Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/77

 CH. IX.] and sympathy and responsibility can be effectually secured. Just the question, what degree of frequency is best calculated to accomplish that object is not susceptible of any precise and universal answer, and must essentially depend upon very different considerations in different nations, and vary with their size, their age, their conditions, their institutions, and their local peculiarities.

§ 588. It has been a current observation, that "where annual elections end, tyranny begins." But this remark, like many others of a general nature, is open to much question. There is no pretence, that there is any natural connection between the period of a year, or any other exact revolution of time, and the political changes fit for governments or magistrates. Why is the election of a magistrate or representative more safe for one year, than for two years? For one year, more than for six months? For six months, more than for three months? It is certainly competent for a state to elect its own rulers, daily, or weekly, or monthly, or