The Hebrew Republic: Chapter 3: Elective Magistracy, People's Authority in the Enactment of Laws, The Responsibility of Public Officers to Their Constituents
A magistracy elected by the people, the public officer chosen by the public voice, was another of those great principles, on which Moses founded his civil polity.
The magistrates are not properly the ministers of the people, unless the people elect them. It is, therefore, a fundamental maxim in every popular government, that the people should choose their ministers, that is to say, their magistrates. The people need councillors of state and executive officers, as much as monarchs, perhaps even more than they. But they cannot have a just confidence in these officers unless they have the choosing of them. And the people, in every nation capable of freedom, are well qualified to discharge this trust. Facts, obvious to sense, and to which they cannot be strangers, are to determine them in their choice. The merits of their neighbors are things well known to them. "Should we doubt of the people's natural ability in respect to the discernment of merit, we need only cast an eye on the continual series of surprising elections made by the Athenians and Romans, which no one surely will attribute to hazard." The people, therefore, though in the mass incapable of the administrations of government, are, nevertheless, capable of calling others to this office. They are qualified to choose, though, as a general thing, not qualified to be chosen. "In their sentiments," said the great Edmund Burke, "the people are rarely mistaken."
The election by the Hebrew people of Jehovah himself to be the civil head of their state, is a point which has been already established in the introductory essay. The proofs need not be repeated here. No fact can be plainer, or more certain, than that the judges, instituted at the suggestion of Jethro, were chosen by the suffrages of all Israel. The direction of Moses to the people, upon that occasion, is very explicit. His words are, "Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you."1 The meaning is, "Do you elect the proposed officers, and I will commission and induct them into office." It is very observable that these magistrates were to be taken "out of all the people," and not from any privileged class. The only qualifications for office required were that they should be "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,"2 "wise men, and understanding, and known among their tribes." The possession of these high attributes was enough; no other patent of nobility was required. Mr. Jefferson's test of official competency is expressed in the three interrogatories: "Is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful?" If he had added a fourth, "Does he fear God?" he would have had the Mosaic test to a tittle. Moses demanded four qualifications in a civil ruler, viz. ability, integrity, fidelity, and piety.
When the land of Canaan was to be divided among the tribes, Joshua addressed all Israel thus: "Give out from among you three men from each tribe, and I will send them,"3 "Give out from among you"; that is, "Select, choose for yourselves." When Jephthah was made judge, it is expressly said, "The people made him head and captain over them."4 These instances, and others which might be cited, prove that the great principle, that rulers should be elected by the ruled, that authority should emanate from those over whom it is to be exercised, was fully embodied in the Hebrew constitution.
A principle, closely allied to this, viz. that the people should have an authoritative voice in the enactment of the laws, is another of those great ideas, which underlie the Hebrew government; and this principle, like the preceding one, is fundamental in every popular government.
When Moses, on descending from the mount, rehearsed to the people the laws which he had received from the Lord, with one voice, they answered and said, "All the words that the Lord has said, will we do."5 What is this, but an acceptance by the nation of the constitution proposed to them? The Hebrew constitution was adopted by the Hebrew people, as truly as the American constitution was adopted by the American people. "This adoption, by the Jewish nation, of the laws, which Moses brought from God, was repeated at the death of Moses, and by a statute, once in seven years was to be repeated ever after by the assembled nation. So that, from generation to generation, once in seven years, the tribes met in a great national convention, and solemnly ratified the constitution. They took what might be called the freeman's oath to observe that constitution." The government, then, was, in a solid and just sense, a government of the people; for the magistrates were chosen by their suffrages, and the laws were enacted by their voice.
The responsibility of public officers to the people was the seventh fundamental maxim of the Hebrew polity.
In proof of this the reader is referred to the closing scene of Samuel's public administration. The aged statesman resigns his authority to the convention of the people, by whom it had been conferred. History records no sublimer or more touching scene. He calls upon his constituents, if any had been injured by his public acts, or knew of any abuse of the trusts confided to him, to step forward and accuse him. With one voice they reply, "Thou hast injured, oppressed, defrauded none."6
Several incidents, related in the history of the kings, confirm this view. When Saul was chosen king, a writing, limiting the royal prerogative, was prepared by Samuel, and deposited in the sanctuary, where reference might afterwards be made to it, in case of royal usurpation.7 A similar writing was exacted of his successors.8 Solomon, during the latter period of his life, had reigned as a despot. When his son mounted the throne, Judah and Benjamin were the only tribes which acknowledged him. The other tribes offered to submit to his authority, on conditions which were not accepted. But when the young king rejected their terms, they rejected him, chose a sovereign for themselves, and established a separate kingdom.9 These instances show that the people held their rulers to a stern responsibility for the manner in which they discharged their public trust.
All this was the action of the republican spirit of the nation--a spirit, inspired, cherished, and sanctioned by the constitution. Who can doubt whether it was a constitution intended for a free and self-governing community?
