ually practised the pure democracy
exemplified by the entire body of citizens meeting in the open field to
make the laws and to elect their officers. Although it is true that in
these rural communities of Switzerland freedom has been a continuous
quantity, yet during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Switzerland,
as a whole, was dominated by feudalism. This feudalism differed
somewhat from the French feudalism, for it represented a sort of
overlordship of absentee feudal chiefs, which, leaving the people more
to themselves, made vassalage less irksome.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, in the year 1309, the
cantons, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, lying near Lake Lucerne, gained,
through the emperor, Henry VII, the recognition of their independence
in all things except allegiance to the empire. Each of these small
states had its own government, varying somewhat from that of its
neighbors. Yet the rural cantons evinced a strong spirit of pure
democracy, for they had already, about half a century previous, formed
themselves into a league which proved the germ of confederacy, which
perpetuated republican institutions in the Middle Ages. The spirit of
freedom prevailing throughout diverse communities brought the remainder
of the Swiss cantons into the confederation.

{343}

The first liberties possessed by the various cantons were indigenous to
the soil. From time immemorial they had clung to the ancient right of
self-government, and had developed in their midst a local system which
feudalism never succeeded in eradicating. It mattered not how diverse
their systems of local government, they had a common cause against
feudal domination, and this brought them into a close union in the
attempt to throw off such domination. It is one of the remarkable
phenomena of political history, that proud, aristocratic cities with
monarchial tendencies could be united with humble and rude communes
which held expressly to pure democracy. It is but another illustration
of the truth that a particular form of government is not necessary to
the development of liberty, but it is the spirit, bravery,
independence, and unity of the people that make democracy possible.
Another important truth, also, is illustrated here--that Italian,
German, and French people who respect each other's liberty and have a
common cause may dwell together on a basis of unity and mutual support.

Switzerland stands, then, for the perpetuation of