This excerpt is from a 1912 speech by Theodore Roosevelt. The great fundamental issue now before . . . our people can be stated briefly. It is, are the American people fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control themselves? I believe they are. . . . I believe the majority of the plain people of the United States will . . . make fewer mistakes in governing themselves than any smaller class or body of men, no matter what their training, will make in trying to govern them. I believe . . . that the American people are . . . capable of self-control, and of learning by their mistakes. . . . Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for . . . justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people.

This excerpt is from U. S. President William H. Taft’s 1911 veto message regarding a House resolution calling for statehood for New Mexico and Arizona.

It is said you can always trust the people to do justice . . . and the maxim is interpreted to mean that you can always trust a majority of the people. This is not invariably true; and every limitation imposed by the people upon the power of the majority in the constitutions is an admission that it is not always true. . . . [T]he unbridled expression of the majority . . . converted hastily into law or action would sometimes make a government tyrannical and cruel. Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

What basic assumption is behind Roosevelt’s speech that is not behind Taft’s veto message?

A. Majority rule can lead to tyrannical rule.

A.

Majority rule can lead to tyrannical rule.

B. Majority rule will produce rational decisions.

B.

Majority rule will produce rational decisions.

C. Minority rights are defended by majority rule.

C.

Minority rights are defended by majority rule.

D. Minority rights are protected by constitutions.

D.

Minority rights are protected by constitutions.