In this age of democracy, the average individual is too apt to recognize two constitutions--one, the constitution of the State, and the second, an unwritten constitution, to him of higher authority, under which he believes that no law is obligatory which he regards as in excess of the true powers of government.
Beck discusses the duality of constitutions recognized by individuals in a democracy.
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It did not believe that the State was omnipotent or infallible, and yet it proclaimed its authority within wise and just limits.
Its protection should be given to those of superior skill and diligence, who ask the due rewards of such superiority.
Without that vision to restrain each succeeding generation of Americans from the tempting excesses of political power, the American Commonwealth, with its great heterogeneous democracy, would probably perish.
Under the American Constitution, they are part of the fundamental law, and, as such, enforceable by judges sworn to defend the integrity of the individual as fully as the integrity of the State.
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