Analysis Of 'Democratic Experiment' By John Marshall

Throughout history, America has been idolized as the ultimate meritocracy: if one is born with exceptional skills and works very hard, they can become anything and achieve success. However, this is only true for one part of America. The “democratic experiment” was successful for wealthy white men by 1838, and it was increasingly accepting of other levels of wealth, but it was not fully successful because of all the people that it discriminated against. Firstly, it is important to address the issue of Native Americans. John Marshall recognizes them as a distinct community in the Supreme Court Decision of Worcester v Georgia, saying that they occupy their “own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can

Though people like Abigail Adams had played important roles in shaping the American government, women could not vote and until marriage they were the property of their father, and after marriage were the property of their husband. Ernestine Rose, in 1851 asked why women are “not included in that Declaration? Answer, ye wise men of the nation, and answer truly; add not hypocrisy to your other sins. Say she is not created free and equal, and therefore, (for the sequence follows on the premises) she is not entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But you dare not answer this simple question. With all the aduacity arising from an assumed superiority, you cannot so libel and insult humanity as to say she is not; and if she is, then what right has man, except that of might, to deprive her of the same rights and privileges he claims for himself? And why, in the name of reason and justice, I ask, why should she not have the same rights as man? In the laws of the land she has no rights; justice, I ask, why should she not have the same rights as man? In the laws of the land she has no rights; in government she has no voice, and in spite of another principle recognize in this republic, namely, that taxation without representation is tyranny, woman is taxed without being represented; her property may be consumed by heavy taxes, to defray the expenses of that unholy and unrighteous, thing called war, yet she cannot give her veto against it. From the cradle to the grave, she is subject to the power and control of man, father, guardian and husband. One conveys her like some piece of merchandise over to the other.” The hypocrisy of only taking advantage of one part of a person, like letting black people count towards the population but not have voting rights, is similar to taxing women but not giving them the vote. This hypocrisy perfectly defines the democratic experiment in the