Louisiana and Aaron Burr 253 



than it did to most of the Republican statesmen ; but 

 as a whole, the attitude of the Federalists, especially 

 in the Northeast, toward the West was ungenerous 

 and improper, while the Jeffersonians, with all their 

 unwisdom and demagogy, were nevertheless the 

 Western champions. 



Mississippi and Ohio had squabbled with their 

 Territorial governors much as the Old Thirteen Col- 

 onies had squabbled with the governors appointed by 

 the Crown. One curious consequence of this was 

 common to both cases. When the old Colonies be- 

 came States, they in their constitutions usually im- 

 posed the same checks upon the executive they them- 

 selves elected as they had desired to see imposed 

 upon the executive appointed by an outside power. 

 The new Territories followed the same course. 

 When Ohio became a State it adopted a very foolish 

 constitution. This constitution deprived the execu- 

 tive of almost all power, and provided a feeble, short- 

 term judiciary, throwing the control of affairs into 

 the hands of the legislative body, in accordance with 

 what were then deemed Democratic ideas. The 

 people were entirely unable to realize that, so far as 

 their discontent with the Governor's actions was 

 reasonable, it arose from the fact that he was ap- 

 pointed, not by themselves, but by some body or 

 person not in sympathy with them. They failed to 

 grasp the seemingly self-evident truth that a gov- 

 ernor, one man elected by the people, is just as much 

 their representative and is just as certain to carry 

 out their ideas as is a Legislature, a body of men 



