"Neglect of the principles of the constitution by the public
functionary is a substitution of aristocracy, for a representative democracy....
"[T]he most easy and successful mode in which an aristocracy
commences, or advances, consists in the secret and gradual abuse of the
confidence of the people, in a representative democracy.
"Slight, and sometimes
imperceptible, innovations, occasional usurpations, founded upon the pretended
[or real] emergency of the occasion; or upon former unconstitutional
precedents; the introduction of the of the doctrines of constructive grants of
power...and a thousand other pretexts and arguments of the same stamp, form the
ladder by which the agents of the people mount over the heads of their
constituents, and finally ascend to that pinnacle of authority and power, from
whence they behold those who have raised them with contempt....
"The only preventive lies in the vigilance of the
people."
Social Leader Daily by Oliver DeMille
