An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States

Charles Beard
1913


[The principle of majority rule was not recognized in the founding. — TGW]
 

We forget that when our government was established the principle of majority rule was nowhere to recognized—that until well along in the nineteenth century the majority of our forefathers did not even have the right to vote… Then a great popular movement swept over the country, and in the political upheaval which followed, the masses secured the right of suffrage.

[From Charles A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913); reprint, New York: Free Press, 1941), 324.]