, & not against it. They ought
to be as much as that will make them so under the sway of the popular
will; – for, to that complexion must they come
at last; – & it is better to have it so in the beginning.

The little town-meetings of some of our older Eastern
States are the purest models of free government.
They are thoroughgoing democracies. The whole
body of the voters is together; they make their