Ambrose Bierce 
The Collected Works 

Of the many causes that conspired to bring about the lamentable failure of ‘self-government’ in ancient America the most general and comprehensive was, of course, the impracticable nature of the system itself. In the light of modern culture, and instructed by history, we readily discern the folly of those crude ideas upon which the ancient Americans based what they knew as ‘republican institutions, ‘ and maintained, as long as maintenance was possible, with something of a religious fervor, even when the results were visibly disastrous…