ABSTRACT
A moral dilemma, which custom obscures, besets a representative officer. If he is merely an instrument or blind vehicle, like a messenger bearing a sealed despatch, he is not an officer of government at all, but only a servant of the government. Anyone who wished 383to maintain literally the claim of the people to govern themselves would need to reduce all legislators and administrators to executants of exact instructions issued by the persons who had elected them. Yet obviously such instruction could never anticipate the terms of all measures that would have to be voted on or executed. A certain initiative must therefore be left to a representative agent to decide particular questions, on the understanding that he will be faithful to the general intentions and sentiments of his supporters.
