The government of the United States and that of each of the States is sub-divided into three parts: the executive, represented by the President or the Governor, the legislative, represented by Congress or the legislature, and the judicial, represented by the courts.
Now the President and the members of Congress, including the Senate, and the judges of the courts are all merely representatives of the people chosen by the people to carry out the will of the people. The position and powers of all of these representatives of the people are fixed and defined by laws enacted by the people.
As we shall hereafter find, the first law of the Nation, the foundation of all laws of the Nation, is the Constitution of the United States, which in the long ago was adopted by the people of thirteen small States.
Our form of government therefore is representative. That is to say, the people choose their representatives to do the business of the country for the people. Laws are voted for directly by members of Congress and the Senate of the United States, or members of the legislatures of the States; but these members of Congress, Senators, and legislators are selected by the people, and in voting for laws they are expressing the will of the people who voted for them. They are elected for a short term of years, so that in case any one of them should not, in his vote upon any law, carry out the wishes of the people who elected him, they may at the next election select someone else in his place who will better represent them.(18)
The important thing to bear in mind in relation to this government organization, with all the officers now necessary to do the business of the people of this great country, is that these officers--executive, legislative, and judicial--are not the government; the government rests with the people, and these officers are merely servants of the people, subject to the will of the people.
It has been well said that government in a democracy is organized public opinion. Public officers, representatives of the people, have only the power which the people give to them. In many of the States of this country, in the enactment of laws, the people by law make provision by which the people themselves have the power to reject laws enacted by their representatives of which they do not approve. Under the "initiative" and "referendum" in some States, the people retain the power to direct their legislature to enact certain laws. Also laws made by the legislature may be voted upon by the people for final approval, if desired.(19)