ABSTRACT
The American people were reconciled to obedience partly as a consequence of the admirable administration of the new kingdom. By virtue of administration the possibly remote, rigid and arid monarchy of the Word was converted into a benevolent human dominion, in wise that the government by Law really became government by a peculiarly qualified body of men. In various ways the undemocratic system of law and government was gradually modified at the bidding of democratic convictions, which steadily became more conscious and more insistent. The Federal Constitution in particular was framed in order to escape popular control and to substitute the safe sovereignty of the Law for theoretically irresponsible and capricious popular despotism. Proposed changes in the fundamental Law rarely became a matter of practical political discussion. American political controversy was condemned, consequently, to an unedifying superficiality; but there was one great compensation.
