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The Republic
27

form would be reconcilable with the genius of the American people."

On September 18th, 1803, Hamilton wrote to Pickering:

"The plan of a constitution which I drew up while the convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. Madison, . . . was predicated upon these bases:

"1. That the political principles of the people of this country would endure nothing but republican government.

"2. That in the actual situation of the country it was in itself right and proper that the republican theory should have a full and fair trial.

"3. That to such a trial it was essential that the government should be so constructed as to give all the energy and stability reconcilable with the principles of that theory.

"These were the genuine sentiments of my heart, and upon them I acted."

In his great and exhaustive work on "Political Science and Constitutional Law," John W. Burgess, after analyzing minutely the forms of government of the four leading countries, makes the following deductions:

"I do not believe it is Utopian to predict that the republican form will live after all other forms have perished. . . . It is a hazardous venture to