Andrea Criswell – Constituting America

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

The essays in our study reference the following edition of Democracy In America: University of Chicago Press – 1st edition translated by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Today’s essay references pages 100 – 104 of this edition of Democracy in America.

Alexis De Tocqueville: On Political Judgment in the United States

“[Political jurisdiction is] to withdraw power from someone who makes a bad use of it and to prevent this same citizen from being vested with it in the future.” (Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America).

“Take one for the team”! Maybe Washington, maybe Hamilton, patented this unheard of paradigm shift, but the idea set in motion a constitutional republic that would require more from the elected than any other time in history. Adding a unique feature, in regard to public officials, the Founders took it a step further, one that would keep democracy on the up and up. Alexis De Tocqueville recognized this feature, he caught the nuance in regard to political jurisdiction saying it is, “to withdraw power from someone who makes a bad use of it and to prevent this same citizen from being vested with it in the future.” It allowed public servants to be judged among their elected peers, without criminalizing them. In America’s version of political jurisdiction it could not be used as a partisan weapon, it required deep trust of the elected, and it tethered leaders to a higher accountability. These three distinctions will be considered here.

Be slow to impeach. The temptation to override is currently strong in the political atmosphere. Take what you want politically by force. The Founders feared this, and set in motion a unique take on political jurisdiction which would require a respect for the law no matter who was elected. If the people, by free and fair elections, selected a person to govern, then that person should be protected from impeachment being used as a partisan weapon. It is this very reason that only the public official called forward by the House of Representatives can be labeled an offender. Protecting against false accusations, the Senate judges the offense. What surprised De Tocqueville was that this only included removal from office, not justice through the penal code. The House could call for impeachment, and the Senate could enact impeachment, but neither could take away the personal liberties of the offender. That was out of their jurisdiction. Radically different from the structures in both England and France, the Founder’s plan limited impeachment for the purpose of protecting the choice of the governed.

Trust the law. In times of uncertainty, the governed must trust the checks and balances of the law and not take matters into their own hands. Obedience to authority is a wonderful fail safe when the elected is your chosen candidate, but when your candidate is not chosen, it requires great maturity to work under the leadership of someone you do not agree with. Order is a protective measure against chaos. It blesses all who sit in its shade. The shade as seen in political jurisdiction in the United States is that the leaders are tethered to something greater than themselves, the law, which supersedes agenda. Usurpation is only acceptable when the elected dishonor the law. However, in modern America trust in elected leadership has been broken and most of the governed do not understand the law. This is a concerning combo that the Founders feared.

To hold office. A little phrase with great power. When seen through a lens of selfish ambition this power brings an elected person self-promotion. Seen through the lens of service, it garners benefit for the governed. Political jurisdiction is intended to protect the elected while establishing office void of selfish ambition. What a difference a lens can make. This is where free and fair elections apart from gerrymandering are so important. The balance between recognizing the possibility of human failure and the tension between freedom of choice and the law is real. The elected person is imperfect, but the law holds their imperfection in check. Accordingly, political jurisdiction is, in De Tocqueville’s words, “despite its mildness and perhaps because of its mildness, a very powerful arm in the hands of the majority.”

This is not “your father’s” democracy. Liberty requires more. The republic is a standard of law for all people, to be honored and upheld equally by both the elected and the governed. It was understood that the elected would place their own natural tendencies aside out of respect for the law, and that the governed would place their natural tendencies aside out of respect for the elected. This mutual agreement of giving and receiving would allow them to accomplish something the world had never seen. De Tocqueville reminds us today that America’s system of political jurisdiction sets American democracy apart. If it breaks down, she will become just like other democracies. Without this unique balance, America will not embody liberty in its truest form.

Andrea Criswell is a wife, mother, and homeschool teacher in the northwest Houston area. Graduating from both Texas Tech University and Asbury Theological Seminary, she teaches Christian Worldview classes. Her passion is helping high school students become responsible young adults who critically think and learn how to solve problems.

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When in the course of human life, it becomes necessary for a mother to dissolve the political bands between a child and their selfish ways, and to take full responsibility for civilizing her child and assume her powers within her home, the separate and equal station which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a deep realization occurs, if she is not willing to bring virtue and civility to the next generation, no one will. This is the beginning of a republic, in each home. Ironically, this scenario leads the reader to believe that the mother is our government and the child is her citizens, and yet it is the other way around. The greatest attribute of the Constitution of the United States of America reflects her citizens as the parents, the givers of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

How do people collectively provide for themselves liberty? An infrastructure, a culture valuing self-government is the only way. A republic at the core. As a human bears the image of their Creator in spirit and their parents in physical appearance, a republic mirrors its founders in the design of practical infrastructure as well as the “DNA” of heart and motive. In America, this “DNA” was the balance between tyranny and anarchy. Resembling homeostasis in the body, the boundaries given to the government by the Founders exemplified the potential for health for its people. Such is a republic, who welcomes this balance, not admonishing correction nor romanticizing chaos, experiences health and well-being.

Welcoming balance, the United States Constitution stands as a reminder that homeostasis can be achieved, not effortlessly, but attainable. It requires maturity to sustain the direction and maintain the right course. It requires self-government of individuals. Abstaining from the vices of power, the people directed by the Founders’ words stay the course. Imperfect men, who could not right all wrongs, understood that a virtuous nation required leadership from virtuous citizens. Three men considered, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and John Taylor of Caroline, were willing to protect the ramparts against the tyranny of England, for during their lifetime a government was born, one that would require maturing so that all its members, male and female, light skinned and dark skinned, Christian and non-Christian would find freedom on the same soil.

John Adams understood the unique situation in which they found themselves – to choose their own government. He passionately stated, “While I live, let me have a country, a free country.” It was this vision that defined his life. And yet, he was a Federalist, believing that “the greatest dangers to any polity came from unbridled democracy and an unrestrained aristocracy capable of becoming an oligarchy.” (1) He wanted a strong executive branch to steer the nation like a parent. In his “Discourses on Davila,” he recognizes both the need and the concern for ambitious men. As a republic, the people would parent, and yet Adams wrestled with the need for a strong head. Adams believed that America needed ambitious, determined men held in check by humility, to lead.

Thomas Jefferson understood that real power flows from the consent of the governed, as stated in The Declaration of Independence. A government, whose precedent is fundamental law, would simply reflect the will of the people. Without precedent, no other government in history had modeled natural law. So therefore, a prerequisite of government needed to be established, one in which divine law was part of the culture and understood by all. Believing that America needed a limited government, Jefferson’s greatest contribution was precision rhetoric, clearly communicating that the government would be limited through the state constitutions and the ratifying of the Constitution.

John Taylor of Caroline entered public service to uphold republican values. He did not agree with fixed social order, rather in popular sovereignty, the right each man possessed to govern himself. He was most concerned with a decline of virtue because of power, and held character as the sole anchor for the advancement of America. For Taylor, the laws of nature suggested political equality, and therefore all men were created equal. Defending freedom, Taylor focused on ending tyranny through his Anti-federalist semantics. Historically, there are those born to “hold a post” for others, while in their own right still very flawed. To his own demise Taylor profited from slavery, and while he considered it an evil, he did not consider ending slavery as part of popular sovereignty. Holding the post, Taylor believed America needed to be led by the laws of nature, sustaining personal sovereignty, and yet he did not have the revelation of sovereignty for all.

Disregarding the vision of Adams, the precision of Jefferson and the focus of Taylor would be to disregard the imperfect men who helped pen our most perfect document. The providential boundary lines of the Constitution recognize the need for a strong executive, legislative and judicial branch, all three balancing one another, and the Bill of Rights as the reminder that Congress shall not behave like an immature child. Although these men did not end slavery, they helped form the republic that would empower a people to do so. In the words of John Francis Mercer, a delegate to the Federal Convention from Maryland, said on the floor of the Convention, “It is a great mistake to suppose that the paper we prepare will govern the United States. It is the men whom it will bring into the government and interest in maintaining it that is to govern them. The paper will only mark out the mode and the form. Men are the substance and must do the business.” (2) Remarkable men, upholding a remarkable document, necessary then and now.

Andrea Criswell is a wife and mother of four, who teaches homeschool students in northwest Houston. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Asbury Theological Seminary, she teaches Christian Worldview classes, high school biology and a love for the United States Constitution.

1. Taylor, James. “John Adams: Life Before the Presidency.” Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/president/adams/life-before-the-presidency. Accessed 20 May 2022.

2. Corwin, Edward S. “Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution.” CORE, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217205672.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2022.

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Essay 11: On Political Judgment in the United States Volume 1 Part 1 Chapter 7 of Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville

Upon a Need of Virtue to Self-govern: Penning a United States Constitution for a Free and Independent Nation