Essay Assignment

Alexander Hamilton’s declaration, "Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many," makes a valid statement about human nature. No matter who is in power, they will in some way exploit those not in power. Not everyone’s interests are the same. Even if a government tries to do what is best for most of its people, it will still be doing some things that are not in the best interests of others.

The first part of Hamilton’s remark refers to tyranny of the majority. One such example of this "mob rule" was the Scottsboro incident in which seven young black men were convicted of raping two white women on a freight train on its way through Alabama. As the train approached Scottsboro, a sheriff's posse seized the seven blacks and charged them with rape. They were indicted on Mar. 31, 1931, and tried a few days later in three groups, each trial being completed in a single day. The juries found the defendants guilty and imposed the death penalty on all. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the convicted prisoners said that they (1) had been denied the right to counsel; (2) had not been given a fair and impartial trial; and (3) had been tried before juries from which blacks were purposefully excluded. The judge ruled that the men had been denied due process of law and equal protection of the laws under the 14th Amendment.

Another example in American history was the 1921 trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti were two men accused of murdering the paymaster and guard of a shoe factory in South Braintree, Mass., on Apr. 15, 1920, and then escaping with the payroll of nearly $16,000. They were found guilty by a jury on July 14, 1921, and, after 6 years of motions and appeals, were electrocuted in Massachusetts on Aug. 23, 1927. It was apparent after the trial that Nicola and Bartolomeo had been tried unjustly because they were Italian anarchists in the middle of a nationwide Red Scare.

One last, more recent example was the struggle for religious freedom enacted by the Jehova’s Witness. For years, Jehova’s Witnesses were forced to say the pledge of allegiance though it was against their beliefs. Their case was argued in the Supreme Court twice before they were granted the right not to say the pledge on the basis of religious creed.

The second half of Hamilton’s statement refers to a tyranny of the minority easily visible in absolute monarchies such as the one in England under the reign of Charles I. Charles raised new taxes without the consent of the House of Commons and revived obsolete feudal dues. The king refused to have his ministers and commanders appointed for him and rejected the idea of giving Parliament the control of the militia, the only armed force in the kingdom. Charles's rejection of these two Parliamentary demands by led directly to war.

Other examples of tyranny of the few include dictators such as the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hitler of Nazi Germany. All three limited the rights of their people in order to stay in power and oppressed the people for their own personal gain.

Though oppression is still with us today, it is not as big a problem in the US as it was 200 years ago. Because of the foresight of our founding fathers, who knew first hand the dangers of a government with too much control, America has a limited government with a unique system of checks-and-balances. This system ensures that no branch of the government will become too powerful and try to rule over the people by itself. The framers also made sure that the people were given specific civil liberties that could not be readily taken away. To ensure that we have a good national leaders, candidates are scrutinized and voted in to office instead of appointed. There are still times when an interest group can get a little out of hand, but America’s precise restrictions keep them in check. (The fact that two of the US cases of oppression I mentioned were later found to be unconstitutional is good evidence that the system works.) Today, thanks to the genius of minds like Hamilton’s, America is one of the most oppression-free places in the world; hopefully it will stay that way.