es is required in every
public act.

The difference most relied on, between the American and other republics,
consists in the principle of representation; which is the pivot on
which the former move, and which is supposed to have been unknown to the
latter, or at least to the ancient part of them. The use which has been
made of this difference, in reasonings contained in former papers,
will have shown that I am disposed neither to deny its existence nor
to undervalue its importance. I feel the less restraint, therefore, in
observing, that the position concerning the ignorance of the ancient
governments on the subject of representation, is by no means precisely
true in the latitude commonly given to it. Without entering into a
disquisition which here would be misplaced, I will refer to a few known
facts, in support of what I advance.

In the most pure democracies of Greece, many of the executive functions
were performed, not by the people themselves, but by officers elected by
the people, and REPRESENTING the people in their EXECUTIVE capacity.

Prior to the reform of Solon, Athens was governed by nine Archons,
annually ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE AT LARGE. The degree of power delegated
to them seems to be left in great obscurity. Subsequent to that period,
we find an assembly, first of four, and afterwards of six hundred
members, annually ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE; and PARTIALLY representing them
in their LEGISLATIVE capacity, since they were not only associated with
the people in the function of making laws, but had the exclusive right
of originating legislative propositions to the people. The senate of
Carthage, also, whatever might be its power, or the duration of its
appointment, appears to have been ELECTIVE by the suffrages of the
people. Similar instances might be traced in most, if not all the
popular governments of antiquity.

Lastly, in Sparta we meet with the Ephori, and in Rome with the
Tribunes; two bodies, small indeed in numbers, but annually ELECTED BY
THE WHOLE BODY OF THE PEOPLE, and considered as the REPRESENTATIVES of
the people, almost in their PLENIPOTENTIARY capacity. The Cosmi of Crete
were also annually ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE, and have been considered by
some authors as an institution analogous to those of Sparta and Rome,
with this difference only, that in the election of that representative
body the right of suffrage was communicated to a part only of the
people.

From these facts, to which many ot