Frugality

The new Governor of Wisconsin apparently has a fondness for the word "frugality". Interesting word that. It has a particular "political" meaning in our country, that few are aware of. As any legitimate constitutional scholar can attest, perhaps the most important single text studied by our founders, was The Spirit of Laws by Charles de Montesquieu. It was the equavalient of a non-fiction "best seller" in the colonies, and later the early U.S.

What the word frugal, in the public sense (republic-respublica-the public thing), is very different than how most use the word now.
Full text site and cite:
http://www.constitution.org/cm/sol-02.htm
de Secondat, Charles, Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws. 2 vols. Originally published anonymously. 1748; Crowder, Wark, and Payne, 1777. Spirit of the Laws Online posting. constitution.org. Trans. Thomas Nugent (1750). Rev. J. V. Prichard. ("Based on a public domain edition published in 1914 by G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London. Rendered into HTML and text by Jon Roland of The Constitution Society.") Accessed May 16, 2007.
Excerpt:
"What is meant by a Love of the Republic in a Democracy.
A love of the republic in a democracy is a love of the democracy; as the latter is that of equality.
A love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality. Since every individual ought here to enjoy the same happiness and the same advantages, they should consequently taste the same pleasures and form the same hopes, which cannot be expected but from a general frugality.
The love of equality in a democracy limits ambition to the sole desire, to the sole happiness, of doing greater services to our country than the rest of our fellow-citizens. They cannot all render her equal services, but they all ought to serve her with equal alacrity. At our coming into the world, we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
Hence distinctions here arise from the principle of equality, even when it seems to be removed by signal services or superior abilities.


The love of frugality limits the desire of having to the study of procuring necessaries to our family, and superfluities to our country. Riches give a power which a citizen cannot use for himself, for then he would be no longer equal. They likewise procure pleasures which he ought not to enjoy, because these would be also repugnant to the equality.
Thus well-regulated democracies, by establishing domestic frugality, made way at the same time for public expenses, as was the case at Rome and Athens, when magnificence and profusion arose from the very fund of frugality. And as religion commands us to have pure and unspotted hands when we make our offerings to the gods, the laws required a frugality of life to enable them to be liberal to our country.
The good sense and happiness of individuals depend greatly upon the mediocrity of their abilities and fortunes. Therefore, as a republic, where the laws have placed many in a middling station, is composed of wise men, it will be wisely governed; as it is composed of happy men, it will be extremely happy."
I have extracted the key sections about "republics" of this book. iIt is currently a 19 page or so Word file.
Email me if you want a copy.