A new book titled American Struggle by Jon Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize recipient and Fellow of the Society of American Historians, offers a collection of writings and speeches by prominent Americans, and historical documents from 1619 to the present.
While many of these articles address the issues of their day, some are noteworthy because of the foresight the show regarding the march of American democracy, its foibles, its mistakes, its tribulations and its successes.
Some of the most notable selections relate to the issue of slavery, even to how it was viewed as late as mid-20th century, but several of the pieces resonate so intricately to the condition of this country today.
Here are a few examples.
Alexander Hamilton, 1787: “To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1838: “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1910: “On one man in especial, beyond anyone else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or anti-religious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. The very last thing an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says that he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled or will gratify some emotion or animosity which this private citizen ought not to possess.
“If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.”
Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, writing in Foreign Affairs, March/April 2025: “The country’s vaunted constitutional checks are failing. Trump violated the cardinal rule of democracy when he attempted to overturn the results of an election and block a peaceful transfer of power. Yet neither Congress nor the judiciary held him accountable, and the Republican Party—coup attempt notwithstanding—renominated him for president. Trump ran an openly authoritarian campaign in 2024, pledging to prosecute his rivals, punish critical media, and deploy the army to repress protest. He won, and thanks to an extraordinary Supreme Court decision, he will enjoy broad presidential immunity during his second term.”
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This last piece was written just a couple of months following the swearing-in of President Trump for his second term in office.
One year after this was written and at the point when the book was published, all the predictions and omens are bearing fruit. With two-and-a-half years left in Trump’s second term, the excesses of the present administration are likely to continue and escalate. If the American people cannot rely on Congress and the Supreme Court to curb these excesses, the threat to democracy will become ever more acute.
We must pay heed to the voices of those who preceded us.
Maybe Demosthenes had the best advice, in the fourth century BCE: “There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies against despots — suspicion.”
