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Law Office of EDWARDS & LITMAN

Bucks Professional Center 347 New Street, Suite 200 Quakertown, Pennsylvania 18951 Craig T. Edwards
Land Group President

Donald S. Litman
Admitted in PA, NJ, MD, DC & VA Master of Forensic Sciences

Date . (redacted) Re: Dear (redacted), Alexis came-home with a quiz or worksheet where she had been corrected on the question of whether the United States Constitution created a democracy or republic. As you know, this issue arose in Alexis Social Studies Alive! book last year where, on page 42, it says, in-part, that Americans believe that people should make their own law and elect their own leaders. We call this form of government a democracy. Americans are able to make their own laws but only within confines of Constitutional parameters, thereby accurately defining us as a republic, which is distinct from a democracy (even the pledge of allegiance references the republic, for which it [the flag] stands). I understand why the social studies book and your worksheet/quiz misunderstands the definitional nuance, as even the modern dictionary struggles to understand the difference (notice the confusion in the semantic puzzle?):
Democracy: a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. Republic: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

Republic v. Democracy (redacted)

Actually, the Constitution of the United States of America is the written law restricting the federal government of the Union of the States of America to its single purpose of protecting our liberty and inalienable rights, hence the phrase constitutional republic (the opposite of democracy i.e. mobrule). This new government needed legal limitation (restraint) to its power and authority. Had the Republic not been constrained by Law (capital L), the representatives and agents, who make up the republic, could assume unchecked power and authority over the people. Our legislatures could then pass laws to manage and restrict the public, ultimately causing disregard for due process; the very embodiment of oppression and tyranny.

Telephone: 610.282.2100

Facsimile: 610.282.8563

THE

LAND

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LTD

Why would the people who founded our country establish what they despise? To wit: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." ~ John Adams, 2nd President of the United States "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." ~ Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death. ~ James Madison, 4th President of the United States, Father of the Constitution "The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived." ~ John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos." ~ John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1801-1835 The Constitution itself guarantee(s) to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government. ~ United States Constitution, Article IV Section, 4. Moreover, a Republic avoids the dangers of either tyranny or mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment and progress. -U.S. Army training manual, 1928 "Democracy results in mobocracy. Results in demagoguism, license, agitation, discontent, and anarchy." -U.S. Army training manual 1928 Theres plenty more, but by this brief note (using my own definition of brief), I hope Ive made a compelling case for why our nation is not a democracy; .. (redacted). Thank you kindly. Sincere regards,

Craig T. Edwards
Craig T. Edwards Cc: (redacted)

Telephone: 610.282.2100

Facsimile: 610.282.8563

THE

LAND

GROUP

LTD

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