The primary element in a free government--the determination how many people shall have a share in it--in America depends not on the Government but on certain subordinate local, and sometimes, as in the South now, hostile bodies.
This statement underscores the importance of local bodies in determining who participates in government, reflecting on the complexities of American democracy.
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More from Walter Bagehot
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
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