header by Emerson Taymor, 2005
1. The Colonial Era: 1607-1763
2. The Revolutionary Era: 1763-1789
3. The Early National Period: 1789-1824
4. Jacksonian America: 1824-1848
5. Antebellum America: 1848-1860
6. The Civil War Era: 1861-1877
9. The Twenties
10. Depression and New Deal: 1929-1939
14. The Sixties
William Howard Taft, Speech at Nashua, NH, March 19, 1912
When we begin to found popular government we must establish rules—fundamental
rules—for the structure and the means by which the popular will is
to be interpreted. We all have recognized—at least our ancestors
did—that the only possible way by which that we can be safe and secure
the rights of individuals and the rights of the minority and the rights
of the non-voting majority, is to have a constitution which shall limit
the power of the people in one election to do what they do. In other words,
if the people by one election could destroy our present government and
take up some other, then we should be subject to momentary passion, one
that we all recognize would be dangerous to the body politic….The
object of government is for the benefit of every individual, whether it
be the baby at the breast, or the old man tottering to the grave, or the
woman or the girl, or the old woman—all of them are citizens, and
all of them are entitled to the same rights—inalienable rights—as
they are called, secured in the constitution. Under those conditions, are
you going to arrange it so that a single vote upon the question of constitutional
interpretation you are going to let that one-fourth take away the right
that secures to you liberty? Are you going to let that majority say by
a momentary vote whether your property shall be taken away from you without
due compensation?...In this representative government the government of
the people is by selecting those to represent the people who are best fitted
to do the work that people desire to be done, and it is no reflection on
the people to say so. Our people have a higher degree of intelligence than
any people in the world, but that is not to say that every one of them
can play the violin….The man who tells the truth to the people is
the real friend of the people, and not the one who is constantly flattering
them into the belief that they are capable of something that they are not
capable of. The American people are great. Why? They have established a
government that has been enduring. Why? Because they have had the common
sense in their constitution and their laws and in their structure of government
to face the fact that they can not trust themselves under all circumstances
and that they are going to put into that fundamental law the restrictions
by which they shall secure from themselves and their representatives that
deliberation and that study and that knowledge of the facts that will enable
them to act wisely when they do act.