ABSTRACT
In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists. In a republic when the people as a body have sovereign power, it is a democracy. On Liberty is a particularly good illustration of the extent to which John Stuart Mill’s commitments to the rational individual are tempered by a sensible appreciation of the extent to which liberty is also a social thing—hence the importance of Mill to the social foundations of democracy. The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.
