PART ONE THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK CHAPTER 4 REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 70 71 legislative election,and several states also chose their governors through annual vision of how a popular government might work in practice.He believed that election by the people.? legislative majorities were the proper expresson of the public's interest and In this context,the Constitution's provisions for popular rule were paltry,and accordingly was reluctant to use his presidency for this purpose.Jeffersonaso it was not long after the Constitution was ratified that Americans sought a had no illusions about a largely illiterate population's readiness for a significant stronger voice in their own goveming.The process has continued throughout governing role and feared the consequences of inciting the public to pursue their the country's history:in no other constitutional area have Americans shown resentment of the moneyed class.An assault on the wealthy,in Jefferson's such a willingness to experiment. opinion,would be not only wrong but also destructive of the nation'sga srosperity,and therefore ruinous to all.Jetfersonian democracy was thus THE ERA OF JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY mainly a revolution of the spirit;Jefferson taught Americans to look upon the national government as belonging to all,not just to the privileged few. Thomas Jefferson,who otherwise admired the Constitution,was among the prominent Americans who questioned its provisions for self-government.To THE ERA OF JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY Jefferson,America was the hope of ordinary people everywhere for liberation from rule by the elite few,and he reasoned that the American people might Not until Andrew Jackson became president in 1828 did the country have a someday rebel against the small governing role assigned them by the Constitu- powerful leader who was willing and able to involve the public more fully in tion. government.Jackson carried out the constitutional revolution that Jefferson had Ironically,it was Jefferson who may have spared the nation a bloody foreshadowed. revolution over the issue of popular sovereignty.Under John Adams,the nation's second president and a thoroughgoing elitist,the national government The President as a Popular Leader increasingly favored the nation's wealthy interests.Adams publicly suggested that the Constitution was designed for a governing elite,while Alexander Jackson recognized that the president was the only official who could easily Hamilton urged him to use force if necessary to suppress popular dissent. claim to represent all the people.Unlike the president,members of Congress Jefferson asked whether Adams,with the aid of a strong army,planned soon to were elected from separate states and districts rather than from the whole of the deprive ordinary Americans of their freedoms altogether.Jefferson challenged country.Yet the president's claim to popular leadership was diminished by the Adams in the next presidential election and,upon defeating him,hailed the existence of the Electoral College.If the president and the people were to be victory as the "Revolution of 1800." brought closer together,so that each could draw power from the other,the office Although Jefferson was a champion of the common people,he had no clear would have to rest on popular election.Jackson first tried to persuade Congress to initiate an amendment that would abolish the electoral voting system.Failing 光 in this effort,Jackson persuaded the states to make popular voting the basis for Hannah Arend choosing their presidential electors By 1832,all states except South Carolina Benjamin Ginsberg The of (New York:Random House,1982)22. had done so. Jackson's Teform is still in effect today and basically places the choice of a president in the voters'hands.The winner of the popular vote in each state is awarded its electoral votes,and the probability is strong that the candidate who wins the popular-vote contest will also receive a majority of electoral votes. Since Jackson's time,only once has the loser of the popular vote won the presidency (Rutherford B.Haves in 1876). The "Spoils System" Andrew Jackson also sought to put an end to the aristocracy of wealth that had been governing the country through control of public offices.He urged the This painting of Monticello,the states to abolish property ownership as a condition for voting,promoted home Jefferson designed for rotaton of ofce as a eans of keeping offcals in close touch with the people, and appointed common people to high administrative posts.Politically out- regarded as the wellspring of an independent and self-governing ociaty.(Thomas Jeffersan okenfrom alter Lippmsnn Publie Opin (New York:Free Prst.196 "Ttintarproetatianistakeam y.196792. Men odaboo.H. 178-179. Andrew Johnson）