ABSTRACT
The spirit of conciliation is an essential part of the nature of the Republic. To determine the true nature of the American Republic one must therefore look deeper than the written Constitution, of which Washington wrote almost apologetically that "it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected". "Individuals entering into society", he said defensively, "must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest". The nature of the Republic is as much dynamic as static. The individual citizens who give it substance are not regarded as mechanical robots, properly subject to "universal training". They are dignified as human beings whose claim to the expression of personality must never be arbitrarily denied by external government. A form of government thus tailored to individualism can never attain perfection, because the human integer, which in the aggregate gives representative government its quality, is adversely affected by the failings of mortality.
