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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10112-0.txt b/10112-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98b458a --- /dev/null +++ b/10112-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3304 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10112 *** + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS + +VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +Three Lectures + +DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880 + +BY JOHN FISKE + +_Voici un fait entièrement nouveau dans le monde, et dont l'imagination +elle-même ne saurait saisir la portée._ + + +TOCQUEVILLE + + +TO + +EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS + +NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS + +WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN +THE PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN + +I dedicate this Book + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting-house in Boston a +course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and +presently, through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the +course was repeated at University College in London. The lectures there +were attended by very large audiences, and awakened such an interest in +American history that I was invited to return to England in the +following year and treat of some of the philosophical aspects of my +subject in a course of lectures at the Royal Institution. + +In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation, +and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to +illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting +forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is +impossible thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any +department of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups +of facts; and the political history of the American people can be +rightly understood only when it is studied in connection with that +general process of political evolution which has been going on from the +earliest times, and of which it is itself one of the most important and +remarkable phases. The government of the United States is not the result +of special creation, but of evolution. As the town-meetings of New +England are lineally descended from the village assemblies of the early +Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago foreshadowed in the +little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so the great political +problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving is the very same +problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working ever since +civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action throughout +the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom in the +Parts,--this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed on its +political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations +politically according to their failure or success in attaining this +supreme end. When thus considered in the light of the comparative +method, our American history acquires added dignity and interest, and a +broad and rational basis is secured for the detailed treatment of +political questions. + +When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history +become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is +clothed with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in +insisting upon the fact that the history of the English people does not +begin with the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our +American history does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or +even with the settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in +unbroken continuity from the days when stout Arminius in the forests of +northern Germany successfully defied the might of imperial Rome. In a +more restricted sense, the statesmanship of Washington and Lincoln +appears in the noblest light when regarded as the fruition of the +various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. The good fight +begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly crowned at +Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further come +to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common +mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher +civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone +before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the +history which English-speaking men have so magnificently wrought out +upon American soil. + +In dealing concisely with a subject so vast, only brief hints and +suggestions can be expected; and I have not thought it worth while, for +the present at least, to change or amplify the manner of treatment. The +lectures are printed exactly as they were delivered at the Royal +Institution, more than four years ago. On one point of detail some +change will very likely by and by be called for. In the lecture on the +Town-meeting I have adopted the views of Sir Henry Maine as to the +common holding of the arable land in the ancient German mark, and as to +the primitive character of the periodical redistribution of land in the +Russian village community. It now seems highly probable that these views +will have to undergo serious modification in consequence of the valuable +evidence lately brought forward by my friend Mr. Denman Ross, in his +learned and masterly treatise on "The Early History of Landholding among +the Germans;" but as I am not yet quite clear as to how far this +modification will go, and as it can in nowise affect the general drift +of my argument, I have made no change in my incidental remarks on this +difficult and disputed question. + +In describing some of the characteristic features of country life in New +England, I had especially in mind the beautiful mountain village in +which this preface is written, and in which for nearly a quarter of a +century I have felt myself more at home than in any other spot in +the world. + +In writing these lectures, designed as they were for a special occasion, +no attempt was made to meet the ordinary requirements of popular +audiences; yet they have been received in many places with unlooked-for +favour. The lecture on "Manifest Destiny" was three times repeated in +London, and once in Edinburgh; seven times in Boston; four times in New +York; twice in Brooklyn, N.Y., Plainfield, N.J., and Madison, Wis.; once +in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, +Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Milwaukee; in Appleton and Waukesha, Wis.; +Portland, Lewiston, and Brunswick, Me.; Lowell, Concord, Newburyport, +Peabody, Stoneham, Maiden, Newton Highlands, and Martha's Vineyard, +Mass.; Middletown and Stamford, Conn.; Newburg and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; +Orange, N.J.; and at Cornell University and Haverford College. In +several of these places the course was given. + +PETERSHAM, _September 13, 1884_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + +Differences in outward aspect between a village in England and a village +in Massachusetts. Life in a typical New England mountain village. Tenure +of land, domestic service, absence of poverty and crime, universality of +labour and of culture, freedom of thought, complete democracy. This +state of things is to some extent passing away. Remarkable +characteristics of the Puritan settlers of New England, and extent to +which their characters and aims have influenced American history. Town +governments in New England. Different meanings of the word "city" in +England and America. Importance of local self-government in the +political life of the United States. Origin of the town-meeting. Mr. +Freeman on the cantonal assemblies of Switzerland. The old Teutonic +"mark," or dwelling-place of a clan. Political union originally based, +not on territorial contiguity, but on blood-relationship. Divisions of +the mark. Origin of the village Common. The _mark-mote_. Village +communities in Russia and Hindustan. Difference between the despotism of +Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. Elements of sound +political life fostered by the Russian village. Traces of the mark in +England. Feudalization of Europe, and partial metamorphosis of the mark +or township into the manor. Parallel transformation of the township, in +some of its features, into the parish. The court leet and the +vestry-meeting. The New England town-meeting a revival of the ancient +mark-mote. + +Vicissitudes of local self-government in the various portions of the +Aryan world illustrated in the contrasted cases of France and England. +Significant contrast between the aristocracy of England and that of the +Continent. Difference between the Teutonic conquests of Gaul and of +Britain. Growth of centralization in France. Why the English have always +been more successful than the French in founding colonies. Struggle +between France and England for the possession of North America, and +prodigious significance of the victory of England. + + +II. + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +Wonderful greatness of ancient Athens. Causes of the political failure +of Greek civilization. Early stages of political aggregation,--the +_hundred_, the [Greek: _phratria_], the _curia_; the _shire_, the +_deme_, and the _pagus_. Aggregation of clans into tribes. Differences +in the mode of aggregation in Greece and Rome on the one hand, and in +Teutonic countries on the other. The Ancient City. Origin of cities in +Hindustan, Germany, England, and the United States. Religious character +of the ancient city. Burghership not granted to strangers. Consequences +of the political difference between the Graeco-Roman city and the +Teutonic shire. The _folk-mote_, or primary assembly, and the +_witenagemote_, or assembly of notables. Origin of representative +government in the Teutonic shire. Representation unknown to the Greeks +and Romans. The ancient city as a school for political training. +Intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent +self-governing groups of men. Smallness of simple social aggregates and +universality of warfare in primitive times. For the formation of larger +and more complex social aggregates, only two methods are +practicable,--_conquest_ or _federation_. Greek attempts at employing +the higher method, that of federation. The Athenian hegemony and its +overthrow. The Achaian and Aetolian leagues. In a low stage of political +development the Roman method of _conquest with incorporation_ was the +only one practicable. Peculiarities of the Roman conquest of Italy. +Causes of the universal dominion of Rome. Advantages and disadvantages +of this dominion:--on the one hand the _pax romana_, and the breaking +down of primitive local superstitions and prejudices; on the other hand +the partial extinction of local self-government. Despotism inevitable in +the absence of representation. Causes of the political failure of the +Roman system. Partial reversion of Europe, between the fifth and +eleventh centuries, towards a more primitive type of social structure. +Power of Rome still wielded through the Church and the imperial +jurisprudence. Preservation of local self-government in England, and at +the two ends of the Rhine. The Dutch and Swiss federations. The lesson +to be learned from Switzerland. Federation on a great scale could only +be attempted successfully by men of English political training, when +working without let or hindrance in a vast country not preoccupied by an +old civilization. Without local self-government a great Federal Union is +impossible. Illustrations from American history. Difficulty of the +problem, and failure of the early attempts at federation in New +England. Effects of the war for independence. The "Articles of +Confederation" and the "Constitution." Pacific implications of American +federalism. + + + +III. + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY._" + +The Americans boast of the bigness of their country. How to "bound" the +United States. "Manifest Destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon Race." The term +"Anglo-Saxon" slovenly and misleading. Statements relating to the +"English Race" have a common interest for Americans and for Englishmen. +Work of the English race in the world. The prime feature of civilization +is the diminution of warfare, which becomes possible only through the +formation of great political aggregates in which the parts retain their +local and individual freedom. In the earlier stages of civilization, the +possibility of peace can be guaranteed only through war, but the +preponderant military strength is gradually concentrated in the hands of +the most pacific communities, and by the continuance of this process the +permanent peace of the world will ultimately be secured. Illustrations +from the early struggles of European civilization with outer barbarism, +and with aggressive civilizations of lower type. Greece and Persia. +Keltic and Teutonic enemies of Rome. The defensible frontier of European +civilization carried northward and eastward to the Rhine by Caesar; to +the Oder by Charles the Great; to the Vistula by the Teutonic Knights; +to the Volga and the Oxus by the Russians. Danger in the Dark Ages from +Huns and Mongols on the one hand, from Mussulmans on the other. Immense +increase of the area and physical strength of European civilization, +which can never again be in danger from outer barbarism. Effect of all +this secular turmoil upon the political institutions of Europe. It +hindered the formation of closely coherent nations, and was at the same +time an obstacle to the preservation of popular liberties. Tendency +towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life. Opposing influences of +the Church, and of the Germanic tribal organizations. Military type of +society on the Continent. Old Aryan self-government happily preserved in +England. Strategic position of England favourable to the early +elimination of warfare from her soil. Hence the exceptionally normal and +plastic political development of the English race. Significant +coincidence of the discovery of America with the beginnings of the +Protestant revolt against the asiaticizing tendency. Significance of the +struggle between Spain, France, and England for the possession of an +enormous area of virgin soil which should insure to the conqueror an +unprecedented opportunity for future development. The race which gained +control of North America must become the dominant race of the world, and +its political ideas must prevail in the struggle for life. Moral +significance of the rapid increase of the English race in America. +Fallacy of the notion that centralized governments are needed for very +large nations. It is only through federalism, combined with local +self-government, that the stability of so huge an aggregate as the +United States can be permanently maintained. What the American +government really fought for in the late Civil War. Magnitude of the +results achieved. Unprecedented military strength shown by this most +pacific and industrial of peoples. Improbability of any future attempt +to break up the Federal Union. Stupendous future of the English +race,--in Africa, in Australia, and in the islands of the Pacific +Ocean. Future of the English language. Probable further adoption of +federalism. Probable effects upon Europe of industrial competition with +the United States: impossibility of keeping up the present military +armaments. The States of Europe will be forced, by pressure of +circumstances, into some kind of federal union. A similar process will +go on until the whole of mankind shall constitute a single political +body, and warfare shall disappear forever from the face of the earth. + + + + + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS. + + + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + + +The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal +for a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to +another of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, +or Chicago, stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, +perhaps, after traversing a distance like that which separates England +from Mesopotamia, reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and +inspects their interesting fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians +and Mormons. In a journey of this sort one gets a very superficial view +of the peculiarities, physical and social, which characterize the +different portions of our country; and in this there is nothing to +complain of, since the knowledge gained in a vacation-journey cannot +well be expected to be thorough or profound. The traveller, however, +who should visit the United States in a more leisurely way, with the +purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, would find +it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself richly +repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of which +is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book on +Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable +experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivánofka in the +province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might +visit in America, there are none which would better reward such careful +observation, or which are more full of interest for the comparative +historian, than the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; +that part of English America which is oldest in civilization (though not +in actual date of settlement), and which, while most completely English +in blood and in traditions, is at the same time most completely American +in so far as it has most distinctly illustrated and most successfully +represented those political ideas which have given to American history +its chief significance in the general work of civilization. + +The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," in +terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, +and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of +the Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before +the beginning of the present century. New England, however, has a +history which carries us back to the times of James I.; and while its +cities are full of such bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or +Manchester or Glasgow, its rural towns show us much that is +old-fashioned in aspect,--much that one can approach in an antiquarian +spirit. We are there introduced to a phase of social life which is +highly interesting on its own account and which has played an important +part in the world, yet which, if not actually passing away, is at least +becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme for grave reflections +to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. As any +far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, due +to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one of +the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, on +the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes +upon the _personnel_ and upon the occupations of rural New England, we +are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a +deterioration in the character of the most perfect democracy the world +has ever seen. + +In the outward aspect of a village in Massachusetts or Connecticut, the +feature which would be most likely first to impress itself upon the mind +of a visitor from England is the manner in which the village is laid out +and built. Neither in England nor anywhere else in western Europe have I +ever met with a village of the New England type. In English villages one +finds small houses closely crowded together, sometimes in blocks of ten +or a dozen, and inhabited by people belonging to the lower orders of +society; while the fine houses of gentlemen stand quite apart in the +country, perhaps out of sight of one another, and surrounded by very +extensive grounds. The origin of the village, in a mere aggregation of +tenants of the lord of the manor, is thus vividly suggested. In France +one is still more impressed, I think, with this closely packed structure +of the village. In the New England village, on the other hand, the finer +and the poorer houses stand side by side along the road. There are wide +straight streets overarched with spreading elms and maples, and on +either side stand the houses, with little green lawns in front, called +in rustic parlance "door-yards." The finer houses may stand a thousand +feet apart from their neighbours on either side, while between the +poorer ones there may be intervals of from twenty to one hundred feet, +but they are never found crowded together in blocks. Built in this +capacious fashion, a village of a thousand inhabitants may have a main +street more than a mile in length, with half a dozen crossing streets +losing themselves gradually in long stretches of country road. The +finest houses are not ducal palaces, but may be compared with the +ordinary country-houses of gentlemen in England. The poorest houses are +never hovels, such as one sees in the Scotch Highlands. The picturesque +and cosy cottage at Shottery, where Shakespeare used to do his courting, +will serve very well as a sample of the humblest sort of old-fashioned +New England farm-house. But most of the dwellings in the village come +between these extremes. They are plain neat wooden houses, in +capaciousness more like villas than cottages. A New England village +street, laid out in this way, is usually very picturesque and beautiful, +and it is highly characteristic. In comparing it with things in Europe, +where one rarely finds anything at all like it, one must go to something +very different from a village. As you stand in the Court of Heroes at +Versailles and look down the broad and noble avenue that leads to +Paris, the effect of the vista is much like that of a New England +village street. As American villages grow into cities, the increase in +the value of land usually tends to crowd the houses together into blocks +as in a European city. But in some of our western cities founded and +settled by people from New England, this spacious fashion of building +has been retained for streets occupied by dwelling-houses. In +Cleveland--a city on the southern shore of Lake Erie, with a population +about equal to that of Edinburgh--there is a street some five or six +miles in length and five hundred feet in width, bordered on each side +with a double row of arching trees, and with handsome stone houses, of +sufficient variety and freedom in architectural design, standing at +intervals of from one to two hundred feet along the entire length of the +street. The effect, it is needless to add, is very noble indeed. The +vistas remind one of the nave and aisles of a huge cathedral. + +Now this generous way in which a New England village is built is very +closely associated with the historical origin of the village and with +the peculiar kind of political and social life by which it is +characterized. First of all, it implies abundance of land. As a rule the +head of each family owns the house in which he lives and the ground on +which it is built. The relation of landlord and tenant, though not +unknown, is not commonly met with. No sort of social distinction or +political privilege is associated with the ownership of land; and the +legal differences between real and personal property, especially as +regards ease of transfer, have been reduced to the smallest minimum that +practical convenience will allow. Each householder, therefore, though an +absolute proprietor, cannot be called a miniature lord of the manor, +because there exists no permanent dependent class such as is implied in +the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends in person to +the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his own sons or by +neighbours working for hire in the leisure left over from the care of +their own smaller estates. So in the interior of the house there is +usually no domestic service that is not performed by the mother of the +family and the daughters. Yet in spite of this universality of manual +labour, the people are as far as possible from presenting the appearance +of peasants. Poor or shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there +is no one in the village whom it would be proper to address in a +patronizing tone, or who would not consider it a gross insult to be +offered a shilling. As with poverty, so with dram-drinking and with +crime; all alike are conspicuous by their absence. In a village of one +thousand inhabitants there will be a poor-house where five or six +decrepit old people are supported at the common charge; and there will +be one tavern where it is not easy to find anything stronger to drink +than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves is so slight that it +is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer doors of the house +at night. The universality of literary culture is as remarkable as the +freedom with which all persons engage in manual labour. The village of a +thousand inhabitants will be very likely to have a public circulating +library, in which you may find Professor Huxley's "Lay Sermons" or Sir +Henry Maine's "Ancient Law": it will surely have a high-school and half +a dozen schools for small children. A person unable to read and write is +as great a rarity as an albino or a person with six fingers. The farmer +who threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a +piano in his family sitting-room, with the _Atlantic Monthly_ on the +table and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay on his shelves, while +his daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, is perhaps ready to +paint on china in the afternoon. In former times theological questions +largely occupied the attention of the people; and there is probably no +part of the world where the Bible has been more attentively read, or +where the mysteries of Christian doctrine have to so great an extent +been made the subject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence we +find in the New England of to-day a deep religious sense combined with +singular flexibility of mind and freedom of thought. + +A state of society so completely democratic as that here described has +not often been found in connection with a very high and complex +civilization. In contemplating these old mountain villages of New +England, one descries slow modifications in the structure of society +which threaten somewhat to lessen its dignity. The immense +productiveness of the soil in our western states, combined with +cheapness of transportation, tends to affect seriously the agricultural +interests of New England as well as those of our mother-country. There +is a visible tendency for farms to pass into the hands of proprietors of +an inferior type to that of the former owners,--men who are content with +a lower standard of comfort and culture; while the sons of the old +farmers go off to the universities to prepare for a professional career, +and the daughters marry merchants or lawyers in the cities. The +mountain-streams of New England, too, afford so much water-power as to +bring in ugly factories to disfigure the beautiful ravines, and to +introduce into the community a class of people very different from the +landholding descendants of the Puritans. When once a factory is +established near a village, one no longer feels free to sleep with +doors unbolted. + +It will be long, however, I trust, before the simple, earnest and +independent type of character that has been nurtured on the Blue Hills +of Massachusetts and the White Hills of New Hampshire shall cease to +operate like a powerful leaven upon the whole of American society. Much +has been said and sung in praise of the spirit of chivalry, which, after +all, as a great historian reminds us, "implies the arbitrary choice of +one or two virtues, to be practised in such an exaggerated degree as to +become vices, while the ordinary laws of right and wrong are +forgotten." [1] Quite enough has been said, too, in discredit of +Puritanism,--its narrowness of aim, its ascetic proclivities, its quaint +affectations of Hebraism. Yet these things were but the symptoms of the +intensity of its reverence for that grand spirit of Hebraism, of which +Mr. Matthew Arnold speaks, to which we owe the Bible and Christianity. +No loftier ideal has ever been conceived than that of the Puritan who +would fain have made of the world a City of God. If we could sum up all +that England owes to Puritanism, the story would be a great one indeed. +As regards the United States, we may safely say that what is noblest in +our history to-day, and of happiest augury for our social and political +future, is the impress left upon the character of our people by the +heroic men who came to New England early in the seventeenth century. + +The settlement of New England by the Puritans occupies a peculiar +position in the annals of colonization, and without understanding this +we cannot properly appreciate the character of the purely democratic +society which I have sought to describe. As a general rule colonies have +been founded, either by governments or by private enterprise, for +political or commercial reasons. The aim has been--on the part of +governments--to annoy some rival power, or to get rid of criminals, or +to open some new avenue of trade, or--on the part of the people--to +escape from straitened circumstances at home, or to find a refuge from +religious persecution. In the settlement of New England none of these +motives were operative except the last, and that only to a slight +extent. The Puritans who fled from Nottinghamshire to Holland in 1608, +and twelve years afterwards crossed the ocean in the _Mayflower_, may be +said to have been driven from England by persecution. But this was not +the case with the Puritans who between 1630 and 1650 went from +Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and from Dorset and Devonshire, and +founded the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. These men left +their homes at a time when Puritanism was waxing powerful and could not +be assailed with impunity. They belonged to the upper and middle classes +of the society of that day, outside of the peerage. Mr. Freeman has +pointed out the importance of the change by which, after the Norman +Conquest, the Old-English nobility or _thegnhood_ was pushed down into +"a secondary place in the political and social scale." Of the +far-reaching effects of this change upon the whole subsequent history of +the English race I shall hereafter have occasion to speak. The proximate +effect was that "the ancient lords of the soil, thus thrust down into +the second rank, formed that great body of freeholders, the stout gentry +and yeomanry of England, who were for so many ages the strength of the +land." [2] It was from this ancient thegnhood that the Puritan settlers +of New England were mainly descended. It is no unusual thing for a +Massachusetts family to trace its pedigree to a lord of the manor in the +thirteenth or fourteenth century. The leaders of the New England +emigration were country gentlemen of good fortune, similar in position +to such men as Hampden and Cromwell; a large proportion of them had +taken degrees at Cambridge. The rank and file were mostly intelligent +and prosperous yeomen. The lowest ranks of society were not represented +in the emigration; and all idle, shiftless, or disorderly people were +rigorously refused admission into the new communities, the early history +of which was therefore singularly free from anything like riot or +mutiny. To an extent unparalleled, therefore, in the annals of +colonization, the settlers of New England were a body of _picked men_. +Their Puritanism was the natural outcome of their free-thinking, +combined with an earnestness of character which could constrain them to +any sacrifices needful for realizing their high ideal of life. They gave +up pleasant homes in England, and they left them with no feeling of +rancour towards their native land, in order that, by dint of whatever +hardship, they might establish in the American wilderness what should +approve itself to their judgment as a god-fearing community. It matters +little that their conceptions were in some respects narrow. In the +unflinching adherence to duty which prompted their enterprise, and in +the sober intelligence with which it was carried out, we have, as I said +before, the key to what is best in the history of the American people. + +Out of such a colonization as that here described nothing but a +democratic society could very well come, save perhaps in case of a +scarcity of arable land. Between the country gentleman and the yeoman +who has become a landed proprietor, the difference is not great enough +to allow the establishment of permanent distinctions, social or +political. Immediately on their arrival in New England, the settlers +proceeded to form for themselves a government as purely democratic as +any that has ever been seen in the world. Instead of scattering about +over the country, the requirements of education and of public worship, +as well as of defence against Indian attacks, obliged them to form small +village communities. As these villages multiplied, the surface of the +country came to be laid out in small districts (usually from six to ten +miles in length and breadth) called _townships_. Each township contained +its village together with the woodlands surrounding it. In later days +two or more villages have often grown up within the limits of the same +township, and the road from one village to another is sometimes bordered +with homesteads and cultivated fields throughout nearly its whole +length. In the neighbourhood of Boston villages and small towns crowd +closely together for twenty miles in every direction; and all these will +no doubt by and by grow together into a vast and complicated city, in +somewhat the same way that London has grown. + +From the outset the government of the township was vested in the +TOWN-MEETING,--an institution which in its present form is said to be +peculiar to New England, but which, as we shall see, has close analogies +with local self-governing bodies in other ages and countries. Once in +each year--usually in the month of March--a meeting is held, at which +every adult male residing within the limits of the township is expected +to be present, and is at liberty to address the meeting or to vote upon +any question that may come up. + +In the first years of the colonies it seems to have been attempted to +hold town-meetings every month, and to discuss all the affairs of the +community in these assemblies; but this was soon found to be a cumbrous +way of transacting public business, and as early as 1635 we find +_selectmen_ chosen to administer the affairs of the township during the +intervals between the assemblies. As the system has perfected itself, at +each annual town-meeting there are chosen not less than three or more +than nine selectmen, according to the size of the township. Besides +these, there are chosen a town-clerk, a town-treasurer, a +school-committee, assessors of taxes, overseers of the poor, constables, +surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, and other officers. In very small +townships the selectmen themselves may act as assessors of taxes or +overseers of the poor. The selectmen may appoint police-officers if such +are required; they may act as a Board of Health; in addition to sundry +specific duties too numerous to mention here, they have the general +superintendence of all public business save such as is expressly +assigned to the other officers; and whenever circumstances may seem to +require it they are authorized to call a town-meeting. The selectmen are +thus the principal town-magistrates; and through the annual election +their responsibility to the town is maintained at the maximum. Yet in +many New England towns re-election of the same persons year after year +has very commonly prevailed. I know of an instance where the office of +town-clerk was filled by three members of one family during one hundred +and fourteen consecutive years. + +Besides choosing executive officers, the town-meeting has the power of +enacting by-laws, of making appropriations of money for town-purposes, +and of providing for miscellaneous emergencies by what might be termed +special legislation. Besides the annual meeting held in the spring for +transacting all this local business, the selectmen are required to call +a meeting in the autumn of each year for the election of state and +county officers, each second year for the election of representatives to +the federal Congress, and each fourth year for the election of the +President of the United States. + +It only remains to add that, as an assembly of the whole people becomes +impracticable in a large community, so when the population of a township +has grown to ten or twelve thousand, the town-meeting is discontinued, +the town is incorporated as a city, and its affairs are managed by a +mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council, according to the +system adopted in London in the reign of Edward I. In America, +therefore, the distinction between cities and towns has nothing to do +with the presence or absence of a cathedral, but refers solely to +differences in the communal or municipal government. In the city the +common council, as a representative body, replaces (in a certain sense) +the town-meeting; a representative government is substituted for a pure +democracy. But the city officers, like the selectmen of towns, are +elected annually; and in no case (I believe) has municipal government +fallen into the hands of a self-perpetuating body, as it has done in so +many instances in England owing to the unwise policy pursued by the +Tudors and Stuarts in their grants of charters. + +It is only in New England that the township system is to be found in its +completeness. In several southern and western states the administrative +unit is the county, and local affairs are managed by county +commissioners elected by the people. Elsewhere we find a mixture of the +county and township systems. In some of the western states settled by +New England people, town-meetings are held, though their powers are +somewhat less extensive than in New England. In the settlement of +Virginia it was attempted to copy directly the parishes and vestries, +boroughs and guilds of England. But in the southern states generally the +great size of the plantations and the wide dispersion of the population +hindered the growth of towns, so that it was impossible to have an +administrative unit smaller than the county. As Tocqueville said fifty +years ago, "the farther south we go the less active does the business of +the township or parish become; the population exercises a less immediate +influence on affairs; the power of the elected magistrate is augmented +and that of the election diminished, while the public spirit of the +local communities is less quickly awakened and less influential." This +is almost equally true to-day; yet with all these differences in local +organization, there is no part of our country in which the spirit of +local self-government can be called weak or uncertain. I have described +the Town-meeting as it exists in the states where it first grew up and +has since chiefly flourished. But something very like the "town-meeting +principle" lies at the bottom of all the political life of the United +States. To maintain vitality in the centre without sacrificing it in the +parts; to preserve tranquillity in the mutual relations of forty +powerful states, while keeping the people everywhere as far as possible +in direct contact with the government; such is the political problem +which the American Union exists for the purpose of solving; and of this +great truth every American citizen is supposed to have some glimmering, +however crude. + +It has been said that the town-governments of New England were +established without any conscious reference to precedent; but, however +this may be, they are certainly not without precedents and analogies, to +enumerate which will carry us very far back in the history of the Aryan +world. At the beginning of his essay on the "Growth of the English +Constitution," Mr. Freeman gives an eloquent account of the May +assemblies of Uri and Appenzell, when the whole people elect their +magistrates for the year and vote upon amendments to the old laws or +upon the adoption of new ones. Such a sight Mr. Freeman seems to think +can be seen nowhere but in Switzerland, and he reckons it among the +highest privileges of his life to have looked upon it. But I am unable +to see in what respect the town-meeting in Massachusetts differs from +the _Landesgemeinde_ or cantonal assembly in Switzerland, save that it +is held in a town-hall and not in the open air, that it is conducted +with somewhat less of pageantry, and that the freemen who attend do not +carry arms even by way of ceremony. In the Swiss assembly, as Mr. +Freeman truly observes, we see exemplified the most democratic phase of +the old Teutonic constitution as described in the "Germania" of +Tacitus, "the earliest picture which history can give us of the +political and social being of our own forefathers." The same remark, in +precisely the same terms, would be true of the town-meetings of New +England. Political institutions, on the White Mountains and on the Alps, +not only closely resemble each other, but are connected by strict bonds +of descent from a common original. + +The most primitive self-governing body of which we have any knowledge is +the village-community of the ancient Teutons, of which such strict +counterparts are found in other parts of the Aryan world as to make it +apparent that in its essential features it must be an inheritance from +prehistoric Aryan antiquity. In its Teutonic form the primitive +village-community (or rather, the spot inhabited by it) is known as the +_Mark_,--that is, a place defined by a boundary-line. One characteristic +of the mark-community is that all its free members are in theory +supposed to be related to each other through descent from a common +progenitor; and in this respect the mark-community agrees with the +_gens_, [Greek: _ginos_], or _clan_. The earliest form of political +union in the world is one which rests, not upon territorial contiguity, +but upon I blood-relationship, either real or assumed through the legal +fiction of adoption. In the lowest savagery blood-relationship is the +only admissible or conceivable ground for sustained common action among +groups of men. Among peoples which wander about, supporting themselves +either by hunting, or at a somewhat more advanced stage of development +by the rearing of flocks and herds, a group of men, thus permanently +associated through ties of blood-relationship, is what we call a _clan_. +When by the development of agricultural pursuits the nomadic mode of +life is brought to an end, when the clan remains stationary upon some +piece of territory surrounded by a strip of forest-land, or other +boundaries natural or artificial, then the clan becomes a +mark-community. The profound linguistic researches of Pictet, Fick, and +others have made it probable that at the time when the Old-Aryan +language was broken up into the dialects from which the existing +languages of Europe are descended, the Aryan tribes were passing from a +purely pastoral stage of barbarism into an incipient agricultural stage, +somewhat like that which characterized the Iroquois tribes in America in +the seventeenth century. The comparative study of institutions leads to +results in harmony with this view, showing us the mark-community of our +Teutonic ancestors with the clear traces of its origin in the more +primitive clan; though, with Mr. Kemble, I do not doubt that by the time +of Tacitus the German tribes had long since reached the +agricultural stage. + +Territorially the old Teutonic mark consisted of three divisions. There +was the _village mark_, where the people lived in houses crowded closely +together, no doubt for defensive purposes; there was the _arable mark_, +divided into as many lots as there were householders; and there was the +_common mark_, or border-strip of untilled land, wherein all the +inhabitants of the village had common rights of pasturage and of cutting +firewood. All this land originally was the property not of any one +family or individual, but of the community. The study of the mark +carries us back to a time when there may have been private property in +weapons, utensils, or trinkets, but not in real estate.[3] Of the three +kinds of land the common mark, save where curtailed or usurped by lords +in the days of feudalism, has generally remained public property to this +day. The pleasant green commons or squares which occur in the midst of +towns and cities in England and the United States most probably +originated from the coalescence of adjacent mark-communities, whereby +the border-land used in common by all was brought into the centre of the +new aggregate. In towns of modern date this origin of the common is of +course forgotten, and in accordance with the general law by which the +useful thing after discharging its functions survives for purposes of +ornament, it is introduced as a pleasure-ground. In old towns of New +England, however, the little park where boys play ball or children and +nurses "take the air" was once the common pasture of the town. Even +Boston Common did not entirely cease to be a grazing-field until 1830. +It was in the village-mark, or assemblage of homesteads, that private +property in real estate naturally began. In the Russian villages to-day +the homesteads are private property, while the cultivated land is owned +in common. This was the case with the _arable mark_ of our ancestors. +The arable mark belonged to the community, and was temporarily divided +into as many fields as there were households, though the division was +probably not into equal parts: more likely, as in Russia to-day, the +number of labourers in each household was taken into the account; and at +irregular intervals, as fluctuations in population seemed to require it, +a thorough-going redivision was effected. In carrying out such +divisions and redivisions, as well as in all matters relating to +village, ploughed field, or pasture, the mark-community was a law unto +itself. Though individual freedom was by no means considerable, the +legal existence of the individual being almost entirely merged in that +of his clan, the mark-community was a completely self-governing body. +The assembly of the mark-men, or members of the community, allotted land +for tillage, determined the law or declared the custom as to methods of +tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, voted upon the +admission of new families into the village, and in general transacted +what was then regarded as the public business of the community. In all +essential respects this village assembly or _mark-mote_ would seem to +have resembled the town-meetings of New England. + +Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly +from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of +English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in +Hindustan we find the same primitive form of social organization +existing with very little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and +in Russian village-communities we find the group of habitations, each +despotically ruled by a _pater-familias;_ we find the pasture-land +owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable land divided into +separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute regulations +established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution +of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in +others; the arable mark has become private property, as well as the +homesteads. In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at +irregular intervals averaging something like fifteen years. In India the +local government is carried on in some places by a Council of Village +Elders, and in other places by a Headman whose office is sometimes +described as hereditary, but is more probably elective, the choice being +confined, as in the case of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of +a particular family. In the Russian village, on the other hand, the +government is conducted by an assembly at which every head of a +household is expected to be present and vote on all matters of public +concern. This assembly elects the Village Elder, or chief executive +officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and the communal herd-boy; it +directs the allotment of the arable land; and in general matters of +local legislation its power is as great as that of the New England +town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since the precise +extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, and +(according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against its +decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply as +a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising. +To those who, because the Russian government is called a bureaucracy, +have been led to think of it as analogous to the government of France +under the Old Régime, it may seem incredible that the decisions of a +village-assembly should not admit of appeal to a higher authority. But +in point of fact, no two despotic governments could be less alike than +that of modern Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. The +Russian government is autocratic inasmuch as over the larger part of the +country it has simply succeeded to the position of the Mongolian khans +who from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century held the Russian people +in subjection. This Mongolian government was--to use a happy distinction +suggested by Sir Henry Maine--a tax-taking despotism, not a legislative +despotism. The conquerors exacted tribute, but did not interfere with +the laws and customs of the subject people. When the Russians drove out +the Mongols they exchanged a despotism which they hated for one in +which they felt a national pride, but in one curious respect the +position of the people with reference to their rulers has remained the +same. The imperial government exacts from each village-community a tax +in gross, for which the community as a whole is responsible, and which +may or may not be oppressive in amount; but the government has never +interfered with local legislation or with local customs. Thus in the +_mir_, or village-community, the Russians still retain an element of +sound political life, the importance of which appears when we consider +that five-sixths of the population of European Russia is comprised in +these communities. The tax assessed upon them by the imperial government +is, however, a feature which--even more than their imperfect system of +property and their low grade of mental culture--separates them by a +world-wide interval from the New England township, to the primeval +embryonic stage of which they correspond. + +From these illustrations we see that the mark, or self-governing +village-community, is an institution which must be referred back to +early Aryan times. Whether the mark ever existed in England, in anything +like the primitive form in which it is seen in the Russian _mir_, is +doubtful. Professor Stubbs (one of the greatest living authorities on +such a subject) is inclined to think that the Teutonic settlers of +Britain had passed beyond this stage before they migrated from +Germany.[4] Nevertheless the traces of the mark, as all admit, are +plentiful enough in England; and some of its features have survived down +to modern times. In the great number of town-names that are formed from +patronymics, such as _Walsingham_ "the home of the Walsings," +_Harlington_ "the town of the Harlings," etc.,[5] we have unimpeachable +evidence of a time when the town was regarded as the dwelling-place of a +clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word _mark_ in English laws, +charters, and local names (to which Professor Stubbs alludes) may be due +to the fact that the word _town_ has precisely the same meaning. _Mark_ +means originally the belt of waste land encircling the village, and +secondarily the village with its periphery. _Town_ means originally a +hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is enclosed: the +modern German _zaun_, a "hedge," preserves the original meaning. But +traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. I have +already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. What is +still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation in +common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of the +mark appears in the _tunscipesmot_,--a word which is simply Old-English +for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm +foothold, the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of +enacting its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have +to-day. But above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of +itself in the constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or +township, transformed by the process of feudalization, becomes the +manor. The process of feudalization, throughout western Europe in +general, was no doubt begun by the institution of Benefices, or "grants +of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of the" Teutonic "tribes +which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being conferred on their +associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest was military +service." [6] The feudal régime naturally reached its most complete +development in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman +territory overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic +conquerors. Other causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps +being the chaotic condition of European society during the break-up of +the Carolingian Empire and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions. +Land was better protected when held of a powerful chieftain than when +held in one's own right; and hence the practice of commendation, by +which free allodial proprietors were transformed into the tenants of a +lord, became fashionable and was gradually extended to all kinds of +estates. In England the effects of feudalization were different from +what they were in France, but the process was still carried very far, +especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up that all the +public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that all +landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the +common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's +tenants. Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even +by such a change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in +England lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as +Sir Henry Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty +in the rights of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no +authority to disturb customary rights. The old township-assembly +partially survived in the Court Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court +of the Manor; and in these courts the arrangements for the common +husbandry were determined. + +This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but +partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township +into the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has +pointed out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or +townships with which it coincides are generally the same: in small +parishes the idea and even the name of township is frequently, at the +present day, sunk in that of the parish; and all the business that is +not manorial is despatched in vestry-meetings, which are however +primarily meetings of the township for church purposes." [7] The parish +officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens, +are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And +while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by +charter, or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial +grant, "all matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the +management of the vestry." + +In England, therefore, the free village-community, though perhaps +nowhere found in its primitive integrity, has nevertheless survived in +partially transfigured forms which have played no unimportant part in +the history of the English people. In one shape or another the assembly +of freemen for purposes of local legislation has always existed. The +Puritans who colonized New England, therefore, did not invent the +town-meeting. They were familiar already with the proceedings of the +vestry-meeting and the manorial courts, but they were severed now from +church and from aristocracy. So they had but to discard the +ecclesiastical and lordly terminology, with such limitations as they +involved, and to reintegrate the separate jurisdictions into one,--and +forthwith the old assembly of the township, founded in immemorial +tradition, but revivified by new thoughts and purposes gained through +ages of political training, emerged into fresh life and entered upon a +more glorious career. + +It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need +to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of +the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful +national life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local +self-government in the various portions of the Aryan world, we see the +contrasted fortunes of France and England illustrating for us most +forcibly the significance of this truth. For the preservation of local +self-government in England various causes may be assigned; but of these +there are two which may be cited as especially prominent. In the first +place, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the Teutonic settlement of +Britain, the civilization of England previous to the Norman Conquest was +but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. In the second place +the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman Conquest (to which +I have already alluded) checked the growth of a _noblesse_ or _adel_ of +the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common people like a +separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown into such +a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage +which arose after the Conquest was something different from a +_noblesse_. It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or +privilege. The peers were those men who retained the right of summons to +the Great Council, or Witenagemote, which has survived as the House of +Lords. The peer was therefore the holder of a legislative and judicial +office, which only one of his children could inherit, from the very +nature of the case, and which none of his children could share with him. +Hence the brothers and younger children of a peer were always commoners, +and their interests were not remotely separated from those of other +commoners. Hence after the establishment of a House of Commons, their +best chance for a political career lay in representing the interests of +the people in the lower house. Hence between the upper and lower strata +of English society there has always been kept up a circulation or +interchange of ideas and interests, and the effect of this upon English +history has been prodigious. While on the continent a sovereign like +Charles the Bold could use his nobility to extinguish the liberties of +the merchant towns of Flanders, nothing of the sort was ever possible in +England. Throughout the Middle Ages, in every contest between the people +and the crown, the weight of the peerage was thrown into the scale in +favour of popular liberties. But for this peculiar position of the +peerage we might have had no Earl Simon; it is largely through it that +representative government and local liberties have been preserved to the +English race. + +In France the course of events has brought about very different results. +I shall defer to my next lecture the consideration of the vicissitudes +of local self-government under the Roman Empire, because that point is +really incident upon the study of the formation of vast national +aggregates. Suffice it now to say that when the Teutons overcame Gaul, +they became rulers over a population which had been subjected for five +centuries to that slow but mighty process of trituration which the +Empire everywhere brought to bear upon local self-government. While the +Teutons in Britain, moreover, enslaved their slightly romanized subjects +and gave little heed to their language, religion, or customs; the +Teutons in Gaul, on the other hand, quickly adopted the language and +religion of their intensely romanized subjects and acquired to some +extent their way of looking at things. Hence in the early history of +France there was no such stubborn mass of old Aryan liberties to be +dealt with as in the early history of England. Nor was there any +powerful middle class distributed through the country to defend such +liberties as existed. Beneath the turbulent throng of Teutonic nobles, +among whom the king was only the most exalted and not always the +strongest, there lay the Gallo-Roman population which had so long been +accustomed to be ruled without representation by a distant government +exercising its authority through innumerable prefects. Such Teutonic +rank and file as there was became absorbed into this population; and +except in sundry chartered towns there was nothing like a social stratum +interposed between the nobles and the common people. + +The slow conversion of the feudal monarchy of the early Capetians into +the absolute despotism of Louis XIV. was accomplished by the king +gradually _conquering_ his vassals one after another, and adding their +domains to his own. As one vassal territory after another was added to +the royal domain, the king sent prefects, responsible only to himself, +to administer its local affairs, sedulously crushing out, so far as +possible, the last vestiges of self-government. The nobles, deprived of +their provincial rule, in great part flocked to Paris to become idle +courtiers. The means for carrying on the gigantic machinery of +centralized administration, and for supporting the court in its follies, +were wrung from the groaning peasantry with a cynical indifference like +that with which tribute is extorted by barbaric chieftains from a +conquered enemy. And thus came about that abominable state of things +which a century since was abruptly ended by one of the fiercest +convulsions of modern times. The prodigious superiority--in respect to +national vitality--of a freely governed country over one that is +governed by a centralized despotism, is nowhere more brilliantly +illustrated than in the contrasted fortunes of France and England as +_colonizing_ nations. When we consider the declared rivalry between +France and England in their plans for colonizing the barbarous regions +of the earth, when we consider that the military power of the two +countries has been not far from equal, and that France has at times +shown herself a maritime power by no means to be despised, it seems to +me that her overwhelming and irretrievable defeat by England in the +struggle for colonial empire is one of the most striking and one of the +most instructive facts in all modern history. In my lectures of last +year (at University College) I showed that, in the struggle for the +possession of North America, where the victory of England was so +decisive as to settle the question for all coming time, the causes of +the French failure are very plainly to be seen. The French colony in +Canada was one of the most complete examples of a despotic government +that the world has ever seen. All the autocratic and bureaucratic ideas +of Louis XIV. were here carried out without let or hindrance. It would +be incredible, were it not attested by such abundant evidence, that the +affairs of any people could be subjected to such minute and sleepless +supervision as were the affairs of the French colonists in Canada. A man +could not even build his own house, or rear his own cattle, or sow his +own seed, or reap his own grain, save under the supervision of prefects +acting under instructions from the home government. No one was allowed +to enter or leave the colony without permission, not from the colonists +but from the king. No farmer could visit Montreal or Quebec without +permission. No Huguenot could set his foot on Canadian soil. No public +meetings of any kind were tolerated, nor were there any means of giving +expression to one's opinions on any subject. The details of all this, +which may be read in Mr. Parkman's admirable work on "The Old Regime in +Canada," make a wonderful chapter of history. Never was a colony, +moreover, so loaded with bounties, so fostered, petted, and protected. +The result was absolute paralysis, political and social. When after a +century of irritation and skirmishing the French in Canada came to a +life-and-death struggle with the self-governing colonists of New +England, New York, and Virginia, the result for the French power in +America was instant and irretrievable annihilation. The town-meeting +pitted against the bureaucracy was like a Titan overthrowing a cripple. +The historic lesson owes its value to the fact that this ruin of the +French scheme of colonial empire was due to no accidental circumstances, +but was involved in the very nature of the French political system. +Obviously it is impossible for a people to plant beyond sea a colony +which shall be self-supporting, unless it has retained intact the power +of self-government at home. It is to the self-government of England, and +to no lesser cause, that we are to look for the secret of that boundless +vitality which has given to men of English speech the uttermost parts of +the earth for an inheritance. The conquest of Canada first demonstrated +this truth, and when--in the two following lectures--we shall have made +some approach towards comprehending its full import, we shall all, I +think, be ready to admit that the triumph of Wolfe marks the greatest +turning-point as yet discernible in modern history. + + + + +II. + + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries +still ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of +political wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books +in the world. At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other +time in the career of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with +such luxuriance as at Athens during the eighty-five years which +intervened between the victory of Marathon and the defeat of +Ægospotamos. In no other like interval of time, and in no other +community of like dimensions, has so much work been accomplished of +which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema es aei],--an +eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day so distant, or +an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by Athens shall +cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers shall +cease to be read with fresh profit and delight. We understand these +things far better to-day than did those monsters of erudition in the +sixteenth century who studied the classics for philological purposes +mainly. Indeed, the older the world grows, the more varied our +experience of practical politics, the more comprehensive our survey of +universal history, the stronger our grasp upon the comparative method of +inquiry, the more brilliant is the light thrown upon that brief day of +Athenian greatness, and the more wonderful and admirable does it all +seem. To see this glorious community overthrown, shorn of half its +virtue (to use the Homeric phrase), and thrust down into an inferior +position in the world, is a mournful spectacle indeed. And the book +which sets before us, so impartially yet so eloquently, the innumerable +petty misunderstandings and contemptible jealousies which brought about +this direful result, is one of the most mournful of books. + +We may console ourselves, however, for the premature overthrow of the +power of Athens, by the reflection that that power rested upon political +conditions which could not in any case have been permanent or even +long-enduring. The entire political system of ancient Greece, based as +it was upon the idea of the sovereign independence of each single city, +was one which could not fail sooner or later to exhaust itself through +chronic anarchy. The only remedy lay either in some kind of permanent +federation, combined with representative government; or else in what we +might call "incorporation and assimilation," after the Roman fashion. +But the incorporation of one town with another, though effected with +brilliant results in the early history of Attika, involved such a +disturbance of all the associations which in the Greek mind clustered +about the conception of a city that it was quite impracticable on any +large or general scale. Schemes of federal union were put into +operation, though too late to be of avail against the assaults of +Macedonia and Rome. But as for the principle of representation, that +seems to have been an invention of the Teutonic mind; no statesman of +antiquity, either in Greece or at Rome, seems to have conceived the idea +of a city sending delegates armed with plenary powers to represent its +interests in a general legislative assembly. To the Greek statesmen, no +doubt, this too would have seemed derogatory to the dignity of the +sovereign city. + +This feeling with which the ancient Greek statesmen, and to some extent +the Romans also, regarded the city, has become almost incomprehensible +to the modern mind, so far removed are we from the political +circumstances which made such a feeling possible. Teutonic +civilization, indeed, has never passed through a stage in which the +foremost position has been held by civic communities. Teutonic +civilization passed directly from the stage of tribal into that of +national organization, before any Teutonic city had acquired sufficient +importance to have claimed autonomy for itself; and at the time when +Teutonic nationalities were forming, moreover, all the cities in Europe +had so long been accustomed to recognize a master outside of them in the +person of the Roman emperor that the very tradition of civic autonomy, +as it existed in ancient Greece, had become extinct. This difference +between the political basis of Teutonic and of Græco-Roman civilization +is one of which it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance; and +when thoroughly understood it goes farther, perhaps, than anything else +towards accounting for the successive failures of the Greek and Roman +political systems, and towards inspiring us with confidence in the +future stability of the political system which has been wrought out by +the genius of the English race. + +We saw, in the preceding lecture, how the most primitive form of +political association known to have existed is that of the _clan_, or +group of families held together by ties of descent from a common +ancestor. We saw how the change from a nomadic to a stationary mode of +life, attendant upon the adoption of agricultural pursuits, converted +the clan into a _mark_ or village-community, something like those which +exist to-day in Russia. The political progress of primitive society +seems to have consisted largely in the coalescence of these small groups +into larger groups. The first series of compound groups resulting from +the coalescence of adjacent marks is that which was known in nearly all +Teutonic lands as the _hundred_, in Athens as the [Greek: _phratria_] or +_brotherhood_, in Rome as the _curia_. Yet alongside of the Roman group +called the _curia_ there is a group whose name, the _century_, exactly +translates the name of the Teutonic group; and, as Mr. Freeman says, it +is difficult to believe that the Roman _century_ did not at the outset +in some way correspond to the Teutonic _hundred_ as a stage in political +organization. But both these terms, as we know them in history, are +survivals from some prehistoric state of things; and whether they were +originally applied to a hundred of houses, or of families, or of +warriors, we do not know.[8] M. Geffroy, in his interesting essay on the +Germania of Tacitus, suggests that the term _canton_ may have a similar +origin.[9] The outlines of these primitive groups are, however, more +obscure than those of the more primitive mark, because in most cases +they have been either crossed and effaced or at any rate diminished in +importance by the more highly compounded groups which came next in order +of formation. Next above the _hundred_, in order of composition, comes +the group known in ancient Italy as the_pagus_, in Attika perhaps as the +_deme_, in Germany and at first in England as the _gau_ or _ga_, at a +later date in England as the _shire_. Whatever its name, this group +answers to the _tribe_ regarded as settled upon a certain determinate +territory. Just as in the earlier nomadic life the aggregation of clans +makes ultimately the tribe, so in the more advanced agricultural life of +our Aryan ancestors the aggregation of marks or village-communities +makes ultimately the _gau_ or _shire_. Properly speaking, the name +_shire_ is descriptive of division and not of aggregation; but this term +came into use in England after the historic order of formation had been +forgotten, and when the _shire_ was looked upon as a _piece_ of some +larger whole, such as the kingdom of Mercia or Wessex. Historically, +however, the _shire_ was not made, like the _departments_ of modern +France, by the division of the kingdom for administrative purposes, but +the kingdom was made by the union of shires that were previously +autonomous. In the primitive process of aggregation, the _shire_ or +_gau_, governed by its _witenagemote_ or "meeting of wise men," and by +its chief magistrate who was called _ealdorman_ in time of peace and +_heretoga_, "army-leader," _dux_, or _duke_, in time of war,--the +_shire_, I say, in this form, is the largest and most complex political +body we find previous to the formation of kingdoms and nations. But in +saying this, we have already passed beyond the point at which we can +include in the same general formula the process of political development +in Teutonic countries on the one hand and in Greece and Rome on the +other. Up as far as the formation of the tribe, territorially regarded, +the parallelism is preserved; but at this point there begins an +all-important divergence. In the looser and more diffused society of the +rural Teutons, the tribe is spread over a shire, and the aggregation of +shires makes a kingdom, embracing cities, towns, and rural districts +held together by similar bonds of relationship to the central governing +power. But in the society of the old Greeks and Italians, the +aggregation of tribes, crowded together on fortified hill-tops, makes +the _Ancient City_,--a very different thing, indeed, from the modern +city of later-Roman or Teutonic foundation. Let us consider, for a +moment, the difference. + +Sir Henry Maine tells us that in Hindustan nearly all the great towns +and cities have arisen either from the simple expansion or from the +expansion and coalescence of primitive village-communities; and such as +have not arisen in this way, including some of the greatest of Indian +cities, have grown up about the intrenched camps of the Mogul +emperors.[10] The case has been just the same in modern Europe. Some +famous cities of England and Germany--such as Chester and Lincoln, +Strasburg and Maintz,--grew up about the camps of the Roman legions. But +in general the Teutonic city has been formed by the expansion and +coalescence of thickly-peopled townships and hundreds. In the United +States nearly all cities have come from the growth and expansion of +villages, with such occasional cases of coalescence as that of Boston +with Roxbury and Charlestown. Now and then a city has been laid out as a +city _ab initio_, with full consciousness of its purpose, as a man would +build a house; and this was the case not merely with Martin Chuzzlewit's +"Eden," but with the city of Washington, the seat of our federal +government. But, to go back to the early ages of England--the country +which best exhibits the normal development of Teutonic institutions--the +point which I wish especially to emphasize is this: _in no case does the +city appear as equivalent to the dwelling-place of a tribe or of a +confederation of tribes_. In no case does citizenship, or burghership, +appear to rest upon the basis of a real or assumed community of descent +from a single real or mythical progenitor. In the primitive mark, as we +have seen, the bond which kept the community together and constituted it +a political unit was the bond of blood-relationship, real or assumed; +but this was not the case with the city or borough. The city did not +correspond with the tribe, as the mark corresponded with the clan. The +aggregation of clans into tribes corresponded with the aggregation of +marks, not into _cities_ but into _shires_. The multitude of compound +political units, by the further compounding of which a nation was to be +formed, did not consist of cities but of shires. The city was simply a +point in the shire distinguished by greater density of population. The +relations sustained by the thinly-peopled rural townships and hundreds +to the general government of the shire were co-ordinate with the +relations sustained to the same government by those thickly-peopled +townships and hundreds which upon their coalescence were known as cities +or boroughs. Of course I am speaking now in a broad and general way, and +without reference to such special privileges or immunities as cities and +boroughs frequently obtained by royal charter in feudal times. Such +special privileges--as for instance the exemption of boroughs from the +ordinary sessions of the county court, under Henry I.[11]--were in their +nature grants from an external source, and were in nowise inherent in +the position or mode of origin of the Teutonic city. And they were, +moreover, posterior in date to that embryonic period of national growth +of which I am now speaking. They do not affect in any way the +correctness of my general statement, which is sufficiently illustrated +by the fact that the oldest shire-motes, or county-assemblies, were +attended by representatives from all the townships and hundreds in the +shire, whether such townships and hundreds formed parts of boroughs +or not. + +Very different from this was the embryonic growth of political society +in ancient Greece and Italy. There the aggregation of clans into tribes +and confederations of tribes resulted directly, as we have seen, in the +City. There burghership, with its political and social rights and +duties, had its theoretical basis in descent from a common ancestor, or +from a small group of closely-related common ancestors. The group of +fellow-citizens was associated through its related groups of ancestral +household-deities, and through religious rites performed in common to +which it would have been sacrilege to have admitted a stranger. Thus the +Ancient City was a religious as well as a political body, and in either +character it was complete in itself and it was sovereign. Thus in +ancient Greece and Italy the primitive clan-assembly or township-meeting +did not grow by aggregation into the assembly of the shire, but it +developed into the _comitia_ or _ecclesia_ of the city. The chief +magistrate was not the _ealdorman_ of early English history, but the +_rex_ or _basileus_ who combined in himself the functions of king, +general, and priest. Thus, too, there was a severance, politically, +between city and country such as the Teutonic world has never known. The +rural districts surrounding a city might be subject to it, but could +neither share its franchise nor claim a co-ordinate franchise with it. +Athens, indeed, at an early period, went so far as to incorporate with +itself Eleusis and Marathon and the other rural towns of Attika. In this +one respect Athens transgressed the bounds of ancient civic +organization, and no doubt it gained greatly in power thereby. But +generally in the Hellenic world the rural population in the +neighbourhood of a great city were mere [Greek: _perioikoi_], or +"dwellers in the vicinity"; the inhabitants of the city who had moved +thither from some other city, both they and their descendants, were mere +[Greek: metoikoi], or "dwellers in the place"; and neither the one class +nor the other could acquire the rights and privileges of citizenship. A +revolution, indeed, went on at Athens, from the time of Solon to the +time of Kleisthenes, which essentially modified the old tribal divisions +and admitted to the franchise all such families resident from time +immemorial as did not belong to the tribes of eupatrids by whom the city +was founded. But this change once accomplished, the civic exclusiveness +of Athens remained very much what it was before. The popular assembly +was enlarged, and public harmony was secured; but Athenian burghership +still remained a privilege which could not be acquired by the native of +any other city. Similar revolutions, with a similarly limited purpose +and result, occurred at Sparta, Elis, and other Greek cities. At Rome, +by a like revolution, the plebeians of the Capitoline and Aventine +acquired parallel rights of citizenship with the patricians of the +original city on the Palatine; but this revolution, as we shall +presently see, had different results, leading ultimately to the +overthrow of the city-system throughout the ancient world. + +The deep-seated difference between the Teutonic political system based +on the shire and the Græco-Roman system based on the city is now, I +think, sufficiently apparent. Now from this fundamental difference have +come two consequences of enormous importance,--consequences of which it +is hardly too much to say that, taken together, they furnish the key to +the whole history of European civilization as regarded purely from a +political point of view. + +The first of these consequences had no doubt a very humble origin in the +mere difference between the shire and the city in territorial extent and +in density of population. When people live near together it is easy for +them to attend a town-meeting, and the assembly by which public business +is transacted is likely to remain a _primary assembly_, in the true +sense of the term. But when people are dispersed over a wide tract of +country, the primary assembly inevitably shrinks up into an assembly of +such persons as can best afford the time and trouble of attending it, or +who have the strongest interest in going, or are most likely to be +listened to after they get there. Distance and difficulty, and in early +times danger too, keep many people away. And though a shire is not a +wide tract of country for most purposes, and according to modern ideas, +it was nevertheless quite wide enough in former times to bring about the +result I have mentioned. In the times before the Norman conquest, if not +before the completed union of England under Edgar, the shire-mote or +county assembly, though in theory still a folk-mote or primary assembly, +had shrunk into what was virtually a witenagemote or assembly of the +most important persons in the county. But the several townships, in +order to keep their fair share of control over county affairs, and not +wishing to leave the matter to chance, sent to the meetings each its +_representatives_ in the persons of the town-reeve and four "discreet +men." I believe it has not been determined at what precise time this +step was taken, but it no doubt long antedates the Norman conquest. It +is mentioned by Professor Stubbs as being already, in the reign of Henry +III., a custom of immemorial antiquity.[12] It was one of the greatest +steps ever taken in the political history of mankind. In these four +discreet men we have the forerunners of the two burghers from each town +who were summoned by Earl Simon to the famous parliament of 1265, as +well as of the two knights from each shire whom the king had summoned +eleven years before. In these four discreet men sent to speak for their +township in the old county assembly, we have the germ of institutions +that have ripened into the House of Commons and into the legislatures of +modern kingdoms and republics. In the system of representation thus +inaugurated lay the future possibility of such gigantic political +aggregates as the United States of America. + +In the ancient city, on the other hand, the extreme compactness of the +political structure made representation unnecessary and prevented it +from being thought of in circumstances where it might have proved of +immense value. In an aristocratic Greek city, like Sparta, all the +members of the ruling class met together and voted in the assembly; in a +democratic city, like Athens, all the free citizens met and voted; in +each case the assembly was primary and not representative. The only +exception, in all Greek antiquity, is one which emphatically proves the +rule. The Amphiktyonic Council, an institution of prehistoric origin, +concerned mainly with religious affairs pertaining to the worship of the +Delphic Apollo, furnished a precedent for a representative, and indeed +for a federal, assembly. Delegates from various Greek tribes and cities +attended it. The fact that with such a suggestive precedent before their +eyes the Greeks never once hit upon the device of representation, even +in their attempts at framing federal unions, shows how thoroughly their +whole political training had operated to exclude such a conception from +their minds. + +The second great consequence of the Graeco-Roman city-system was linked +in many ways with this absence of the representative principle. In +Greece the formation of political aggregates higher and more extensive +than the city was, until a late date, rendered impossible. The good and +bad sides of this peculiar phase of civilization have been often enough +commented on by historians. On the one hand the democratic assembly of +such an imperial city as Athens furnished a school of political training +superior to anything else that the world has ever seen. It was something +like what the New England town-meeting would be if it were continually +required to adjust complicated questions of international polity, if it +were carried on in the very centre or point of confluence of all +contemporary streams of culture, and if it were in the habit every few +days of listening to statesmen and orators like Hamilton or Webster, +jurists like Marshall, generals like Sherman, poets like Lowell, +historians like Parkman. Nothing in all history has approached the +high-wrought intensity and brilliancy of the political life of Athens. + +On the other hand, the smallness of the independent city, as a political +aggregate, made it of little or no use in diminishing the liability to +perpetual warfare which is the curse of all primitive communities. In a +group of independent cities, such as made up the Hellenic world, the +tendency to warfare is almost as strong, and the occasions for warfare +are almost as frequent, as in a congeries of mutually hostile tribes of +barbarians. There is something almost lurid in the sharpness of contrast +with which the wonderful height of humanity attained by Hellas is set +off against the fierce barbarism which characterized the relations of +its cities to one another. It may be laid down as a general rule that in +an early state of society, where the political aggregations are small, +warfare is universal and cruel. From the intensity of the jealousies and +rivalries between adjacent self-governing groups of men, nothing short +of chronic warfare can result, until some principle of union is evolved +by which disputes can be settled in accordance with general principles +admitted by all. Among peoples that have never risen above the tribal +stage of aggregation, such as the American Indians, war is the normal +condition of things, and there is nothing fit to be called +_peace_,--there are only truces of brief and uncertain duration. Were it +not for this there would be somewhat less to be said in favour of great +states and kingdoms. As modern life grows more and more complicated and +interdependent, the Great State subserves innumerable useful purposes; +but in the history of civilization its first service, both in order of +time and in order of importance, consists in the diminution of the +quantity of warfare and in the narrowing of its sphere. For within the +territorial limits of any great and permanent state, the tendency is for +warfare to become the exception and peace the rule. In this direction +the political careers of the Greek cities assisted the progress of +civilization but little. + +Under the conditions of Graeco-Roman civic life there were but two +practicable methods of forming a great state and diminishing the +quantity of warfare. The one method was _conquest with incorporation_, +the other method was _federation_. Either one city might conquer all +the others and endow their citizens with its own franchise, or all the +cities might give up part of their sovereignty to a federal body which +should have power to keep the peace, and should represent the civilized +world of the time in its relations with outlying barbaric peoples. Of +these two methods, obviously the latter is much the more effective, but +it presupposes for its successful adoption a higher general state of +civilization than the former. Neither method was adopted by the Greeks +in their day of greatness. The Spartan method of extending its power was +conquest without incorporation: when Sparta conquered another Greek +city, she sent a _harmost_ to govern it like a tyrant; in other words +she virtually enslaved the subject city. The efforts of Athens tended +more in the direction of a peaceful federalism. In the great Delian +confederacy which developed into the maritime empire of Athens, the +Ægean cities were treated as allies rather than subjects. As regards +their local affairs they were in no way interfered with, and could they +have been represented in some kind of a federal council at Athens, the +course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered. As it +was, they were all deprived of one essential element of +sovereignty,--the power of controlling their own military forces. Some +of them, as Chios and Mitylene, furnished troops at the demand of +Athens; others maintained no troops, but paid a fixed tribute to Athens +in return for her protection. In either case they felt shorn of part of +their dignity, though otherwise they had nothing to complain of; and +during the Peloponnesian war Athens had to reckon with their tendency to +revolt as well as with her Dorian enemies. Such a confederation was +naturally doomed to speedy overthrow. + +In the century following the death of Alexander, in the closing age of +Hellenic independence, the federal idea appears in a much more advanced +stage of elaboration, though in a part of Greece which had been held of +little account in the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the +Achaian federation, framed in 274 B.C., and the United States of +America, there are some interesting points of resemblance which have +been elaborately discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his "History of Federal +Government." About the same time the Aetolian League came into +prominence in the north. Both these leagues were instances of true +federal government, and were not mere confederations; that is, the +central government acted directly upon all the citizens and not merely +upon the local governments. Each of these leagues had for its chief +executive officer a General elected for one year, with powers similar to +those of an American President. In each the supreme assembly was a +primary assembly at which every citizen from every city of the league +had a right to be present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural +consequence these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic +bodies. In Ætolia, which was a group of mountain cantons similar to +Switzerland, the federal union was more complete than in Achaia, which +was a group of cities. In Achaia cases occurred in which a single city +was allowed to deal separately with foreign powers. Here, as in earlier +Greek history, the instinct of autonomy was too powerful to admit of +complete federation. Yet the career of the Achaian League was not an +inglorious one. For nearly a century and a half it gave the Peloponnesos +a larger measure of orderly government than the country had ever known +before, without infringing upon local liberties. It defied successfully +the threats and assaults of Macedonia, and yielded at last only to the +all-conquering might of Rome. + +Thus in so far as Greece contributed anything towards the formation of +great and pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts at +_federation_. But in so low a state of political development as that +which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in pre-Christian +times, the more barbarous method of _conquest with incorporation_ was +more likely to be successful on a great scale. This was well illustrated +in the history of Rome,--a civic community of the same generic type with +Sparta and Athens, but presenting specific differences of the highest +importance. The beginnings of Rome, unfortunately, are prehistoric. I +have often thought that if some beneficent fairy could grant us the +power of somewhere raising the veil of oblivion which enshrouds the +earliest ages of Aryan dominion in Europe, there is no place from which +the historian should be more glad to see it lifted than from Rome in the +centuries which saw the formation of the city, and which preceded the +expulsion of the kings. Even the legends, which were uncritically +accepted from the days of Livy to those of our grandfathers, are +provokingly silent upon the very points as to which we would fain get at +least a hint. This much is plain, however, that in the embryonic stage +of the Roman commonwealth some obscure processes of fusion or +commingling went on. The tribal population of Rome was more +heterogeneous than that of the great cities of Greece, and its earliest +municipal religion seems to have been an assemblage of various tribal +religions that had points of contact with other tribal religions +throughout large portions of the Græco-Italic world. As M. de Coulanges +observes,[13] Rome was almost the only city of antiquity which was not +kept apart from other cities by its religion. There was hardly a people +in Greece or Italy which it was restrained from admitting to +participation in its municipal rites. + +However this may have been, it is certain that Rome early succeeded in +freeing itself from that insuperable prejudice which elsewhere prevented +the ancient city from admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And +in this victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of +Rome's mighty career. The victory was not indeed completed until after +the terrible Social War of B.C. 90, but it was begun at least four +centuries earlier with the admission of the plebeians. At the +consummation of the conquest of Italy in B.C. 270 Roman burghership +already extended, in varying degrees of completeness, through the +greater part of Etruria and Campania, from the coast to the mountains; +while all the rest of Italy was admitted to privileges for which ancient +history had elsewhere furnished no precedent. Hence the invasion of +Hannibal half a century later, even with its stupendous victories of +Thrasymene and Cannae, effected nothing toward detaching the Italian +subjects from their allegiance to Rome; and herein we have a most +instructive contrast to the conduct of the communities subject to Athens +at several critical moments of the Peloponnesian War. With this +consolidation of Italy, thus triumphantly demonstrated, the whole +problem of the conquering career of Rome was solved. All that came +afterwards was simply a corollary from this. The concentration of all +the fighting power of the peninsula into the hands of the ruling city +formed a stronger political aggregate than anything the world had as yet +seen. It was not only proof against the efforts of the greatest military +genius of antiquity, but whenever it was brought into conflict with the +looser organizations of Greece, Africa, and Asia, or with the +semi-barbarous tribes of Spain and Gaul, the result of the struggle was +virtually predetermined. The universal dominion of Rome was inevitable, +so soon as the political union of Italy had been accomplished. Among the +Romans themselves there were those who thoroughly understood this point, +as we may see from the interesting speech of the emperor Claudius in +favour of admitting Gauls to the senate. + +The benefits conferred upon the world by the, universal dominion of Rome +were of quite inestimable value. First of these benefits, and (as it +were) the material basis of the others, was the prolonged peace that was +enforced throughout large portions of the world where chronic warfare +had hitherto prevailed. The _pax romana_ has perhaps been sometimes +depicted in exaggerated colours; but as compared with all that had +preceded, and with all that followed, down to the beginning of the +nineteenth century, it deserved the encomiums it has received. The +second benefit was the mingling and mutual destruction of the primitive +tribal and municipal religions, thus clearing the way for +Christianity,--a step which, regarded from a purely political point of +view, was of immense importance for the further consolidation of society +in Europe. The third benefit was the development of the Roman law into a +great body of legal precepts and principles leavened throughout with +ethical principles of universal applicability, and the gradual +substitution of this Roman law for the innumerable local usages of +ancient communities. Thus arose the idea of a common Christendom, of a +brotherhood of peoples associated both by common beliefs regarding the +unseen world and by common principles of action in the daily affairs of +life. The common ethical and traditional basis thus established for the +future development of the great nationalities of Europe is the most +fundamental characteristic distinguishing modern from ancient history. + +While, however, it secured these benefits for mankind for all time to +come, the Roman political system in itself was one which could not +possibly endure. That extension of the franchise which made Rome's +conquests possible, was, after all, the extension of a franchise which +could only be practically enjoyed within the walls of the imperial city +itself. From first to last the device of representation was never +thought of, and from first to last the Roman _comitia_ remained a +primary assembly. The result was that, as the burgherhood enlarged, the +assembly became a huge mob as little fitted for the transaction of +public business as a town-meeting of all the inhabitants of New York +would be. The functions which in Athens were performed by the assembly +were accordingly in Rome performed largely by the aristocratic senate; +and for the conflicts consequently arising between the senatorial and +the popular parties it was difficult to find any adequate constitutional +check. Outside of Italy, moreover, in the absence of a representative +system, the Roman government was a despotism which, whether more or less +oppressive, could in the nature of things be nothing else than a +despotism. But nothing is more dangerous for a free people than the +attempt to govern a dependent people despotically. The bad government +kills out the good government as surely as slave-labour destroys +free-labour, or as a debased currency drives out a sound currency. The +existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with great armies at their +beck and call, brought about such results as might have been predicted, +as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a valid excuse for +armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, the result +is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government that was +practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably +impracticable. + +As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial +government at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an +orderly and responsible administration for irregular and irresponsible +extortion. For a long time, too, it was no part of the imperial policy +to interfere with local customs and privileges. But, in the absence of a +representative system, the centralizing tendency inseparable from the +position of such a government proved to be irresistible. And the +strength of this centralizing tendency was further enhanced by the +military character of the government which was necessitated by perpetual +frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year went by, the +provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by their local +magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor only. +There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for the +decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated by +the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman +strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local +governments came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription +that were laid upon them.[14] And as "the dislocation of commerce and +industry caused by the barbarian inroads, and the increasing demands of +the central administration for the payment of its countless officials +and the maintenance of its troops, all went together," the load at last +became greater "than human nature could endure." By the time of the +great invasions of the fifth century, local political life had gone far +towards extinction throughout Roman Europe, and the tribal organization +of the Teutons prevailed in the struggle simply because it had come to +be politically stronger than any organization that was left to +oppose it. + +We have now seen how the two great political systems that were founded +upon the Ancient City both ended in failure, though both achieved +enormous and lasting results. And we have seen how largely both these +political failures were due to the absence of the principle of +representation from the public life of Greece and Rome. The chief +problem of civilization, from the political point of view, has always +been how to secure concerted action among men on a great scale without +sacrificing local independence. The ancient history of Europe shows that +it is not possible to solve this problem without the aid of the +principle of representation. Greece, until overcome by external force, +sacredly maintained local self-government, but in securing permanent +concert of action it was conspicuously unsuccessful. Rome secured +concert of action on a gigantic scale, and transformed the thousand +unconnected tribes and cities it conquered into an organized European +world, but in doing this it went far towards extinguishing local +self-government. The advent of the Teutons upon the scene seems +therefore to have been necessary, if only to supply the indispensable +element without which the dilemma of civilization could not be +surmounted. The turbulence of Europe during the Teutonic migrations was +so great and so long continued, that on a superficial view one might be +excused for regarding the good work of Rome as largely undone. And in +the feudal isolation of effort and apparent incapacity for combined +action which characterized the different parts of Europe after the +downfall of the Carolingian empire, it might well have seemed that +political society had reverted towards a primitive type of structure. In +truth, however, the retrogradation was much slighter than appeared on +the surface. Feudalism itself, with its curious net-work of fealties and +obligations running through the fabric of society in every direction, +was by no means purely disintegrative in its tendencies. The mutual +relations of rival baronies were by no means like those of rival clans +or tribes in pre-Roman days. The central power of Rome, though no longer +exerted politically through curators and prefects, was no less effective +in the potent hands of the clergy and in the traditions of the imperial +jurisprudence by which the legal ideas of mediaeval society were so +strongly coloured. So powerful, indeed, was this twofold influence of +Rome, that in the later Middle Ages, when the modern nationalities had +fairly taken shape, it was the capacity for local self-government--in +spite of all the Teutonic reinforcement it had had--that had suffered +much more than the capacity for national consolidation. Among the great +modern nations it was only England--which in its political development +had remained more independent of the Roman law and the Roman church than +even the Teutonic fatherland itself--it was only England that came out +of the mediæval crucible with its Teutonic self-government substantially +intact. On the main-land only two little spots, at the two extremities +of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth of the +Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack in +the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history +was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany +the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to +Burgundian invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic +democracy of their Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both +these free peoples, in their efforts towards national unity, were led to +frame federal unions, and one of these political achievements is, from +the stand-point of universal history, of very great significance. The +old League of High Germany, which earned immortal renown at Morgarten +and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking cantons only. But in the +fifteenth century the League won by force of arms a small bit of Italian +territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth the powerful city of +Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne and rescued the free +city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. Other Burgundian +possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; and after +awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms into +the confederation. The result is that modern Switzerland is made up of +what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four +languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the +limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are +sharply divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this, +Switzerland is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. +To the German-speaking Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of +Bavaria are foreigners, while the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva +are fellow-countrymen. Deeper down even than these deep-seated +differences of speech and creed lies the feeling that comes from the +common possession of a political freedom that is greater than that +possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the happy outcome of the +first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic descent. Complete +independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate +representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense +cohesion of interests throughout the nation as no centralized +government, however cunningly devised, could ever have secured. + +Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government +had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great +bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and +peaceful relations with one another. The empire of Trajan and Marcus +Aurelius still remained the greatest known example of political +aggregation; and men who argued from simple historic precedent without +that power of analyzing precedents which the comparative method has +supplied, came not unnaturally to the conclusions that great political +aggregates have an inherent tendency towards breaking up, and that great +political aggregates cannot be maintained except by a strongly- +centralized administration and at the sacrifice of local self- +government. A century ago the very idea of a stable federation of forty +powerful states, covering a territory nearly equal in area to the whole +of Europe, carried on by a republican government elected by universal +suffrage, and guaranteeing to every tiniest village its full meed of +local independence,--the very idea of all this would have been scouted +as a thoroughly impracticable Utopian dream. And such scepticism would +have been quite justifiable, for European history did not seem to afford +any precedents upon which such a forecast of the future could be +logically based. Between the various nations of Europe there has +certainly always existed an element of political community, bequeathed +by the Roman empire, manifested during the Middle Ages in a common +relationship to the Church, and in modern times in a common adherence to +certain uncodified rules of international law, more or less im perfectly +defined and enforced. Between England and Spain, for example, or between +France and Austria, there has never been such utter political severance +as existed normally between Greece and Persia, or Rome and Carthage. But +this community of political inheritance in Europe, it is needless to +say, falls very far short of the degree of community implied in a +federal union; and so great is the diversity of language and of creed, +and of local historic development with the deep-seated prejudices +attendant thereupon, that the formation of a European federation could +hardly be looked for except as the result of mighty though quiet and +subtle influences operating for a long time from without. From what +direction, and in what manner, such an irresistible though perfectly +pacific pressure is likely to be exerted in the future, I shall +endeavour to show in my next lecture. At present we have to observe that +the experiment of federal union on a grand scale required as its +conditions, _first_, a vast extent of unoccupied country which could be +settled without much warfare by men of the same race and speech, and +_secondly_, on the part of the settlers, a rich inheritance of political +training such as is afforded by long ages of self-government. The +Atlantic coast of North America, easily accessible to Europe, yet remote +enough to be freed from the political complications of the old world, +furnished the first of these conditions: the history of the English +people through fifty generations furnished the second. It was through +English self-government, as I argued in my first lecture, that England +alone, among the great nations of Europe, was able to found durable and +self-supporting colonies. I have now to add that it was only England, +among all the great nations of Europe, that could send forth colonists +capable of dealing successfully with the difficult problem of forming +such a political aggregate as the United States have become. For +obviously the preservation of local self-government is essential to the +very idea of a federal union. Without the Town-Meeting, or its +equivalent in some form or other, the Federal Union would become _ipso +facto_ converted into a centralizing imperial government. Should +anything of this sort ever happen--should American towns ever come to be +ruled by prefects appointed at Washington, and should American States +ever become like the administrative departments of France, or even like +the counties of England at the present day--then the time will have come +when men may safely predict the break-up of the American political +system by reason of its overgrown dimensions and the diversity of +interests between its parts. States so unlike one another as Maine and +Louisiana and California cannot be held together by the stiff bonds of a +centralizing government. The durableness of the federal union lies in +its flexibility, and it is this flexibility which makes it the only kind +of government, according to modern ideas, that is permanently applicable +to a whole continent. If ¸the United States were to-day a consolidated +republic like France, recent events in California might have disturbed +the peace of the country. But in the federal union, if California, as a +state sovereign within its own sphere, adopts a grotesque constitution +that aims at infringing on the rights of capitalists, the other states +are not directly affected. They may disapprove, but they have neither +the right nor the desire to interfere. Meanwhile the laws of nature +quietly operate to repair the blunder. Capital flows away from +California, and the business of the state is damaged, until presently +the ignorant demagogues lose favour, the silly constitution becomes a +dead-letter, and its formal repeal begins to be talked of. Not the +smallest ripple of excitement disturbs the profound peace of the country +at large. It is in this complete independence that is preserved by every +state, in all matters save those in which the federal principle itself +is concerned, that we find the surest guaranty of the permanence of the +American political system. Obviously no race of men, save the race to +which habits of self-government and the skilful use of political +representation had come to be as second nature, could ever have +succeeded in founding such a system. + + +Yet even by men of English race, working with out let or hindrance from +any foreign source, and with the better part of a continent at their +disposal for a field to work in, so great a political problem as that of +the American Union has not been solved without much toil and trouble. +The great puzzle of civilization--how to secure permanent concert of +action without sacrificing independence of action--is a puzzle which has +taxed the ingenuity of Americans as well as of older Aryan peoples. In +the year 1788 when our Federal Union was completed, the problem had +already occupied the minds of American statesmen for a century and a +half,--that is to say, ever since the English settlement of +Massachusetts. In 1643 a New England confederation was formed between +Massachusetts and Connecticut, together with Plymouth since merged in +Massachusetts and New Haven since merged in Connecticut. The +confederation was formed for defence against the French in Canada, the +Dutch on the Hudson river, and the Indians. But owing simply to the +inequality in the sizes of these colonies--Massachusetts more than +outweighing the other three combined--the practical working of this +confederacy was never very successful. In 1754, just before the outbreak +of the great war which drove the French from America, a general Congress +of the colonies was held at Albany, and a comprehensive scheme of union +was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but nothing came of the project at +that time. The commercial rivalry between the colonies, and their +disputes over boundary lines, were then quite like the similar phenomena +with which Europe had so long been familiar. In 1756 Georgia and South +Carolina actually came to blows over the navigation of the Savannah +river. The idea that the thirteen colonies could ever overcome their +mutual jealousies so far as to unite in a single political body, was +received at that time in England with a derision like that which a +proposal for a permanent federation of European States would excite in +many minds to-day. It was confidently predicted that if the common +allegiance to the British crown were once withdrawn, the colonies would +forthwith proceed to destroy themselves with internecine war. In fact, +however, it was the shaking off of allegiance to the British crown, and +the common trials and sufferings of the war of independence, that at +last welded the colonies together and made a federal union possible. As +it was, the union was consummated only by degrees. By the Articles of +Confederation, agreed on by Congress in 1777 but not adopted by all the +States until 1781, the federal government acted only upon the several +state governments and not directly upon individuals; there was no +federal judiciary for the decision of constitutional questions arising +out of the relations between the states; and the Congress was not +provided with any efficient means of raising a revenue or of enforcing +its legislative decrees. Under such a government the difficulty of +insuring concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent +personal qualities of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the +British ministry, and the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of +independence would most likely have ended in failure. After the +independence of the colonies was acknowledged, the formation of a more +perfect union was seen to be the only method of securing peace and +making a nation which should be respected by foreign powers; and so in +1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution of the United +States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very few people at +the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of compromises, +yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political wisdom. + +The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of +securing approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between +states of unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was +at last surmounted has proved effectual, although the inequalities +between the states have greatly increased. To-day the population of New +York is more than eighty times that of Nevada. In area the state of +Rhode Island is smaller than Montenegro, while the state of Texas is +larger than the Austrian empire with Bavaria and Würtemberg thrown in. +Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode Island and Texas, each send two senators +to Washington, while on the other hand in the lower house each state has +a number of representatives proportioned to its population. The upper +house of Congress is therefore a federal while the lower house is a +national body, and the government is brought into direct contact with +the people without endangering the equal rights of the several states. + +The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in the +series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the +states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and +jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of +property, marriage and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the +punishment of malefactors, each separate state is as completely a +sovereign state as France or Great Britain. In speaking to a British +audience a concrete illustration may not be superfluous. If a criminal +is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, the royal prerogative of pardon +resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: the President of the United +States has no more authority in the case than the Czar of Russia. Nor in +civil cases can an appeal lie from the state courts to the Supreme Court +of the United States, save where express provision has been made in the +Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. The chief +attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have parted are +the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition of tariff +dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration of war, +and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and +controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own +militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before +calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however, +these militias come under the control of the central government. Thus +every American citizen lives under two governments, the functions of +which are clearly and intelligibly distinct. + +To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the +Constitution created a "system of United States courts extending +throughout the states, empowered to define the boundaries of federal +authority, and to enforce its decisions by federal power." This +omnipresent federal judiciary was undoubtedly the most important +creation of the statesmen who framed the Constitution. The closely-knit +relations which it established between the states contributed powerfully +to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity throughout the whole +country. The United States today cling together with a coherency far +greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or league. Yet the +primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly that of a +permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic +sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its +neighbours and relegated its international interests to the care of a +central council in which all the states were alike represented and a +central tribunal endowed with purely judicial functions of +interpretation. It was the first attempt in the history of the world, to +apply on a grand scale to the relations between states the same legal +methods of procedure which, as long applied in all civilized countries +to the relations between individuals, have rendered private warfare +obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period of +seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in +extent, tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and +power, the federal union maintained a state of peace more profound than +the _pax romana._ + +Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted +by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to +bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism. +With the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then +reinstated with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with +their people accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with +their leaders not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in +Congress and in the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any +violent constitutional changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the +strength of the pacific implications of federalism has been more +strikingly demonstrated than if there had been no war at all. Certainly +the world never beheld such a spectacle before. In my next and +concluding lecture I shall return to this point while summing up the +argument and illustrating the part played by the English race in the +general history of civilization. + + + + +III. + + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY_." + +Among the legends of our late Civil War there is a story of a +dinner-party given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were +propounded sundry toasts concerning not so much the past and present as +the expected glories of the great American nation. In the general +character of these toasts geographical considerations were very +prominent, and the principal fact which seemed to occupy the minds of +the speakers was the unprecedented _bigness_ of our country. "Here's to +the United States," said the first speaker, "bounded on the north by +British America, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the +Atlantic, and on the west by the Pacific, Ocean." "But," said the second +speaker, "this is far too limited a view of the subject: in assigning +our boundaries we must look to the great and glorious future which is +prescribed for us by the Manifest Destiny of the Anglo-Saxon Race. +Here's to the United States,--bounded on the north by the North Pole, +on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising and on the +west by the setting sun." Emphatic applause greeted this aspiring +prophecy. But here arose the third speaker--a very serious gentleman +from the Far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic +American, "to leave the historic past and present, and take our manifest +destiny into the account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow +limits assigned by our fellow-countryman who has just sat down? I give +you the United States,--bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on +the south by the precession of the equinoxes, on the east by the +primeval chaos, and on the west by the Day of Judgment!" + +I offer this anecdote at the outset by way of self-defence, inasmuch as +I shall by and by have myself to introduce some considerations +concerning the future of our country, and of what some people, without +the fear of Mr. Freeman before their eyes, call the "Anglo-Saxon" race; +and if it should happen to strike you that my calculations are +unreasonably large, I hope you will remember that they are quite modest +after all, when compared with some others. + +The "manifest destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and the huge dimensions +of our country are favourite topics with Fourth-of-July orators, but +they are none the less interesting on that account when considered from +the point of view of the historian. To be a citizen of a great and +growing state, or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world, +is no doubt a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is +perhaps an equal justification for such a feeling in being a citizen of +a tiny state like Holland, which, in spite of its small dimensions, has +nevertheless achieved so much,--fighting at one time the battle of +freedom for the world, producing statesmen like William and Barneveldt, +generals like Maurice, scholars like Erasmus and Grotius, and thinkers +like Spinoza, and taking the lead even to-day in the study of +Christianity and in the interpretation of the Bible. But my course in +the present lecture is determined by historical or philosophical rather +than by patriotic interest, and I shall endeavour to characterize and +group events as impartially as if my home were at Leyden in the Old +World instead of Cambridge in the New. + +First of all, I shall take sides with Mr. Freeman in eschewing +altogether the word "Anglo-Saxon." The term is sufficiently absurd and +misleading as applied in England to the Old-English speech of our +forefathers, or to that portion of English history which is included +between the fifth and the eleventh centuries. But in America it is +frequently used, not indeed by scholars, but by popular writers and +speakers, in a still more loose and slovenly way. In the war of +independence our great-great-grandfathers, not yet having ceased to +think of themselves as Englishmen, used to distinguish themselves as +"Continentals," while the king's troops were known as the "British." The +quaint term "Continental" long ago fell into disuse, except in the slang +phrase "not worth a Continental" which referred to the debased condition +of our currency at the close of the Revolutionary War; but "American" +and "British" might still serve the purpose sufficiently whenever it is +necessary to distinguish between the two great English nationalities. +The term "English," however, is so often used with sole reference to +people and things in England as to have become in some measure +antithetical to "American;" and when it is found desirable to include +the two in a general expression, one often hears in America the term +"Anglo-Saxon" colloquially employed for this purpose. A more slovenly +use of language can hardly be imagined. Such a compound term as +"Anglo-American" might perhaps be logically defensible, but that has +already become restricted to the English-descended inhabitants of the +United States and Canada alone, in distinction from Spanish Americans +and red Indians. It is never so used as to include Englishmen. +Refraining from all such barbarisms, I prefer to call the English race +by the name which it has always applied to itself, from the time when it +inhabited the little district of Angeln on the Baltic coast of Sleswick +down to the time when it had begun to spread itself over three great +continents. It is a race which has shown a rare capacity for absorbing +slightly foreign elements and moulding them into conformity with a +political type that was first wrought out through centuries of effort on +British soil; and this capacity it has shown perhaps in a heightened +degree in the peculiar circumstances in which it has been placed in +America. The American has absorbed considerable quantities of closely +kindred European blood, but he is rapidly assimilating it all, and in +his political habits and aptitudes he remains as thoroughly English as +his forefathers in the days of De Montfort, or Hampden, or Washington. +Premising this, we may go on to consider some aspects of the work which +the English race has done and is doing in the world, and we need not +feel discouraged if, in order to do justice to the subject, we have to +take our start far back in ancient history. We shall begin, it may be +said, somewhere near the primeval chaos, and though we shall indeed +stop short of the day of judgment, we shall hope at all events to reach +the millennium. + +Our eloquent friends of the Paris dinner-party seem to have been +strongly impressed with the excellence of enormous political aggregates. +We, too, approaching the subject from a different point of view, have +been led to see how desirable it is that self-governing groups of men +should be enabled to work together in permanent harmony and on a great +scale. In this kind of political integration the work of civilization +very largely consists. We have seen how in its most primitive form +political society is made up of small self-governing groups that are +perpetually at war with one another. Now the process of change which we +call civilization means quite a number of things. But there is no doubt +that on its political side it means primarily the gradual substitution +of a state of peace for a state of war. This change is the condition +precedent for all the other kinds of improvement that are connoted by +such a term as "civilization." Manifestly the development of industry is +largely dependent upon the cessation or restriction of warfare; and +furthermore, as the industrial phase of civilization slowly supplants +the military phase, men's characters undergo, though very slowly, a +corresponding change. Men become less inclined to destroy life or to +inflict pain; or--to use the popular terminology which happens here to +coincide precisely with that of the Doctrine of Evolution--they become +less _brutal_ and more _humane_. Obviously then the prime feature of the +process called civilization is the general diminution of warfare. But we +have seen that a general diminution of warfare is rendered possible only +by the union of small political groups into larger groups that are kept +together by community of interests, and that can adjust their mutual +relations by legal discussion without coming to blows. In the preceding +lecture we considered this process of political integration as variously +exemplified by communities of Hellenic, of Roman, and of Teutonic race, +and we saw how manifold were the difficulties which the process had to +encounter. We saw how the Teutons--at least in Switzerland, England, and +America--had succeeded best through the retention of local +self-government combined with central representation. We saw how the +Romans failed of ultimate success because by weakening self-government +they weakened that community of interest which is essential to the +permanence of a great political aggregate. We saw how the Greeks, after +passing through their most glorious period in a state of chronic +warfare, had begun to achieve considerable success in forming a pacific +federation when their independent career was suddenly cut short by the +Roman conqueror. + +This last example introduces us to a fresh consideration, of very great +importance. It is not only that every progressive community has had to +solve, in one way or another, the problem of securing permanent concert +of action without sacrificing local independence of action; but while +engaged in this difficult work the community has had to defend itself +against the attacks of other communities. In the case just cited, of the +conquest of Greece by Rome, little harm was done perhaps. But under +different circumstances immense damage may have been done in this way, +and the nearer we go to the beginnings of civilization the greater the +danger. At the dawn of history we see a few brilliant points of +civilization surrounded on every side by a midnight blackness of +barbarism. In order that the pacific community may be able to go on +doing its work, it must be strong enough and warlike enough to overcome +its barbaric neighbours who have no notion whatever of keeping peace. +This is another of the seeming paradoxes of the history of +civilization, that for a very long time the possibility of peace can be +guaranteed only through war. Obviously the permanent peace of the world +can be secured only through the gradual concentration of the +preponderant military strength into the hands of the most pacific +communities. With infinite toil and trouble this point has been slowly +gained by mankind, through the circumstance that the very same political +aggregation of small primitive communities which makes them less +disposed to quarrel among themselves tends also to make them more than a +match for the less coherent groups of their more barbarous neighbours. +The same concert of action which tends towards internal harmony tends +also towards external victory, and both ends are promoted by the +co-operation of the same sets of causes. But for a long time all the +political problems of the civilized world were complicated by the fact +that the community had to fight for its life. We seldom stop to reflect +upon the imminent danger from outside attacks, whether from surrounding +barbarism or from neighbouring civilizations of lower type, amid which +the rich and high-toned civilizations of Greece and Rome were developed. +When the king of Persia undertook to reduce Greece to the condition of a +Persian satrapy, there was imminent danger that all the enormous +fruition of Greek thought in the intellectual life of the European world +might have been nipped in the bud. And who can tell how often, in +prehistoric times, some little gleam of civilization, less bright and +steady than this one had become, may have been quenched in slavery or +massacre? The greatest work which the Romans performed in the world was +to assume the aggressive against menacing barbarism, to subdue it, to +tame it, and to enlist its brute force on the side of law and order. +This was a murderous work, and in doing it the Romans became excessively +cruel, but it had to be done by some one before you could expect to have +great and peaceful civilizations like our own. The warfare of Rome is by +no means adequately explained by the theory of a deliberate immoral +policy of aggression,--"infernal," I believe, is the stronger adjective +which Dr. Draper uses. The aggressive wars of Rome were largely dictated +by just such considerations as those which a century ago made it +necessary for the English to put down the raids of the Scotch +Highlanders, and which have since made it necessary for Russia to subdue +the Caucasus. It is not easy for a turbulent community to live next to +an orderly one without continually stirring up frontier disturbances +which call for stern repression from the orderly community. Such +considerations go far towards explaining the military history of the +Romans, and it is a history with which, on the whole, we ought to +sympathize. In its European relations that history is the history of the +moving of the civilized frontier northward and eastward against the +disastrous encroachments of barbarous peoples. This great movement has, +on the whole, been steadily kept up, in spite of some apparent +fluctuation in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era, and +it is still going on to-day. It was a great gain for civilization when +the Romans overcame the Keltiberians of Spain, and taught them good +manners and the Latin language, and made it for their interest hereafter +to fight against barbarians. The third European peninsula was thus won +over to the side of law and order. Danger now remained on the north. The +Gauls had once sacked the city of Rome; hordes of Teutons had lately +menaced the very heart of civilization, but had been overthrown in +murderous combat by Caius Marius; another great Teutonic movement, led +by Ariovistus, now threatened to precipitate the whole barbaric force of +south-eastern Gaul upon the civilized world; and so it occurred to the +prescient genius of Caesar to be beforehand and conquer Gaul, and +enlist all its giant barbaric force on the side of civilization. This +great work was as thoroughly done as anything that was ever done in +human history, and we ought to be thankful to Caesar for it every day +that we live. The frontier to be defended against barbarism was now +moved away up to the Rhine, and was very much shortened; but above all, +the Gauls were made to feel themselves to be Romans. Their country +became one of the chief strongholds of civilization and of Christianity; +and when the frightful shock of barbarism came--the most formidable blow +that has ever been directed by barbaric brute force against European +civilization--it was in Gaul that it was repelled and that its force was +spent. At the beginning of the fifth century an enormous horde of yellow +Mongolians, known as Huns, poured down into Europe with avowed intent to +burn and destroy all the good work which Rome had wrought in the world; +and terrible was the havoc they effected in the course of fifty years. +If Attila had carried his point, it has been thought that the work of +European civilization might have had to be begun over again. But near +Chálons-on-the-Marne, in the year 451, in one of the most obstinate +struggles of which history preserves the record, the career of the +"Scourge of God" was arrested, and mainly by the prowess of Gauls and of +Visigoths whom the genius of Rome had tamed. That was the last day on +which barbarism was able to contend with civilization on equal terms. It +was no doubt a critical day for all future history; and for its +favourable issue we must largely thank the policy adopted by Caesar five +centuries before. By the end of the eighth century the great power of +the Franks had become enlisted in behalf of law and order, and the Roman +throne was occupied by a Frank,--the ablest man who had appeared in the +world since Caesar's death; and one of the worthiest achievements of +Charles the Great was the conquest and conversion of pagan Germany, +which threw the frontier against barbarism eastward as far as the Oder, +and made it so much the easier to defend Europe. In the thirteenth +century this frontier was permanently carried forward to the Vistula by +the Teutonic Knights who, under commission from the emperor Frederick +II., overcame the heathen Prussians and Lithuanians; and now it began to +be shown how greatly the military strength of Europe had increased. In +this same century Batu, the grandson of Jinghis Khan, came down into +Europe with a horde of more than a million Mongols, and tried to repeat +the experiment of Attila. Batu penetrated as far as Silesia, and won a +great battle at Liegnitz in 1241, but in spite of his victory he had to +desist from the task of conquering Europe. Since the fifth century the +physical power of the civilized world had grown immensely; and the +impetus of this barbaric invasion was mainly spent upon Russia, the +growth of which it succeeded in retarding for more than two centuries. +Finally since the sixteenth century we have seen the Russians, redeemed +from their Mongolian oppressors, and rich in many of the elements of a +vigorous national life,--we have seen the Russians resume the aggressive +in this conflict of ages, beginning to do for Central Asia in some sort +what the Romans did for Europe. The frontier against barbarism, which +Cæsar left at the Rhine, has been carried eastward to the Volga, and is +now advancing even to the Oxus. The question has sometimes been raised +whether it would be possible for European civilization to be seriously +threatened by any future invasion of barbarism or of some lower type of +civilization. By barbarism certainly not: all the nomad strength of +Mongolian Asia would throw itself in vain against the insuperable +barrier constituted by Russia. But I have heard it quite seriously +suggested that if some future Attila or Jinghis were to wield as a unit +the entire military strength of the four hundred millions of Chinese, +possessed with some suddenly-conceived idea of conquering the world, +even as Omar and Abderrahman wielded as a unit the newly-welded power of +the Saracens in the seventh and eighth centuries, then perhaps a +staggering blow might yet be dealt against European civilization. I will +not waste precious time in considering this imaginary case, further than +to remark that if the Chinese are ever going to try anything of this +sort, they cannot afford to wait very long; for within another century, +as we shall presently see, their very numbers will be surpassed by those +of the English race alone. By that time all the elements of military +predominance on the earth, including that of simple numerical +superiority, will have been gathered into the hands not merely of men of +European descent in general, but more specifically into the hands of the +offspring of the Teutonic tribes who conquered Britain in the fifth +century. So far as the relations of civilization with barbarism are +concerned to-day, the only serious question is by what process of +modification the barbarous races are to maintain their foothold upon the +earth at all. While once such people threatened the very continuance of +civilization, they now exist only on sufferance. + +In this brief survey of the advancing frontier of European +civilization, I have said nothing about the danger that has from time to +time been threatened by the followers of Mohammed,--of the overthrow of +the Saracens in Gaul by the grandfather of Charles the Great, or their +overthrow at Constantinople by the image-breaking Leo, of the great +mediæval Crusades, or of the mischievous but futile career of the Turks. +For if I were to attempt to draw this outline with anything like +completeness, I should have no room left for the conclusion of my +argument. Considering my position thus far as sufficiently illustrated, +let us go on to contemplate for a moment some of the effects of all this +secular turmoil upon the political development of the progressive +nations of Europe. I think we may safely lay it down, as a large and +general rule, that all this prodigious warfare required to free the +civilized world from peril of barbarian attack served greatly to +increase the difficulty of solving the great initial problem of +civilization. In the first place, the turbulence thus arising was a +serious obstacle to the formation of closely-coherent political +aggregates; as we see exemplified in the terrible convulsions of the +fifth and sixth centuries, and again in the ascendency acquired by the +isolating features of feudalism between the time of Charles the Great +and the time of Louis VI. of France. In the second place, this +perpetual turbulence was a serious obstacle to the preservation of +popular liberties. It is a very difficult thing for a free people to +maintain its free, constitution if it has to keep perpetually fighting +for its life. The "one-man-power." less fit for, carrying on the +peaceful pursuits of life, is sure to be brought into the foreground in +a state of endless warfare. It is a still more difficult thing for a +free people to maintain its free constitution when it undertakes to +govern a dependent people despotically, as has been wont to happen when +a portion of the barbaric world has been overcome and annexed to the +civilized world. Under the weight, of these two difficulties combined, +the free institutions of the ancient Romans succumbed, and their +government gradually passed into the hands of a kind of close +corporation more despotic than anything else of the sort that Europe has +ever seen. This despotic character--this tendency, if you will pardon +the phrase, towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life--was continued +by inheritance in the Roman Church, the influence of which was +beneficent so long as it constituted a wholesome check to the isolating +tendencies of feudalism, but began to become noxious the moment these +tendencies yielded to the centralizing monarchical tendency in nearly +all parts of Europe. The asiaticizing tendency of Roman political life +had become so powerful by the fourth century, and has since been so +powerfully propagated through the Church, that we ought to be glad that +the Teutons came into the empire as masters rather than as subjects. As +the Germanic tribes got possession of the government in one part of +Europe after another, they brought with them free institutions again. +The political ideas of the Goths in Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, and +of the Franks and Burgundians in Gaul, were as distinctly free as those +of the Angles in Britain. But as the outcome of the long and +uninterrupted turmoil of the Middle Ages, society throughout the +continent of Europe remained predominantly military in type, and this +fact greatly increased the tendency towards despotism which was +bequeathed by Rome. After the close of the thirteenth century the whole +power of the Church was finally thrown into the scale against the +liberties of the people; and as the result of all these forces combined, +we find that at the time when America was discovered government was +hardening into despotism in all the great countries of Europe except +England. Even in England the tendency towards despotism had begun to +become quite conspicuous after the wholesale slaughter of the great +barons and the confiscation of their estates which took place in the +Wars of the Roses. The constitutional history of England during the +Tudor and Stuart periods is mainly the history of the persistent effort +of the English sovereign to free himself from constitutional checks, as +his brother sovereigns on the continent were doing. But how different +the result! How enormous the political difference between William III. +and Louis XIV., compared with the difference between Henry VIII. and +Francis I.! The close of the seventeenth century, which marks the +culmination of the asiaticizing tendency in Europe, saw despotism both +political and religious firmly established in France and Spain and +Italy, and in half of Germany; while the rest of Germany seemed to have +exhausted itself in the attempt to throw off the incubus. But in England +this same epoch saw freedom both political and religious established on +so firm a foundation as never again to be shaken, never again with +impunity to be threatened, so long as the language of Locke and Milton +and Sydney shall remain a living speech on the lips of men. Now this +wonderful difference between the career of popular liberty in England +and on the Continent was due no doubt to a complicated variety of +causes, one or two of which I have already sought to point out. In my +first lecture I alluded to the curious combination of circumstances +which prevented anything like a severance of interests between the upper +and the lower ranks of society; and something was also said about the +feebleness of the grasp of imperial Rome upon Britain compared with its +grasp upon the continent of Europe. But what I wish now to point +out--since we are looking at the military aspect of the subject--is the +enormous advantage of what we may call the _strategic position_ of +England in the long mediæval struggle between civilization and +barbarism. In Professor Stubbs's admirable collection of charters and +documents illustrative of English history, we read that "on the 6th of +July [1264] the whole force of the country was summoned to London for +the 3d of August, to resist the army which was coming from France under +the queen and her son Edmund. _The invading fleet was prevented by the +weather from sailing until too late in the season_.... The papal legate, +Guy Foulquois, who soon after became Clement IV., threatened the barons +with excommunication, but the bull containing the sentence was taken by +the men of Dover as soon as it arrived, and was thrown into the +sea." [15] As I read this, I think of the sturdy men of Connecticut, +beating the drum to prevent the reading of the royal order of James II. +depriving the colony of the control of its own militia, and feel with +pride that the indomitable spirit of English liberty is alike +indomitable in every land where men of English race have set their feet +as masters. But as the success of Americans in withstanding the +unconstitutional pretensions of the crown was greatly favoured by the +barrier of the ocean, so the success of Englishmen in defying the +enemies of their freedom has no doubt been greatly favoured by the +barrier of the British channel. The war between Henry III. and the +barons was an event in English history no less critical than the war +between Charles I. and the parliament four centuries later; and British +and Americans alike have every reason to be thankful that a great French +army was not able to get across the channel in August, 1264. Nor was +this the only time when the insular position of England did goodly +service in maintaining its liberties and its internal peace. We cannot +forget how Lord Howard of Effingham, aided also by the weather, defeated +the armada that boasted itself "invincible," sent to strangle freedom in +its chosen home by the most execrable and ruthless tyrant that Europe +has ever seen, a tyrant whose victory would have meant not simply the +usurpation of the English crown but the establishment of the Spanish +Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what longing +eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces of +France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one +European land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in +these latter days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the +prowess of the sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible +for the thoughtful student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square, +and gaze on the image of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on +the summit of his lofty column and guarded by the royal lions, looking +down towards the government-house of the land that he freed from the +dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards that ancient church wherein the +most sacred memories of English talent and English toil are clustered +together,--it is impossible, I say, to look at this, and not admire both +the artistic instinct that devised so happy a symbolism, and the rare +good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing a territorial +position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic powers. +But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external +attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This +ease in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the +internal polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English +government to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external +defence a navy was all-sufficient; and there is this practical +difference between a permanent army and a permanent navy. Both are +originally designed for purposes of external defence; but the one can +readily be used for purposes of internal oppression, and the other +cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up an empire at auction and +knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius Julianus. When, +therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from external +attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political +development to go on internally without those manifold military +hinderances that have ordinarily been so obstructive in the history of +civilization. Hence we not only see why, after the Norman Conquest had +operated to increase its unity and its strength, England enjoyed a far +greater amount of security and was far more peaceful than any other +country in Europe; but we also see why society never assumed the +military type in England which it assumed upon the continent; we see how +it was that the bonds of feudalism were far looser here than elsewhere, +and therefore how it happened that nowhere else was the condition of the +common people so good politically. We now begin to see, moreover, how +thoroughly Professor Stubbs and Mr. Freeman are justified in insisting +upon the fact that the political institutions of the Germans of Tacitus +have had a more normal and uninterrupted development in England than +anywhere else. Nowhere, indeed, in the whole history of the human race, +can we point to such a well-rounded and unbroken continuity of political +life as we find in the thousand years of English history that have +elapsed since the victory of William the Norman at Senlac. In England +the free government of the primitive Aryans has been to this day +uninterruptedly maintained, though everywhere lost or seriously impaired +on the continent of Europe, except in remote Scandinavia and impregnable +Switzerland. But obviously, if in the conflict of ages between +civilization and barbarism England had occupied such an inferior +strategic position as that occupied by Hungary or Poland or Spain, if +her territory had been liable once or twice in a century to be overrun +by fanatical Saracens or beastly Mongols, no such remarkable and quite +exceptional result could have been achieved. Having duly fathomed the +significance of this strategic position of the English race while +confined within the limits of the British islands, we are now prepared +to consider the significance of the stupendous expansion of the English +race which first became possible through the discovery and settlement of +North America. I said, at the close of my first lecture, that the +victory of Wolfe at Quebec marks the greatest turning-point as yet +discernible in all modern history. At the first blush such an +unqualified statement may have sounded as if an American student of +history were inclined to attach an undue value to events that have +happened upon his own soil. After the survey of universal history which +we have now taken, however, I am fully prepared to show that the +conquest of the North American continent by men of English race was +unquestionably the most prodigious event in the political annals of man +kind. Let us consider, for a moment, the cardinal facts which this +English conquest and settlement of North America involved. + +Chronologically the discovery of America coincides precisely with the +close of the Middle Ages, and with the opening of the drama of what is +called _modern_ history. The coincidence is in many ways significant. +The close of the Middle Ages--as we have seen--was characterized by the +increasing power of the crown in all the great countries of Europe, and +by strong symptoms of popular restlessness in view of this increasing +power. It was characterized also by the great Protestant outbreak +against the despotic pretensions of the Church, which once, in its +antagonism to the rival temporal power, had befriended the liberties of +the people, but now (especially since the death of Boniface VIII.) +sought to enthrall them with a tyranny far worse than that of +irresponsible king or emperor. As we have seen Aryan civilization in +Europe struggling for many centuries to prove itself superior to the +assaults of outer barbarism, so here we find a decisive struggle +beginning between the antagonist tendencies which had grown up in the +midst of this civilization. Having at length won the privilege of living +without risk of slaughter and pillage at the hands of Saracens or +Mongols, the question now arose whether the people of Europe should go +on and apply their intelligence freely to the problem of making life as +rich and fruitful as possible in varied material and spiritual +achievement, or should fall forever into the barren and monotonous way +of living and thinking which has always distinguished the half-civilized +populations of Asia. This--and nothing less than this, I think--was the +practical political question really at stake in the sixteenth century +between Protestantism and Catholicism. Holland and England entered the +lists in behalf of the one solution of this question, while Spain and +the Pope defended the other, and the issue was fought out on European +soil, as we have seen, with varying success. But the discovery of +America now came to open up an enormous region in which whatever seed of +civilization should be planted was sure to grow to such enormous +dimensions as by and by to exert a controlling influence upon all such +controversies. It was for Spain, France, and England to contend for the +possession of this vast region, and to prove by the result of the +struggle which kind of civilization was endowed with the higher and +sturdier political life. The race which here should gain the victory was +clearly destined hereafter to take the lead in the world, though the +rival powers could not in those days fully appreciate this fact. They +who founded colonies in America as trading-stations or military outposts +probably did not foresee that these colonies must by and by become +imperial states far greater in physical mass than the states which +planted them. It is not likely that they were philosophers enough to +foresee that this prodigious physical development would mean that the +political ideas of the parent state should acquire a hundred-fold power +and seminal influence in the future work of the world. It was not until +the American Resolution that this began to be dimly realized by a few +prescient thinkers. It is by no means so fully realized even now that a +clear and thorough-going statement of it has not somewhat an air of +novelty. When the highly-civilized community, representing the ripest +political ideas of England, was planted in America, removed from the +manifold and complicated checks we have just been studying in the +history of the Old World, the growth was portentously rapid and steady. +There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only a Philip or a +Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty annoyance as +compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. There +was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles of +self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought of +calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior +type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously +troublesome, it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country, +under the guidance of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers, +undertook to act upon the antiquated theory that the new communities +were merely groups of trading-stations, the political bond of connection +was severed; yet the war which ensued was not like the war which had but +just now been so gloriously ended by the victory of Wolfe. It was not a +struggle between two different peoples, like the French of the Old +Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic theories of how +political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' War of the +thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, it was a +struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of +principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all. And so the +issue only made it apparent to an astonished world that instead of _one_ +there were now _two Englands_, alike prepared to work with might and +main toward the political regeneration of mankind. + +Let us consider now to what conclusions the rapidity and unabated +steadiness of the increase of the English race in America must lead us +as we go on to forecast the future. Carlyle somewhere speaks slightingly +of the fact that the Americans double their numbers every twenty years, +as if to have forty million dollar-hunters in the world were any better +than to have twenty million dollar-hunters! The implication that +Americans are nothing but dollar-hunters, and are thereby +distinguishable from the rest of mankind, would not perhaps bear too +elaborate scrutiny. But during the present lecture we have been +considering the gradual transfer of the preponderance of physical +strength from the hands of the war-loving portion of the human race into +the hands of the peace-loving portion,--into the hands of the +dollar-hunters, if you please, but out of the hands of the +scalp-hunters. Obviously to double the numbers of a pre-eminently +industrious, peaceful, orderly, and free-thinking community, is somewhat +to increase the weight in the world of the tendencies that go towards +making communities free and orderly and peaceful and industrious. So +that, from this point of view, the fact we are speaking of is well worth +considering, even for its physical dimensions. I do not know whether the +United States could support a population everywhere as dense as that of +Belgium; so I will suppose that, with ordinary improvement in +cultivation and in the industrial arts, we might support a population +half as dense as that of Belgium,--and this is no doubt an extremely +moderate supposition. Now a very simple operation in arithmetic will +show that this means a population of fifteen hundred millions, or more +than the population of the whole world at the present date. Another +very simple operation in arithmetic will show that if we were to go on +doubling our numbers, even once in every twenty-five years, we should +reach that stupendous figure at about the close of the twentieth +century,--that is, in the days of our great-greatgrandchildren. I do not +predict any such result, for there are discernible economic reasons for +believing that there will be a diminution in the rate of increase. The +rate must nevertheless continue to be very great, in the absence of such +causes as formerly retarded the growth of population in Europe. Our +modern wars are hideous enough, no doubt, but they are short. They are +settled with a few heavy blows, and the loss of life and property +occasioned by them is but trifling when compared with the awful ruin and +desolation wrought by the perpetual and protracted contests of antiquity +and of the Middle Ages. Chronic warfare, both private and public, +periodic famines, and sweeping pestilences like the Black Death,--these +were the things which formerly shortened human life and kept down +population. In the absence of such causes, and with the abundant +capacity of our country for feeding its people, I think it an extremely +moderate statement if we say that by the end of the next century the +English race in the United States will number at least six or seven +hundred millions. + +It used to be said that so huge a people as this could not be kept +together as a single national aggregate,--or, if kept together at all, +could only be so by means of a powerful centralized government, like +that of ancient Rome under the emperors. I think we are now prepared to +see that this is a great mistake. If the Roman Empire could have +possessed that political vitality in all its parts which is secured to +the United States by the principles of equal representation and of +limited state sovereignty, it might well have defied all the shocks +which tribally-organized barbarism could ever have directed against it. +As it was, its strong centralized government did _not_ save it from +political disintegration. One of its weakest political features was +precisely this,--that its "strong centralized government" was a kind of +close corporation, governing a score of provinces in its own interest +rather than in the interest of the provincials. In contrast with such a +system as that of the Roman Empire, the skilfully elaborated American +system of federalism appears as one of the most important contributions +that the English race has made to the general work of civilization. The +working out of this feature in our national constitution, by Hamilton +and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of +constructive statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these +statesmen originated the principle, but they gave form and expression to +the principle which was latent in the circumstances under which the +group of American colonies had grown up, and which suggested itself so +forcibly that the clear vision of these thinkers did not fail to seize +upon it as the fundamental principle upon which alone could the affairs +of a great people, spreading over a vast continent, be kept in a +condition approaching to something like permanent peace. Stated broadly, +so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal proposition, the +principle of federalism is just this:--that the people of a state shall +have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, which +directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage with +more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body +could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern +between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached, +not by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic +legislation of a central government which represents both states and +people, and whose decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by +the combined physical power of all the states. This principle, in +various practical applications, is so familiar to Americans to-day that +we seldom pause to admire it, any more than we stop to admire the air +which we breathe or the sun which gives us light and life. Yet I believe +that if no other political result than this could to-day be pointed out +as coming from the colonization of America by Englishmen, we should +still be justified in regarding that event as one of the most important +in the history of mankind. For obviously the principle of federalism, as +thus broadly stated, contains within itself the seeds of permanent peace +between nations; and to this glorious end I believe it will come in the +fulness of time. + +And now we may begin to see distinctly what it was that the American +government fought for in the late civil war,--a point which at the time +was by no means clearly apprehended outside the United States. We used +to hear it often said, while that war was going on, that we were +fighting not so much for the emancipation of the negro as for the +maintenance of our federal union; and I well remember that to many who +were burning to see our country purged of the folly and iniquity of +negro slavery this used to seem like taking a low and unrighteous view +of the case. From the stand-point of universal history it was +nevertheless the correct and proper view. The emancipation of the negro, +as an incidental result of the struggle, was a priceless gain which was +greeted warmly by all right-minded people. But deeper down than this +question, far more subtly interwoven with the innermost fibres of our +national well-being, far heavier laden too with weighty consequences for +the future weal of all mankind, was the question whether this great +pacific principle of union joined with independence should be overthrown +by the first deep-seated social difficulty it had to encounter, or +should stand as an example of priceless value to other ages and to other +lands. The solution was well worth the effort it cost. There have been +many useless wars, but this was not one of them, for more than most wars +that have been, it was fought in the direct interest of peace, and the +victory so dearly purchased and so humanely used was an earnest of +future peace and happiness for the world. + +The object, therefore, for which the American government fought, was the +perpetual maintenance of that peculiar state of things which the federal +union had created,--a state of things in which, throughout the whole +vast territory over which the Union holds sway, questions between +states, like questions between individuals, must be settled by legal +argument and judicial decisions and not by wager of battle. Far better +to demonstrate this point once for all, at whatever cost, than to be +burdened hereafter, like the states of Europe, with frontier fortresses +and standing armies and all the barbaric apparatus of mutual suspicion! +For so great an end did this most pacific people engage in an obstinate +war, and never did any war so thoroughly illustrate how military power +may be wielded, when necessary, by a people that has passed entirely +from the military into the industrial stage of civilization. The events +falsified all the predictions that were drawn from the contemplation of +societies less advanced politically. It was thought that so peaceful a +people could not raise a great army on demand; yet within a twelvemonth +the government had raised five hundred thousand men by voluntary +enlistment. It was thought that a territory involving military +operations at points as far apart as Paris and Moscow could never be +thoroughly conquered; yet in April 1865 the federal armies might have +inarched from end to end of the Gulf States without meeting any force to +oppose them. It was thought that the maintenance of a great army would +beget a military temper in the Americans and lead to manifestations of +Bonapartism,--domestic usurpation and foreign aggression; yet the moment +the work was done the great army vanished, and a force of twenty-five +thousand men was found sufficient for the military needs of the whole +country. It was thought that eleven states which had struggled so hard +to escape from the federal tie could not be re-admitted to voluntary +co-operation in the general government, but must henceforth be held as +conquered territory,--a most dangerous experiment for any free people to +try. Yet within a dozen years we find the old federal relations resumed +in all their completeness, and the disunion party powerless and +discredited in the very states where once it had wrought such mischief. +Nay more, we even see a curiously disputed presidential election, in +which the votes of the southern states were given almost with unanimity +to one of the candidates, decided quietly by a court of arbitration; and +we see a universal acquiescence in the decision, even in spite of a +general belief that an extraordinary combination of legal subtleties +resulted in adjudging the presidency to the candidate who was not +really elected. + +Such has been the result of the first great attempt to break up the +federal union in America. It is not probable that another attempt can +ever be made with anything like an equal chance of success. Here were +eleven states, geographically contiguous, governed by groups of men who +for half a century had pursued a well-defined policy in common, united +among themselves and marked off from most of the other states by a +difference far more deeply rooted in the groundwork of society than any +mere economic difference,--the difference between slave-labour and +free-labour. These eleven states, moreover, held such an economic +relationship with England that they counted upon compelling the naval +power of England to be used in their behalf. And finally it had not yet +been demonstrated that the maintenance of the federal union was +something for which the great mass of the people would cheerfully fight. +Never could the experiment of secession be tried, apparently, under +fairer auspices; yet how tremendous the defeat! It was a defeat that +wrought conviction,--the conviction that no matter how grave the +political questions that may arise hereafter, they must be settled in +accordance with the legal methods the Constitution has provided, and +that no state can be allowed to break the peace. It is the thoroughness +of this conviction that has so greatly facilitated the reinstatement of +the revolted states in their old federal relations; and the good sense +and good faith with which the southern people, in spite of the chagrin +of defeat, have accepted the situation and acted upon it, is something +unprecedented in history, and calls for the warmest sympathy and +admiration on the part of their brethren of the north. The federal +principle in America has passed through this fearful ordeal and come out +stronger than ever; and we trust it will not again be put to so severe a +test. But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any +further increase of territory or of population should overtask the +resources of our government. + +In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore +doubtless have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power +and in dimensions any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now +consider for a moment the probable future career of the English race in +other parts of the world. The colonization of North America by +Englishmen had its direct effects upon the eastern as well as upon the +western side of the Atlantic. The immense growth of the commercial and +naval strength of England between the time of Cromwell and the time of +the elder Pitt was intimately connected with the colonization of North +America and the establishment of plantations in the West Indies. These +circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material development of +England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign trade, +increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her in the +eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this +maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize +upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta, +the isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after +island in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the +pathways of maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous +countries which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural +heritage. Any well-filled album of postage-stamps is an eloquent +commentary on this maritime supremacy of England. It is enough to turn +one's head to look over her colonial blue-books. The natural outcome of +all this overflowing vitality it is not difficult to foresee. No one can +carefully watch what is going on in Africa to-day without recognizing it +as the same sort of thing which was going on in North America in the +seventeenth century; and it cannot fail to bring forth similar results +in course of time. Here is a vast country, rich in beautiful scenery and +in resources of timber and minerals, with a salubrious climate and +fertile soil, with great navigable rivers and inland lakes, which will +not much longer be left in control of tawny lions and long-eared +elephants and negro fetich-worshippers. Already five flourishing English +states have been established in the south, besides the settlements on +the Gold Coast and those at Aden commanding the Red Sea. English +explorers work their way, with infinite hardship, through its +untravelled wilds, and track the courses of the Congo and the Nile as +their forefathers tracked the Potomac and the Hudson. The work of La +Salle and Smith is finding its counterpart in the labours of Baker and +Livingstone. Who can doubt that within two or three centuries the +African continent will be occupied by a mighty nation of English +descent, and covered with populous cities and flourishing farms, with +railroads and telegraphs and other devices of civilization as yet +undreamed of? + +If we look next to Australia, we find a country of more than two-thirds +the area of the United States, with a temperate climate and immense +resources, agricultural and mineral,--a country sparsely peopled by a +race of irredeemable savages hardly above the level of brutes. Here +England within the present century has planted six greatly thriving +states, concerning which I have not time to say much, but one fact will +serve as a specimen. When in America we wish to illustrate in one word +the wonderful growth of our so-called north-western states, we refer to +Chicago,--a city of half-a-million inhabitants standing on a spot which +fifty years ago was an uninhabited marsh. In Australia the city of +Melbourne was founded in 1837, the year when the present queen of +England began to reign, and the state of which it is the capital was +hence called Victoria. This city, now[16] just forty-three years old, +has a population half as great as that of Chicago, has a public library +of 200,000 volumes, and has a university with at least one professor of +world-wide renown. When we see, by the way, within a period of five +years and at such remote points upon the earth's surface, such erudite +and ponderous works in the English language issuing from the press as +those of Professor Hearn of Melbourne, of Bishop Colenso of Natal, and +of Mr. Hubert Bancroft of San Francisco,--even such a little commonplace +fact as this is fraught with wonderful significance when we think of all +that it implies. Then there is New Zealand, with its climate of +perpetual spring, where the English race is now multiplying faster than +anywhere else in the world unless it be in Texas and Minnesota. And +there are in the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we +shall very soon see the same things going on. + +It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is +enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the +English race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on +until every land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of +an old civilization shall become English in its language, in its +political habits and traditions, and to a predominant extent in the +blood of its people. The day is at hand when, four-fifths of the human +race will trace its pedigree to English forefathers, as four-fifths of +the white people in the United States trace their pedigree to-day. The +race thus spread over both hemispheres, and from the rising to the +setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty of the sea and that +commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when England first +stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia and +Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will not +be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, but +perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and +writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be +transacted by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that +whatever language any man may have learned in his infancy he will find +it necessary sooner or later to learn to express his thoughts in +English. And in this way it is by no means improbable that, as Grimm the +German and Candolle the Frenchman long since foretold, the language of +Shakespeare may ultimately become the language of mankind. + +In view of these considerations as to the stupendous future of the +English race, does it not seem very probable that in due course of time +Europe--which has learned some valuable lessons from America +already--will find it worth while to adopt the lesson of federalism? +Probably the European states, in order to preserve their relative weight +in the general polity of the world, will find it necessary to do so. In +that most critical period of American history between the winning of +independence and the framing of the Constitution, one of the strongest +of the motives which led the confederated states to sacrifice part of +their sovereignty by entering into a federal union was their keen sense +of their weakness when taken severally. In physical strength such a +state as Massachusetts at that time amounted to little more than Hamburg +or Bremen; but the thirteen states taken together made a nation of +respectable power. Even the wonderful progress we have made in a century +has not essentially changed this relation of things. Our greatest state, +New York, taken singly, is about the equivalent of Belgium; our weakest +state, Nevada, would scarcely be a match for tha county of Dorset; yet +the United States, taken together, are probably at this moment the +strongest nation in the world. + +Now a century hence, with a population of six hundred millions in the +United States, and a hundred and fifty millions in Australia and New +Zealand, to say nothing of the increase of power in other parts of the +English-speaking world, the relative weights will be very different from +what they were in 1788. The population of Europe will not increase in +anything like the same proportion, and a very considerable part of the +increase will be transferred by emigration to the English-speaking world +outside of Europe. By the end of the twentieth century such nations as +France and Germany can only claim such a relative position in the +political world as Holland and Switzerland now occupy. Their greatness +in thought and scholarship, in industrial and aesthetic art, will +doubtless continue unabated. But their political weights will severally +have come to be insignificant; and as we now look back, with historic +curiosity, to the days when Holland was navally and commercially the +rival of England, so people will then need to be reminded that there was +actually once a time when little France was the most powerful nation on +the earth. It will then become as desirable for the states of Europe to +enter into a federal union as it was for the states of North America a +century ago. + +It is only by thus adopting the lesson of federalism that Europe can do +away with the chances of useless warfare which remain so long as its +different states own no allegiance to any common authority. War, as we +have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite +occupation. As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism, +it remains a too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and +Christian nations it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly +with wars such as that which Russia has lately concluded, for setting +free a kindred race endowed with capacity for progress, and for humbling +the worthless barbarian who during four centuries has wrought such +incalculable damage to the European world. But a sanguinary struggle for +the Rhine frontier, between two civilized Christian nations who have +each enough work to do in ithe world without engaging in such a strife +as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned by the general opinion +of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled by discussion in some +sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe would keep pace with +America in the advance towards universal law and order. All will admit +that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let us see if it is +really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. No doubt the +lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would have +thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred +years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great +stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which +to shoot at people going by. Yet to-day a country gentleman in some +parts of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his +front-door. We have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we +have at least made private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public +opinion against it to such an extent that the police-court usually makes +short shrift for the misguided man who tries to wreak vengeance on his +enemy. Is it too much to hope that by and by we may similarly put public +warfare under the ban? I think not. Already in America, as wre have +seen, it has become customary to deal with questions between states just +as we would deal with questions between individuals. This we have seen +to be the real purport of American federalism. To have established such +a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very good beginning +towards establishing it over the world. To establish such a system in +Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal with an +immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and +ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon +Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before +long overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition +between the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous +within the last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and +Kansas are already formidable competitors with England, France, and +Germany; but this is but the beginning. It is but the first spray from +the tremendous wave of economic competition that is gathering in the +Mississippi valley. By and by, when our shameful tariff--falsely called +"protective"--shall have been done away with, and our manufacturers +shall produce superior articles at less cost of raw material, we shall +begin to compete with European countries in all the markets of the +world; and the competition in manufactures will become as keen as it is +now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will not be long in +coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, and in +the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born of +crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. When +this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse +of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure +exerted upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great +indeed. It will not be long before this economic pressure will make it +simply impossible for the states of Europe to keep up such military +armaments as they are now maintaining. The disparity between the United +States, with a standing army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn +from industrial pursuits, and the states of Europe, with their standing +armies amounting to four millions of men, is something that cannot +possibly be kept up. The economic competition will become so keen that +European armies will have to be disbanded, the swords will have to be +turned into ploughshares, and _thus_ the victory of the industrial over +the military type of civilization will at last become complete. But to +disband the great armies of Europe will necessarily involve the forcing +of the great states of Europe into some sort of federal relation, in +which Congresses--already held on rare occasions--will become more +frequent, in which the principles of international law will acquire a +more definite sanction, and in which the combined physical power of all +the states will constitute (as it now does in America) a permanent +threat against any state that dares to wish for selfish reasons to break +the peace. In some such way as this, I believe, the industrial +development of the English race outside of Europe will by and by enforce +federalism upon Europe. As regards the serious difficulties that grow +out of prejudices attendant upon differences in language, race, and +creed, a most valuable lesson is furnished us by the history of +Switzerland. I am inclined to think that the greatest contribution which +Switzerland has made to the general progress of civilization has been to +show us how such obstacles can be surmounted, even on a small scale. To +surmount them on a great scale will soon become the political problem of +Europe; and it is America which has set the example and indicated +the method. + +Thus we may foresee in general outline how, through the gradual +concentration of the preponderance of physical power into the hands of +the most pacific communities, the wretched business of warfare must +finally become obsolete all over the globe. The element of distance is +now fast becoming eliminated from political problems, and the history of +human progress politically will continue in the future to be what it has +been in the past,--the history of the successive union of groups of men +into larger and more complex aggregates. As this process goes on, it may +after many more ages of political experience become apparent that there +is really no reason, in the nature of things, why the whole of mankind +should not constitute politically one huge federation,--each little +group managing its local affairs in entire independence, but relegating +all questions of international interest to the decision of one central +tribunal supported by the public opinion of the entire human race. I +believe that the time will come when such a state of things will exist +upon the earth, when it will be possible (with our friends of the Paris +dinner-party) to speak of the UNITED STATES as stretching from pole to +pole,--or, with Tennyson, to celebrate the "parliament of man and the +federation of the world." Indeed, only when such a state of things has +begun to be realized, can Civilization, as sharply demarcated from +Barbarism, be said to have fairly begun. Only then can the world be said +to have become truly Christian. Many ages of toil and doubt and +perplexity will no doubt pass by before such a desideratum is reached. +Meanwhile it is pleasant to feel that the dispassionate contemplation of +great masses of historical facts goes far towards confirming our faith +in this ultimate triumph of good over evil. Our survey began with +pictures of horrid slaughter and desolation: it ends with the picture of +a world covered with cheerful homesteads, blessed with a sabbath of +perpetual peace. + + + + +[Footnote 1: Freeman, "Norman Conquest," v. 482.] + +[Footnote 2: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 264.] + +[Footnote 3: This is disputed, however. See Ross, "Early History of +Landholding among the Germans."] + +[Footnote 4: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 84.] + +[Footnote 5: Kemble, "Saxons in England," i. 59.] + +[Footnote 6: Maine, "Village Communities," Lond., 1871, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 7: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 85.] + +[Footnote 8: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 118.] + +[Footnote 9: Geffroy, "Rome et les Barbares," 209.] + +[Footnote 10: Maine, "Village Communities," 118.] + +[Footnote 11: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 625.] + +[Footnote 12: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 13: "La Cité Antique," 441.] + +[Footnote 14: Arnold, "Roman Provincial Administration," 237.] + +[Footnote 15: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 16: In 1880.] + + + +INDEX. + + +Abderrahman +Achaian league +Aden +Adoption +Aetolian league +Africa, English colonies in +Albany Congress +Amphiktyonic Council +Angeln +Angles +Anglo-American +Anglo-Saxon +Appomattox +Arable mark +Ariovistus +Armada, the Invincible +Armies of Europe will be disbanded +Arminius +Arnold, M. +Asiaticization +Athens, grandeur of + incorporated demes of Attika, + old tribal divisions modified, + school of political training + maritime empire of +Attila +Australia +Austria + +Baker, Sir S. +Bancroft, Hubert +Barons, war of the +Basileus +Batu +Belgium +Benefices +Bern +Bonaparte, N. +Bonapartism +Boroughs, special privileges of +Boston, growth of + its Common +Boundaries of United States +Burgundians +By-laws + +Caesar, J. +California, social experiments in +Canada under Old Régime +Candolle, A. de, +Canton, +Carlyle on dollar-hunters, +Centralized government, weakness of, +Century, +Ceylon, +Châlons, battle of, +Charles I., +Charles the Bold, +Charles Martel, +Charles the Great, +Chatham, Lord, +Chester, +Chicago, +Chinese, +Christianity, +Church, mediaeval, +Cities in England and America, + origin of, +City, the ancient, +Civilization, its primary phase, + long threatened by neighbouring barbarism, +Clan-system of political union, +Claudius, emperor, +Clement IV., +Cleveland, city of. +Colenso, J.W. +Colonies, how founded, +Comitia, +Commendation, +Commons, House of, +Commons, origin of, +Communal farming in England, +Communal landholding, +Competition, industrial, between Europe and America, +Confederation, articles of, +Connecticut, men of, defy James II., +Constitution of the United States, +Continentals and British, +Cromwell, O., +Curia, + + +Delian confederacy, +Derne, +Departments of France, +Dependencies, danger of governing them despotically, +Didius Julianus, +Diocletian, +Domestic service in a New England village, +Dorset, +Dover, men of, throw papal bull into sea, +Duke, +Dutch republic, + + +Ealdorman, +Ecclesia, +Eden, Chuzzlewit's, +Electoral commission, +Emancipation of slaves, +England, maritime supremacy of +English colonization + language, future of + self-government, how preserved, + villages + +Famines +Federal union on great scale, + conditions of + its durableness lies in its flexibility +Federalism, pacific implications of + will be adopted by Europe +Federation and conquest +Federations in Greece +Feudal system, origin of +Fick, A. +France, political development of + contrasted with England as a colonizer +France and Germany, their late war + their political weight a century hence +Francis I. +Franklin, B. +Franks +Freeman, E.A. +Freiburg +French villages + +Gau +Gaul, Roman conquest of +Geneva +Gens +Georgia +Germany conquered and converted by Charles the Great +Gibraltar +Goths +Great states, method of forming, + notion of their having an inherent tendency to break up + difficulty of forming +Grimm, J. + +Haddon Hall +Hamburg +Hamilton, A. +Hampden, J. +Hannibal's invasion of Italy +Hearn, Professor +Henry VIII. +Heretoga +Hindustan, village communities in + cities in +Holland +Howard of Effingham +Hundred +Hungary +Hunnish invasion of Europe + +Incorporation +Iroquois tribes + +James II. +Jinghis Khan, +Judiciary, federal, + +Kansas, +Kemble, J., +Kingship among ancient Teutons, + +La Salle, R., +Lausanne, +Leo's defeat of the Saracens, +Lewes, battle of, +Liegnitz, battle of, +Lincoln, A., +Lincoln, city of, +Livingstone, Dr., +Lombards, +London, growth of, +Louis VI., +Louis XIV., + + +Madison, J., +Maine, Sir II., +Maintz, +Malta, +Manorial courts, +Manors, origin of, +March meetings in New England, +Marius, C., +Mark, + in England, + meaning of the word, +Mark-mote, +Massachusetts, +May assemblies in Switzerland, +Melbourne, city of, +Middle Ages, turbulence of, +Military strength of civilized world, its increase, +Minnesota, +Mir, or Russian village, +Mongolian Khans in Russia, +Mongols, +Montenegro, +Montfort, S. de, + + +Naseby, battle of, +Navies less dangerous than standing armies, +Nebraska, +Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square, +Nevada, +New England confederacy, +New York, +New Zealand, +Norman conquest, +North America, struggle for possession of, + + +Omar, + + +Pagus, +Paris, American dinner-party in, +Parish, its relation to township, +Parkman, F. +Pax romana +Peace of the world, how secured, +Peerage of England +Peloponnesian war +Persian war against Greece +Pestilences +Petersham +Philip, King +Phratries +Pictet, A. +Poland +Pontiac +Population of United States a century hence +Private property in land +Problem of political civilization +Protestantism and Catholicism, political question at stake between +Prussia conquered by Teutonic knights +Puritanism +Puritans of New England, their origin + + +Quebec, Wolfe's victory at + + +Rebellion against Charles I. +Redivision of arable lands +Re-election of town officers +Representation unknown to Greeks and Romans + origin of + federal, in United States +Rex +Rhode Island +Roman law +Rome, plebeian revolution at + early stages of + secret of its power + advantages of its dominion + causes of its political failure, + powerful influence of, in Middle Ages + meaning of its great wars +Roses, wars of the +Ross, D. +Russia, Mongolian conquest of + village communities in + its late war against the Turks + its despotic government contrasted with that of France under Old Régime + + +SARACENS +Scandinavia +Secession, war of +Selectmen +Self-government preserved in England + lost in France +Shakespeare +Shires +Shottery, cottage at +Smith, J. +Social war +South Carolina +Spain, Roman conquest of +Sparta +State sovereignty in America +Strasburg +Strategic position of England +Stubbs, W. +Suez +Swiss cantonal assemblies +Switzerland, lesson of its history + self-government preserved in + +Tacitus +Tariff in America +Tax-taking despotisms +Tennyson, A. +Teutonic civilization contrasted with Graeco-Roman +Teutonic knights +Teutonic village communities +Texas +Thegnhood +Thirty Years' War +Thukydides +Tocqueville +Tourist in United States +Town, meaning of the word +Town-meetings, origin of +Town-names formed from patronymics +Township in New England, + in western states +Tribe and shire +Turks + +Versailles +Vestry-meetings +Victoria, Australia +Village-mark +Villages of New England +Virginia, parishes in +Visigoths + +Wallace, D.M. +War of independence +Warfare, universal in early times + how diminished + interferes with political development + less destructive now than in ancient times + how effectively waged by the most pacific of peoples +Washington, city of +Washington, G. +William III. +Witenagemote +Wolfe's victory at Quebec + +Yorktown + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Political Ideas Viewed From +The Standpoint Of Universal History, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10112 *** diff --git a/10112-h/10112-h.htm b/10112-h/10112-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66ab3cc --- /dev/null +++ b/10112-h/10112-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3059 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.7 [en] (WinNT; I) [Netscape]"> + <title> The Project Gutenberg eBook of AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS, by JOHN FISKE. + </title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + // --> + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10112 ***</div> + +<h1> +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS</h1> + +<h1> +VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY</h1> + +<h2> +Three Lectures</h2> + +<h2> +DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880</h2> + +<h1> +BY JOHN FISKE</h1> + +<blockquote><i>Voici un fait entièrement nouveau dans le monde, +et dont l'imagination elle-même ne saurait saisir la portée.</i> +<br>TOCQUEVILLE</blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<h3> +TO</h3> + +<h3> +EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS</h3> + +<h3> +NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS</h3> + +<h3> +WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE +PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN</h3> + +<h3> +I dedicate this Book</h3> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<h2> +PREFACE.</h2> +In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting-house in Boston a +course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and presently, +through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the course was repeated +at University College in London. The lectures there were attended by very +large audiences, and awakened such an interest in American history that +I was invited to return to England in the following year and treat of some +of the philosophical aspects of my subject in a course of lectures at the +Royal Institution. +<p>In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation, +and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to +illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting +forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is impossible +thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any department +of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups of facts; +and the political history of the American people can be rightly understood +only when it is studied in connection with that general process of political +evolution which has been going on from the earliest times, and of which +it is itself one of the most important and remarkable phases. The government +of the United States is not the result of special creation, but of evolution. +As the town-meetings of New England are lineally descended from the village +assemblies of the early Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago +foreshadowed in the little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so +the great political problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving +is the very same problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working +ever since civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action +throughout the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom +in the Parts,--this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed +on its political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations politically +according to their failure or success in attaining this supreme end. When +thus considered in the light of the comparative method, our American history +acquires added dignity and interest, and a broad and rational basis is +secured for the detailed treatment of political questions. +<p>When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history +become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is clothed +with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in insisting +upon the fact that the history of the English people does not begin with +the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our +American history +does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or even with the settlements +of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in unbroken continuity from +the days when stout Arminius in the forests of northern Germany successfully +defied the might of imperial Rome. In a more restricted sense, the statesmanship +of Washington and Lincoln appears in the noblest light when regarded as +the fruition of the various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. +The good fight begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly +crowned at Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further +come to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common +mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher +civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone +before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the history +which English-speaking men have so magnificently wrought out upon American +soil. +<p>In dealing concisely with a subject so vast, only brief hints and suggestions +can be expected; and I have not thought it worth while, for the present +at least, to change or amplify the manner of treatment. The lectures are +printed exactly as they were delivered at the Royal Institution, more than +four years ago. On one point of detail some change will very likely by +and by be called for. In the lecture on the Town-meeting I have adopted +the views of Sir Henry Maine as to the common holding of the arable land +in the ancient German mark, and as to the primitive character of the periodical +redistribution of land in the Russian village community. It now seems highly +probable that these views will have to undergo serious modification in +consequence of the valuable evidence lately brought forward by my friend +Mr. Denman Ross, in his learned and masterly treatise on "The Early History +of Landholding among the Germans;" but as I am not yet quite clear as to +how far this modification will go, and as it can in nowise affect the general +drift of my argument, I have made no change in my incidental remarks on +this difficult and disputed question. +<p>In describing some of the characteristic features of country life in +New England, I had especially in mind the beautiful mountain village in +which this preface is written, and in which for nearly a quarter of a century +I have felt myself more at home than in any other spot in the world. +<p>In writing these lectures, designed as they were for a special occasion, +no attempt was made to meet the ordinary requirements of popular audiences; +yet they have been received in many places with unlooked-for favour. The +lecture on "Manifest Destiny" was three times repeated in London, and once +in Edinburgh; seven times in Boston; four times in New York; twice in Brooklyn, +N.Y., Plainfield, N.J., and Madison, Wis.; once in Washington, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, +and Milwaukee; in Appleton and Waukesha, Wis.; Portland, Lewiston, and +Brunswick, Me.; Lowell, Concord, Newburyport, Peabody, Stoneham, Maiden, +Newton Highlands, and Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Middletown and Stamford, +Conn.; Newburg and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Orange, N.J.; and at Cornell University +and Haverford College. In several of these places the course was given. +<p>PETERSHAM, <i>September 13, 1884</i>. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3> +I.</h3> + +<h3> +<i>THE TOWN-MEETING.</i></h3> +Differences in outward aspect between a village in England and a village +in Massachusetts. Life in a typical New England mountain village. Tenure +of land, domestic service, absence of poverty and crime, universality of +labour and of culture, freedom of thought, complete democracy. This state +of things is to some extent passing away. Remarkable characteristics of +the Puritan settlers of New England, and extent to which their characters +and aims have influenced American history. Town governments in New England. +Different meanings of the word "city" in England and America. Importance +of local self-government in the political life of the United States. Origin +of the town-meeting. Mr. Freeman on the cantonal assemblies of Switzerland. +The old Teutonic "mark," or dwelling-place of a clan. Political union originally +based, not on territorial contiguity, but on blood-relationship. Divisions +of the mark. Origin of the village Common. The <i>mark-mote</i>. Village +communities in Russia and Hindustan. Difference between the despotism of +Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. Elements of sound +political life fostered by the Russian village. Traces of the mark in England. +Feudalization of Europe, and partial metamorphosis of the mark or township +into the manor. Parallel transformation of the township, in some of its +features, into the parish. The court leet and the vestry-meeting. The New +England town-meeting a revival of the ancient mark-mote. +<p>Vicissitudes of local self-government in the various portions of the +Aryan world illustrated in the contrasted cases of France and England. +Significant contrast between the aristocracy of England and that of the +Continent. Difference between the Teutonic conquests of Gaul and of Britain. +Growth of centralization in France. Why the English have always been more +successful than the French in founding colonies. Struggle between France +and England for the possession of North America, and prodigious significance +of the victory of England. +<h3> +II.</h3> + +<h3> +<i>THE FEDERAL UNION</i>.</h3> +Wonderful greatness of ancient Athens. Causes of the political failure +of Greek civilization. Early stages of political aggregation,--the +<i>hundred</i>, +the [Greek: <i>phratria</i>], the <i>curia</i>; the <i>shire</i>, the +<i>deme</i>, +and the <i>pagus</i>. Aggregation of clans into tribes. Differences in +the mode of aggregation in Greece and Rome on the one hand, and in Teutonic +countries on the other. The Ancient City. Origin of cities in Hindustan, +Germany, England, and the United States. Religious character of the ancient +city. Burghership not granted to strangers. Consequences of the political +difference between the Graeco-Roman city and the Teutonic shire. The <i>folk-mote</i>, +or primary assembly, and the +<i>witenagemote</i>, or assembly of notables. +Origin of representative government in the Teutonic shire. Representation +unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The ancient city as a school for political +training. Intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent self-governing +groups of men. Smallness of simple social aggregates and universality of +warfare in primitive times. For the formation of larger and more complex +social aggregates, only two methods are practicable,--<i>conquest</i> or +<i>federation</i>. Greek attempts at employing the higher method, that +of federation. The Athenian hegemony and its overthrow. The Achaian and +Aetolian leagues. In a low stage of political development the Roman method +of <i>conquest with incorporation</i> was the only one practicable. Peculiarities +of the Roman conquest of Italy. Causes of the universal dominion of Rome. +Advantages and disadvantages of this dominion:--on the one hand the <i>pax +romana</i>, and the breaking down of primitive local superstitions and +prejudices; on the other hand the partial extinction of local self-government. +Despotism inevitable in the absence of representation. Causes of the political +failure of the Roman system. Partial reversion of Europe, between the fifth +and eleventh centuries, towards a more primitive type of social structure. +Power of Rome still wielded through the Church and the imperial jurisprudence. +Preservation of local self-government in England, and at the two ends of +the Rhine. The Dutch and Swiss federations. The lesson to be learned from +Switzerland. Federation on a great scale could only be attempted successfully +by men of English political training, when working without let or hindrance +in a vast country not preoccupied by an old civilization. Without local +self-government a great Federal Union is impossible. Illustrations from +American history. Difficulty of the problem, and failure of the early attempts +at federation in New England. Effects of the war for independence. The +"Articles of Confederation" and the "Constitution." Pacific implications +of American federalism. +<h3> +III.</h3> + +<h3> +"<i>MANIFEST DESTINY.</i>"</h3> +The Americans boast of the bigness of their country. How to "bound" the +United States. "Manifest Destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon Race." The term "Anglo-Saxon" +slovenly and misleading. Statements relating to the "English Race" have +a common interest for Americans and for Englishmen. Work of the English +race in the world. The prime feature of civilization is the diminution +of warfare, which becomes possible only through the formation of great +political aggregates in which the parts retain their local and individual +freedom. In the earlier stages of civilization, the possibility of peace +can be guaranteed only through war, but the preponderant military strength +is gradually concentrated in the hands of the most pacific communities, +and by the continuance of this process the permanent peace of the world +will ultimately be secured. Illustrations from the early struggles of European +civilization with outer barbarism, and with aggressive civilizations of +lower type. Greece and Persia. Keltic and Teutonic enemies of Rome. The +defensible frontier of European civilization carried northward and eastward +to the Rhine by Caesar; to the Oder by Charles the Great; to the Vistula +by the Teutonic Knights; to the Volga and the Oxus by the Russians. Danger +in the Dark Ages from Huns and Mongols on the one hand, from Mussulmans +on the other. Immense increase of the area and physical strength of European +civilization, which can never again be in danger from outer barbarism. +Effect of all this secular turmoil upon the political institutions of Europe. +It hindered the formation of closely coherent nations, and was at the same +time an obstacle to the preservation of popular liberties. Tendency towards +the <i>Asiaticization</i> of European life. Opposing influences of the +Church, and of the Germanic tribal organizations. Military type of society +on the Continent. Old Aryan self-government happily preserved in England. +Strategic position of England favourable to the early elimination of warfare +from her soil. Hence the exceptionally normal and plastic political development +of the English race. Significant coincidence of the discovery of America +with the beginnings of the Protestant revolt against the asiaticizing tendency. +Significance of the struggle between Spain, France, and England for the +possession of an enormous area of virgin soil which should insure to the +conqueror an unprecedented opportunity for future development. The race +which gained control of North America must become the dominant race of +the world, and its political ideas must prevail in the struggle for life. +Moral significance of the rapid increase of the English race in America. +Fallacy of the notion that centralized governments are needed for very +large nations. It is only through federalism, combined with local self-government, +that the stability of so huge an aggregate as the United States can be +permanently maintained. What the American government really fought for +in the late Civil War. Magnitude of the results achieved. Unprecedented +military strength shown by this most pacific and industrial of peoples. +Improbability of any future attempt to break up the Federal Union. Stupendous +future of the English race,--in Africa, in Australia, and in the islands +of the Pacific Ocean. Future of the English language. Probable further +adoption of federalism. Probable effects upon Europe of industrial competition +with the United States: impossibility of keeping up the present military +armaments. The States of Europe will be forced, by pressure of circumstances, +into some kind of federal union. A similar process will go on until the +whole of mankind shall constitute a single political body, and warfare +shall disappear forever from the face of the earth. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h1> +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS.</h1> + +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +I.</h2> + +<h2> +THE TOWN-MEETING.</h2> +The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal for +a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to another +of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, or Chicago, +stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, perhaps, after +traversing a distance like that which separates England from Mesopotamia, +reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and inspects their interesting +fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians and Mormons. In a journey +of this sort one gets a very superficial view of the peculiarities, physical +and social, which characterize the different portions of our country; and +in this there is nothing to complain of, since the knowledge gained in +a vacation-journey cannot well be expected to be thorough or profound. +The traveller, however, who should visit the United States in a more leisurely +way, with the purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, +would find it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself +richly repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of +which is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book +on Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable +experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivánofka in the +province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might visit +in America, there are none which would better reward such careful observation, +or which are more full of interest for the comparative historian, than +the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; that part of English +America which is oldest in civilization (though not in actual date of settlement), +and which, while most completely English in blood and in traditions, is +at the same time most completely American in so far as it has most distinctly +illustrated and most successfully represented those political ideas which +have given to American history its chief significance in the general work +of civilization. +<p>The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," +in terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, +and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of the +Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before the beginning +of the present century. New England, however, has a history which carries +us back to the times of James I.; and while its cities are full of such +bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or Manchester or Glasgow, +its rural towns show us much that is old-fashioned in aspect,--much that +one can approach in an antiquarian spirit. We are there introduced to a +phase of social life which is highly interesting on its own account and +which has played an important part in the world, yet which, if not actually +passing away, is at least becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme +for grave reflections to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. +As any far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, +due to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one +of the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, +on the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes +upon the <i>personnel</i> and upon the occupations of rural New England, +we are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a deterioration +in the character of the most perfect democracy the world has ever seen. +<p>In the outward aspect of a village in Massachusetts or Connecticut, +the feature which would be most likely first to impress itself upon the +mind of a visitor from England is the manner in which the village is laid +out and built. Neither in England nor anywhere else in western Europe have +I ever met with a village of the New England type. In English villages +one finds small houses closely crowded together, sometimes in blocks of +ten or a dozen, and inhabited by people belonging to the lower orders of +society; while the fine houses of gentlemen stand quite apart in the country, +perhaps out of sight of one another, and surrounded by very extensive grounds. +The origin of the village, in a mere aggregation of tenants of the lord +of the manor, is thus vividly suggested. In France one is still more impressed, +I think, with this closely packed structure of the village. In the New +England village, on the other hand, the finer and the poorer houses stand +side by side along the road. There are wide straight streets overarched +with spreading elms and maples, and on either side stand the houses, with +little green lawns in front, called in rustic parlance "door-yards." The +finer houses may stand a thousand feet apart from their neighbours on either +side, while between the poorer ones there may be intervals of from twenty +to one hundred feet, but they are never found crowded together in blocks. +Built in this capacious fashion, a village of a thousand inhabitants may +have a main street more than a mile in length, with half a dozen crossing +streets losing themselves gradually in long stretches of country road. +The finest houses are not ducal palaces, but may be compared with the ordinary +country-houses of gentlemen in England. The poorest houses are never hovels, +such as one sees in the Scotch Highlands. The picturesque and cosy cottage +at Shottery, where Shakespeare used to do his courting, will serve very +well as a sample of the humblest sort of old-fashioned New England farm-house. +But most of the dwellings in the village come between these extremes. They +are plain neat wooden houses, in capaciousness more like villas than cottages. +A New England village street, laid out in this way, is usually very picturesque +and beautiful, and it is highly characteristic. In comparing it with things +in Europe, where one rarely finds anything at all like it, one must go +to something very different from a village. As you stand in the Court of +Heroes at Versailles and look down the broad and noble avenue that leads +to Paris, the effect of the vista is much like that of a New England village +street. As American villages grow into cities, the increase in the value +of land usually tends to crowd the houses together into blocks as in a +European city. But in some of our western cities founded and settled by +people from New England, this spacious fashion of building has been retained +for streets occupied by dwelling-houses. In Cleveland--a city on the southern +shore of Lake Erie, with a population about equal to that of Edinburgh--there +is a street some five or six miles in length and five hundred feet in width, +bordered on each side with a double row of arching trees, and with handsome +stone houses, of sufficient variety and freedom in architectural design, +standing at intervals of from one to two hundred feet along the entire +length of the street. The effect, it is needless to add, is very noble +indeed. The vistas remind one of the nave and aisles of a huge cathedral. +<p>Now this generous way in which a New England village is built is very +closely associated with the historical origin of the village and with the +peculiar kind of political and social life by which it is characterized. +First of all, it implies abundance of land. As a rule the head of each +family owns the house in which he lives and the ground on which it is built. +The relation of landlord and tenant, though not unknown, is not commonly +met with. No sort of social distinction or political privilege is associated +with the ownership of land; and the legal differences between real and +personal property, especially as regards ease of transfer, have been reduced +to the smallest minimum that practical convenience will allow. Each householder, +therefore, though an absolute proprietor, cannot be called a miniature +lord of the manor, because there exists no permanent dependent class such +as is implied in the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends +in person to the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his own +sons or by neighbours working for hire in the leisure left over from the +care of their own smaller estates. So in the interior of the house there +is usually no domestic service that is not performed by the mother of the +family and the daughters. Yet in spite of this universality of manual labour, +the people are as far as possible from presenting the appearance of peasants. +Poor or shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there is no one in +the village whom it would be proper to address in a patronizing tone, or +who would not consider it a gross insult to be offered a shilling. As with +poverty, so with dram-drinking and with crime; all alike are conspicuous +by their absence. In a village of one thousand inhabitants there will be +a poor-house where five or six decrepit old people are supported at the +common charge; and there will be one tavern where it is not easy to find +anything stronger to drink than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves +is so slight that it is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer +doors of the house at night. The universality of literary culture is as +remarkable as the freedom with which all persons engage in manual labour. +The village of a thousand inhabitants will be very likely to have a public +circulating library, in which you may find Professor Huxley's "Lay Sermons" +or Sir Henry Maine's "Ancient Law": it will surely have a high-school and +half a dozen schools for small children. A person unable to read and write +is as great a rarity as an albino or a person with six fingers. The farmer +who threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a piano +in his family sitting-room, with the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> on the table +and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay on his shelves, while his +daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, is perhaps ready to paint +on china in the afternoon. In former times theological questions largely +occupied the attention of the people; and there is probably no part of +the world where the Bible has been more attentively read, or where the +mysteries of Christian doctrine have to so great an extent been made the +subject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence we find in the +New England of to-day a deep religious sense combined with singular flexibility +of mind and freedom of thought. +<p>A state of society so completely democratic as that here described has +not often been found in connection with a very high and complex civilization. +In contemplating these old mountain villages of New England, one descries +slow modifications in the structure of society which threaten somewhat +to lessen its dignity. The immense productiveness of the soil in our western +states, combined with cheapness of transportation, tends to affect seriously +the agricultural interests of New England as well as those of our mother-country. +There is a visible tendency for farms to pass into the hands of proprietors +of an inferior type to that of the former owners,--men who are content +with a lower standard of comfort and culture; while the sons of the old +farmers go off to the universities to prepare for a professional career, +and the daughters marry merchants or lawyers in the cities. The mountain-streams +of New England, too, afford so much water-power as to bring in ugly factories +to disfigure the beautiful ravines, and to introduce into the community +a class of people very different from the landholding descendants of the +Puritans. When once a factory is established near a village, one no longer +feels free to sleep with doors unbolted. +<p>It will be long, however, I trust, before the simple, earnest and independent +type of character that has been nurtured on the Blue Hills of Massachusetts +and the White Hills of New Hampshire shall cease to operate like a powerful +leaven upon the whole of American society. Much has been said and sung +in praise of the spirit of chivalry, which, after all, as a great historian +reminds us, "implies the arbitrary choice of one or two virtues, to be +practised in such an exaggerated degree as to become vices, while the ordinary +laws of right and wrong are forgotten." <a NAME="FNanchor1"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_1">[1]</a></sup> +Quite enough has been said, too, in discredit of Puritanism,--its narrowness +of aim, its ascetic proclivities, its quaint affectations of Hebraism. +Yet these things were but the symptoms of the intensity of its reverence +for that grand spirit of Hebraism, of which Mr. Matthew Arnold speaks, +to which we owe the Bible and Christianity. No loftier ideal has ever been +conceived than that of the Puritan who would fain have made of the world +a City of God. If we could sum up all that England owes to Puritanism, +the story would be a great one indeed. As regards the United States, we +may safely say that what is noblest in our history to-day, and of happiest +augury for our social and political future, is the impress left upon the +character of our people by the heroic men who came to New England early +in the seventeenth century. +<p>The settlement of New England by the Puritans occupies a peculiar position +in the annals of colonization, and without understanding this we cannot +properly appreciate the character of the purely democratic society which +I have sought to describe. As a general rule colonies have been founded, +either by governments or by private enterprise, for political or commercial +reasons. The aim has been--on the part of governments--to annoy some rival +power, or to get rid of criminals, or to open some new avenue of trade, +or--on the part of the people--to escape from straitened circumstances +at home, or to find a refuge from religious persecution. In the settlement +of New England none of these motives were operative except the last, and +that only to a slight extent. The Puritans who fled from Nottinghamshire +to Holland in 1608, and twelve years afterwards crossed the ocean in the +<i>Mayflower</i>, may be said to have been driven from England by persecution. +But this was not the case with the Puritans who between 1630 and 1650 went +from Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and from Dorset and Devonshire, +and founded the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. These men left +their homes at a time when Puritanism was waxing powerful and could not +be assailed with impunity. They belonged to the upper and middle classes +of the society of that day, outside of the peerage. Mr. Freeman has pointed +out the importance of the change by which, after the Norman Conquest, the +Old-English nobility or <i>thegnhood</i> was pushed down into "a secondary +place in the political and social scale." Of the far-reaching effects of +this change upon the whole subsequent history of the English race I shall +hereafter have occasion to speak. The proximate effect was that "the ancient +lords of the soil, thus thrust down into the second rank, formed that great +body of freeholders, the stout gentry and yeomanry of England, who were +for so many ages the strength of the land." <a NAME="FNanchor2"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_2">[2]</a></sup> +It was from this ancient thegnhood that the Puritan settlers of New England +were mainly descended. It is no unusual thing for a Massachusetts family +to trace its pedigree to a lord of the manor in the thirteenth or fourteenth +century. The leaders of the New England emigration were country gentlemen +of good fortune, similar in position to such men as Hampden and Cromwell; +a large proportion of them had taken degrees at Cambridge. The rank and +file were mostly intelligent and prosperous yeomen. The lowest ranks of +society were not represented in the emigration; and all idle, shiftless, +or disorderly people were rigorously refused admission into the new communities, +the early history of which was therefore singularly free from anything +like riot or mutiny. To an extent unparalleled, therefore, in the annals +of colonization, the settlers of New England were a body of <i>picked men</i>. +Their Puritanism was the natural outcome of their free-thinking, combined +with an earnestness of character which could constrain them to any sacrifices +needful for realizing their high ideal of life. They gave up pleasant homes +in England, and they left them with no feeling of rancour towards their +native land, in order that, by dint of whatever hardship, they might establish +in the American wilderness what should approve itself to their judgment +as a god-fearing community. It matters little that their conceptions were +in some respects narrow. In the unflinching adherence to duty which prompted +their enterprise, and in the sober intelligence with which it was carried +out, we have, as I said before, the key to what is best in the history +of the American people. +<p>Out of such a colonization as that here described nothing but a democratic +society could very well come, save perhaps in case of a scarcity of arable +land. Between the country gentleman and the yeoman who has become a landed +proprietor, the difference is not great enough to allow the establishment +of permanent distinctions, social or political. Immediately on their arrival +in New England, the settlers proceeded to form for themselves a government +as purely democratic as any that has ever been seen in the world. Instead +of scattering about over the country, the requirements of education and +of public worship, as well as of defence against Indian attacks, obliged +them to form small village communities. As these villages multiplied, the +surface of the country came to be laid out in small districts (usually +from six to ten miles in length and breadth) called <i>townships</i>. Each +township contained its village together with the woodlands surrounding +it. In later days two or more villages have often grown up within the limits +of the same township, and the road from one village to another is sometimes +bordered with homesteads and cultivated fields throughout nearly its whole +length. In the neighbourhood of Boston villages and small towns crowd closely +together for twenty miles in every direction; and all these will no doubt +by and by grow together into a vast and complicated city, in somewhat the +same way that London has grown. +<p>From the outset the government of the township was vested in the TOWN-MEETING,--an +institution which in its present form is said to be peculiar to New England, +but which, as we shall see, has close analogies with local self-governing +bodies in other ages and countries. Once in each year--usually in the month +of March--a meeting is held, at which every adult male residing within +the limits of the township is expected to be present, and is at liberty +to address the meeting or to vote upon any question that may come up. +<p>In the first years of the colonies it seems to have been attempted to +hold town-meetings every month, and to discuss all the affairs of the community +in these assemblies; but this was soon found to be a cumbrous way of transacting +public business, and as early as 1635 we find +<i>selectmen</i> chosen to +administer the affairs of the township during the intervals between the +assemblies. As the system has perfected itself, at each annual town-meeting +there are chosen not less than three or more than nine selectmen, according +to the size of the township. Besides these, there are chosen a town-clerk, +a town-treasurer, a school-committee, assessors of taxes, overseers of +the poor, constables, surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, and other officers. +In very small townships the selectmen themselves may act as assessors of +taxes or overseers of the poor. The selectmen may appoint police-officers +if such are required; they may act as a Board of Health; in addition to +sundry specific duties too numerous to mention here, they have the general +superintendence of all public business save such as is expressly assigned +to the other officers; and whenever circumstances may seem to require it +they are authorized to call a town-meeting. The selectmen are thus the +principal town-magistrates; and through the annual election their responsibility +to the town is maintained at the maximum. Yet in many New England towns +re-election of the same persons year after year has very commonly prevailed. +I know of an instance where the office of town-clerk was filled by three +members of one family during one hundred and fourteen consecutive years. +<p>Besides choosing executive officers, the town-meeting has the power +of enacting by-laws, of making appropriations of money for town-purposes, +and of providing for miscellaneous emergencies by what might be termed +special legislation. Besides the annual meeting held in the spring for +transacting all this local business, the selectmen are required to call +a meeting in the autumn of each year for the election of state and county +officers, each second year for the election of representatives to the federal +Congress, and each fourth year for the election of the President of the +United States. +<p>It only remains to add that, as an assembly of the whole people becomes +impracticable in a large community, so when the population of a township +has grown to ten or twelve thousand, the town-meeting is discontinued, +the town is incorporated as a city, and its affairs are managed by a mayor, +a board of aldermen, and a common council, according to the system adopted +in London in the reign of Edward I. In America, therefore, the distinction +between cities and towns has nothing to do with the presence or absence +of a cathedral, but refers solely to differences in the communal or municipal +government. In the city the common council, as a representative body, replaces +(in a certain sense) the town-meeting; a representative government is substituted +for a pure democracy. But the city officers, like the selectmen of towns, +are elected annually; and in no case (I believe) has municipal government +fallen into the hands of a self-perpetuating body, as it has done in so +many instances in England owing to the unwise policy pursued by the Tudors +and Stuarts in their grants of charters. +<p>It is only in New England that the township system is to be found in +its completeness. In several southern and western states the administrative +unit is the county, and local affairs are managed by county commissioners +elected by the people. Elsewhere we find a mixture of the county and township +systems. In some of the western states settled by New England people, town-meetings +are held, though their powers are somewhat less extensive than in New England. +In the settlement of Virginia it was attempted to copy directly the parishes +and vestries, boroughs and guilds of England. But in the southern states +generally the great size of the plantations and the wide dispersion of +the population hindered the growth of towns, so that it was impossible +to have an administrative unit smaller than the county. As Tocqueville +said fifty years ago, "the farther south we go the less active does the +business of the township or parish become; the population exercises a less +immediate influence on affairs; the power of the elected magistrate is +augmented and that of the election diminished, while the public spirit +of the local communities is less quickly awakened and less influential." +This is almost equally true to-day; yet with all these differences in local +organization, there is no part of our country in which the spirit of local +self-government can be called weak or uncertain. I have described the Town-meeting +as it exists in the states where it first grew up and has since chiefly +flourished. But something very like the "town-meeting principle" lies at +the bottom of all the political life of the United States. To maintain +vitality in the centre without sacrificing it in the parts; to preserve +tranquillity in the mutual relations of forty powerful states, while keeping +the people everywhere as far as possible in direct contact with the government; +such is the political problem which the American Union exists for the purpose +of solving; and of this great truth every American citizen is supposed +to have some glimmering, however crude. +<p>It has been said that the town-governments of New England were established +without any conscious reference to precedent; but, however this may be, +they are certainly not without precedents and analogies, to enumerate which +will carry us very far back in the history of the Aryan world. At the beginning +of his essay on the "Growth of the English Constitution," Mr. Freeman gives +an eloquent account of the May assemblies of Uri and Appenzell, when the +whole people elect their magistrates for the year and vote upon amendments +to the old laws or upon the adoption of new ones. Such a sight Mr. Freeman +seems to think can be seen nowhere but in Switzerland, and he reckons it +among the highest privileges of his life to have looked upon it. But I +am unable to see in what respect the town-meeting in Massachusetts differs +from the <i>Landesgemeinde</i> or cantonal assembly in Switzerland, save +that it is held in a town-hall and not in the open air, that it is conducted +with somewhat less of pageantry, and that the freemen who attend do not +carry arms even by way of ceremony. In the Swiss assembly, as Mr. Freeman +truly observes, we see exemplified the most democratic phase of the old +Teutonic constitution as described in the "Germania" of Tacitus, "the earliest +picture which history can give us of the political and social being of +our own forefathers." The same remark, in precisely the same terms, would +be true of the town-meetings of New England. Political institutions, on +the White Mountains and on the Alps, not only closely resemble each other, +but are connected by strict bonds of descent from a common original. +<p>The most primitive self-governing body of which we have any knowledge +is the village-community of the ancient Teutons, of which such strict counterparts +are found in other parts of the Aryan world as to make it apparent that +in its essential features it must be an inheritance from prehistoric Aryan +antiquity. In its Teutonic form the primitive village-community (or rather, +the spot inhabited by it) is known as the +<i>Mark</i>,--that is, a place +defined by a boundary-line. One characteristic of the mark-community is +that all its free members are in theory supposed to be related to each +other through descent from a common progenitor; and in this respect the +mark-community agrees with the +<i>gens</i>, [Greek: <i>ginos</i>], or <i>clan</i>. +The earliest form of political union in the world is one which rests, not +upon territorial contiguity, but upon I blood-relationship, either real +or assumed through the legal fiction of adoption. In the lowest savagery +blood-relationship is the only admissible or conceivable ground for sustained +common action among groups of men. Among peoples which wander about, supporting +themselves either by hunting, or at a somewhat more advanced stage of development +by the rearing of flocks and herds, a group of men, thus permanently associated +through ties of blood-relationship, is what we call a <i>clan</i>. When +by the development of agricultural pursuits the nomadic mode of life is +brought to an end, when the clan remains stationary upon some piece of +territory surrounded by a strip of forest-land, or other boundaries natural +or artificial, then the clan becomes a mark-community. The profound linguistic +researches of Pictet, Fick, and others have made it probable that at the +time when the Old-Aryan language was broken up into the dialects from which +the existing languages of Europe are descended, the Aryan tribes were passing +from a purely pastoral stage of barbarism into an incipient agricultural +stage, somewhat like that which characterized the Iroquois tribes in America +in the seventeenth century. The comparative study of institutions leads +to results in harmony with this view, showing us the mark-community of +our Teutonic ancestors with the clear traces of its origin in the more +primitive clan; though, with Mr. Kemble, I do not doubt that by the time +of Tacitus the German tribes had long since reached the agricultural stage. +<p>Territorially the old Teutonic mark consisted of three divisions. There +was the <i>village mark</i>, where the people lived in houses crowded closely +together, no doubt for defensive purposes; there was the <i>arable mark</i>, +divided into as many lots as there were householders; and there was the +<i>common +mark</i>, or border-strip of untilled land, wherein all the inhabitants +of the village had common rights of pasturage and of cutting firewood. +All this land originally was the property not of any one family or individual, +but of the community. The study of the mark carries us back to a time when +there may have been private property in weapons, utensils, or trinkets, +but not in real estate.<a NAME="FNanchor3"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></sup> +Of the three kinds of land the common mark, save where curtailed or usurped +by lords in the days of feudalism, has generally remained public property +to this day. The pleasant green commons or squares which occur in the midst +of towns and cities in England and the United States most probably originated +from the coalescence of adjacent mark-communities, whereby the border-land +used in common by all was brought into the centre of the new aggregate. +In towns of modern date this origin of the common is of course forgotten, +and in accordance with the general law by which the useful thing after +discharging its functions survives for purposes of ornament, it is introduced +as a pleasure-ground. In old towns of New England, however, the little +park where boys play ball or children and nurses "take the air" was once +the common pasture of the town. Even Boston Common did not entirely cease +to be a grazing-field until 1830. It was in the village-mark, or assemblage +of homesteads, that private property in real estate naturally began. In +the Russian villages to-day the homesteads are private property, while +the cultivated land is owned in common. This was the case with the <i>arable +mark</i> of our ancestors. The arable mark belonged to the community, and +was temporarily divided into as many fields as there were households, though +the division was probably not into equal parts: more likely, as in Russia +to-day, the number of labourers in each household was taken into the account; +and at irregular intervals, as fluctuations in population seemed to require +it, a thorough-going redivision was effected. In carrying out such divisions +and redivisions, as well as in all matters relating to village, ploughed +field, or pasture, the mark-community was a law unto itself. Though individual +freedom was by no means considerable, the legal existence of the individual +being almost entirely merged in that of his clan, the mark-community was +a completely self-governing body. The assembly of the mark-men, or members +of the community, allotted land for tillage, determined the law or declared +the custom as to methods of tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, +voted upon the admission of new families into the village, and in general +transacted what was then regarded as the public business of the community. +In all essential respects this village assembly or <i>mark-mote</i> would +seem to have resembled the town-meetings of New England. +<p>Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly +from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of +English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in Hindustan +we find the same primitive form of social organization existing with very +little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and in Russian village-communities +we find the group of habitations, each despotically ruled by a <i>pater-familias;</i> +we find the pasture-land owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable +land divided into separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute +regulations established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution +of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in others; +the arable mark has become private property, as well as the homesteads. +In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at irregular intervals +averaging something like fifteen years. In India the local government is +carried on in some places by a Council of Village Elders, and in other +places by a Headman whose office is sometimes described as hereditary, +but is more probably elective, the choice being confined, as in the case +of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of a particular family. In +the Russian village, on the other hand, the government is conducted by +an assembly at which every head of a household is expected to be present +and vote on all matters of public concern. This assembly elects the Village +Elder, or chief executive officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and +the communal herd-boy; it directs the allotment of the arable land; and +in general matters of local legislation its power is as great as that of +the New England town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since +the precise extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, +and (according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against +its decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply +as a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising. +To those who, because the Russian government is called a bureaucracy, have +been led to think of it as analogous to the government of France under +the Old Régime, it may seem incredible that the decisions of a village-assembly +should not admit of appeal to a higher authority. But in point of fact, +no two despotic governments could be less alike than that of modern Russia +and that of France under the Old Régime. The Russian government +is autocratic inasmuch as over the larger part of the country it has simply +succeeded to the position of the Mongolian khans who from the thirteenth +to the fifteenth century held the Russian people in subjection. This Mongolian +government was--to use a happy distinction suggested by Sir Henry Maine--a +tax-taking despotism, not a legislative despotism. The conquerors exacted +tribute, but did not interfere with the laws and customs of the subject +people. When the Russians drove out the Mongols they exchanged a despotism +which they hated for one in which they felt a national pride, but in one +curious respect the position of the people with reference to their rulers +has remained the same. The imperial government exacts from each village-community +a tax in gross, for which the community as a whole is responsible, and +which may or may not be oppressive in amount; but the government has never +interfered with local legislation or with local customs. Thus in the +<i>mir</i>, +or village-community, the Russians still retain an element of sound political +life, the importance of which appears when we consider that five-sixths +of the population of European Russia is comprised in these communities. +The tax assessed upon them by the imperial government is, however, a feature +which--even more than their imperfect system of property and their low +grade of mental culture--separates them by a world-wide interval from the +New England township, to the primeval embryonic stage of which they correspond. +<p>From these illustrations we see that the mark, or self-governing village-community, +is an institution which must be referred back to early Aryan times. Whether +the mark ever existed in England, in anything like the primitive form in +which it is seen in the Russian <i>mir</i>, is doubtful. Professor Stubbs +(one of the greatest living authorities on such a subject) is inclined +to think that the Teutonic settlers of Britain had passed beyond this stage +before they migrated from Germany.<a NAME="FNanchor4"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a></sup> +Nevertheless the traces of the mark, as all admit, are plentiful enough +in England; and some of its features have survived down to modern times. +In the great number of town-names that are formed from patronymics, such +as <i>Walsingham</i> "the home of the Walsings," +<i>Harlington</i> "the +town of the Harlings," etc.,<a NAME="FNanchor5"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_5">[5]</a></sup> +we have unimpeachable evidence of a time when the town was regarded as +the dwelling-place of a clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word +<i>mark</i> in English laws, charters, and local names (to which Professor +Stubbs alludes) may be due to the fact that the word <i>town</i> has precisely +the same meaning. <i>Mark</i> means originally the belt of waste land encircling +the village, and secondarily the village with its periphery. <i>Town</i> +means originally a hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is +enclosed: the modern German <i>zaun</i>, a "hedge," preserves the original +meaning. But traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. +I have already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. +What is still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation +in common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of +the mark appears in the <i>tunscipesmot</i>,--a word which is simply Old-English +for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm foothold, +the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of enacting +its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have to-day. But +above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of itself in the +constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or township, transformed +by the process of feudalization, becomes the manor. The process of feudalization, +throughout western Europe in general, was no doubt begun by the institution +of Benefices, or "grants of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of +the" Teutonic "tribes which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being +conferred on their associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest +was military service." <a NAME="FNanchor6"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a></sup> +The feudal régime naturally reached its most complete development +in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman territory +overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic conquerors. Other +causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps being the chaotic +condition of European society during the break-up of the Carolingian Empire +and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions. Land was better protected +when held of a powerful chieftain than when held in one's own right; and +hence the practice of commendation, by which free allodial proprietors +were transformed into the tenants of a lord, became fashionable and was +gradually extended to all kinds of estates. In England the effects of feudalization +were different from what they were in France, but the process was still +carried very far, especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up +that all the public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that +all landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the +common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's tenants. +Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even by such a +change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in England +lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as Sir Henry +Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty in the rights +of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no authority to disturb +customary rights. The old township-assembly partially survived in the Court +Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court of the Manor; and in these courts +the arrangements for the common husbandry were determined. +<p>This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but +partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township into +the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has pointed +out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or townships with +which it coincides are generally the same: in small parishes the idea and +even the name of township is frequently, at the present day, sunk in that +of the parish; and all the business that is not manorial is despatched +in vestry-meetings, which are however primarily meetings of the township +for church purposes." <a NAME="FNanchor7"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a></sup> +The parish officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens, +are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And +while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by charter, +or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial grant, "all +matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the management of +the vestry." +<p>In England, therefore, the free village-community, though perhaps nowhere +found in its primitive integrity, has nevertheless survived in partially +transfigured forms which have played no unimportant part in the history +of the English people. In one shape or another the assembly of freemen +for purposes of local legislation has always existed. The Puritans who +colonized New England, therefore, did not invent the town-meeting. They +were familiar already with the proceedings of the vestry-meeting and the +manorial courts, but they were severed now from church and from aristocracy. +So they had but to discard the ecclesiastical and lordly terminology, with +such limitations as they involved, and to reintegrate the separate jurisdictions +into one,--and forthwith the old assembly of the township, founded in immemorial +tradition, but revivified by new thoughts and purposes gained through ages +of political training, emerged into fresh life and entered upon a more +glorious career. +<p>It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need +to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of +the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful national +life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local self-government in the +various portions of the Aryan world, we see the contrasted fortunes of +France and England illustrating for us most forcibly the significance of +this truth. For the preservation of local self-government in England various +causes may be assigned; but of these there are two which may be cited as +especially prominent. In the first place, owing to the peculiar circumstances +of the Teutonic settlement of Britain, the civilization of England previous +to the Norman Conquest was but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. +In the second place the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman +Conquest (to which I have already alluded) checked the growth of a <i>noblesse</i> +or <i>adel</i> of the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common +people like a separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown +into such a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage +which arose after the Conquest was something different from a +<i>noblesse</i>. +It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or privilege. +The peers were those men who retained the right of summons to the Great +Council, or Witenagemote, which has survived as the House of Lords. The +peer was therefore the holder of a legislative and judicial office, which +only one of his children could inherit, from the very nature of the case, +and which none of his children could share with him. Hence the brothers +and younger children of a peer were always commoners, and their interests +were not remotely separated from those of other commoners. Hence after +the establishment of a House of Commons, their best chance for a political +career lay in representing the interests of the people in the lower house. +Hence between the upper and lower strata of English society there has always +been kept up a circulation or interchange of ideas and interests, and the +effect of this upon English history has been prodigious. While on the continent +a sovereign like Charles the Bold could use his nobility to extinguish +the liberties of the merchant towns of Flanders, nothing of the sort was +ever possible in England. Throughout the Middle Ages, in every contest +between the people and the crown, the weight of the peerage was thrown +into the scale in favour of popular liberties. But for this peculiar position +of the peerage we might have had no Earl Simon; it is largely through it +that representative government and local liberties have been preserved +to the English race. +<p>In France the course of events has brought about very different results. +I shall defer to my next lecture the consideration of the vicissitudes +of local self-government under the Roman Empire, because that point is +really incident upon the study of the formation of vast national aggregates. +Suffice it now to say that when the Teutons overcame Gaul, they became +rulers over a population which had been subjected for five centuries to +that slow but mighty process of trituration which the Empire everywhere +brought to bear upon local self-government. While the Teutons in Britain, +moreover, enslaved their slightly romanized subjects and gave little heed +to their language, religion, or customs; the Teutons in Gaul, on the other +hand, quickly adopted the language and religion of their intensely romanized +subjects and acquired to some extent their way of looking at things. Hence +in the early history of France there was no such stubborn mass of old Aryan +liberties to be dealt with as in the early history of England. Nor was +there any powerful middle class distributed through the country to defend +such liberties as existed. Beneath the turbulent throng of Teutonic nobles, +among whom the king was only the most exalted and not always the strongest, +there lay the Gallo-Roman population which had so long been accustomed +to be ruled without representation by a distant government exercising its +authority through innumerable prefects. Such Teutonic rank and file as +there was became absorbed into this population; and except in sundry chartered +towns there was nothing like a social stratum interposed between the nobles +and the common people. +<p>The slow conversion of the feudal monarchy of the early Capetians into +the absolute despotism of Louis XIV. was accomplished by the king gradually +<i>conquering</i> his vassals one after another, and adding their domains +to his own. As one vassal territory after another was added to the royal +domain, the king sent prefects, responsible only to himself, to administer +its local affairs, sedulously crushing out, so far as possible, the last +vestiges of self-government. The nobles, deprived of their provincial rule, +in great part flocked to Paris to become idle courtiers. The means for +carrying on the gigantic machinery of centralized administration, and for +supporting the court in its follies, were wrung from the groaning peasantry +with a cynical indifference like that with which tribute is extorted by +barbaric chieftains from a conquered enemy. And thus came about that abominable +state of things which a century since was abruptly ended by one of the +fiercest convulsions of modern times. The prodigious superiority--in respect +to national vitality--of a freely governed country over one that is governed +by a centralized despotism, is nowhere more brilliantly illustrated than +in the contrasted fortunes of France and England as +<i>colonizing</i> nations. +When we consider the declared rivalry between France and England in their +plans for colonizing the barbarous regions of the earth, when we consider +that the military power of the two countries has been not far from equal, +and that France has at times shown herself a maritime power by no means +to be despised, it seems to me that her overwhelming and irretrievable +defeat by England in the struggle for colonial empire is one of the most +striking and one of the most instructive facts in all modern history. In +my lectures of last year (at University College) I showed that, in the +struggle for the possession of North America, where the victory of England +was so decisive as to settle the question for all coming time, the causes +of the French failure are very plainly to be seen. The French colony in +Canada was one of the most complete examples of a despotic government that +the world has ever seen. All the autocratic and bureaucratic ideas of Louis +XIV. were here carried out without let or hindrance. It would be incredible, +were it not attested by such abundant evidence, that the affairs of any +people could be subjected to such minute and sleepless supervision as were +the affairs of the French colonists in Canada. A man could not even build +his own house, or rear his own cattle, or sow his own seed, or reap his +own grain, save under the supervision of prefects acting under instructions +from the home government. No one was allowed to enter or leave the colony +without permission, not from the colonists but from the king. No farmer +could visit Montreal or Quebec without permission. No Huguenot could set +his foot on Canadian soil. No public meetings of any kind were tolerated, +nor were there any means of giving expression to one's opinions on any +subject. The details of all this, which may be read in Mr. Parkman's admirable +work on "The Old Regime in Canada," make a wonderful chapter of history. +Never was a colony, moreover, so loaded with bounties, so fostered, petted, +and protected. The result was absolute paralysis, political and social. +When after a century of irritation and skirmishing the French in Canada +came to a life-and-death struggle with the self-governing colonists of +New England, New York, and Virginia, the result for the French power in +America was instant and irretrievable annihilation. The town-meeting pitted +against the bureaucracy was like a Titan overthrowing a cripple. The historic +lesson owes its value to the fact that this ruin of the French scheme of +colonial empire was due to no accidental circumstances, but was involved +in the very nature of the French political system. Obviously it is impossible +for a people to plant beyond sea a colony which shall be self-supporting, +unless it has retained intact the power of self-government at home. It +is to the self-government of England, and to no lesser cause, that we are +to look for the secret of that boundless vitality which has given to men +of English speech the uttermost parts of the earth for an inheritance. +The conquest of Canada first demonstrated this truth, and when--in the +two following lectures--we shall have made some approach towards comprehending +its full import, we shall all, I think, be ready to admit that the triumph +of Wolfe marks the greatest turning-point as yet discernible in modern +history. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +II.</h2> + +<h2> +THE FEDERAL UNION.</h2> +The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries still +ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of political +wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books in the world. +At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other time in the career +of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with such luxuriance as at +Athens during the eighty-five years which intervened between the victory +of Marathon and the defeat of Ægospotamos. In no other like interval +of time, and in no other community of like dimensions, has so much work +been accomplished of which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema +es aei],--an eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day +so distant, or an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by +Athens shall cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers +shall cease to be read with fresh profit and delight. We understand these +things far better to-day than did those monsters of erudition in the sixteenth +century who studied the classics for philological purposes mainly. Indeed, +the older the world grows, the more varied our experience of practical +politics, the more comprehensive our survey of universal history, the stronger +our grasp upon the comparative method of inquiry, the more brilliant is +the light thrown upon that brief day of Athenian greatness, and the more +wonderful and admirable does it all seem. To see this glorious community +overthrown, shorn of half its virtue (to use the Homeric phrase), and thrust +down into an inferior position in the world, is a mournful spectacle indeed. +And the book which sets before us, so impartially yet so eloquently, the +innumerable petty misunderstandings and contemptible jealousies which brought +about this direful result, is one of the most mournful of books. +<p>We may console ourselves, however, for the premature overthrow of the +power of Athens, by the reflection that that power rested upon political +conditions which could not in any case have been permanent or even long-enduring. +The entire political system of ancient Greece, based as it was upon the +idea of the sovereign independence of each single city, was one which could +not fail sooner or later to exhaust itself through chronic anarchy. The +only remedy lay either in some kind of permanent federation, combined with +representative government; or else in what we might call "incorporation +and assimilation," after the Roman fashion. But the incorporation of one +town with another, though effected with brilliant results in the early +history of Attika, involved such a disturbance of all the associations +which in the Greek mind clustered about the conception of a city that it +was quite impracticable on any large or general scale. Schemes of federal +union were put into operation, though too late to be of avail against the +assaults of Macedonia and Rome. But as for the principle of representation, +that seems to have been an invention of the Teutonic mind; no statesman +of antiquity, either in Greece or at Rome, seems to have conceived the +idea of a city sending delegates armed with plenary powers to represent +its interests in a general legislative assembly. To the Greek statesmen, +no doubt, this too would have seemed derogatory to the dignity of the sovereign +city. +<p>This feeling with which the ancient Greek statesmen, and to some extent +the Romans also, regarded the city, has become almost incomprehensible +to the modern mind, so far removed are we from the political circumstances +which made such a feeling possible. Teutonic civilization, indeed, has +never passed through a stage in which the foremost position has been held +by civic communities. Teutonic civilization passed directly from the stage +of tribal into that of national organization, before any Teutonic city +had acquired sufficient importance to have claimed autonomy for itself; +and at the time when Teutonic nationalities were forming, moreover, all +the cities in Europe had so long been accustomed to recognize a master +outside of them in the person of the Roman emperor that the very tradition +of civic autonomy, as it existed in ancient Greece, had become extinct. +This difference between the political basis of Teutonic and of Græco-Roman +civilization is one of which it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance; +and when thoroughly understood it goes farther, perhaps, than anything +else towards accounting for the successive failures of the Greek and Roman +political systems, and towards inspiring us with confidence in the future +stability of the political system which has been wrought out by the genius +of the English race. +<p>We saw, in the preceding lecture, how the most primitive form of political +association known to have existed is that of the <i>clan</i>, or group +of families held together by ties of descent from a common ancestor. We +saw how the change from a nomadic to a stationary mode of life, attendant +upon the adoption of agricultural pursuits, converted the clan into a <i>mark</i> +or village-community, something like those which exist to-day in Russia. +The political progress of primitive society seems to have consisted largely +in the coalescence of these small groups into larger groups. The first +series of compound groups resulting from the coalescence of adjacent marks +is that which was known in nearly all Teutonic lands as the <i>hundred</i>, +in Athens as the [Greek: <i>phratria</i>] or +<i>brotherhood</i>, in Rome +as the <i>curia</i>. Yet alongside of the Roman group called the <i>curia</i> +there is a group whose name, the <i>century</i>, exactly translates the +name of the Teutonic group; and, as Mr. Freeman says, it is difficult to +believe that the Roman <i>century</i> did not at the outset in some way +correspond to the Teutonic <i>hundred</i> as a stage in political organization. +But both these terms, as we know them in history, are survivals from some +prehistoric state of things; and whether they were originally applied to +a hundred of houses, or of families, or of warriors, we do not know.<a NAME="FNanchor8"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a></sup> +M. Geffroy, in his interesting essay on the Germania of Tacitus, suggests +that the term <i>canton</i> may have a similar origin.<a NAME="FNanchor9"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_9">[9]</a></sup> +The outlines of these primitive groups are, however, more obscure than +those of the more primitive mark, because in most cases they have been +either crossed and effaced or at any rate diminished in importance by the +more highly compounded groups which came next in order of formation. Next +above the <i>hundred</i>, in order of composition, comes the group known +in ancient Italy as the<i>pagus</i>, in Attika perhaps as the +<i>deme</i>, +in Germany and at first in England as the <i>gau</i> or <i>ga</i>, at a +later date in England as the <i>shire</i>. Whatever its name, this group +answers to the <i>tribe</i> regarded as settled upon a certain determinate +territory. Just as in the earlier nomadic life the aggregation of clans +makes ultimately the tribe, so in the more advanced agricultural life of +our Aryan ancestors the aggregation of marks or village-communities makes +ultimately the <i>gau</i> or <i>shire</i>. Properly speaking, the name +<i>shire</i> +is descriptive of division and not of aggregation; but this term came into +use in England after the historic order of formation had been forgotten, +and when the <i>shire</i> was looked upon as a <i>piece</i> of some larger +whole, such as the kingdom of Mercia or Wessex. Historically, however, +the <i>shire</i> was not made, like the <i>departments</i> of modern France, +by the division of the kingdom for administrative purposes, but the kingdom +was made by the union of shires that were previously autonomous. In the +primitive process of aggregation, the <i>shire</i> or +<i>gau</i>, governed +by its <i>witenagemote</i> or "meeting of wise men," and by its chief magistrate +who was called <i>ealdorman</i> in time of peace and +<i>heretoga</i>, "army-leader," +<i>dux</i>, or <i>duke</i>, in time of war,--the +<i>shire</i>, I say, in +this form, is the largest and most complex political body we find previous +to the formation of kingdoms and nations. But in saying this, we have already +passed beyond the point at which we can include in the same general formula +the process of political development in Teutonic countries on the one hand +and in Greece and Rome on the other. Up as far as the formation of the +tribe, territorially regarded, the parallelism is preserved; but at this +point there begins an all-important divergence. In the looser and more +diffused society of the rural Teutons, the tribe is spread over a shire, +and the aggregation of shires makes a kingdom, embracing cities, towns, +and rural districts held together by similar bonds of relationship to the +central governing power. But in the society of the old Greeks and Italians, +the aggregation of tribes, crowded together on fortified hill-tops, makes +the <i>Ancient City</i>,--a very different thing, indeed, from the modern +city of later-Roman or Teutonic foundation. Let us consider, for a moment, +the difference. +<p>Sir Henry Maine tells us that in Hindustan nearly all the great towns +and cities have arisen either from the simple expansion or from the expansion +and coalescence of primitive village-communities; and such as have not +arisen in this way, including some of the greatest of Indian cities, have +grown up about the intrenched camps of the Mogul emperors.<a NAME="FNanchor10"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_10">[10]</a></sup> +The case has been just the same in modern Europe. Some famous cities of +England and Germany--such as Chester and Lincoln, Strasburg and Maintz,--grew +up about the camps of the Roman legions. But in general the Teutonic city +has been formed by the expansion and coalescence of thickly-peopled townships +and hundreds. In the United States nearly all cities have come from the +growth and expansion of villages, with such occasional cases of coalescence +as that of Boston with Roxbury and Charlestown. Now and then a city has +been laid out as a city <i>ab initio</i>, with full consciousness of its +purpose, as a man would build a house; and this was the case not merely +with Martin Chuzzlewit's "Eden," but with the city of Washington, the seat +of our federal government. But, to go back to the early ages of England--the +country which best exhibits the normal development of Teutonic institutions--the +point which I wish especially to emphasize is this: <i>in no case does +the city appear as equivalent to the dwelling-place of a tribe or of a +confederation of tribes</i>. In no case does citizenship, or burghership, +appear to rest upon the basis of a real or assumed community of descent +from a single real or mythical progenitor. In the primitive mark, as we +have seen, the bond which kept the community together and constituted it +a political unit was the bond of blood-relationship, real or assumed; but +this was not the case with the city or borough. The city did not correspond +with the tribe, as the mark corresponded with the clan. The aggregation +of clans into tribes corresponded with the aggregation of marks, not into +<i>cities</i> but into <i>shires</i>. The multitude of compound political +units, by the further compounding of which a nation was to be formed, did +not consist of cities but of shires. The city was simply a point in the +shire distinguished by greater density of population. The relations sustained +by the thinly-peopled rural townships and hundreds to the general government +of the shire were co-ordinate with the relations sustained to the same +government by those thickly-peopled townships and hundreds which upon their +coalescence were known as cities or boroughs. Of course I am speaking now +in a broad and general way, and without reference to such special privileges +or immunities as cities and boroughs frequently obtained by royal charter +in feudal times. Such special privileges--as for instance the exemption +of boroughs from the ordinary sessions of the county court, under Henry +I.<a NAME="FNanchor11"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_11">[11]</a></sup>--were +in their nature grants from an external source, and were in nowise inherent +in the position or mode of origin of the Teutonic city. And they were, +moreover, posterior in date to that embryonic period of national growth +of which I am now speaking. They do not affect in any way the correctness +of my general statement, which is sufficiently illustrated by the fact +that the oldest shire-motes, or county-assemblies, were attended by representatives +from all the townships and hundreds in the shire, whether such townships +and hundreds formed parts of boroughs or not. +<p>Very different from this was the embryonic growth of political society +in ancient Greece and Italy. There the aggregation of clans into tribes +and confederations of tribes resulted directly, as we have seen, in the +City. There burghership, with its political and social rights and duties, +had its theoretical basis in descent from a common ancestor, or from a +small group of closely-related common ancestors. The group of fellow-citizens +was associated through its related groups of ancestral household-deities, +and through religious rites performed in common to which it would have +been sacrilege to have admitted a stranger. Thus the Ancient City was a +religious as well as a political body, and in either character it was complete +in itself and it was sovereign. Thus in ancient Greece and Italy the primitive +clan-assembly or township-meeting did not grow by aggregation into the +assembly of the shire, but it developed into the <i>comitia</i> or <i>ecclesia</i> +of the city. The chief magistrate was not the <i>ealdorman</i> of early +English history, but the +<i>rex</i> or <i>basileus</i> who combined in +himself the functions of king, general, and priest. Thus, too, there was +a severance, politically, between city and country such as the Teutonic +world has never known. The rural districts surrounding a city might be +subject to it, but could neither share its franchise nor claim a co-ordinate +franchise with it. Athens, indeed, at an early period, went so far as to +incorporate with itself Eleusis and Marathon and the other rural towns +of Attika. In this one respect Athens transgressed the bounds of ancient +civic organization, and no doubt it gained greatly in power thereby. But +generally in the Hellenic world the rural population in the neighbourhood +of a great city were mere [Greek: <i>perioikoi</i>], or "dwellers in the +vicinity"; the inhabitants of the city who had moved thither from some +other city, both they and their descendants, were mere [Greek: metoikoi], +or "dwellers in the place"; and neither the one class nor the other could +acquire the rights and privileges of citizenship. A revolution, indeed, +went on at Athens, from the time of Solon to the time of Kleisthenes, which +essentially modified the old tribal divisions and admitted to the franchise +all such families resident from time immemorial as did not belong to the +tribes of eupatrids by whom the city was founded. But this change once +accomplished, the civic exclusiveness of Athens remained very much what +it was before. The popular assembly was enlarged, and public harmony was +secured; but Athenian burghership still remained a privilege which could +not be acquired by the native of any other city. Similar revolutions, with +a similarly limited purpose and result, occurred at Sparta, Elis, and other +Greek cities. At Rome, by a like revolution, the plebeians of the Capitoline +and Aventine acquired parallel rights of citizenship with the patricians +of the original city on the Palatine; but this revolution, as we shall +presently see, had different results, leading ultimately to the overthrow +of the city-system throughout the ancient world. +<p>The deep-seated difference between the Teutonic political system based +on the shire and the Græco-Roman system based on the city is now, +I think, sufficiently apparent. Now from this fundamental difference have +come two consequences of enormous importance,--consequences of which it +is hardly too much to say that, taken together, they furnish the key to +the whole history of European civilization as regarded purely from a political +point of view. +<p>The first of these consequences had no doubt a very humble origin in +the mere difference between the shire and the city in territorial extent +and in density of population. When people live near together it is easy +for them to attend a town-meeting, and the assembly by which public business +is transacted is likely to remain a <i>primary assembly</i>, in the true +sense of the term. But when people are dispersed over a wide tract of country, +the primary assembly inevitably shrinks up into an assembly of such persons +as can best afford the time and trouble of attending it, or who have the +strongest interest in going, or are most likely to be listened to after +they get there. Distance and difficulty, and in early times danger too, +keep many people away. And though a shire is not a wide tract of country +for most purposes, and according to modern ideas, it was nevertheless quite +wide enough in former times to bring about the result I have mentioned. +In the times before the Norman conquest, if not before the completed union +of England under Edgar, the shire-mote or county assembly, though in theory +still a folk-mote or primary assembly, had shrunk into what was virtually +a witenagemote or assembly of the most important persons in the county. +But the several townships, in order to keep their fair share of control +over county affairs, and not wishing to leave the matter to chance, sent +to the meetings each its +<i>representatives</i> in the persons of the town-reeve +and four "discreet men." I believe it has not been determined at what precise +time this step was taken, but it no doubt long antedates the Norman conquest. +It is mentioned by Professor Stubbs as being already, in the reign of Henry +III., a custom of immemorial antiquity.<a NAME="FNanchor12"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_12">[12]</a></sup> +It was one of the greatest steps ever taken in the political history of +mankind. In these four discreet men we have the forerunners of the two +burghers from each town who were summoned by Earl Simon to the famous parliament +of 1265, as well as of the two knights from each shire whom the king had +summoned eleven years before. In these four discreet men sent to speak +for their township in the old county assembly, we have the germ of institutions +that have ripened into the House of Commons and into the legislatures of +modern kingdoms and republics. In the system of representation thus inaugurated +lay the future possibility of such gigantic political aggregates as the +United States of America. +<p>In the ancient city, on the other hand, the extreme compactness of the +political structure made representation unnecessary and prevented it from +being thought of in circumstances where it might have proved of immense +value. In an aristocratic Greek city, like Sparta, all the members of the +ruling class met together and voted in the assembly; in a democratic city, +like Athens, all the free citizens met and voted; in each case the assembly +was primary and not representative. The only exception, in all Greek antiquity, +is one which emphatically proves the rule. The Amphiktyonic Council, an +institution of prehistoric origin, concerned mainly with religious affairs +pertaining to the worship of the Delphic Apollo, furnished a precedent +for a representative, and indeed for a federal, assembly. Delegates from +various Greek tribes and cities attended it. The fact that with such a +suggestive precedent before their eyes the Greeks never once hit upon the +device of representation, even in their attempts at framing federal unions, +shows how thoroughly their whole political training had operated to exclude +such a conception from their minds. +<p>The second great consequence of the Graeco-Roman city-system was linked +in many ways with this absence of the representative principle. In Greece +the formation of political aggregates higher and more extensive than the +city was, until a late date, rendered impossible. The good and bad sides +of this peculiar phase of civilization have been often enough commented +on by historians. On the one hand the democratic assembly of such an imperial +city as Athens furnished a school of political training superior to anything +else that the world has ever seen. It was something like what the New England +town-meeting would be if it were continually required to adjust complicated +questions of international polity, if it were carried on in the very centre +or point of confluence of all contemporary streams of culture, and if it +were in the habit every few days of listening to statesmen and orators +like Hamilton or Webster, jurists like Marshall, generals like Sherman, +poets like Lowell, historians like Parkman. Nothing in all history has +approached the high-wrought intensity and brilliancy of the political life +of Athens. +<p>On the other hand, the smallness of the independent city, as a political +aggregate, made it of little or no use in diminishing the liability to +perpetual warfare which is the curse of all primitive communities. In a +group of independent cities, such as made up the Hellenic world, the tendency +to warfare is almost as strong, and the occasions for warfare are almost +as frequent, as in a congeries of mutually hostile tribes of barbarians. +There is something almost lurid in the sharpness of contrast with which +the wonderful height of humanity attained by Hellas is set off against +the fierce barbarism which characterized the relations of its cities to +one another. It may be laid down as a general rule that in an early state +of society, where the political aggregations are small, warfare is universal +and cruel. From the intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent +self-governing groups of men, nothing short of chronic warfare can result, +until some principle of union is evolved by which disputes can be settled +in accordance with general principles admitted by all. Among peoples that +have never risen above the tribal stage of aggregation, such as the American +Indians, war is the normal condition of things, and there is nothing fit +to be called +<i>peace</i>,--there are only truces of brief and uncertain +duration. Were it not for this there would be somewhat less to be said +in favour of great states and kingdoms. As modern life grows more and more +complicated and interdependent, the Great State subserves innumerable useful +purposes; but in the history of civilization its first service, both in +order of time and in order of importance, consists in the diminution of +the quantity of warfare and in the narrowing of its sphere. For within +the territorial limits of any great and permanent state, the tendency is +for warfare to become the exception and peace the rule. In this direction +the political careers of the Greek cities assisted the progress of civilization +but little. +<p>Under the conditions of Graeco-Roman civic life there were but two practicable +methods of forming a great state and diminishing the quantity of warfare. +The one method was <i>conquest with incorporation</i>, the other method +was <i>federation</i>. Either one city might conquer all the others and +endow their citizens with its own franchise, or all the cities might give +up part of their sovereignty to a federal body which should have power +to keep the peace, and should represent the civilized world of the time +in its relations with outlying barbaric peoples. Of these two methods, +obviously the latter is much the more effective, but it presupposes for +its successful adoption a higher general state of civilization than the +former. Neither method was adopted by the Greeks in their day of greatness. +The Spartan method of extending its power was conquest without incorporation: +when Sparta conquered another Greek city, she sent a <i>harmost</i> to +govern it like a tyrant; in other words she virtually enslaved the subject +city. The efforts of Athens tended more in the direction of a peaceful +federalism. In the great Delian confederacy which developed into the maritime +empire of Athens, the Ægean cities were treated as allies rather +than subjects. As regards their local affairs they were in no way interfered +with, and could they have been represented in some kind of a federal council +at Athens, the course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered. +As it was, they were all deprived of one essential element of sovereignty,--the +power of controlling their own military forces. Some of them, as Chios +and Mitylene, furnished troops at the demand of Athens; others maintained +no troops, but paid a fixed tribute to Athens in return for her protection. +In either case they felt shorn of part of their dignity, though otherwise +they had nothing to complain of; and during the Peloponnesian war Athens +had to reckon with their tendency to revolt as well as with her Dorian +enemies. Such a confederation was naturally doomed to speedy overthrow. +<p>In the century following the death of Alexander, in the closing age +of Hellenic independence, the federal idea appears in a much more advanced +stage of elaboration, though in a part of Greece which had been held of +little account in the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the Achaian +federation, framed in 274 B.C., and the United States of America, there +are some interesting points of resemblance which have been elaborately +discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his "History of Federal Government." About +the same time the Aetolian League came into prominence in the north. Both +these leagues were instances of true federal government, and were not mere +confederations; that is, the central government acted directly upon all +the citizens and not merely upon the local governments. Each of these leagues +had for its chief executive officer a General elected for one year, with +powers similar to those of an American President. In each the supreme assembly +was a primary assembly at which every citizen from every city of the league +had a right to be present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural consequence +these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic bodies. In Ætolia, +which was a group of mountain cantons similar to Switzerland, the federal +union was more complete than in Achaia, which was a group of cities. In +Achaia cases occurred in which a single city was allowed to deal separately +with foreign powers. Here, as in earlier Greek history, the instinct of +autonomy was too powerful to admit of complete federation. Yet the career +of the Achaian League was not an inglorious one. For nearly a century and +a half it gave the Peloponnesos a larger measure of orderly government +than the country had ever known before, without infringing upon local liberties. +It defied successfully the threats and assaults of Macedonia, and yielded +at last only to the all-conquering might of Rome. +<p>Thus in so far as Greece contributed anything towards the formation +of great and pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts +at +<i>federation</i>. But in so low a state of political development as +that which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in pre-Christian +times, the more barbarous method of <i>conquest with incorporation</i> +was more likely to be successful on a great scale. This was well illustrated +in the history of Rome,--a civic community of the same generic type with +Sparta and Athens, but presenting specific differences of the highest importance. +The beginnings of Rome, unfortunately, are prehistoric. I have often thought +that if some beneficent fairy could grant us the power of somewhere raising +the veil of oblivion which enshrouds the earliest ages of Aryan dominion +in Europe, there is no place from which the historian should be more glad +to see it lifted than from Rome in the centuries which saw the formation +of the city, and which preceded the expulsion of the kings. Even the legends, +which were uncritically accepted from the days of Livy to those of our +grandfathers, are provokingly silent upon the very points as to which we +would fain get at least a hint. This much is plain, however, that in the +embryonic stage of the Roman commonwealth some obscure processes of fusion +or commingling went on. The tribal population of Rome was more heterogeneous +than that of the great cities of Greece, and its earliest municipal religion +seems to have been an assemblage of various tribal religions that had points +of contact with other tribal religions throughout large portions of the +Græco-Italic world. As M. de Coulanges observes,<a NAME="FNanchor13"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_13">[13]</a></sup> +Rome was almost the only city of antiquity which was not kept apart from +other cities by its religion. There was hardly a people in Greece or Italy +which it was restrained from admitting to participation in its municipal +rites. +<p>However this may have been, it is certain that Rome early succeeded +in freeing itself from that insuperable prejudice which elsewhere prevented +the ancient city from admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And +in this victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of Rome's +mighty career. The victory was not indeed completed until after the terrible +Social War of B.C. 90, but it was begun at least four centuries earlier +with the admission of the plebeians. At the consummation of the conquest +of Italy in B.C. 270 Roman burghership already extended, in varying degrees +of completeness, through the greater part of Etruria and Campania, from +the coast to the mountains; while all the rest of Italy was admitted to +privileges for which ancient history had elsewhere furnished no precedent. +Hence the invasion of Hannibal half a century later, even with its stupendous +victories of Thrasymene and Cannae, effected nothing toward detaching the +Italian subjects from their allegiance to Rome; and herein we have a most +instructive contrast to the conduct of the communities subject to Athens +at several critical moments of the Peloponnesian War. With this consolidation +of Italy, thus triumphantly demonstrated, the whole problem of the conquering +career of Rome was solved. All that came afterwards was simply a corollary +from this. The concentration of all the fighting power of the peninsula +into the hands of the ruling city formed a stronger political aggregate +than anything the world had as yet seen. It was not only proof against +the efforts of the greatest military genius of antiquity, but whenever +it was brought into conflict with the looser organizations of Greece, Africa, +and Asia, or with the semi-barbarous tribes of Spain and Gaul, the result +of the struggle was virtually predetermined. The universal dominion of +Rome was inevitable, so soon as the political union of Italy had been accomplished. +Among the Romans themselves there were those who thoroughly understood +this point, as we may see from the interesting speech of the emperor Claudius +in favour of admitting Gauls to the senate. +<p>The benefits conferred upon the world by the, universal dominion of +Rome were of quite inestimable value. First of these benefits, and (as +it were) the material basis of the others, was the prolonged peace that +was enforced throughout large portions of the world where chronic warfare +had hitherto prevailed. The <i>pax romana</i> has perhaps been sometimes +depicted in exaggerated colours; but as compared with all that had preceded, +and with all that followed, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, +it deserved the encomiums it has received. The second benefit was the mingling +and mutual destruction of the primitive tribal and municipal religions, +thus clearing the way for Christianity,--a step which, regarded from a +purely political point of view, was of immense importance for the further +consolidation of society in Europe. The third benefit was the development +of the Roman law into a great body of legal precepts and principles leavened +throughout with ethical principles of universal applicability, and the +gradual substitution of this Roman law for the innumerable local usages +of ancient communities. Thus arose the idea of a common Christendom, of +a brotherhood of peoples associated both by common beliefs regarding the +unseen world and by common principles of action in the daily affairs of +life. The common ethical and traditional basis thus established for the +future development of the great nationalities of Europe is the most fundamental +characteristic distinguishing modern from ancient history. +<p>While, however, it secured these benefits for mankind for all time to +come, the Roman political system in itself was one which could not possibly +endure. That extension of the franchise which made Rome's conquests possible, +was, after all, the extension of a franchise which could only be practically +enjoyed within the walls of the imperial city itself. From first to last +the device of representation was never thought of, and from first to last +the Roman <i>comitia</i> remained a primary assembly. The result was that, +as the burgherhood enlarged, the assembly became a huge mob as little fitted +for the transaction of public business as a town-meeting of all the inhabitants +of New York would be. The functions which in Athens were performed by the +assembly were accordingly in Rome performed largely by the aristocratic +senate; and for the conflicts consequently arising between the senatorial +and the popular parties it was difficult to find any adequate constitutional +check. Outside of Italy, moreover, in the absence of a representative system, +the Roman government was a despotism which, whether more or less oppressive, +could in the nature of things be nothing else than a despotism. But nothing +is more dangerous for a free people than the attempt to govern a dependent +people despotically. The bad government kills out the good government as +surely as slave-labour destroys free-labour, or as a debased currency drives +out a sound currency. The existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with +great armies at their beck and call, brought about such results as might +have been predicted, as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a +valid excuse for armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, +the result is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government +that was practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably +impracticable. +<p>As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial government +at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an orderly and responsible +administration for irregular and irresponsible extortion. For a long time, +too, it was no part of the imperial policy to interfere with local customs +and privileges. But, in the absence of a representative system, the centralizing +tendency inseparable from the position of such a government proved to be +irresistible. And the strength of this centralizing tendency was further +enhanced by the military character of the government which was necessitated +by perpetual frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year +went by, the provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by +their local magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor +only. There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for +the decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated +by the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman +strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local governments +came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription that were +laid upon them.<a NAME="FNanchor14"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a></sup> +And as "the dislocation of commerce and industry caused by the barbarian +inroads, and the increasing demands of the central administration for the +payment of its countless officials and the maintenance of its troops, all +went together," the load at last became greater "than human nature could +endure." By the time of the great invasions of the fifth century, local +political life had gone far towards extinction throughout Roman Europe, +and the tribal organization of the Teutons prevailed in the struggle simply +because it had come to be politically stronger than any organization that +was left to oppose it. +<p>We have now seen how the two great political systems that were founded +upon the Ancient City both ended in failure, though both achieved enormous +and lasting results. And we have seen how largely both these political +failures were due to the absence of the principle of representation from +the public life of Greece and Rome. The chief problem of civilization, +from the political point of view, has always been how to secure concerted +action among men on a great scale without sacrificing local independence. +The ancient history of Europe shows that it is not possible to solve this +problem without the aid of the principle of representation. Greece, until +overcome by external force, sacredly maintained local self-government, +but in securing permanent concert of action it was conspicuously unsuccessful. +Rome secured concert of action on a gigantic scale, and transformed the +thousand unconnected tribes and cities it conquered into an organized European +world, but in doing this it went far towards extinguishing local self-government. +The advent of the Teutons upon the scene seems therefore to have been necessary, +if only to supply the indispensable element without which the dilemma of +civilization could not be surmounted. The turbulence of Europe during the +Teutonic migrations was so great and so long continued, that on a superficial +view one might be excused for regarding the good work of Rome as largely +undone. And in the feudal isolation of effort and apparent incapacity for +combined action which characterized the different parts of Europe after +the downfall of the Carolingian empire, it might well have seemed that +political society had reverted towards a primitive type of structure. In +truth, however, the retrogradation was much slighter than appeared on the +surface. Feudalism itself, with its curious net-work of fealties and obligations +running through the fabric of society in every direction, was by no means +purely disintegrative in its tendencies. The mutual relations of rival +baronies were by no means like those of rival clans or tribes in pre-Roman +days. The central power of Rome, though no longer exerted politically through +curators and prefects, was no less effective in the potent hands of the +clergy and in the traditions of the imperial jurisprudence by which the +legal ideas of mediaeval society were so strongly coloured. So powerful, +indeed, was this twofold influence of Rome, that in the later Middle Ages, +when the modern nationalities had fairly taken shape, it was the capacity +for local self-government--in spite of all the Teutonic reinforcement it +had had--that had suffered much more than the capacity for national consolidation. +Among the great modern nations it was only England--which in its political +development had remained more independent of the Roman law and the Roman +church than even the Teutonic fatherland itself--it was only England that +came out of the mediæval crucible with its Teutonic self-government +substantially intact. On the main-land only two little spots, at the two +extremities of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth +of the Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack +in the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history +was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany +the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to Burgundian +invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic democracy of their +Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both these free peoples, in +their efforts towards national unity, were led to frame federal unions, +and one of these political achievements is, from the stand-point of universal +history, of very great significance. The old League of High Germany, which +earned immortal renown at Morgarten and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking +cantons only. But in the fifteenth century the League won by force of arms +a small bit of Italian territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth +the powerful city of Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne +and rescued the free city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. +Other Burgundian possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; +and after awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms +into the confederation. The result is that modern Switzerland is made up +of what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four +languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the +limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are sharply +divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this, Switzerland +is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. To the German-speaking +Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of Bavaria are foreigners, while +the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva are fellow-countrymen. Deeper +down even than these deep-seated differences of speech and creed lies the +feeling that comes from the common possession of a political freedom that +is greater than that possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the +happy outcome of the first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic +descent. Complete independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate +representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense cohesion +of interests throughout the nation as no centralized government, however +cunningly devised, could ever have secured. +<p>Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government +had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great +bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and peaceful +relations with one another. The empire of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius still +remained the greatest known example of political aggregation; and men who +argued from simple historic precedent without that power of analyzing precedents +which the comparative method has supplied, came not unnaturally to the +conclusions that great political aggregates have an inherent tendency towards +breaking up, and that great political aggregates cannot be maintained except +by a strongly-centralized administration and at the sacrifice of local +self-government. A century ago the very idea of a stable federation of +forty powerful states, covering a territory nearly equal in area to the +whole of Europe, carried on by a republican government elected by universal +suffrage, and guaranteeing to every tiniest village its full meed of local +independence,--the very idea of all this would have been scouted as a thoroughly +impracticable Utopian dream. And such scepticism would have been quite +justifiable, for European history did not seem to afford any precedents +upon which such a forecast of the future could be logically based. Between +the various nations of Europe there has certainly always existed an element +of political community, bequeathed by the Roman empire, manifested during +the Middle Ages in a common relationship to the Church, and in modern times +in a common adherence to certain uncodified rules of international law, +more or less im perfectly defined and enforced. Between England and Spain, +for example, or between France and Austria, there has never been such utter +political severance as existed normally between Greece and Persia, or Rome +and Carthage. But this community of political inheritance in Europe, it +is needless to say, falls very far short of the degree of community implied +in a federal union; and so great is the diversity of language and of creed, +and of local historic development with the deep-seated prejudices attendant +thereupon, that the formation of a European federation could hardly be +looked for except as the result of mighty though quiet and subtle influences +operating for a long time from without. From what direction, and in what +manner, such an irresistible though perfectly pacific pressure is likely +to be exerted in the future, I shall endeavour to show in my next lecture. +At present we have to observe that the experiment of federal union on a +grand scale required as its conditions, <i>first</i>, a vast extent of +unoccupied country which could be settled without much warfare by men of +the same race and speech, and +<i>secondly</i>, on the part of the settlers, +a rich inheritance of political training such as is afforded by long ages +of self-government. The Atlantic coast of North America, easily accessible +to Europe, yet remote enough to be freed from the political complications +of the old world, furnished the first of these conditions: the history +of the English people through fifty generations furnished the second. It +was through English self-government, as I argued in my first lecture, that +England alone, among the great nations of Europe, was able to found durable +and self-supporting colonies. I have now to add that it was only England, +among all the great nations of Europe, that could send forth colonists +capable of dealing successfully with the difficult problem of forming such +a political aggregate as the United States have become. For obviously the +preservation of local self-government is essential to the very idea of +a federal union. Without the Town-Meeting, or its equivalent in some form +or other, the Federal Union would become <i>ipso facto</i> converted into +a centralizing imperial government. Should anything of this sort ever happen--should +American towns ever come to be ruled by prefects appointed at Washington, +and should American States ever become like the administrative departments +of France, or even like the counties of England at the present day--then +the time will have come when men may safely predict the break-up of the +American political system by reason of its overgrown dimensions and the +diversity of interests between its parts. States so unlike one another +as Maine and Louisiana and California cannot be held together by the stiff +bonds of a centralizing government. The durableness of the federal union +lies in its flexibility, and it is this flexibility which makes it the +only kind of government, according to modern ideas, that is permanently +applicable to a whole continent. If ¸the United States were to-day +a consolidated republic like France, recent events in California might +have disturbed the peace of the country. But in the federal union, if California, +as a state sovereign within its own sphere, adopts a grotesque constitution +that aims at infringing on the rights of capitalists, the other states +are not directly affected. They may disapprove, but they have neither the +right nor the desire to interfere. Meanwhile the laws of nature quietly +operate to repair the blunder. Capital flows away from California, and +the business of the state is damaged, until presently the ignorant demagogues +lose favour, the silly constitution becomes a dead-letter, and its formal +repeal begins to be talked of. Not the smallest ripple of excitement disturbs +the profound peace of the country at large. It is in this complete independence +that is preserved by every state, in all matters save those in which the +federal principle itself is concerned, that we find the surest guaranty +of the permanence of the American political system. Obviously no race of +men, save the race to which habits of self-government and the skilful use +of political representation had come to be as second nature, could ever +have succeeded in founding such a system. +<p>Yet even by men of English race, working with out let or hindrance from +any foreign source, and with the better part of a continent at their disposal +for a field to work in, so great a political problem as that of the American +Union has not been solved without much toil and trouble. The great puzzle +of civilization--how to secure permanent concert of action without sacrificing +independence of action--is a puzzle which has taxed the ingenuity of Americans +as well as of older Aryan peoples. In the year 1788 when our Federal Union +was completed, the problem had already occupied the minds of American statesmen +for a century and a half,--that is to say, ever since the English settlement +of Massachusetts. In 1643 a New England confederation was formed between +Massachusetts and Connecticut, together with Plymouth since merged in Massachusetts +and New Haven since merged in Connecticut. The confederation was formed +for defence against the French in Canada, the Dutch on the Hudson river, +and the Indians. But owing simply to the inequality in the sizes of these +colonies--Massachusetts more than outweighing the other three combined--the +practical working of this confederacy was never very successful. In 1754, +just before the outbreak of the great war which drove the French from America, +a general Congress of the colonies was held at Albany, and a comprehensive +scheme of union was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but nothing came of +the project at that time. The commercial rivalry between the colonies, +and their disputes over boundary lines, were then quite like the similar +phenomena with which Europe had so long been familiar. In 1756 Georgia +and South Carolina actually came to blows over the navigation of the Savannah +river. The idea that the thirteen colonies could ever overcome their mutual +jealousies so far as to unite in a single political body, was received +at that time in England with a derision like that which a proposal for +a permanent federation of European States would excite in many minds to-day. +It was confidently predicted that if the common allegiance to the British +crown were once withdrawn, the colonies would forthwith proceed to destroy +themselves with internecine war. In fact, however, it was the shaking off +of allegiance to the British crown, and the common trials and sufferings +of the war of independence, that at last welded the colonies together and +made a federal union possible. As it was, the union was consummated only +by degrees. By the Articles of Confederation, agreed on by Congress in +1777 but not adopted by all the States until 1781, the federal government +acted only upon the several state governments and not directly upon individuals; +there was no federal judiciary for the decision of constitutional questions +arising out of the relations between the states; and the Congress was not +provided with any efficient means of raising a revenue or of enforcing +its legislative decrees. Under such a government the difficulty of insuring +concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent personal qualities +of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the British ministry, and +the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of independence would most +likely have ended in failure. After the independence of the colonies was +acknowledged, the formation of a more perfect union was seen to be the +only method of securing peace and making a nation which should be respected +by foreign powers; and so in 1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution +of the United States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very +few people at the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of +compromises, yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political +wisdom. +<p>The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of securing +approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between states of +unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was at last surmounted +has proved effectual, although the inequalities between the states have +greatly increased. To-day the population of New York is more than eighty +times that of Nevada. In area the state of Rhode Island is smaller than +Montenegro, while the state of Texas is larger than the Austrian empire +with Bavaria and Würtemberg thrown in. Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode +Island and Texas, each send two senators to Washington, while on the other +hand in the lower house each state has a number of representatives proportioned +to its population. The upper house of Congress is therefore a federal while +the lower house is a national body, and the government is brought into +direct contact with the people without endangering the equal rights of +the several states. +<p>The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in +the series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the +states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and jurisdiction, +civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of property, marriage +and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the punishment of malefactors, +each separate state is as completely a sovereign state as France or Great +Britain. In speaking to a British audience a concrete illustration may +not be superfluous. If a criminal is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, +the royal prerogative of pardon resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: +the President of the United States has no more authority in the case than +the Czar of Russia. Nor in civil cases can an appeal lie from the state +courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, save where express provision +has been made in the Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. +The chief attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have +parted are the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition +of tariff dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration +of war, and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and +controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own +militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before +calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however, these +militias come under the control of the central government. Thus every American +citizen lives under two governments, the functions of which are clearly +and intelligibly distinct. +<p>To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the Constitution +created a "system of United States courts extending throughout the states, +empowered to define the boundaries of federal authority, and to enforce +its decisions by federal power." This omnipresent federal judiciary was +undoubtedly the most important creation of the statesmen who framed the +Constitution. The closely-knit relations which it established between the +states contributed powerfully to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity +throughout the whole country. The United States today cling together with +a coherency far greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or +league. Yet the primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly +that of a permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic +sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its neighbours +and relegated its international interests to the care of a central council +in which all the states were alike represented and a central tribunal endowed +with purely judicial functions of interpretation. It was the first attempt +in the history of the world, to apply on a grand scale to the relations +between states the same legal methods of procedure which, as long applied +in all civilized countries to the relations between individuals, have rendered +private warfare obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period +of seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in extent, +tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and power, the federal +union maintained a state of peace more profound than the <i>pax romana.</i> +<p>Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted +by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to +bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism. With +the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then reinstated +with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with their people +accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with their leaders +not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in Congress and in +the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any violent constitutional +changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the strength of the pacific +implications of federalism has been more strikingly demonstrated than if +there had been no war at all. Certainly the world never beheld such a spectacle +before. In my next and concluding lecture I shall return to this point +while summing up the argument and illustrating the part played by the English +race in the general history of civilization. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +III.</h2> + +<h2> +"MANIFEST DESTINY."</h2> +Among the legends of our late Civil War there is a story of a dinner-party +given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were propounded sundry +toasts concerning not so much the past and present as the expected glories +of the great American nation. In the general character of these toasts +geographical considerations were very prominent, and the principal fact +which seemed to occupy the minds of the speakers was the unprecedented +<i>bigness</i> of our country. "Here's to the United States," said the +first speaker, "bounded on the north by British America, on the south by +the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the +Pacific, Ocean." "But," said the second speaker, "this is far too limited +a view of the subject: in assigning our boundaries we must look to the +great and glorious future which is prescribed for us by the Manifest Destiny +of the Anglo-Saxon Race. Here's to the United States,--bounded on the north +by the North Pole, on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising +and on the west by the setting sun." Emphatic applause greeted this aspiring +prophecy. But here arose the third speaker--a very serious gentleman from +the Far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic American, "to +leave the historic past and present, and take our manifest destiny into +the account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow limits assigned by +our fellow-countryman who has just sat down? I give you the United States,--bounded +on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the precession of +the equinoxes, on the east by the primeval chaos, and on the west by the +Day of Judgment!" +<p>I offer this anecdote at the outset by way of self-defence, inasmuch +as I shall by and by have myself to introduce some considerations concerning +the future of our country, and of what some people, without the fear of +Mr. Freeman before their eyes, call the "Anglo-Saxon" race; and if it should +happen to strike you that my calculations are unreasonably large, I hope +you will remember that they are quite modest after all, when compared with +some others. +<p>The "manifest destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and the huge dimensions +of our country are favourite topics with Fourth-of-July orators, but they +are none the less interesting on that account when considered from the +point of view of the historian. To be a citizen of a great and growing +state, or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world, is no doubt +a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is perhaps an equal +justification for such a feeling in being a citizen of a tiny state like +Holland, which, in spite of its small dimensions, has nevertheless achieved +so much,--fighting at one time the battle of freedom for the world, producing +statesmen like William and Barneveldt, generals like Maurice, scholars +like Erasmus and Grotius, and thinkers like Spinoza, and taking the lead +even to-day in the study of Christianity and in the interpretation of the +Bible. But my course in the present lecture is determined by historical +or philosophical rather than by patriotic interest, and I shall endeavour +to characterize and group events as impartially as if my home were at Leyden +in the Old World instead of Cambridge in the New. +<p>First of all, I shall take sides with Mr. Freeman in eschewing altogether +the word "Anglo-Saxon." The term is sufficiently absurd and misleading +as applied in England to the Old-English speech of our forefathers, or +to that portion of English history which is included between the fifth +and the eleventh centuries. But in America it is frequently used, not indeed +by scholars, but by popular writers and speakers, in a still more loose +and slovenly way. In the war of independence our great-great-grandfathers, +not yet having ceased to think of themselves as Englishmen, used to distinguish +themselves as "Continentals," while the king's troops were known as the +"British." The quaint term "Continental" long ago fell into disuse, except +in the slang phrase "not worth a Continental" which referred to the debased +condition of our currency at the close of the Revolutionary War; but "American" +and "British" might still serve the purpose sufficiently whenever it is +necessary to distinguish between the two great English nationalities. The +term "English," however, is so often used with sole reference to people +and things in England as to have become in some measure antithetical to +"American;" and when it is found desirable to include the two in a general +expression, one often hears in America the term "Anglo-Saxon" colloquially +employed for this purpose. A more slovenly use of language can hardly be +imagined. Such a compound term as "Anglo-American" might perhaps be logically +defensible, but that has already become restricted to the English-descended +inhabitants of the United States and Canada alone, in distinction from +Spanish Americans and red Indians. It is never so used as to include Englishmen. +Refraining from all such barbarisms, I prefer to call the English race +by the name which it has always applied to itself, from the time when it +inhabited the little district of Angeln on the Baltic coast of Sleswick +down to the time when it had begun to spread itself over three great continents. +It is a race which has shown a rare capacity for absorbing slightly foreign +elements and moulding them into conformity with a political type that was +first wrought out through centuries of effort on British soil; and this +capacity it has shown perhaps in a heightened degree in the peculiar circumstances +in which it has been placed in America. The American has absorbed considerable +quantities of closely kindred European blood, but he is rapidly assimilating +it all, and in his political habits and aptitudes he remains as thoroughly +English as his forefathers in the days of De Montfort, or Hampden, or Washington. +Premising this, we may go on to consider some aspects of the work which +the English race has done and is doing in the world, and we need not feel +discouraged if, in order to do justice to the subject, we have to take +our start far back in ancient history. We shall begin, it may be said, +somewhere near the primeval chaos, and though we shall indeed stop short +of the day of judgment, we shall hope at all events to reach the millennium. +<p>Our eloquent friends of the Paris dinner-party seem to have been strongly +impressed with the excellence of enormous political aggregates. We, too, +approaching the subject from a different point of view, have been led to +see how desirable it is that self-governing groups of men should be enabled +to work together in permanent harmony and on a great scale. In this kind +of political integration the work of civilization very largely consists. +We have seen how in its most primitive form political society is made up +of small self-governing groups that are perpetually at war with one another. +Now the process of change which we call civilization means quite a number +of things. But there is no doubt that on its political side it means primarily +the gradual substitution of a state of peace for a state of war. This change +is the condition precedent for all the other kinds of improvement that +are connoted by such a term as "civilization." Manifestly the development +of industry is largely dependent upon the cessation or restriction of warfare; +and furthermore, as the industrial phase of civilization slowly supplants +the military phase, men's characters undergo, though very slowly, a corresponding +change. Men become less inclined to destroy life or to inflict pain; or--to +use the popular terminology which happens here to coincide precisely with +that of the Doctrine of Evolution--they become less <i>brutal</i> and more +<i>humane</i>. Obviously then the prime feature of the process called civilization +is the general diminution of warfare. But we have seen that a general diminution +of warfare is rendered possible only by the union of small political groups +into larger groups that are kept together by community of interests, and +that can adjust their mutual relations by legal discussion without coming +to blows. In the preceding lecture we considered this process of political +integration as variously exemplified by communities of Hellenic, of Roman, +and of Teutonic race, and we saw how manifold were the difficulties which +the process had to encounter. We saw how the Teutons--at least in Switzerland, +England, and America--had succeeded best through the retention of local +self-government combined with central representation. We saw how the Romans +failed of ultimate success because by weakening self-government they weakened +that community of interest which is essential to the permanence of a great +political aggregate. We saw how the Greeks, after passing through their +most glorious period in a state of chronic warfare, had begun to achieve +considerable success in forming a pacific federation when their independent +career was suddenly cut short by the Roman conqueror. +<p>This last example introduces us to a fresh consideration, of very great +importance. It is not only that every progressive community has had to +solve, in one way or another, the problem of securing permanent concert +of action without sacrificing local independence of action; but while engaged +in this difficult work the community has had to defend itself against the +attacks of other communities. In the case just cited, of the conquest of +Greece by Rome, little harm was done perhaps. But under different circumstances +immense damage may have been done in this way, and the nearer we go to +the beginnings of civilization the greater the danger. At the dawn of history +we see a few brilliant points of civilization surrounded on every side +by a midnight blackness of barbarism. In order that the pacific community +may be able to go on doing its work, it must be strong enough and warlike +enough to overcome its barbaric neighbours who have no notion whatever +of keeping peace. This is another of the seeming paradoxes of the history +of civilization, that for a very long time the possibility of peace can +be guaranteed only through war. Obviously the permanent peace of the world +can be secured only through the gradual concentration of the preponderant +military strength into the hands of the most pacific communities. With +infinite toil and trouble this point has been slowly gained by mankind, +through the circumstance that the very same political aggregation of small +primitive communities which makes them less disposed to quarrel among themselves +tends also to make them more than a match for the less coherent groups +of their more barbarous neighbours. The same concert of action which tends +towards internal harmony tends also towards external victory, and both +ends are promoted by the co-operation of the same sets of causes. But for +a long time all the political problems of the civilized world were complicated +by the fact that the community had to fight for its life. We seldom stop +to reflect upon the imminent danger from outside attacks, whether from +surrounding barbarism or from neighbouring civilizations of lower type, +amid which the rich and high-toned civilizations of Greece and Rome were +developed. When the king of Persia undertook to reduce Greece to the condition +of a Persian satrapy, there was imminent danger that all the enormous fruition +of Greek thought in the intellectual life of the European world might have +been nipped in the bud. And who can tell how often, in prehistoric times, +some little gleam of civilization, less bright and steady than this one +had become, may have been quenched in slavery or massacre? The greatest +work which the Romans performed in the world was to assume the aggressive +against menacing barbarism, to subdue it, to tame it, and to enlist its +brute force on the side of law and order. This was a murderous work, and +in doing it the Romans became excessively cruel, but it had to be done +by some one before you could expect to have great and peaceful civilizations +like our own. The warfare of Rome is by no means adequately explained by +the theory of a deliberate immoral policy of aggression,--"infernal," I +believe, is the stronger adjective which Dr. Draper uses. The aggressive +wars of Rome were largely dictated by just such considerations as those +which a century ago made it necessary for the English to put down the raids +of the Scotch Highlanders, and which have since made it necessary for Russia +to subdue the Caucasus. It is not easy for a turbulent community to live +next to an orderly one without continually stirring up frontier disturbances +which call for stern repression from the orderly community. Such considerations +go far towards explaining the military history of the Romans, and it is +a history with which, on the whole, we ought to sympathize. In its European +relations that history is the history of the moving of the civilized frontier +northward and eastward against the disastrous encroachments of barbarous +peoples. This great movement has, on the whole, been steadily kept up, +in spite of some apparent fluctuation in the fifth and sixth centuries +of the Christian era, and it is still going on to-day. It was a great gain +for civilization when the Romans overcame the Keltiberians of Spain, and +taught them good manners and the Latin language, and made it for their +interest hereafter to fight against barbarians. The third European peninsula +was thus won over to the side of law and order. Danger now remained on +the north. The Gauls had once sacked the city of Rome; hordes of Teutons +had lately menaced the very heart of civilization, but had been overthrown +in murderous combat by Caius Marius; another great Teutonic movement, led +by Ariovistus, now threatened to precipitate the whole barbaric force of +south-eastern Gaul upon the civilized world; and so it occurred to the +prescient genius of Caesar to be beforehand and conquer Gaul, and enlist +all its giant barbaric force on the side of civilization. This great work +was as thoroughly done as anything that was ever done in human history, +and we ought to be thankful to Caesar for it every day that we live. The +frontier to be defended against barbarism was now moved away up to the +Rhine, and was very much shortened; but above all, the Gauls were made +to feel themselves to be Romans. Their country became one of the chief +strongholds of civilization and of Christianity; and when the frightful +shock of barbarism came--the most formidable blow that has ever been directed +by barbaric brute force against European civilization--it was in Gaul that +it was repelled and that its force was spent. At the beginning of the fifth +century an enormous horde of yellow Mongolians, known as Huns, poured down +into Europe with avowed intent to burn and destroy all the good work which +Rome had wrought in the world; and terrible was the havoc they effected +in the course of fifty years. If Attila had carried his point, it has been +thought that the work of European civilization might have had to be begun +over again. But near Chálons-on-the-Marne, in the year 451, in one +of the most obstinate struggles of which history preserves the record, +the career of the "Scourge of God" was arrested, and mainly by the prowess +of Gauls and of Visigoths whom the genius of Rome had tamed. That was the +last day on which barbarism was able to contend with civilization on equal +terms. It was no doubt a critical day for all future history; and for its +favourable issue we must largely thank the policy adopted by Caesar five +centuries before. By the end of the eighth century the great power of the +Franks had become enlisted in behalf of law and order, and the Roman throne +was occupied by a Frank,--the ablest man who had appeared in the world +since Caesar's death; and one of the worthiest achievements of Charles +the Great was the conquest and conversion of pagan Germany, which threw +the frontier against barbarism eastward as far as the Oder, and made it +so much the easier to defend Europe. In the thirteenth century this frontier +was permanently carried forward to the Vistula by the Teutonic Knights +who, under commission from the emperor Frederick II., overcame the heathen +Prussians and Lithuanians; and now it began to be shown how greatly the +military strength of Europe had increased. In this same century Batu, the +grandson of Jinghis Khan, came down into Europe with a horde of more than +a million Mongols, and tried to repeat the experiment of Attila. Batu penetrated +as far as Silesia, and won a great battle at Liegnitz in 1241, but in spite +of his victory he had to desist from the task of conquering Europe. Since +the fifth century the physical power of the civilized world had grown immensely; +and the impetus of this barbaric invasion was mainly spent upon Russia, +the growth of which it succeeded in retarding for more than two centuries. +Finally since the sixteenth century we have seen the Russians, redeemed +from their Mongolian oppressors, and rich in many of the elements of a +vigorous national life,--we have seen the Russians resume the aggressive +in this conflict of ages, beginning to do for Central Asia in some sort +what the Romans did for Europe. The frontier against barbarism, which Cæsar +left at the Rhine, has been carried eastward to the Volga, and is now advancing +even to the Oxus. The question has sometimes been raised whether it would +be possible for European civilization to be seriously threatened by any +future invasion of barbarism or of some lower type of civilization. By +barbarism certainly not: all the nomad strength of Mongolian Asia would +throw itself in vain against the insuperable barrier constituted by Russia. +But I have heard it quite seriously suggested that if some future Attila +or Jinghis were to wield as a unit the entire military strength of the +four hundred millions of Chinese, possessed with some suddenly-conceived +idea of conquering the world, even as Omar and Abderrahman wielded as a +unit the newly-welded power of the Saracens in the seventh and eighth centuries, +then perhaps a staggering blow might yet be dealt against European civilization. +I will not waste precious time in considering this imaginary case, further +than to remark that if the Chinese are ever going to try anything of this +sort, they cannot afford to wait very long; for within another century, +as we shall presently see, their very numbers will be surpassed by those +of the English race alone. By that time all the elements of military predominance +on the earth, including that of simple numerical superiority, will have +been gathered into the hands not merely of men of European descent in general, +but more specifically into the hands of the offspring of the Teutonic tribes +who conquered Britain in the fifth century. So far as the relations of +civilization with barbarism are concerned to-day, the only serious question +is by what process of modification the barbarous races are to maintain +their foothold upon the earth at all. While once such people threatened +the very continuance of civilization, they now exist only on sufferance. +<p>In this brief survey of the advancing frontier of European civilization, +I have said nothing about the danger that has from time to time been threatened +by the followers of Mohammed,--of the overthrow of the Saracens in Gaul +by the grandfather of Charles the Great, or their overthrow at Constantinople +by the image-breaking Leo, of the great mediæval Crusades, or of +the mischievous but futile career of the Turks. For if I were to attempt +to draw this outline with anything like completeness, I should have no +room left for the conclusion of my argument. Considering my position thus +far as sufficiently illustrated, let us go on to contemplate for a moment +some of the effects of all this secular turmoil upon the political development +of the progressive nations of Europe. I think we may safely lay it down, +as a large and general rule, that all this prodigious warfare required +to free the civilized world from peril of barbarian attack served greatly +to increase the difficulty of solving the great initial problem of civilization. +In the first place, the turbulence thus arising was a serious obstacle +to the formation of closely-coherent political aggregates; as we see exemplified +in the terrible convulsions of the fifth and sixth centuries, and again +in the ascendency acquired by the isolating features of feudalism between +the time of Charles the Great and the time of Louis VI. of France. In the +second place, this perpetual turbulence was a serious obstacle to the preservation +of popular liberties. It is a very difficult thing for a free people to +maintain its free, constitution if it has to keep perpetually fighting +for its life. The "one-man-power." less fit for, carrying on the peaceful +pursuits of life, is sure to be brought into the foreground in a state +of endless warfare. It is a still more difficult thing for a free people +to maintain its free constitution when it undertakes to govern a dependent +people despotically, as has been wont to happen when a portion of the barbaric +world has been overcome and annexed to the civilized world. Under the weight, +of these two difficulties combined, the free institutions of the ancient +Romans succumbed, and their government gradually passed into the hands +of a kind of close corporation more despotic than anything else of the +sort that Europe has ever seen. This despotic character--this tendency, +if you will pardon the phrase, towards the <i>Asiaticization</i> of European +life--was continued by inheritance in the Roman Church, the influence of +which was beneficent so long as it constituted a wholesome check to the +isolating tendencies of feudalism, but began to become noxious the moment +these tendencies yielded to the centralizing monarchical tendency in nearly +all parts of Europe. The asiaticizing tendency of Roman political life +had become so powerful by the fourth century, and has since been so powerfully +propagated through the Church, that we ought to be glad that the Teutons +came into the empire as masters rather than as subjects. As the Germanic +tribes got possession of the government in one part of Europe after another, +they brought with them free institutions again. The political ideas of +the Goths in Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, and of the Franks and Burgundians +in Gaul, were as distinctly free as those of the Angles in Britain. But +as the outcome of the long and uninterrupted turmoil of the Middle Ages, +society throughout the continent of Europe remained predominantly military +in type, and this fact greatly increased the tendency towards despotism +which was bequeathed by Rome. After the close of the thirteenth century +the whole power of the Church was finally thrown into the scale against +the liberties of the people; and as the result of all these forces combined, +we find that at the time when America was discovered government was hardening +into despotism in all the great countries of Europe except England. Even +in England the tendency towards despotism had begun to become quite conspicuous +after the wholesale slaughter of the great barons and the confiscation +of their estates which took place in the Wars of the Roses. The constitutional +history of England during the Tudor and Stuart periods is mainly the history +of the persistent effort of the English sovereign to free himself from +constitutional checks, as his brother sovereigns on the continent were +doing. But how different the result! How enormous the political difference +between William III. and Louis XIV., compared with the difference between +Henry VIII. and Francis I.! The close of the seventeenth century, which +marks the culmination of the asiaticizing tendency in Europe, saw despotism +both political and religious firmly established in France and Spain and +Italy, and in half of Germany; while the rest of Germany seemed to have +exhausted itself in the attempt to throw off the incubus. But in England +this same epoch saw freedom both political and religious established on +so firm a foundation as never again to be shaken, never again with impunity +to be threatened, so long as the language of Locke and Milton and Sydney +shall remain a living speech on the lips of men. Now this wonderful difference +between the career of popular liberty in England and on the Continent was +due no doubt to a complicated variety of causes, one or two of which I +have already sought to point out. In my first lecture I alluded to the +curious combination of circumstances which prevented anything like a severance +of interests between the upper and the lower ranks of society; and something +was also said about the feebleness of the grasp of imperial Rome upon Britain +compared with its grasp upon the continent of Europe. But what I wish now +to point out--since we are looking at the military aspect of the subject--is +the enormous advantage of what we may call the <i>strategic position</i> +of England in the long mediæval struggle between civilization and +barbarism. In Professor Stubbs's admirable collection of charters and documents +illustrative of English history, we read that "on the 6th of July [1264] +the whole force of the country was summoned to London for the 3d of August, +to resist the army which was coming from France under the queen and her +son Edmund. <i>The invading fleet was prevented by the weather from sailing +until too late in the season</i>.... The papal legate, Guy Foulquois, who +soon after became Clement IV., threatened the barons with excommunication, +but the bull containing the sentence was taken by the men of Dover as soon +as it arrived, and was thrown into the sea." <a NAME="FNanchor15"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_15">[15]</a></sup> +As I read this, I think of the sturdy men of Connecticut, beating the drum +to prevent the reading of the royal order of James II. depriving the colony +of the control of its own militia, and feel with pride that the indomitable +spirit of English liberty is alike indomitable in every land where men +of English race have set their feet as masters. But as the success of Americans +in withstanding the unconstitutional pretensions of the crown was greatly +favoured by the barrier of the ocean, so the success of Englishmen in defying +the enemies of their freedom has no doubt been greatly favoured by the +barrier of the British channel. The war between Henry III. and the barons +was an event in English history no less critical than the war between Charles +I. and the parliament four centuries later; and British and Americans alike +have every reason to be thankful that a great French army was not able +to get across the channel in August, 1264. Nor was this the only time when +the insular position of England did goodly service in maintaining its liberties +and its internal peace. We cannot forget how Lord Howard of Effingham, +aided also by the weather, defeated the armada that boasted itself "invincible," +sent to strangle freedom in its chosen home by the most execrable and ruthless +tyrant that Europe has ever seen, a tyrant whose victory would have meant +not simply the usurpation of the English crown but the establishment of +the Spanish Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what +longing eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces +of France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one +European +land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in these latter +days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the prowess of the +sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible for the thoughtful +student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square, and gaze on the image +of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on the summit of his lofty +column and guarded by the royal lions, looking down towards the government-house +of the land that he freed from the dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards +that ancient church wherein the most sacred memories of English talent +and English toil are clustered together,--it is impossible, I say, to look +at this, and not admire both the artistic instinct that devised so happy +a symbolism, and the rare good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing +a territorial position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic +powers. But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external +attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This ease +in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the internal +polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English government +to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external defence a navy +was all-sufficient; and there is this practical difference between a permanent +army and a permanent navy. Both are originally designed for purposes of +external defence; but the one can readily be used for purposes of internal +oppression, and the other cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up +an empire at auction and knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius +Julianus. When, therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from +external attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political +development to go on internally without those manifold military hinderances +that have ordinarily been so obstructive in the history of civilization. +Hence we not only see why, after the Norman Conquest had operated to increase +its unity and its strength, England enjoyed a far greater amount of security +and was far more peaceful than any other country in Europe; but we also +see why society never assumed the military type in England which it assumed +upon the continent; we see how it was that the bonds of feudalism were +far looser here than elsewhere, and therefore how it happened that nowhere +else was the condition of the common people so good politically. We now +begin to see, moreover, how thoroughly Professor Stubbs and Mr. Freeman +are justified in insisting upon the fact that the political institutions +of the Germans of Tacitus have had a more normal and uninterrupted development +in England than anywhere else. Nowhere, indeed, in the whole history of +the human race, can we point to such a well-rounded and unbroken continuity +of political life as we find in the thousand years of English history that +have elapsed since the victory of William the Norman at Senlac. In England +the free government of the primitive Aryans has been to this day uninterruptedly +maintained, though everywhere lost or seriously impaired on the continent +of Europe, except in remote Scandinavia and impregnable Switzerland. But +obviously, if in the conflict of ages between civilization and barbarism +England had occupied such an inferior strategic position as that occupied +by Hungary or Poland or Spain, if her territory had been liable once or +twice in a century to be overrun by fanatical Saracens or beastly Mongols, +no such remarkable and quite exceptional result could have been achieved. +Having duly fathomed the significance of this strategic position of the +English race while confined within the limits of the British islands, we +are now prepared to consider the significance of the stupendous expansion +of the English race which first became possible through the discovery and +settlement of North America. I said, at the close of my first lecture, +that the victory of Wolfe at Quebec marks the greatest turning-point as +yet discernible in all modern history. At the first blush such an unqualified +statement may have sounded as if an American student of history were inclined +to attach an undue value to events that have happened upon his own soil. +After the survey of universal history which we have now taken, however, +I am fully prepared to show that the conquest of the North American continent +by men of English race was unquestionably the most prodigious event in +the political annals of man kind. Let us consider, for a moment, the cardinal +facts which this English conquest and settlement of North America involved. +<p>Chronologically the discovery of America coincides precisely with the +close of the Middle Ages, and with the opening of the drama of what is +called <i>modern</i> history. The coincidence is in many ways significant. +The close of the Middle Ages--as we have seen--was characterized by the +increasing power of the crown in all the great countries of Europe, and +by strong symptoms of popular restlessness in view of this increasing power. +It was characterized also by the great Protestant outbreak against the +despotic pretensions of the Church, which once, in its antagonism to the +rival temporal power, had befriended the liberties of the people, but now +(especially since the death of Boniface VIII.) sought to enthrall them +with a tyranny far worse than that of irresponsible king or emperor. As +we have seen Aryan civilization in Europe struggling for many centuries +to prove itself superior to the assaults of outer barbarism, so here we +find a decisive struggle beginning between the antagonist tendencies which +had grown up in the midst of this civilization. Having at length won the +privilege of living without risk of slaughter and pillage at the hands +of Saracens or Mongols, the question now arose whether the people of Europe +should go on and apply their intelligence freely to the problem of making +life as rich and fruitful as possible in varied material and spiritual +achievement, or should fall forever into the barren and monotonous way +of living and thinking which has always distinguished the half-civilized +populations of Asia. This--and nothing less than this, I think--was the +practical political question really at stake in the sixteenth century between +Protestantism and Catholicism. Holland and England entered the lists in +behalf of the one solution of this question, while Spain and the Pope defended +the other, and the issue was fought out on European soil, as we have seen, +with varying success. But the discovery of America now came to open up +an enormous region in which whatever seed of civilization should be planted +was sure to grow to such enormous dimensions as by and by to exert a controlling +influence upon all such controversies. It was for Spain, France, and England +to contend for the possession of this vast region, and to prove by the +result of the struggle which kind of civilization was endowed with the +higher and sturdier political life. The race which here should gain the +victory was clearly destined hereafter to take the lead in the world, though +the rival powers could not in those days fully appreciate this fact. They +who founded colonies in America as trading-stations or military outposts +probably did not foresee that these colonies must by and by become imperial +states far greater in physical mass than the states which planted them. +It is not likely that they were philosophers enough to foresee that this +prodigious physical development would mean that the political ideas of +the parent state should acquire a hundred-fold power and seminal influence +in the future work of the world. It was not until the American Resolution +that this began to be dimly realized by a few prescient thinkers. It is +by no means so fully realized even now that a clear and thorough-going +statement of it has not somewhat an air of novelty. When the highly-civilized +community, representing the ripest political ideas of England, was planted +in America, removed from the manifold and complicated checks we have just +been studying in the history of the Old World, the growth was portentously +rapid and steady. There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only +a Philip or a Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty +annoyance as compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. +There was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles +of self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought +of calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior +type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously troublesome, +it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country, under the guidance +of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers, undertook to act upon +the antiquated theory that the new communities were merely groups of trading-stations, +the political bond of connection was severed; yet the war which ensued +was not like the war which had but just now been so gloriously ended by +the victory of Wolfe. It was not a struggle between two different peoples, +like the French of the Old Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic +theories of how political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' +War of the thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, +it was a struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of +principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all. And so the issue +only made it apparent to an astonished world that instead of <i>one</i> +there were now <i>two Englands</i>, alike prepared to work with might and +main toward the political regeneration of mankind. +<p>Let us consider now to what conclusions the rapidity and unabated steadiness +of the increase of the English race in America must lead us as we go on +to forecast the future. Carlyle somewhere speaks slightingly of the fact +that the Americans double their numbers every twenty years, as if to have +forty million dollar-hunters in the world were any better than to have +twenty million dollar-hunters! The implication that Americans are nothing +but dollar-hunters, and are thereby distinguishable from the rest of mankind, +would not perhaps bear too elaborate scrutiny. But during the present lecture +we have been considering the gradual transfer of the preponderance of physical +strength from the hands of the war-loving portion of the human race into +the hands of the peace-loving portion,--into the hands of the dollar-hunters, +if you please, but out of the hands of the scalp-hunters. Obviously to +double the numbers of a pre-eminently industrious, peaceful, orderly, and +free-thinking community, is somewhat to increase the weight in the world +of the tendencies that go towards making communities free and orderly and +peaceful and industrious. So that, from this point of view, the fact we +are speaking of is well worth considering, even for its physical dimensions. +I do not know whether the United States could support a population everywhere +as dense as that of Belgium; so I will suppose that, with ordinary improvement +in cultivation and in the industrial arts, we might support a population +half as dense as that of Belgium,--and this is no doubt an extremely moderate +supposition. Now a very simple operation in arithmetic will show that this +means a population of fifteen hundred millions, or more than the population +of the whole world at the present date. Another very simple operation in +arithmetic will show that if we were to go on doubling our numbers, even +once in every twenty-five years, we should reach that stupendous figure +at about the close of the twentieth century,--that is, in the days of our +great-greatgrandchildren. I do not predict any such result, for there are +discernible economic reasons for believing that there will be a diminution +in the rate of increase. The rate must nevertheless continue to be very +great, in the absence of such causes as formerly retarded the growth of +population in Europe. Our modern wars are hideous enough, no doubt, but +they are short. They are settled with a few heavy blows, and the loss of +life and property occasioned by them is but trifling when compared with +the awful ruin and desolation wrought by the perpetual and protracted contests +of antiquity and of the Middle Ages. Chronic warfare, both private and +public, periodic famines, and sweeping pestilences like the Black Death,--these +were the things which formerly shortened human life and kept down population. +In the absence of such causes, and with the abundant capacity of our country +for feeding its people, I think it an extremely moderate statement if we +say that by the end of the next century the English race in the United +States will number at least six or seven hundred millions. +<p>It used to be said that so huge a people as this could not be kept together +as a single national aggregate,--or, if kept together at all, could only +be so by means of a powerful centralized government, like that of ancient +Rome under the emperors. I think we are now prepared to see that this is +a great mistake. If the Roman Empire could have possessed that political +vitality in all its parts which is secured to the United States by the +principles of equal representation and of limited state sovereignty, it +might well have defied all the shocks which tribally-organized barbarism +could ever have directed against it. As it was, its strong centralized +government did <i>not</i> save it from political disintegration. One of +its weakest political features was precisely this,--that its "strong centralized +government" was a kind of close corporation, governing a score of provinces +in its own interest rather than in the interest of the provincials. In +contrast with such a system as that of the Roman Empire, the skilfully +elaborated American system of federalism appears as one of the most important +contributions that the English race has made to the general work of civilization. +The working out of this feature in our national constitution, by Hamilton +and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of constructive +statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these statesmen originated +the principle, but they gave form and expression to the principle which +was latent in the circumstances under which the group of American colonies +had grown up, and which suggested itself so forcibly that the clear vision +of these thinkers did not fail to seize upon it as the fundamental principle +upon which alone could the affairs of a great people, spreading over a +vast continent, be kept in a condition approaching to something like permanent +peace. Stated broadly, so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal +proposition, the principle of federalism is just this:--that the people +of a state shall have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, +which directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage +with more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body +could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern +between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached, not +by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic legislation +of a central government which represents both states and people, and whose +decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by the combined physical +power of all the states. This principle, in various practical applications, +is so familiar to Americans to-day that we seldom pause to admire it, any +more than we stop to admire the air which we breathe or the sun which gives +us light and life. Yet I believe that if no other political result than +this could to-day be pointed out as coming from the colonization of America +by Englishmen, we should still be justified in regarding that event as +one of the most important in the history of mankind. For obviously the +principle of federalism, as thus broadly stated, contains within itself +the seeds of permanent peace between nations; and to this glorious end +I believe it will come in the fulness of time. +<p>And now we may begin to see distinctly what it was that the American +government fought for in the late civil war,--a point which at the time +was by no means clearly apprehended outside the United States. We used +to hear it often said, while that war was going on, that we were fighting +not so much for the emancipation of the negro as for the maintenance of +our federal union; and I well remember that to many who were burning to +see our country purged of the folly and iniquity of negro slavery this +used to seem like taking a low and unrighteous view of the case. From the +stand-point of universal history it was nevertheless the correct and proper +view. The emancipation of the negro, as an incidental result of the struggle, +was a priceless gain which was greeted warmly by all right-minded people. +But deeper down than this question, far more subtly interwoven with the +innermost fibres of our national well-being, far heavier laden too with +weighty consequences for the future weal of all mankind, was the question +whether this great pacific principle of union joined with independence +should be overthrown by the first deep-seated social difficulty it had +to encounter, or should stand as an example of priceless value to other +ages and to other lands. The solution was well worth the effort it cost. +There have been many useless wars, but this was not one of them, for more +than most wars that have been, it was fought in the direct interest of +peace, and the victory so dearly purchased and so humanely used was an +earnest of future peace and happiness for the world. +<p>The object, therefore, for which the American government fought, was +the perpetual maintenance of that peculiar state of things which the federal +union had created,--a state of things in which, throughout the whole vast +territory over which the Union holds sway, questions between states, like +questions between individuals, must be settled by legal argument and judicial +decisions and not by wager of battle. Far better to demonstrate this point +once for all, at whatever cost, than to be burdened hereafter, like the +states of Europe, with frontier fortresses and standing armies and all +the barbaric apparatus of mutual suspicion! For so great an end did this +most pacific people engage in an obstinate war, and never did any war so +thoroughly illustrate how military power may be wielded, when necessary, +by a people that has passed entirely from the military into the industrial +stage of civilization. The events falsified all the predictions that were +drawn from the contemplation of societies less advanced politically. It +was thought that so peaceful a people could not raise a great army on demand; +yet within a twelvemonth the government had raised five hundred thousand +men by voluntary enlistment. It was thought that a territory involving +military operations at points as far apart as Paris and Moscow could never +be thoroughly conquered; yet in April 1865 the federal armies might have +inarched from end to end of the Gulf States without meeting any force to +oppose them. It was thought that the maintenance of a great army would +beget a military temper in the Americans and lead to manifestations of +Bonapartism,--domestic usurpation and foreign aggression; yet the moment +the work was done the great army vanished, and a force of twenty-five thousand +men was found sufficient for the military needs of the whole country. It +was thought that eleven states which had struggled so hard to escape from +the federal tie could not be re-admitted to voluntary co-operation in the +general government, but must henceforth be held as conquered territory,--a +most dangerous experiment for any free people to try. Yet within a dozen +years we find the old federal relations resumed in all their completeness, +and the disunion party powerless and discredited in the very states where +once it had wrought such mischief. Nay more, we even see a curiously disputed +presidential election, in which the votes of the southern states were given +almost with unanimity to one of the candidates, decided quietly by a court +of arbitration; and we see a universal acquiescence in the decision, even +in spite of a general belief that an extraordinary combination of legal +subtleties resulted in adjudging the presidency to the candidate who was +not really elected. +<p>Such has been the result of the first great attempt to break up the +federal union in America. It is not probable that another attempt can ever +be made with anything like an equal chance of success. Here were eleven +states, geographically contiguous, governed by groups of men who for half +a century had pursued a well-defined policy in common, united among themselves +and marked off from most of the other states by a difference far more deeply +rooted in the groundwork of society than any mere economic difference,--the +difference between slave-labour and free-labour. These eleven states, moreover, +held such an economic relationship with England that they counted upon +compelling the naval power of England to be used in their behalf. And finally +it had not yet been demonstrated that the maintenance of the federal union +was something for which the great mass of the people would cheerfully fight. +Never could the experiment of secession be tried, apparently, under fairer +auspices; yet how tremendous the defeat! It was a defeat that wrought conviction,--the +conviction that no matter how grave the political questions that may arise +hereafter, they must be settled in accordance with the legal methods the +Constitution has provided, and that no state can be allowed to break the +peace. It is the thoroughness of this conviction that has so greatly facilitated +the reinstatement of the revolted states in their old federal relations; +and the good sense and good faith with which the southern people, in spite +of the chagrin of defeat, have accepted the situation and acted upon it, +is something unprecedented in history, and calls for the warmest sympathy +and admiration on the part of their brethren of the north. The federal +principle in America has passed through this fearful ordeal and come out +stronger than ever; and we trust it will not again be put to so severe +a test. But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any +further increase of territory or of population should overtask the resources +of our government. +<p>In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore doubtless +have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power and in dimensions +any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now consider for a moment +the probable future career of the English race in other parts of the world. +The colonization of North America by Englishmen had its direct effects +upon the eastern as well as upon the western side of the Atlantic. The +immense growth of the commercial and naval strength of England between +the time of Cromwell and the time of the elder Pitt was intimately connected +with the colonization of North America and the establishment of plantations +in the West Indies. These circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material +development of England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign +trade, increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her +in the eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this +maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize +upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta, the +isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after island +in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the pathways of +maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous countries +which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural heritage. Any +well-filled album of postage-stamps is an eloquent commentary on this maritime +supremacy of England. It is enough to turn one's head to look over her +colonial blue-books. The natural outcome of all this overflowing vitality +it is not difficult to foresee. No one can carefully watch what is going +on in Africa to-day without recognizing it as the same sort of thing which +was going on in North America in the seventeenth century; and it cannot +fail to bring forth similar results in course of time. Here is a vast country, +rich in beautiful scenery and in resources of timber and minerals, with +a salubrious climate and fertile soil, with great navigable rivers and +inland lakes, which will not much longer be left in control of tawny lions +and long-eared elephants and negro fetich-worshippers. Already five flourishing +English states have been established in the south, besides the settlements +on the Gold Coast and those at Aden commanding the Red Sea. English explorers +work their way, with infinite hardship, through its untravelled wilds, +and track the courses of the Congo and the Nile as their forefathers tracked +the Potomac and the Hudson. The work of La Salle and Smith is finding its +counterpart in the labours of Baker and Livingstone. Who can doubt that +within two or three centuries the African continent will be occupied by +a mighty nation of English descent, and covered with populous cities and +flourishing farms, with railroads and telegraphs and other devices of civilization +as yet undreamed of? +<p>If we look next to Australia, we find a country of more than two-thirds +the area of the United States, with a temperate climate and immense resources, +agricultural and mineral,--a country sparsely peopled by a race of irredeemable +savages hardly above the level of brutes. Here England within the present +century has planted six greatly thriving states, concerning which I have +not time to say much, but one fact will serve as a specimen. When in America +we wish to illustrate in one word the wonderful growth of our so-called +north-western states, we refer to Chicago,--a city of half-a-million inhabitants +standing on a spot which fifty years ago was an uninhabited marsh. In Australia +the city of Melbourne was founded in 1837, the year when the present queen +of England began to reign, and the state of which it is the capital was +hence called Victoria. This city, now<a NAME="FNanchor16"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_16">[16]</a></sup> +just forty-three years old, has a population half as great as that of Chicago, +has a public library of 200,000 volumes, and has a university with at least +one professor of world-wide renown. When we see, by the way, within a period +of five years and at such remote points upon the earth's surface, such +erudite and ponderous works in the English language issuing from the press +as those of Professor Hearn of Melbourne, of Bishop Colenso of Natal, and +of Mr. Hubert Bancroft of San Francisco,--even such a little commonplace +fact as this is fraught with wonderful significance when we think of all +that it implies. Then there is New Zealand, with its climate of perpetual +spring, where the English race is now multiplying faster than anywhere +else in the world unless it be in Texas and Minnesota. And there are in +the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we shall very soon +see the same things going on. +<p>It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is +enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the English +race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on until every +land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of an old civilization +shall become English in its language, in its political habits and traditions, +and to a predominant extent in the blood of its people. The day is at hand +when, four-fifths of the human race will trace its pedigree to English +forefathers, as four-fifths of the white people in the United States trace +their pedigree to-day. The race thus spread over both hemispheres, and +from the rising to the setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty +of the sea and that commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when +England first stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia +and Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will +not be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, +but perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and +writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be transacted +by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that whatever language +any man may have learned in his infancy he will find it necessary sooner +or later to learn to express his thoughts in English. And in this way it +is by no means improbable that, as Grimm the German and Candolle the Frenchman +long since foretold, the language of Shakespeare may ultimately become +the language of mankind. +<p>In view of these considerations as to the stupendous future of the English +race, does it not seem very probable that in due course of time Europe--which +has learned some valuable lessons from America already--will find it worth +while to adopt the lesson of federalism? Probably the European states, +in order to preserve their relative weight in the general polity of the +world, will find it necessary to do so. In that most critical period of +American history between the winning of independence and the framing of +the Constitution, one of the strongest of the motives which led the confederated +states to sacrifice part of their sovereignty by entering into a federal +union was their keen sense of their weakness when taken severally. In physical +strength such a state as Massachusetts at that time amounted to little +more than Hamburg or Bremen; but the thirteen states taken together made +a nation of respectable power. Even the wonderful progress we have made +in a century has not essentially changed this relation of things. Our greatest +state, New York, taken singly, is about the equivalent of Belgium; our +weakest state, Nevada, would scarcely be a match for tha county of Dorset; +yet the United States, taken together, are probably at this moment the +strongest nation in the world. +<p>Now a century hence, with a population of six hundred millions in the +United States, and a hundred and fifty millions in Australia and New Zealand, +to say nothing of the increase of power in other parts of the English-speaking +world, the relative weights will be very different from what they were +in 1788. The population of Europe will not increase in anything like the +same proportion, and a very considerable part of the increase will be transferred +by emigration to the English-speaking world outside of Europe. By the end +of the twentieth century such nations as France and Germany can only claim +such a relative position in the political world as Holland and Switzerland +now occupy. Their greatness in thought and scholarship, in industrial and +aesthetic art, will doubtless continue unabated. But their political weights +will severally have come to be insignificant; and as we now look back, +with historic curiosity, to the days when Holland was navally and commercially +the rival of England, so people will then need to be reminded that there +was actually once a time when little France was the most powerful nation +on the earth. It will then become as desirable for the states of Europe +to enter into a federal union as it was for the states of North America +a century ago. +<p>It is only by thus adopting the lesson of federalism that Europe can +do away with the chances of useless warfare which remain so long as its +different states own no allegiance to any common authority. War, as we +have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite occupation. +As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism, it remains a +too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and Christian nations +it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly with wars such as that +which Russia has lately concluded, for setting free a kindred race endowed +with capacity for progress, and for humbling the worthless barbarian who +during four centuries has wrought such incalculable damage to the European +world. But a sanguinary struggle for the Rhine frontier, between two civilized +Christian nations who have each enough work to do in ithe world without +engaging in such a strife as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned +by the general opinion of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled +by discussion in some sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe +would keep pace with America in the advance towards universal law and order. +All will admit that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let +us see if it is really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. +No doubt the lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would +have thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred +years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great +stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which +to shoot at people going by. Yet to-day a country gentleman in some parts +of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his front-door. We +have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we have at least made +private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public opinion against it to such +an extent that the police-court usually makes short shrift for the misguided +man who tries to wreak vengeance on his enemy. Is it too much to hope that +by and by we may similarly put public warfare under the ban? I think not. +Already in America, as wre have seen, it has become customary to deal with +questions between states just as we would deal with questions between individuals. +This we have seen to be the real purport of American federalism. To have +established such a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very +good beginning towards establishing it over the world. To establish such +a system in Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal +with an immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and +ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon +Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before long +overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition between +the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous within the +last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas are already +formidable competitors with England, France, and Germany; but this is but +the beginning. It is but the first spray from the tremendous wave of economic +competition that is gathering in the Mississippi valley. By and by, when +our shameful tariff--falsely called "protective"--shall have been done +away with, and our manufacturers shall produce superior articles at less +cost of raw material, we shall begin to compete with European countries +in all the markets of the world; and the competition in manufactures will +become as keen as it is now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will +not be long in coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, +and in the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born +of crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. +When this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse +of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure exerted +upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great indeed. It +will not be long before this economic pressure will make it simply impossible +for the states of Europe to keep up such military armaments as they are +now maintaining. The disparity between the United States, with a standing +army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn from industrial pursuits, +and the states of Europe, with their standing armies amounting to four +millions of men, is something that cannot possibly be kept up. The economic +competition will become so keen that European armies will have to be disbanded, +the swords will have to be turned into ploughshares, and <i>thus</i> the +victory of the industrial over the military type of civilization will at +last become complete. But to disband the great armies of Europe will necessarily +involve the forcing of the great states of Europe into some sort of federal +relation, in which Congresses--already held on rare occasions--will become +more frequent, in which the principles of international law will acquire +a more definite sanction, and in which the combined physical power of all +the states will constitute (as it now does in America) a permanent threat +against any state that dares to wish for selfish reasons to break the peace. +In some such way as this, I believe, the industrial development of the +English race outside of Europe will by and by enforce federalism upon Europe. +As regards the serious difficulties that grow out of prejudices attendant +upon differences in language, race, and creed, a most valuable lesson is +furnished us by the history of Switzerland. I am inclined to think that +the greatest contribution which Switzerland has made to the general progress +of civilization has been to show us how such obstacles can be surmounted, +even on a small scale. To surmount them on a great scale will soon become +the political problem of Europe; and it is America which has set the example +and indicated the method. +<p>Thus we may foresee in general outline how, through the gradual concentration +of the preponderance of physical power into the hands of the most pacific +communities, the wretched business of warfare must finally become obsolete +all over the globe. The element of distance is now fast becoming eliminated +from political problems, and the history of human progress politically +will continue in the future to be what it has been in the past,--the history +of the successive union of groups of men into larger and more complex aggregates. +As this process goes on, it may after many more ages of political experience +become apparent that there is really no reason, in the nature of things, +why the whole of mankind should not constitute politically one huge federation,--each +little group managing its local affairs in entire independence, but relegating +all questions of international interest to the decision of one central +tribunal supported by the public opinion of the entire human race. I believe +that the time will come when such a state of things will exist upon the +earth, when it will be possible (with our friends of the Paris dinner-party) +to speak of the UNITED STATES as stretching from pole to pole,--or, with +Tennyson, to celebrate the "parliament of man and the federation of the +world." Indeed, only when such a state of things has begun to be realized, +can Civilization, as sharply demarcated from Barbarism, be said to have +fairly begun. Only then can the world be said to have become truly Christian. +Many ages of toil and doubt and perplexity will no doubt pass by before +such a desideratum is reached. Meanwhile it is pleasant to feel that the +dispassionate contemplation of great masses of historical facts goes far +towards confirming our faith in this ultimate triumph of good over evil. +Our survey began with pictures of horrid slaughter and desolation: it ends +with the picture of a world covered with cheerful homesteads, blessed with +a sabbath of perpetual peace. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<p><a NAME="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> Freeman, "Norman +Conquest," v. 482. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a> Freeman, "Comparative +Politics," 264. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a> This is disputed, +however. See Ross, "Early History of Landholding among the Germans." +<br><a NAME="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 84. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a> Kemble, "Saxons +in England," i. 59. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a> Maine, "Village +Communities," Lond., 1871, p. 132. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 85. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a> Freeman, "Comparative +Politics," 118. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a> Geffroy, "Rome +et les Barbares," 209. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10">[10]</a> Maine, "Village +Communities," 118. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11">[11]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 625. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12">[12]</a> Stubbs, "Select +Charters," 401. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13">[13]</a> "La Cité +Antique," 441. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14">[14]</a> Arnold, "Roman +Provincial Administration," 237. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor15">[15]</a> Stubbs, "Select +Charters," 401. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor16">[16]</a> In 1880. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +<b>INDEX.</b></h2> +Abderrahman +<br>Achaian league +<br>Aden +<br>Adoption +<br>Aetolian league +<br>Africa, English colonies in +<br>Albany Congress +<br>Amphiktyonic Council +<br>Angeln +<br>Angles +<br>Anglo-American +<br>Anglo-Saxon +<br>Appomattox +<br>Arable mark +<br>Ariovistus +<br>Armada, the Invincible +<br>Armies of Europe will be disbanded +<br>Arminius +<br>Arnold, M. +<br>Asiaticization +<br>Athens, grandeur of incorporated demes of Attika, +<br> old tribal divisions modified, +<br> school of political training +<br> maritime empire of +<br>Attila Australia Austria +<p>Baker, Sir S. +<br>Bancroft, Hubert +<br>Barons, war of the +<br>Basileus +<br>Batu Belgium +<br>Benefices +<br>Bern +<br>Bonaparte, N. +<br>Bonapartism +<br>Boroughs, special privileges of +<br>Boston, growth of its Common +<br>Boundaries of United States +<br>Burgundians By-laws +<p>Caesar, J. +<br>California, social experiments in +<br>Canada under Old Régime +<br>Candolle, A. de, +<br>Canton, Carlyle on dollar-hunters, +<br>Centralized government, weakness of, +<br>Century, +<br>Ceylon, +<br>Châlons, battle of, +<br>Charles I., +<br>Charles the Bold, +<br>Charles Martel, +<br>Charles the Great, +<br>Chatham, Lord, +<br>Chester, +<br>Chicago, +<br>Chinese, +<br>Christianity, +<br>Church, mediaeval, +<br>Cities in England and America, origin of, +<br>City, the ancient, +<br>Civilization, its primary phase, +<br> long threatened by neighbouring barbarism, +<br>Clan-system of political union, +<br>Claudius, emperor, +<br>Clement IV., +<br>Cleveland, city of. +<br>Colenso, J.W. +<br>Colonies, how founded, +<br>Comitia, +<br>Commendation, +<br>Commons, House of, +<br>Commons, origin of, +<br>Communal farming in England, +<br>Communal landholding, +<br>Competition, industrial, between Europe and America, +<br>Confederation, articles of, +<br>Connecticut, men of, defy James II., +<br>Constitution of the United States, +<br>Continentals and British, +<br>Cromwell, O., +<br>Curia, +<p>Delian confederacy, +<br>Derne, +<br>Departments of France, +<br>Dependencies, danger of governing them despotically, +<br>Didius Julianus, +<br>Diocletian, +<br>Domestic service in a New England village, +<br>Dorset, +<br>Dover, men of, throw papal bull into sea, +<br>Duke, +<br>Dutch republic, +<p>Ealdorman, +<br>Ecclesia, +<br>Eden, Chuzzlewit's, +<br>Electoral commission, +<br>Emancipation of slaves, +<br>England, maritime supremacy of +<br>English colonization +<br> language, future of +<br> self-government, how preserved, +<br> villages +<p>Famines +<br>Federal union on great scale, +<br> conditions of +<br> its durableness lies in its flexibility +<br>Federalism, pacific implications of +<br> will be adopted by Europe +<br>Federation and conquest +<br>Federations in Greece +<br>Feudal system, origin of +<br>Fick, A. +<br>France, political development of +<br> contrasted with +<br>England as a colonizer +<br>France and Germany, their late war +<br> their political weight a century hence +<br>Francis I. +<br>Franklin, B. +<br>Franks +<br>Freeman, E.A. +<br>Freiburg +<br>French villages +<p>Gau +<br>Gaul, Roman conquest of +<br>Geneva +<br>Gens +<br>Georgia +<br>Germany conquered and converted by Charles the Great +<br>Gibraltar +<br>Goths +<br>Great states, method of forming, +<br> notion of their having an inherent tendency to break up +<br> difficulty of forming +<br>Grimm, J. +<p>Haddon Hall +<br>Hamburg +<br>Hamilton, A. +<br>Hampden, J. +<br>Hannibal's invasion of Italy +<br>Hearn, Professor +<br>Henry VIII. +<br>Heretoga +<br>Hindustan, village communities in +<br> cities in +<br>Holland +<br>Howard of Effingham +<br>Hundred +<br>Hungary +<br>Hunnish invasion of Europe +<p>Incorporation +<br>Iroquois tribes +<p>James II. +<br>Jinghis Khan, +<br>Judiciary, federal, +<p>Kansas, +<br>Kemble, J., +<br>Kingship among ancient Teutons, +<p>La Salle, R., +<br>Lausanne, +<br>Leo's defeat of the Saracens, +<br>Lewes, battle of, +<br>Liegnitz, battle of, +<br>Lincoln, A., Lincoln, city of, +<br>Livingstone, Dr., +<br>Lombards, +<br>London, growth of, +<br>Louis VI., +<br>Louis XIV., +<p>Madison, J., +<br>Maine, Sir II., +<br>Maintz, +<br>Malta, +<br>Manorial courts, +<br>Manors, origin of, +<br>March meetings in New England, +<br>Marius, C., +<br>Mark, in England, +<br> meaning of the word, +<br>Mark-mote, +<br>Massachusetts, +<br>May assemblies in Switzerland, +<br>Melbourne, city of, +<br>Middle Ages, turbulence of, +<br>Military strength of civilized world, its increase, +<br>Minnesota, +<br>Mir, or Russian village, +<br>Mongolian Khans in Russia, +<br>Mongols, +<br>Montenegro, +<br>Montfort, S. de, +<p>Naseby, battle of, +<br>Navies less dangerous than standing armies, +<br>Nebraska, +<br>Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square, +<br>Nevada, +<br>New England confederacy, +<br>New York, New Zealand, +<br>Norman conquest, +<br>North America, struggle for possession of, +<p>Omar, +<p>Pagus, +<br>Paris, American dinner-party in, +<br>Parish, its relation to township, +<br>Parkman, F. +<br>Pax romana +<br>Peace of the world, how secured, +<br>Peerage of England +<br>Peloponnesian war +<br>Persian war against Greece +<br>Pestilences +<br>Petersham +<br>Philip, King +<br>Phratries Pictet, A. +<br>Poland +<br>Pontiac +<br>Population of United States a century hence +<br>Private property in land +<br>Problem of political civilization +<br>Protestantism and Catholicism, political question at stake between +<br>Prussia conquered by Teutonic knights +<br>Puritanism +<br>Puritans of New England, their origin +<p>Quebec, Wolfe's victory at +<p>Rebellion against Charles I. +<br>Redivision of arable lands Re-election of town officers +<br>Representation unknown to Greeks and Romans +<br> origin of +<br> federal, in United States +<br>Rex Rhode Island +<br>Roman law +<br>Rome, plebeian revolution at +<br> early stages of +<br> secret of its power +<br> advantages of its dominion +<br> causes of its political failure, +<br> powerful influence of, in Middle Ages +<br> meaning of its great wars +<br>Roses, wars of the +<br>Ross, D. +<br>Russia, Mongolian conquest of +<br> village communities in +<br> its late war against the Turks +<br> its despotic government contrasted with that of France under +Old Régime +<br> +<p>SARACENS +<br>Scandinavia +<br>Secession, war of +<br>Selectmen +<br>Self-government preserved in England +<br> lost in France +<br>Shakespeare +<br>Shires +<br>Shottery, cottage at +<br>Smith, J. +<br>Social war +<br>South Carolina +<br>Spain, Roman conquest of +<br>Sparta +<br>State sovereignty in America +<br>Strasburg +<br>Strategic position of England +<br>Stubbs, W. +<br>Suez +<br>Swiss cantonal assemblies +<br>Switzerland, lesson of its history +<br> self-government preserved in +<p>Tacitus +<br>Tariff in America +<br>Tax-taking despotisms +<br>Tennyson, A. +<br>Teutonic civilization contrasted with Graeco-Roman +<br>Teutonic knights +<br>Teutonic village communities +<br>Texas +<br>Thegnhood +<br>Thirty Years' War +<br>Thukydides + +<br>Tocqueville +<br>Tourist in United States +<br>Town, meaning of the word +<br>Town-meetings, origin of +<br>Town-names formed from patronymics +<br>Township in New England, +<br> in western states +<br>Tribe and shire +<br>Turks +<p>Versailles +<br>Vestry-meetings +<br>Victoria, Australia +<br>Village-mark Villages of New England +<br>Virginia, parishes in +<br>Visigoths +<p>Wallace, D.M. +<br>War of independence +<br>Warfare, universal in early times +<br> how diminished +<br> interferes with political development +<br> less destructive now than in ancient times +<br> how effectively waged by the most pacific of peoples +<br>Washington, city of +<br>Washington, G. +<br>William III. +<br>Witenagemote +<br>Wolfe's victory at Quebec +<p>Yorktown +<br> +<h1> +THE END.</h1> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10112 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68a70a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10112 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10112) diff --git a/old/10112-8.txt b/old/10112-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d408c80 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10112-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3727 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Political Ideas Viewed From The +Standpoint Of Universal History, by John Fiske + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: American Political Ideas Viewed From The Standpoint Of Universal History + +Author: John Fiske + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10112] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS + +VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +Three Lectures + +DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880 + +BY JOHN FISKE + +_Voici un fait entièrement nouveau dans le monde, et dont l'imagination +elle-même ne saurait saisir la portée._ + + +TOCQUEVILLE + + +TO + +EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS + +NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS + +WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN +THE PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN + +I dedicate this Book + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting-house in Boston a +course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and +presently, through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the +course was repeated at University College in London. The lectures there +were attended by very large audiences, and awakened such an interest in +American history that I was invited to return to England in the +following year and treat of some of the philosophical aspects of my +subject in a course of lectures at the Royal Institution. + +In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation, +and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to +illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting +forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is +impossible thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any +department of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups +of facts; and the political history of the American people can be +rightly understood only when it is studied in connection with that +general process of political evolution which has been going on from the +earliest times, and of which it is itself one of the most important and +remarkable phases. The government of the United States is not the result +of special creation, but of evolution. As the town-meetings of New +England are lineally descended from the village assemblies of the early +Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago foreshadowed in the +little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so the great political +problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving is the very same +problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working ever since +civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action throughout +the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom in the +Parts,--this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed on its +political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations +politically according to their failure or success in attaining this +supreme end. When thus considered in the light of the comparative +method, our American history acquires added dignity and interest, and a +broad and rational basis is secured for the detailed treatment of +political questions. + +When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history +become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is +clothed with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in +insisting upon the fact that the history of the English people does not +begin with the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our +American history does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or +even with the settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in +unbroken continuity from the days when stout Arminius in the forests of +northern Germany successfully defied the might of imperial Rome. In a +more restricted sense, the statesmanship of Washington and Lincoln +appears in the noblest light when regarded as the fruition of the +various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. The good fight +begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly crowned at +Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further come +to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common +mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher +civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone +before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the +history which English-speaking men have so magnificently wrought out +upon American soil. + +In dealing concisely with a subject so vast, only brief hints and +suggestions can be expected; and I have not thought it worth while, for +the present at least, to change or amplify the manner of treatment. The +lectures are printed exactly as they were delivered at the Royal +Institution, more than four years ago. On one point of detail some +change will very likely by and by be called for. In the lecture on the +Town-meeting I have adopted the views of Sir Henry Maine as to the +common holding of the arable land in the ancient German mark, and as to +the primitive character of the periodical redistribution of land in the +Russian village community. It now seems highly probable that these views +will have to undergo serious modification in consequence of the valuable +evidence lately brought forward by my friend Mr. Denman Ross, in his +learned and masterly treatise on "The Early History of Landholding among +the Germans;" but as I am not yet quite clear as to how far this +modification will go, and as it can in nowise affect the general drift +of my argument, I have made no change in my incidental remarks on this +difficult and disputed question. + +In describing some of the characteristic features of country life in New +England, I had especially in mind the beautiful mountain village in +which this preface is written, and in which for nearly a quarter of a +century I have felt myself more at home than in any other spot in +the world. + +In writing these lectures, designed as they were for a special occasion, +no attempt was made to meet the ordinary requirements of popular +audiences; yet they have been received in many places with unlooked-for +favour. The lecture on "Manifest Destiny" was three times repeated in +London, and once in Edinburgh; seven times in Boston; four times in New +York; twice in Brooklyn, N.Y., Plainfield, N.J., and Madison, Wis.; once +in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, +Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Milwaukee; in Appleton and Waukesha, Wis.; +Portland, Lewiston, and Brunswick, Me.; Lowell, Concord, Newburyport, +Peabody, Stoneham, Maiden, Newton Highlands, and Martha's Vineyard, +Mass.; Middletown and Stamford, Conn.; Newburg and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; +Orange, N.J.; and at Cornell University and Haverford College. In +several of these places the course was given. + +PETERSHAM, _September 13, 1884_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + +Differences in outward aspect between a village in England and a village +in Massachusetts. Life in a typical New England mountain village. Tenure +of land, domestic service, absence of poverty and crime, universality of +labour and of culture, freedom of thought, complete democracy. This +state of things is to some extent passing away. Remarkable +characteristics of the Puritan settlers of New England, and extent to +which their characters and aims have influenced American history. Town +governments in New England. Different meanings of the word "city" in +England and America. Importance of local self-government in the +political life of the United States. Origin of the town-meeting. Mr. +Freeman on the cantonal assemblies of Switzerland. The old Teutonic +"mark," or dwelling-place of a clan. Political union originally based, +not on territorial contiguity, but on blood-relationship. Divisions of +the mark. Origin of the village Common. The _mark-mote_. Village +communities in Russia and Hindustan. Difference between the despotism of +Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. Elements of sound +political life fostered by the Russian village. Traces of the mark in +England. Feudalization of Europe, and partial metamorphosis of the mark +or township into the manor. Parallel transformation of the township, in +some of its features, into the parish. The court leet and the +vestry-meeting. The New England town-meeting a revival of the ancient +mark-mote. + +Vicissitudes of local self-government in the various portions of the +Aryan world illustrated in the contrasted cases of France and England. +Significant contrast between the aristocracy of England and that of the +Continent. Difference between the Teutonic conquests of Gaul and of +Britain. Growth of centralization in France. Why the English have always +been more successful than the French in founding colonies. Struggle +between France and England for the possession of North America, and +prodigious significance of the victory of England. + + +II. + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +Wonderful greatness of ancient Athens. Causes of the political failure +of Greek civilization. Early stages of political aggregation,--the +_hundred_, the [Greek: _phratria_], the _curia_; the _shire_, the +_deme_, and the _pagus_. Aggregation of clans into tribes. Differences +in the mode of aggregation in Greece and Rome on the one hand, and in +Teutonic countries on the other. The Ancient City. Origin of cities in +Hindustan, Germany, England, and the United States. Religious character +of the ancient city. Burghership not granted to strangers. Consequences +of the political difference between the Graeco-Roman city and the +Teutonic shire. The _folk-mote_, or primary assembly, and the +_witenagemote_, or assembly of notables. Origin of representative +government in the Teutonic shire. Representation unknown to the Greeks +and Romans. The ancient city as a school for political training. +Intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent +self-governing groups of men. Smallness of simple social aggregates and +universality of warfare in primitive times. For the formation of larger +and more complex social aggregates, only two methods are +practicable,--_conquest_ or _federation_. Greek attempts at employing +the higher method, that of federation. The Athenian hegemony and its +overthrow. The Achaian and Aetolian leagues. In a low stage of political +development the Roman method of _conquest with incorporation_ was the +only one practicable. Peculiarities of the Roman conquest of Italy. +Causes of the universal dominion of Rome. Advantages and disadvantages +of this dominion:--on the one hand the _pax romana_, and the breaking +down of primitive local superstitions and prejudices; on the other hand +the partial extinction of local self-government. Despotism inevitable in +the absence of representation. Causes of the political failure of the +Roman system. Partial reversion of Europe, between the fifth and +eleventh centuries, towards a more primitive type of social structure. +Power of Rome still wielded through the Church and the imperial +jurisprudence. Preservation of local self-government in England, and at +the two ends of the Rhine. The Dutch and Swiss federations. The lesson +to be learned from Switzerland. Federation on a great scale could only +be attempted successfully by men of English political training, when +working without let or hindrance in a vast country not preoccupied by an +old civilization. Without local self-government a great Federal Union is +impossible. Illustrations from American history. Difficulty of the +problem, and failure of the early attempts at federation in New +England. Effects of the war for independence. The "Articles of +Confederation" and the "Constitution." Pacific implications of American +federalism. + + + +III. + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY._" + +The Americans boast of the bigness of their country. How to "bound" the +United States. "Manifest Destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon Race." The term +"Anglo-Saxon" slovenly and misleading. Statements relating to the +"English Race" have a common interest for Americans and for Englishmen. +Work of the English race in the world. The prime feature of civilization +is the diminution of warfare, which becomes possible only through the +formation of great political aggregates in which the parts retain their +local and individual freedom. In the earlier stages of civilization, the +possibility of peace can be guaranteed only through war, but the +preponderant military strength is gradually concentrated in the hands of +the most pacific communities, and by the continuance of this process the +permanent peace of the world will ultimately be secured. Illustrations +from the early struggles of European civilization with outer barbarism, +and with aggressive civilizations of lower type. Greece and Persia. +Keltic and Teutonic enemies of Rome. The defensible frontier of European +civilization carried northward and eastward to the Rhine by Caesar; to +the Oder by Charles the Great; to the Vistula by the Teutonic Knights; +to the Volga and the Oxus by the Russians. Danger in the Dark Ages from +Huns and Mongols on the one hand, from Mussulmans on the other. Immense +increase of the area and physical strength of European civilization, +which can never again be in danger from outer barbarism. Effect of all +this secular turmoil upon the political institutions of Europe. It +hindered the formation of closely coherent nations, and was at the same +time an obstacle to the preservation of popular liberties. Tendency +towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life. Opposing influences of +the Church, and of the Germanic tribal organizations. Military type of +society on the Continent. Old Aryan self-government happily preserved in +England. Strategic position of England favourable to the early +elimination of warfare from her soil. Hence the exceptionally normal and +plastic political development of the English race. Significant +coincidence of the discovery of America with the beginnings of the +Protestant revolt against the asiaticizing tendency. Significance of the +struggle between Spain, France, and England for the possession of an +enormous area of virgin soil which should insure to the conqueror an +unprecedented opportunity for future development. The race which gained +control of North America must become the dominant race of the world, and +its political ideas must prevail in the struggle for life. Moral +significance of the rapid increase of the English race in America. +Fallacy of the notion that centralized governments are needed for very +large nations. It is only through federalism, combined with local +self-government, that the stability of so huge an aggregate as the +United States can be permanently maintained. What the American +government really fought for in the late Civil War. Magnitude of the +results achieved. Unprecedented military strength shown by this most +pacific and industrial of peoples. Improbability of any future attempt +to break up the Federal Union. Stupendous future of the English +race,--in Africa, in Australia, and in the islands of the Pacific +Ocean. Future of the English language. Probable further adoption of +federalism. Probable effects upon Europe of industrial competition with +the United States: impossibility of keeping up the present military +armaments. The States of Europe will be forced, by pressure of +circumstances, into some kind of federal union. A similar process will +go on until the whole of mankind shall constitute a single political +body, and warfare shall disappear forever from the face of the earth. + + + + + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS. + + + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + + +The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal +for a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to +another of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, +or Chicago, stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, +perhaps, after traversing a distance like that which separates England +from Mesopotamia, reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and +inspects their interesting fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians +and Mormons. In a journey of this sort one gets a very superficial view +of the peculiarities, physical and social, which characterize the +different portions of our country; and in this there is nothing to +complain of, since the knowledge gained in a vacation-journey cannot +well be expected to be thorough or profound. The traveller, however, +who should visit the United States in a more leisurely way, with the +purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, would find +it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself richly +repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of which +is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book on +Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable +experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivánofka in the +province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might +visit in America, there are none which would better reward such careful +observation, or which are more full of interest for the comparative +historian, than the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; +that part of English America which is oldest in civilization (though not +in actual date of settlement), and which, while most completely English +in blood and in traditions, is at the same time most completely American +in so far as it has most distinctly illustrated and most successfully +represented those political ideas which have given to American history +its chief significance in the general work of civilization. + +The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," in +terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, +and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of +the Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before +the beginning of the present century. New England, however, has a +history which carries us back to the times of James I.; and while its +cities are full of such bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or +Manchester or Glasgow, its rural towns show us much that is +old-fashioned in aspect,--much that one can approach in an antiquarian +spirit. We are there introduced to a phase of social life which is +highly interesting on its own account and which has played an important +part in the world, yet which, if not actually passing away, is at least +becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme for grave reflections +to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. As any +far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, due +to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one of +the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, on +the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes +upon the _personnel_ and upon the occupations of rural New England, we +are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a +deterioration in the character of the most perfect democracy the world +has ever seen. + +In the outward aspect of a village in Massachusetts or Connecticut, the +feature which would be most likely first to impress itself upon the mind +of a visitor from England is the manner in which the village is laid out +and built. Neither in England nor anywhere else in western Europe have I +ever met with a village of the New England type. In English villages one +finds small houses closely crowded together, sometimes in blocks of ten +or a dozen, and inhabited by people belonging to the lower orders of +society; while the fine houses of gentlemen stand quite apart in the +country, perhaps out of sight of one another, and surrounded by very +extensive grounds. The origin of the village, in a mere aggregation of +tenants of the lord of the manor, is thus vividly suggested. In France +one is still more impressed, I think, with this closely packed structure +of the village. In the New England village, on the other hand, the finer +and the poorer houses stand side by side along the road. There are wide +straight streets overarched with spreading elms and maples, and on +either side stand the houses, with little green lawns in front, called +in rustic parlance "door-yards." The finer houses may stand a thousand +feet apart from their neighbours on either side, while between the +poorer ones there may be intervals of from twenty to one hundred feet, +but they are never found crowded together in blocks. Built in this +capacious fashion, a village of a thousand inhabitants may have a main +street more than a mile in length, with half a dozen crossing streets +losing themselves gradually in long stretches of country road. The +finest houses are not ducal palaces, but may be compared with the +ordinary country-houses of gentlemen in England. The poorest houses are +never hovels, such as one sees in the Scotch Highlands. The picturesque +and cosy cottage at Shottery, where Shakespeare used to do his courting, +will serve very well as a sample of the humblest sort of old-fashioned +New England farm-house. But most of the dwellings in the village come +between these extremes. They are plain neat wooden houses, in +capaciousness more like villas than cottages. A New England village +street, laid out in this way, is usually very picturesque and beautiful, +and it is highly characteristic. In comparing it with things in Europe, +where one rarely finds anything at all like it, one must go to something +very different from a village. As you stand in the Court of Heroes at +Versailles and look down the broad and noble avenue that leads to +Paris, the effect of the vista is much like that of a New England +village street. As American villages grow into cities, the increase in +the value of land usually tends to crowd the houses together into blocks +as in a European city. But in some of our western cities founded and +settled by people from New England, this spacious fashion of building +has been retained for streets occupied by dwelling-houses. In +Cleveland--a city on the southern shore of Lake Erie, with a population +about equal to that of Edinburgh--there is a street some five or six +miles in length and five hundred feet in width, bordered on each side +with a double row of arching trees, and with handsome stone houses, of +sufficient variety and freedom in architectural design, standing at +intervals of from one to two hundred feet along the entire length of the +street. The effect, it is needless to add, is very noble indeed. The +vistas remind one of the nave and aisles of a huge cathedral. + +Now this generous way in which a New England village is built is very +closely associated with the historical origin of the village and with +the peculiar kind of political and social life by which it is +characterized. First of all, it implies abundance of land. As a rule the +head of each family owns the house in which he lives and the ground on +which it is built. The relation of landlord and tenant, though not +unknown, is not commonly met with. No sort of social distinction or +political privilege is associated with the ownership of land; and the +legal differences between real and personal property, especially as +regards ease of transfer, have been reduced to the smallest minimum that +practical convenience will allow. Each householder, therefore, though an +absolute proprietor, cannot be called a miniature lord of the manor, +because there exists no permanent dependent class such as is implied in +the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends in person to +the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his own sons or by +neighbours working for hire in the leisure left over from the care of +their own smaller estates. So in the interior of the house there is +usually no domestic service that is not performed by the mother of the +family and the daughters. Yet in spite of this universality of manual +labour, the people are as far as possible from presenting the appearance +of peasants. Poor or shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there +is no one in the village whom it would be proper to address in a +patronizing tone, or who would not consider it a gross insult to be +offered a shilling. As with poverty, so with dram-drinking and with +crime; all alike are conspicuous by their absence. In a village of one +thousand inhabitants there will be a poor-house where five or six +decrepit old people are supported at the common charge; and there will +be one tavern where it is not easy to find anything stronger to drink +than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves is so slight that it +is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer doors of the house +at night. The universality of literary culture is as remarkable as the +freedom with which all persons engage in manual labour. The village of a +thousand inhabitants will be very likely to have a public circulating +library, in which you may find Professor Huxley's "Lay Sermons" or Sir +Henry Maine's "Ancient Law": it will surely have a high-school and half +a dozen schools for small children. A person unable to read and write is +as great a rarity as an albino or a person with six fingers. The farmer +who threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a +piano in his family sitting-room, with the _Atlantic Monthly_ on the +table and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay on his shelves, while +his daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, is perhaps ready to +paint on china in the afternoon. In former times theological questions +largely occupied the attention of the people; and there is probably no +part of the world where the Bible has been more attentively read, or +where the mysteries of Christian doctrine have to so great an extent +been made the subject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence we +find in the New England of to-day a deep religious sense combined with +singular flexibility of mind and freedom of thought. + +A state of society so completely democratic as that here described has +not often been found in connection with a very high and complex +civilization. In contemplating these old mountain villages of New +England, one descries slow modifications in the structure of society +which threaten somewhat to lessen its dignity. The immense +productiveness of the soil in our western states, combined with +cheapness of transportation, tends to affect seriously the agricultural +interests of New England as well as those of our mother-country. There +is a visible tendency for farms to pass into the hands of proprietors of +an inferior type to that of the former owners,--men who are content with +a lower standard of comfort and culture; while the sons of the old +farmers go off to the universities to prepare for a professional career, +and the daughters marry merchants or lawyers in the cities. The +mountain-streams of New England, too, afford so much water-power as to +bring in ugly factories to disfigure the beautiful ravines, and to +introduce into the community a class of people very different from the +landholding descendants of the Puritans. When once a factory is +established near a village, one no longer feels free to sleep with +doors unbolted. + +It will be long, however, I trust, before the simple, earnest and +independent type of character that has been nurtured on the Blue Hills +of Massachusetts and the White Hills of New Hampshire shall cease to +operate like a powerful leaven upon the whole of American society. Much +has been said and sung in praise of the spirit of chivalry, which, after +all, as a great historian reminds us, "implies the arbitrary choice of +one or two virtues, to be practised in such an exaggerated degree as to +become vices, while the ordinary laws of right and wrong are +forgotten." [1] Quite enough has been said, too, in discredit of +Puritanism,--its narrowness of aim, its ascetic proclivities, its quaint +affectations of Hebraism. Yet these things were but the symptoms of the +intensity of its reverence for that grand spirit of Hebraism, of which +Mr. Matthew Arnold speaks, to which we owe the Bible and Christianity. +No loftier ideal has ever been conceived than that of the Puritan who +would fain have made of the world a City of God. If we could sum up all +that England owes to Puritanism, the story would be a great one indeed. +As regards the United States, we may safely say that what is noblest in +our history to-day, and of happiest augury for our social and political +future, is the impress left upon the character of our people by the +heroic men who came to New England early in the seventeenth century. + +The settlement of New England by the Puritans occupies a peculiar +position in the annals of colonization, and without understanding this +we cannot properly appreciate the character of the purely democratic +society which I have sought to describe. As a general rule colonies have +been founded, either by governments or by private enterprise, for +political or commercial reasons. The aim has been--on the part of +governments--to annoy some rival power, or to get rid of criminals, or +to open some new avenue of trade, or--on the part of the people--to +escape from straitened circumstances at home, or to find a refuge from +religious persecution. In the settlement of New England none of these +motives were operative except the last, and that only to a slight +extent. The Puritans who fled from Nottinghamshire to Holland in 1608, +and twelve years afterwards crossed the ocean in the _Mayflower_, may be +said to have been driven from England by persecution. But this was not +the case with the Puritans who between 1630 and 1650 went from +Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and from Dorset and Devonshire, and +founded the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. These men left +their homes at a time when Puritanism was waxing powerful and could not +be assailed with impunity. They belonged to the upper and middle classes +of the society of that day, outside of the peerage. Mr. Freeman has +pointed out the importance of the change by which, after the Norman +Conquest, the Old-English nobility or _thegnhood_ was pushed down into +"a secondary place in the political and social scale." Of the +far-reaching effects of this change upon the whole subsequent history of +the English race I shall hereafter have occasion to speak. The proximate +effect was that "the ancient lords of the soil, thus thrust down into +the second rank, formed that great body of freeholders, the stout gentry +and yeomanry of England, who were for so many ages the strength of the +land." [2] It was from this ancient thegnhood that the Puritan settlers +of New England were mainly descended. It is no unusual thing for a +Massachusetts family to trace its pedigree to a lord of the manor in the +thirteenth or fourteenth century. The leaders of the New England +emigration were country gentlemen of good fortune, similar in position +to such men as Hampden and Cromwell; a large proportion of them had +taken degrees at Cambridge. The rank and file were mostly intelligent +and prosperous yeomen. The lowest ranks of society were not represented +in the emigration; and all idle, shiftless, or disorderly people were +rigorously refused admission into the new communities, the early history +of which was therefore singularly free from anything like riot or +mutiny. To an extent unparalleled, therefore, in the annals of +colonization, the settlers of New England were a body of _picked men_. +Their Puritanism was the natural outcome of their free-thinking, +combined with an earnestness of character which could constrain them to +any sacrifices needful for realizing their high ideal of life. They gave +up pleasant homes in England, and they left them with no feeling of +rancour towards their native land, in order that, by dint of whatever +hardship, they might establish in the American wilderness what should +approve itself to their judgment as a god-fearing community. It matters +little that their conceptions were in some respects narrow. In the +unflinching adherence to duty which prompted their enterprise, and in +the sober intelligence with which it was carried out, we have, as I said +before, the key to what is best in the history of the American people. + +Out of such a colonization as that here described nothing but a +democratic society could very well come, save perhaps in case of a +scarcity of arable land. Between the country gentleman and the yeoman +who has become a landed proprietor, the difference is not great enough +to allow the establishment of permanent distinctions, social or +political. Immediately on their arrival in New England, the settlers +proceeded to form for themselves a government as purely democratic as +any that has ever been seen in the world. Instead of scattering about +over the country, the requirements of education and of public worship, +as well as of defence against Indian attacks, obliged them to form small +village communities. As these villages multiplied, the surface of the +country came to be laid out in small districts (usually from six to ten +miles in length and breadth) called _townships_. Each township contained +its village together with the woodlands surrounding it. In later days +two or more villages have often grown up within the limits of the same +township, and the road from one village to another is sometimes bordered +with homesteads and cultivated fields throughout nearly its whole +length. In the neighbourhood of Boston villages and small towns crowd +closely together for twenty miles in every direction; and all these will +no doubt by and by grow together into a vast and complicated city, in +somewhat the same way that London has grown. + +From the outset the government of the township was vested in the +TOWN-MEETING,--an institution which in its present form is said to be +peculiar to New England, but which, as we shall see, has close analogies +with local self-governing bodies in other ages and countries. Once in +each year--usually in the month of March--a meeting is held, at which +every adult male residing within the limits of the township is expected +to be present, and is at liberty to address the meeting or to vote upon +any question that may come up. + +In the first years of the colonies it seems to have been attempted to +hold town-meetings every month, and to discuss all the affairs of the +community in these assemblies; but this was soon found to be a cumbrous +way of transacting public business, and as early as 1635 we find +_selectmen_ chosen to administer the affairs of the township during the +intervals between the assemblies. As the system has perfected itself, at +each annual town-meeting there are chosen not less than three or more +than nine selectmen, according to the size of the township. Besides +these, there are chosen a town-clerk, a town-treasurer, a +school-committee, assessors of taxes, overseers of the poor, constables, +surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, and other officers. In very small +townships the selectmen themselves may act as assessors of taxes or +overseers of the poor. The selectmen may appoint police-officers if such +are required; they may act as a Board of Health; in addition to sundry +specific duties too numerous to mention here, they have the general +superintendence of all public business save such as is expressly +assigned to the other officers; and whenever circumstances may seem to +require it they are authorized to call a town-meeting. The selectmen are +thus the principal town-magistrates; and through the annual election +their responsibility to the town is maintained at the maximum. Yet in +many New England towns re-election of the same persons year after year +has very commonly prevailed. I know of an instance where the office of +town-clerk was filled by three members of one family during one hundred +and fourteen consecutive years. + +Besides choosing executive officers, the town-meeting has the power of +enacting by-laws, of making appropriations of money for town-purposes, +and of providing for miscellaneous emergencies by what might be termed +special legislation. Besides the annual meeting held in the spring for +transacting all this local business, the selectmen are required to call +a meeting in the autumn of each year for the election of state and +county officers, each second year for the election of representatives to +the federal Congress, and each fourth year for the election of the +President of the United States. + +It only remains to add that, as an assembly of the whole people becomes +impracticable in a large community, so when the population of a township +has grown to ten or twelve thousand, the town-meeting is discontinued, +the town is incorporated as a city, and its affairs are managed by a +mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council, according to the +system adopted in London in the reign of Edward I. In America, +therefore, the distinction between cities and towns has nothing to do +with the presence or absence of a cathedral, but refers solely to +differences in the communal or municipal government. In the city the +common council, as a representative body, replaces (in a certain sense) +the town-meeting; a representative government is substituted for a pure +democracy. But the city officers, like the selectmen of towns, are +elected annually; and in no case (I believe) has municipal government +fallen into the hands of a self-perpetuating body, as it has done in so +many instances in England owing to the unwise policy pursued by the +Tudors and Stuarts in their grants of charters. + +It is only in New England that the township system is to be found in its +completeness. In several southern and western states the administrative +unit is the county, and local affairs are managed by county +commissioners elected by the people. Elsewhere we find a mixture of the +county and township systems. In some of the western states settled by +New England people, town-meetings are held, though their powers are +somewhat less extensive than in New England. In the settlement of +Virginia it was attempted to copy directly the parishes and vestries, +boroughs and guilds of England. But in the southern states generally the +great size of the plantations and the wide dispersion of the population +hindered the growth of towns, so that it was impossible to have an +administrative unit smaller than the county. As Tocqueville said fifty +years ago, "the farther south we go the less active does the business of +the township or parish become; the population exercises a less immediate +influence on affairs; the power of the elected magistrate is augmented +and that of the election diminished, while the public spirit of the +local communities is less quickly awakened and less influential." This +is almost equally true to-day; yet with all these differences in local +organization, there is no part of our country in which the spirit of +local self-government can be called weak or uncertain. I have described +the Town-meeting as it exists in the states where it first grew up and +has since chiefly flourished. But something very like the "town-meeting +principle" lies at the bottom of all the political life of the United +States. To maintain vitality in the centre without sacrificing it in the +parts; to preserve tranquillity in the mutual relations of forty +powerful states, while keeping the people everywhere as far as possible +in direct contact with the government; such is the political problem +which the American Union exists for the purpose of solving; and of this +great truth every American citizen is supposed to have some glimmering, +however crude. + +It has been said that the town-governments of New England were +established without any conscious reference to precedent; but, however +this may be, they are certainly not without precedents and analogies, to +enumerate which will carry us very far back in the history of the Aryan +world. At the beginning of his essay on the "Growth of the English +Constitution," Mr. Freeman gives an eloquent account of the May +assemblies of Uri and Appenzell, when the whole people elect their +magistrates for the year and vote upon amendments to the old laws or +upon the adoption of new ones. Such a sight Mr. Freeman seems to think +can be seen nowhere but in Switzerland, and he reckons it among the +highest privileges of his life to have looked upon it. But I am unable +to see in what respect the town-meeting in Massachusetts differs from +the _Landesgemeinde_ or cantonal assembly in Switzerland, save that it +is held in a town-hall and not in the open air, that it is conducted +with somewhat less of pageantry, and that the freemen who attend do not +carry arms even by way of ceremony. In the Swiss assembly, as Mr. +Freeman truly observes, we see exemplified the most democratic phase of +the old Teutonic constitution as described in the "Germania" of +Tacitus, "the earliest picture which history can give us of the +political and social being of our own forefathers." The same remark, in +precisely the same terms, would be true of the town-meetings of New +England. Political institutions, on the White Mountains and on the Alps, +not only closely resemble each other, but are connected by strict bonds +of descent from a common original. + +The most primitive self-governing body of which we have any knowledge is +the village-community of the ancient Teutons, of which such strict +counterparts are found in other parts of the Aryan world as to make it +apparent that in its essential features it must be an inheritance from +prehistoric Aryan antiquity. In its Teutonic form the primitive +village-community (or rather, the spot inhabited by it) is known as the +_Mark_,--that is, a place defined by a boundary-line. One characteristic +of the mark-community is that all its free members are in theory +supposed to be related to each other through descent from a common +progenitor; and in this respect the mark-community agrees with the +_gens_, [Greek: _ginos_], or _clan_. The earliest form of political +union in the world is one which rests, not upon territorial contiguity, +but upon I blood-relationship, either real or assumed through the legal +fiction of adoption. In the lowest savagery blood-relationship is the +only admissible or conceivable ground for sustained common action among +groups of men. Among peoples which wander about, supporting themselves +either by hunting, or at a somewhat more advanced stage of development +by the rearing of flocks and herds, a group of men, thus permanently +associated through ties of blood-relationship, is what we call a _clan_. +When by the development of agricultural pursuits the nomadic mode of +life is brought to an end, when the clan remains stationary upon some +piece of territory surrounded by a strip of forest-land, or other +boundaries natural or artificial, then the clan becomes a +mark-community. The profound linguistic researches of Pictet, Fick, and +others have made it probable that at the time when the Old-Aryan +language was broken up into the dialects from which the existing +languages of Europe are descended, the Aryan tribes were passing from a +purely pastoral stage of barbarism into an incipient agricultural stage, +somewhat like that which characterized the Iroquois tribes in America in +the seventeenth century. The comparative study of institutions leads to +results in harmony with this view, showing us the mark-community of our +Teutonic ancestors with the clear traces of its origin in the more +primitive clan; though, with Mr. Kemble, I do not doubt that by the time +of Tacitus the German tribes had long since reached the +agricultural stage. + +Territorially the old Teutonic mark consisted of three divisions. There +was the _village mark_, where the people lived in houses crowded closely +together, no doubt for defensive purposes; there was the _arable mark_, +divided into as many lots as there were householders; and there was the +_common mark_, or border-strip of untilled land, wherein all the +inhabitants of the village had common rights of pasturage and of cutting +firewood. All this land originally was the property not of any one +family or individual, but of the community. The study of the mark +carries us back to a time when there may have been private property in +weapons, utensils, or trinkets, but not in real estate.[3] Of the three +kinds of land the common mark, save where curtailed or usurped by lords +in the days of feudalism, has generally remained public property to this +day. The pleasant green commons or squares which occur in the midst of +towns and cities in England and the United States most probably +originated from the coalescence of adjacent mark-communities, whereby +the border-land used in common by all was brought into the centre of the +new aggregate. In towns of modern date this origin of the common is of +course forgotten, and in accordance with the general law by which the +useful thing after discharging its functions survives for purposes of +ornament, it is introduced as a pleasure-ground. In old towns of New +England, however, the little park where boys play ball or children and +nurses "take the air" was once the common pasture of the town. Even +Boston Common did not entirely cease to be a grazing-field until 1830. +It was in the village-mark, or assemblage of homesteads, that private +property in real estate naturally began. In the Russian villages to-day +the homesteads are private property, while the cultivated land is owned +in common. This was the case with the _arable mark_ of our ancestors. +The arable mark belonged to the community, and was temporarily divided +into as many fields as there were households, though the division was +probably not into equal parts: more likely, as in Russia to-day, the +number of labourers in each household was taken into the account; and at +irregular intervals, as fluctuations in population seemed to require it, +a thorough-going redivision was effected. In carrying out such +divisions and redivisions, as well as in all matters relating to +village, ploughed field, or pasture, the mark-community was a law unto +itself. Though individual freedom was by no means considerable, the +legal existence of the individual being almost entirely merged in that +of his clan, the mark-community was a completely self-governing body. +The assembly of the mark-men, or members of the community, allotted land +for tillage, determined the law or declared the custom as to methods of +tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, voted upon the +admission of new families into the village, and in general transacted +what was then regarded as the public business of the community. In all +essential respects this village assembly or _mark-mote_ would seem to +have resembled the town-meetings of New England. + +Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly +from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of +English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in +Hindustan we find the same primitive form of social organization +existing with very little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and +in Russian village-communities we find the group of habitations, each +despotically ruled by a _pater-familias;_ we find the pasture-land +owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable land divided into +separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute regulations +established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution +of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in +others; the arable mark has become private property, as well as the +homesteads. In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at +irregular intervals averaging something like fifteen years. In India the +local government is carried on in some places by a Council of Village +Elders, and in other places by a Headman whose office is sometimes +described as hereditary, but is more probably elective, the choice being +confined, as in the case of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of +a particular family. In the Russian village, on the other hand, the +government is conducted by an assembly at which every head of a +household is expected to be present and vote on all matters of public +concern. This assembly elects the Village Elder, or chief executive +officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and the communal herd-boy; it +directs the allotment of the arable land; and in general matters of +local legislation its power is as great as that of the New England +town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since the precise +extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, and +(according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against its +decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply as +a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising. +To those who, because the Russian government is called a bureaucracy, +have been led to think of it as analogous to the government of France +under the Old Régime, it may seem incredible that the decisions of a +village-assembly should not admit of appeal to a higher authority. But +in point of fact, no two despotic governments could be less alike than +that of modern Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. The +Russian government is autocratic inasmuch as over the larger part of the +country it has simply succeeded to the position of the Mongolian khans +who from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century held the Russian people +in subjection. This Mongolian government was--to use a happy distinction +suggested by Sir Henry Maine--a tax-taking despotism, not a legislative +despotism. The conquerors exacted tribute, but did not interfere with +the laws and customs of the subject people. When the Russians drove out +the Mongols they exchanged a despotism which they hated for one in +which they felt a national pride, but in one curious respect the +position of the people with reference to their rulers has remained the +same. The imperial government exacts from each village-community a tax +in gross, for which the community as a whole is responsible, and which +may or may not be oppressive in amount; but the government has never +interfered with local legislation or with local customs. Thus in the +_mir_, or village-community, the Russians still retain an element of +sound political life, the importance of which appears when we consider +that five-sixths of the population of European Russia is comprised in +these communities. The tax assessed upon them by the imperial government +is, however, a feature which--even more than their imperfect system of +property and their low grade of mental culture--separates them by a +world-wide interval from the New England township, to the primeval +embryonic stage of which they correspond. + +From these illustrations we see that the mark, or self-governing +village-community, is an institution which must be referred back to +early Aryan times. Whether the mark ever existed in England, in anything +like the primitive form in which it is seen in the Russian _mir_, is +doubtful. Professor Stubbs (one of the greatest living authorities on +such a subject) is inclined to think that the Teutonic settlers of +Britain had passed beyond this stage before they migrated from +Germany.[4] Nevertheless the traces of the mark, as all admit, are +plentiful enough in England; and some of its features have survived down +to modern times. In the great number of town-names that are formed from +patronymics, such as _Walsingham_ "the home of the Walsings," +_Harlington_ "the town of the Harlings," etc.,[5] we have unimpeachable +evidence of a time when the town was regarded as the dwelling-place of a +clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word _mark_ in English laws, +charters, and local names (to which Professor Stubbs alludes) may be due +to the fact that the word _town_ has precisely the same meaning. _Mark_ +means originally the belt of waste land encircling the village, and +secondarily the village with its periphery. _Town_ means originally a +hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is enclosed: the +modern German _zaun_, a "hedge," preserves the original meaning. But +traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. I have +already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. What is +still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation in +common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of the +mark appears in the _tunscipesmot_,--a word which is simply Old-English +for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm +foothold, the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of +enacting its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have +to-day. But above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of +itself in the constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or +township, transformed by the process of feudalization, becomes the +manor. The process of feudalization, throughout western Europe in +general, was no doubt begun by the institution of Benefices, or "grants +of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of the" Teutonic "tribes +which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being conferred on their +associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest was military +service." [6] The feudal régime naturally reached its most complete +development in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman +territory overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic +conquerors. Other causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps +being the chaotic condition of European society during the break-up of +the Carolingian Empire and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions. +Land was better protected when held of a powerful chieftain than when +held in one's own right; and hence the practice of commendation, by +which free allodial proprietors were transformed into the tenants of a +lord, became fashionable and was gradually extended to all kinds of +estates. In England the effects of feudalization were different from +what they were in France, but the process was still carried very far, +especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up that all the +public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that all +landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the +common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's +tenants. Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even +by such a change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in +England lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as +Sir Henry Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty +in the rights of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no +authority to disturb customary rights. The old township-assembly +partially survived in the Court Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court +of the Manor; and in these courts the arrangements for the common +husbandry were determined. + +This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but +partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township +into the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has +pointed out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or +townships with which it coincides are generally the same: in small +parishes the idea and even the name of township is frequently, at the +present day, sunk in that of the parish; and all the business that is +not manorial is despatched in vestry-meetings, which are however +primarily meetings of the township for church purposes." [7] The parish +officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens, +are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And +while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by +charter, or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial +grant, "all matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the +management of the vestry." + +In England, therefore, the free village-community, though perhaps +nowhere found in its primitive integrity, has nevertheless survived in +partially transfigured forms which have played no unimportant part in +the history of the English people. In one shape or another the assembly +of freemen for purposes of local legislation has always existed. The +Puritans who colonized New England, therefore, did not invent the +town-meeting. They were familiar already with the proceedings of the +vestry-meeting and the manorial courts, but they were severed now from +church and from aristocracy. So they had but to discard the +ecclesiastical and lordly terminology, with such limitations as they +involved, and to reintegrate the separate jurisdictions into one,--and +forthwith the old assembly of the township, founded in immemorial +tradition, but revivified by new thoughts and purposes gained through +ages of political training, emerged into fresh life and entered upon a +more glorious career. + +It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need +to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of +the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful +national life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local +self-government in the various portions of the Aryan world, we see the +contrasted fortunes of France and England illustrating for us most +forcibly the significance of this truth. For the preservation of local +self-government in England various causes may be assigned; but of these +there are two which may be cited as especially prominent. In the first +place, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the Teutonic settlement of +Britain, the civilization of England previous to the Norman Conquest was +but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. In the second place +the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman Conquest (to which +I have already alluded) checked the growth of a _noblesse_ or _adel_ of +the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common people like a +separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown into such +a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage +which arose after the Conquest was something different from a +_noblesse_. It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or +privilege. The peers were those men who retained the right of summons to +the Great Council, or Witenagemote, which has survived as the House of +Lords. The peer was therefore the holder of a legislative and judicial +office, which only one of his children could inherit, from the very +nature of the case, and which none of his children could share with him. +Hence the brothers and younger children of a peer were always commoners, +and their interests were not remotely separated from those of other +commoners. Hence after the establishment of a House of Commons, their +best chance for a political career lay in representing the interests of +the people in the lower house. Hence between the upper and lower strata +of English society there has always been kept up a circulation or +interchange of ideas and interests, and the effect of this upon English +history has been prodigious. While on the continent a sovereign like +Charles the Bold could use his nobility to extinguish the liberties of +the merchant towns of Flanders, nothing of the sort was ever possible in +England. Throughout the Middle Ages, in every contest between the people +and the crown, the weight of the peerage was thrown into the scale in +favour of popular liberties. But for this peculiar position of the +peerage we might have had no Earl Simon; it is largely through it that +representative government and local liberties have been preserved to the +English race. + +In France the course of events has brought about very different results. +I shall defer to my next lecture the consideration of the vicissitudes +of local self-government under the Roman Empire, because that point is +really incident upon the study of the formation of vast national +aggregates. Suffice it now to say that when the Teutons overcame Gaul, +they became rulers over a population which had been subjected for five +centuries to that slow but mighty process of trituration which the +Empire everywhere brought to bear upon local self-government. While the +Teutons in Britain, moreover, enslaved their slightly romanized subjects +and gave little heed to their language, religion, or customs; the +Teutons in Gaul, on the other hand, quickly adopted the language and +religion of their intensely romanized subjects and acquired to some +extent their way of looking at things. Hence in the early history of +France there was no such stubborn mass of old Aryan liberties to be +dealt with as in the early history of England. Nor was there any +powerful middle class distributed through the country to defend such +liberties as existed. Beneath the turbulent throng of Teutonic nobles, +among whom the king was only the most exalted and not always the +strongest, there lay the Gallo-Roman population which had so long been +accustomed to be ruled without representation by a distant government +exercising its authority through innumerable prefects. Such Teutonic +rank and file as there was became absorbed into this population; and +except in sundry chartered towns there was nothing like a social stratum +interposed between the nobles and the common people. + +The slow conversion of the feudal monarchy of the early Capetians into +the absolute despotism of Louis XIV. was accomplished by the king +gradually _conquering_ his vassals one after another, and adding their +domains to his own. As one vassal territory after another was added to +the royal domain, the king sent prefects, responsible only to himself, +to administer its local affairs, sedulously crushing out, so far as +possible, the last vestiges of self-government. The nobles, deprived of +their provincial rule, in great part flocked to Paris to become idle +courtiers. The means for carrying on the gigantic machinery of +centralized administration, and for supporting the court in its follies, +were wrung from the groaning peasantry with a cynical indifference like +that with which tribute is extorted by barbaric chieftains from a +conquered enemy. And thus came about that abominable state of things +which a century since was abruptly ended by one of the fiercest +convulsions of modern times. The prodigious superiority--in respect to +national vitality--of a freely governed country over one that is +governed by a centralized despotism, is nowhere more brilliantly +illustrated than in the contrasted fortunes of France and England as +_colonizing_ nations. When we consider the declared rivalry between +France and England in their plans for colonizing the barbarous regions +of the earth, when we consider that the military power of the two +countries has been not far from equal, and that France has at times +shown herself a maritime power by no means to be despised, it seems to +me that her overwhelming and irretrievable defeat by England in the +struggle for colonial empire is one of the most striking and one of the +most instructive facts in all modern history. In my lectures of last +year (at University College) I showed that, in the struggle for the +possession of North America, where the victory of England was so +decisive as to settle the question for all coming time, the causes of +the French failure are very plainly to be seen. The French colony in +Canada was one of the most complete examples of a despotic government +that the world has ever seen. All the autocratic and bureaucratic ideas +of Louis XIV. were here carried out without let or hindrance. It would +be incredible, were it not attested by such abundant evidence, that the +affairs of any people could be subjected to such minute and sleepless +supervision as were the affairs of the French colonists in Canada. A man +could not even build his own house, or rear his own cattle, or sow his +own seed, or reap his own grain, save under the supervision of prefects +acting under instructions from the home government. No one was allowed +to enter or leave the colony without permission, not from the colonists +but from the king. No farmer could visit Montreal or Quebec without +permission. No Huguenot could set his foot on Canadian soil. No public +meetings of any kind were tolerated, nor were there any means of giving +expression to one's opinions on any subject. The details of all this, +which may be read in Mr. Parkman's admirable work on "The Old Regime in +Canada," make a wonderful chapter of history. Never was a colony, +moreover, so loaded with bounties, so fostered, petted, and protected. +The result was absolute paralysis, political and social. When after a +century of irritation and skirmishing the French in Canada came to a +life-and-death struggle with the self-governing colonists of New +England, New York, and Virginia, the result for the French power in +America was instant and irretrievable annihilation. The town-meeting +pitted against the bureaucracy was like a Titan overthrowing a cripple. +The historic lesson owes its value to the fact that this ruin of the +French scheme of colonial empire was due to no accidental circumstances, +but was involved in the very nature of the French political system. +Obviously it is impossible for a people to plant beyond sea a colony +which shall be self-supporting, unless it has retained intact the power +of self-government at home. It is to the self-government of England, and +to no lesser cause, that we are to look for the secret of that boundless +vitality which has given to men of English speech the uttermost parts of +the earth for an inheritance. The conquest of Canada first demonstrated +this truth, and when--in the two following lectures--we shall have made +some approach towards comprehending its full import, we shall all, I +think, be ready to admit that the triumph of Wolfe marks the greatest +turning-point as yet discernible in modern history. + + + + +II. + + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries +still ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of +political wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books +in the world. At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other +time in the career of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with +such luxuriance as at Athens during the eighty-five years which +intervened between the victory of Marathon and the defeat of +Ægospotamos. In no other like interval of time, and in no other +community of like dimensions, has so much work been accomplished of +which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema es aei],--an +eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day so distant, or +an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by Athens shall +cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers shall +cease to be read with fresh profit and delight. We understand these +things far better to-day than did those monsters of erudition in the +sixteenth century who studied the classics for philological purposes +mainly. Indeed, the older the world grows, the more varied our +experience of practical politics, the more comprehensive our survey of +universal history, the stronger our grasp upon the comparative method of +inquiry, the more brilliant is the light thrown upon that brief day of +Athenian greatness, and the more wonderful and admirable does it all +seem. To see this glorious community overthrown, shorn of half its +virtue (to use the Homeric phrase), and thrust down into an inferior +position in the world, is a mournful spectacle indeed. And the book +which sets before us, so impartially yet so eloquently, the innumerable +petty misunderstandings and contemptible jealousies which brought about +this direful result, is one of the most mournful of books. + +We may console ourselves, however, for the premature overthrow of the +power of Athens, by the reflection that that power rested upon political +conditions which could not in any case have been permanent or even +long-enduring. The entire political system of ancient Greece, based as +it was upon the idea of the sovereign independence of each single city, +was one which could not fail sooner or later to exhaust itself through +chronic anarchy. The only remedy lay either in some kind of permanent +federation, combined with representative government; or else in what we +might call "incorporation and assimilation," after the Roman fashion. +But the incorporation of one town with another, though effected with +brilliant results in the early history of Attika, involved such a +disturbance of all the associations which in the Greek mind clustered +about the conception of a city that it was quite impracticable on any +large or general scale. Schemes of federal union were put into +operation, though too late to be of avail against the assaults of +Macedonia and Rome. But as for the principle of representation, that +seems to have been an invention of the Teutonic mind; no statesman of +antiquity, either in Greece or at Rome, seems to have conceived the idea +of a city sending delegates armed with plenary powers to represent its +interests in a general legislative assembly. To the Greek statesmen, no +doubt, this too would have seemed derogatory to the dignity of the +sovereign city. + +This feeling with which the ancient Greek statesmen, and to some extent +the Romans also, regarded the city, has become almost incomprehensible +to the modern mind, so far removed are we from the political +circumstances which made such a feeling possible. Teutonic +civilization, indeed, has never passed through a stage in which the +foremost position has been held by civic communities. Teutonic +civilization passed directly from the stage of tribal into that of +national organization, before any Teutonic city had acquired sufficient +importance to have claimed autonomy for itself; and at the time when +Teutonic nationalities were forming, moreover, all the cities in Europe +had so long been accustomed to recognize a master outside of them in the +person of the Roman emperor that the very tradition of civic autonomy, +as it existed in ancient Greece, had become extinct. This difference +between the political basis of Teutonic and of Græco-Roman civilization +is one of which it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance; and +when thoroughly understood it goes farther, perhaps, than anything else +towards accounting for the successive failures of the Greek and Roman +political systems, and towards inspiring us with confidence in the +future stability of the political system which has been wrought out by +the genius of the English race. + +We saw, in the preceding lecture, how the most primitive form of +political association known to have existed is that of the _clan_, or +group of families held together by ties of descent from a common +ancestor. We saw how the change from a nomadic to a stationary mode of +life, attendant upon the adoption of agricultural pursuits, converted +the clan into a _mark_ or village-community, something like those which +exist to-day in Russia. The political progress of primitive society +seems to have consisted largely in the coalescence of these small groups +into larger groups. The first series of compound groups resulting from +the coalescence of adjacent marks is that which was known in nearly all +Teutonic lands as the _hundred_, in Athens as the [Greek: _phratria_] or +_brotherhood_, in Rome as the _curia_. Yet alongside of the Roman group +called the _curia_ there is a group whose name, the _century_, exactly +translates the name of the Teutonic group; and, as Mr. Freeman says, it +is difficult to believe that the Roman _century_ did not at the outset +in some way correspond to the Teutonic _hundred_ as a stage in political +organization. But both these terms, as we know them in history, are +survivals from some prehistoric state of things; and whether they were +originally applied to a hundred of houses, or of families, or of +warriors, we do not know.[8] M. Geffroy, in his interesting essay on the +Germania of Tacitus, suggests that the term _canton_ may have a similar +origin.[9] The outlines of these primitive groups are, however, more +obscure than those of the more primitive mark, because in most cases +they have been either crossed and effaced or at any rate diminished in +importance by the more highly compounded groups which came next in order +of formation. Next above the _hundred_, in order of composition, comes +the group known in ancient Italy as the_pagus_, in Attika perhaps as the +_deme_, in Germany and at first in England as the _gau_ or _ga_, at a +later date in England as the _shire_. Whatever its name, this group +answers to the _tribe_ regarded as settled upon a certain determinate +territory. Just as in the earlier nomadic life the aggregation of clans +makes ultimately the tribe, so in the more advanced agricultural life of +our Aryan ancestors the aggregation of marks or village-communities +makes ultimately the _gau_ or _shire_. Properly speaking, the name +_shire_ is descriptive of division and not of aggregation; but this term +came into use in England after the historic order of formation had been +forgotten, and when the _shire_ was looked upon as a _piece_ of some +larger whole, such as the kingdom of Mercia or Wessex. Historically, +however, the _shire_ was not made, like the _departments_ of modern +France, by the division of the kingdom for administrative purposes, but +the kingdom was made by the union of shires that were previously +autonomous. In the primitive process of aggregation, the _shire_ or +_gau_, governed by its _witenagemote_ or "meeting of wise men," and by +its chief magistrate who was called _ealdorman_ in time of peace and +_heretoga_, "army-leader," _dux_, or _duke_, in time of war,--the +_shire_, I say, in this form, is the largest and most complex political +body we find previous to the formation of kingdoms and nations. But in +saying this, we have already passed beyond the point at which we can +include in the same general formula the process of political development +in Teutonic countries on the one hand and in Greece and Rome on the +other. Up as far as the formation of the tribe, territorially regarded, +the parallelism is preserved; but at this point there begins an +all-important divergence. In the looser and more diffused society of the +rural Teutons, the tribe is spread over a shire, and the aggregation of +shires makes a kingdom, embracing cities, towns, and rural districts +held together by similar bonds of relationship to the central governing +power. But in the society of the old Greeks and Italians, the +aggregation of tribes, crowded together on fortified hill-tops, makes +the _Ancient City_,--a very different thing, indeed, from the modern +city of later-Roman or Teutonic foundation. Let us consider, for a +moment, the difference. + +Sir Henry Maine tells us that in Hindustan nearly all the great towns +and cities have arisen either from the simple expansion or from the +expansion and coalescence of primitive village-communities; and such as +have not arisen in this way, including some of the greatest of Indian +cities, have grown up about the intrenched camps of the Mogul +emperors.[10] The case has been just the same in modern Europe. Some +famous cities of England and Germany--such as Chester and Lincoln, +Strasburg and Maintz,--grew up about the camps of the Roman legions. But +in general the Teutonic city has been formed by the expansion and +coalescence of thickly-peopled townships and hundreds. In the United +States nearly all cities have come from the growth and expansion of +villages, with such occasional cases of coalescence as that of Boston +with Roxbury and Charlestown. Now and then a city has been laid out as a +city _ab initio_, with full consciousness of its purpose, as a man would +build a house; and this was the case not merely with Martin Chuzzlewit's +"Eden," but with the city of Washington, the seat of our federal +government. But, to go back to the early ages of England--the country +which best exhibits the normal development of Teutonic institutions--the +point which I wish especially to emphasize is this: _in no case does the +city appear as equivalent to the dwelling-place of a tribe or of a +confederation of tribes_. In no case does citizenship, or burghership, +appear to rest upon the basis of a real or assumed community of descent +from a single real or mythical progenitor. In the primitive mark, as we +have seen, the bond which kept the community together and constituted it +a political unit was the bond of blood-relationship, real or assumed; +but this was not the case with the city or borough. The city did not +correspond with the tribe, as the mark corresponded with the clan. The +aggregation of clans into tribes corresponded with the aggregation of +marks, not into _cities_ but into _shires_. The multitude of compound +political units, by the further compounding of which a nation was to be +formed, did not consist of cities but of shires. The city was simply a +point in the shire distinguished by greater density of population. The +relations sustained by the thinly-peopled rural townships and hundreds +to the general government of the shire were co-ordinate with the +relations sustained to the same government by those thickly-peopled +townships and hundreds which upon their coalescence were known as cities +or boroughs. Of course I am speaking now in a broad and general way, and +without reference to such special privileges or immunities as cities and +boroughs frequently obtained by royal charter in feudal times. Such +special privileges--as for instance the exemption of boroughs from the +ordinary sessions of the county court, under Henry I.[11]--were in their +nature grants from an external source, and were in nowise inherent in +the position or mode of origin of the Teutonic city. And they were, +moreover, posterior in date to that embryonic period of national growth +of which I am now speaking. They do not affect in any way the +correctness of my general statement, which is sufficiently illustrated +by the fact that the oldest shire-motes, or county-assemblies, were +attended by representatives from all the townships and hundreds in the +shire, whether such townships and hundreds formed parts of boroughs +or not. + +Very different from this was the embryonic growth of political society +in ancient Greece and Italy. There the aggregation of clans into tribes +and confederations of tribes resulted directly, as we have seen, in the +City. There burghership, with its political and social rights and +duties, had its theoretical basis in descent from a common ancestor, or +from a small group of closely-related common ancestors. The group of +fellow-citizens was associated through its related groups of ancestral +household-deities, and through religious rites performed in common to +which it would have been sacrilege to have admitted a stranger. Thus the +Ancient City was a religious as well as a political body, and in either +character it was complete in itself and it was sovereign. Thus in +ancient Greece and Italy the primitive clan-assembly or township-meeting +did not grow by aggregation into the assembly of the shire, but it +developed into the _comitia_ or _ecclesia_ of the city. The chief +magistrate was not the _ealdorman_ of early English history, but the +_rex_ or _basileus_ who combined in himself the functions of king, +general, and priest. Thus, too, there was a severance, politically, +between city and country such as the Teutonic world has never known. The +rural districts surrounding a city might be subject to it, but could +neither share its franchise nor claim a co-ordinate franchise with it. +Athens, indeed, at an early period, went so far as to incorporate with +itself Eleusis and Marathon and the other rural towns of Attika. In this +one respect Athens transgressed the bounds of ancient civic +organization, and no doubt it gained greatly in power thereby. But +generally in the Hellenic world the rural population in the +neighbourhood of a great city were mere [Greek: _perioikoi_], or +"dwellers in the vicinity"; the inhabitants of the city who had moved +thither from some other city, both they and their descendants, were mere +[Greek: metoikoi], or "dwellers in the place"; and neither the one class +nor the other could acquire the rights and privileges of citizenship. A +revolution, indeed, went on at Athens, from the time of Solon to the +time of Kleisthenes, which essentially modified the old tribal divisions +and admitted to the franchise all such families resident from time +immemorial as did not belong to the tribes of eupatrids by whom the city +was founded. But this change once accomplished, the civic exclusiveness +of Athens remained very much what it was before. The popular assembly +was enlarged, and public harmony was secured; but Athenian burghership +still remained a privilege which could not be acquired by the native of +any other city. Similar revolutions, with a similarly limited purpose +and result, occurred at Sparta, Elis, and other Greek cities. At Rome, +by a like revolution, the plebeians of the Capitoline and Aventine +acquired parallel rights of citizenship with the patricians of the +original city on the Palatine; but this revolution, as we shall +presently see, had different results, leading ultimately to the +overthrow of the city-system throughout the ancient world. + +The deep-seated difference between the Teutonic political system based +on the shire and the Græco-Roman system based on the city is now, I +think, sufficiently apparent. Now from this fundamental difference have +come two consequences of enormous importance,--consequences of which it +is hardly too much to say that, taken together, they furnish the key to +the whole history of European civilization as regarded purely from a +political point of view. + +The first of these consequences had no doubt a very humble origin in the +mere difference between the shire and the city in territorial extent and +in density of population. When people live near together it is easy for +them to attend a town-meeting, and the assembly by which public business +is transacted is likely to remain a _primary assembly_, in the true +sense of the term. But when people are dispersed over a wide tract of +country, the primary assembly inevitably shrinks up into an assembly of +such persons as can best afford the time and trouble of attending it, or +who have the strongest interest in going, or are most likely to be +listened to after they get there. Distance and difficulty, and in early +times danger too, keep many people away. And though a shire is not a +wide tract of country for most purposes, and according to modern ideas, +it was nevertheless quite wide enough in former times to bring about the +result I have mentioned. In the times before the Norman conquest, if not +before the completed union of England under Edgar, the shire-mote or +county assembly, though in theory still a folk-mote or primary assembly, +had shrunk into what was virtually a witenagemote or assembly of the +most important persons in the county. But the several townships, in +order to keep their fair share of control over county affairs, and not +wishing to leave the matter to chance, sent to the meetings each its +_representatives_ in the persons of the town-reeve and four "discreet +men." I believe it has not been determined at what precise time this +step was taken, but it no doubt long antedates the Norman conquest. It +is mentioned by Professor Stubbs as being already, in the reign of Henry +III., a custom of immemorial antiquity.[12] It was one of the greatest +steps ever taken in the political history of mankind. In these four +discreet men we have the forerunners of the two burghers from each town +who were summoned by Earl Simon to the famous parliament of 1265, as +well as of the two knights from each shire whom the king had summoned +eleven years before. In these four discreet men sent to speak for their +township in the old county assembly, we have the germ of institutions +that have ripened into the House of Commons and into the legislatures of +modern kingdoms and republics. In the system of representation thus +inaugurated lay the future possibility of such gigantic political +aggregates as the United States of America. + +In the ancient city, on the other hand, the extreme compactness of the +political structure made representation unnecessary and prevented it +from being thought of in circumstances where it might have proved of +immense value. In an aristocratic Greek city, like Sparta, all the +members of the ruling class met together and voted in the assembly; in a +democratic city, like Athens, all the free citizens met and voted; in +each case the assembly was primary and not representative. The only +exception, in all Greek antiquity, is one which emphatically proves the +rule. The Amphiktyonic Council, an institution of prehistoric origin, +concerned mainly with religious affairs pertaining to the worship of the +Delphic Apollo, furnished a precedent for a representative, and indeed +for a federal, assembly. Delegates from various Greek tribes and cities +attended it. The fact that with such a suggestive precedent before their +eyes the Greeks never once hit upon the device of representation, even +in their attempts at framing federal unions, shows how thoroughly their +whole political training had operated to exclude such a conception from +their minds. + +The second great consequence of the Graeco-Roman city-system was linked +in many ways with this absence of the representative principle. In +Greece the formation of political aggregates higher and more extensive +than the city was, until a late date, rendered impossible. The good and +bad sides of this peculiar phase of civilization have been often enough +commented on by historians. On the one hand the democratic assembly of +such an imperial city as Athens furnished a school of political training +superior to anything else that the world has ever seen. It was something +like what the New England town-meeting would be if it were continually +required to adjust complicated questions of international polity, if it +were carried on in the very centre or point of confluence of all +contemporary streams of culture, and if it were in the habit every few +days of listening to statesmen and orators like Hamilton or Webster, +jurists like Marshall, generals like Sherman, poets like Lowell, +historians like Parkman. Nothing in all history has approached the +high-wrought intensity and brilliancy of the political life of Athens. + +On the other hand, the smallness of the independent city, as a political +aggregate, made it of little or no use in diminishing the liability to +perpetual warfare which is the curse of all primitive communities. In a +group of independent cities, such as made up the Hellenic world, the +tendency to warfare is almost as strong, and the occasions for warfare +are almost as frequent, as in a congeries of mutually hostile tribes of +barbarians. There is something almost lurid in the sharpness of contrast +with which the wonderful height of humanity attained by Hellas is set +off against the fierce barbarism which characterized the relations of +its cities to one another. It may be laid down as a general rule that in +an early state of society, where the political aggregations are small, +warfare is universal and cruel. From the intensity of the jealousies and +rivalries between adjacent self-governing groups of men, nothing short +of chronic warfare can result, until some principle of union is evolved +by which disputes can be settled in accordance with general principles +admitted by all. Among peoples that have never risen above the tribal +stage of aggregation, such as the American Indians, war is the normal +condition of things, and there is nothing fit to be called +_peace_,--there are only truces of brief and uncertain duration. Were it +not for this there would be somewhat less to be said in favour of great +states and kingdoms. As modern life grows more and more complicated and +interdependent, the Great State subserves innumerable useful purposes; +but in the history of civilization its first service, both in order of +time and in order of importance, consists in the diminution of the +quantity of warfare and in the narrowing of its sphere. For within the +territorial limits of any great and permanent state, the tendency is for +warfare to become the exception and peace the rule. In this direction +the political careers of the Greek cities assisted the progress of +civilization but little. + +Under the conditions of Graeco-Roman civic life there were but two +practicable methods of forming a great state and diminishing the +quantity of warfare. The one method was _conquest with incorporation_, +the other method was _federation_. Either one city might conquer all +the others and endow their citizens with its own franchise, or all the +cities might give up part of their sovereignty to a federal body which +should have power to keep the peace, and should represent the civilized +world of the time in its relations with outlying barbaric peoples. Of +these two methods, obviously the latter is much the more effective, but +it presupposes for its successful adoption a higher general state of +civilization than the former. Neither method was adopted by the Greeks +in their day of greatness. The Spartan method of extending its power was +conquest without incorporation: when Sparta conquered another Greek +city, she sent a _harmost_ to govern it like a tyrant; in other words +she virtually enslaved the subject city. The efforts of Athens tended +more in the direction of a peaceful federalism. In the great Delian +confederacy which developed into the maritime empire of Athens, the +Ægean cities were treated as allies rather than subjects. As regards +their local affairs they were in no way interfered with, and could they +have been represented in some kind of a federal council at Athens, the +course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered. As it +was, they were all deprived of one essential element of +sovereignty,--the power of controlling their own military forces. Some +of them, as Chios and Mitylene, furnished troops at the demand of +Athens; others maintained no troops, but paid a fixed tribute to Athens +in return for her protection. In either case they felt shorn of part of +their dignity, though otherwise they had nothing to complain of; and +during the Peloponnesian war Athens had to reckon with their tendency to +revolt as well as with her Dorian enemies. Such a confederation was +naturally doomed to speedy overthrow. + +In the century following the death of Alexander, in the closing age of +Hellenic independence, the federal idea appears in a much more advanced +stage of elaboration, though in a part of Greece which had been held of +little account in the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the +Achaian federation, framed in 274 B.C., and the United States of +America, there are some interesting points of resemblance which have +been elaborately discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his "History of Federal +Government." About the same time the Aetolian League came into +prominence in the north. Both these leagues were instances of true +federal government, and were not mere confederations; that is, the +central government acted directly upon all the citizens and not merely +upon the local governments. Each of these leagues had for its chief +executive officer a General elected for one year, with powers similar to +those of an American President. In each the supreme assembly was a +primary assembly at which every citizen from every city of the league +had a right to be present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural +consequence these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic +bodies. In Ætolia, which was a group of mountain cantons similar to +Switzerland, the federal union was more complete than in Achaia, which +was a group of cities. In Achaia cases occurred in which a single city +was allowed to deal separately with foreign powers. Here, as in earlier +Greek history, the instinct of autonomy was too powerful to admit of +complete federation. Yet the career of the Achaian League was not an +inglorious one. For nearly a century and a half it gave the Peloponnesos +a larger measure of orderly government than the country had ever known +before, without infringing upon local liberties. It defied successfully +the threats and assaults of Macedonia, and yielded at last only to the +all-conquering might of Rome. + +Thus in so far as Greece contributed anything towards the formation of +great and pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts at +_federation_. But in so low a state of political development as that +which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in pre-Christian +times, the more barbarous method of _conquest with incorporation_ was +more likely to be successful on a great scale. This was well illustrated +in the history of Rome,--a civic community of the same generic type with +Sparta and Athens, but presenting specific differences of the highest +importance. The beginnings of Rome, unfortunately, are prehistoric. I +have often thought that if some beneficent fairy could grant us the +power of somewhere raising the veil of oblivion which enshrouds the +earliest ages of Aryan dominion in Europe, there is no place from which +the historian should be more glad to see it lifted than from Rome in the +centuries which saw the formation of the city, and which preceded the +expulsion of the kings. Even the legends, which were uncritically +accepted from the days of Livy to those of our grandfathers, are +provokingly silent upon the very points as to which we would fain get at +least a hint. This much is plain, however, that in the embryonic stage +of the Roman commonwealth some obscure processes of fusion or +commingling went on. The tribal population of Rome was more +heterogeneous than that of the great cities of Greece, and its earliest +municipal religion seems to have been an assemblage of various tribal +religions that had points of contact with other tribal religions +throughout large portions of the Græco-Italic world. As M. de Coulanges +observes,[13] Rome was almost the only city of antiquity which was not +kept apart from other cities by its religion. There was hardly a people +in Greece or Italy which it was restrained from admitting to +participation in its municipal rites. + +However this may have been, it is certain that Rome early succeeded in +freeing itself from that insuperable prejudice which elsewhere prevented +the ancient city from admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And +in this victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of +Rome's mighty career. The victory was not indeed completed until after +the terrible Social War of B.C. 90, but it was begun at least four +centuries earlier with the admission of the plebeians. At the +consummation of the conquest of Italy in B.C. 270 Roman burghership +already extended, in varying degrees of completeness, through the +greater part of Etruria and Campania, from the coast to the mountains; +while all the rest of Italy was admitted to privileges for which ancient +history had elsewhere furnished no precedent. Hence the invasion of +Hannibal half a century later, even with its stupendous victories of +Thrasymene and Cannae, effected nothing toward detaching the Italian +subjects from their allegiance to Rome; and herein we have a most +instructive contrast to the conduct of the communities subject to Athens +at several critical moments of the Peloponnesian War. With this +consolidation of Italy, thus triumphantly demonstrated, the whole +problem of the conquering career of Rome was solved. All that came +afterwards was simply a corollary from this. The concentration of all +the fighting power of the peninsula into the hands of the ruling city +formed a stronger political aggregate than anything the world had as yet +seen. It was not only proof against the efforts of the greatest military +genius of antiquity, but whenever it was brought into conflict with the +looser organizations of Greece, Africa, and Asia, or with the +semi-barbarous tribes of Spain and Gaul, the result of the struggle was +virtually predetermined. The universal dominion of Rome was inevitable, +so soon as the political union of Italy had been accomplished. Among the +Romans themselves there were those who thoroughly understood this point, +as we may see from the interesting speech of the emperor Claudius in +favour of admitting Gauls to the senate. + +The benefits conferred upon the world by the, universal dominion of Rome +were of quite inestimable value. First of these benefits, and (as it +were) the material basis of the others, was the prolonged peace that was +enforced throughout large portions of the world where chronic warfare +had hitherto prevailed. The _pax romana_ has perhaps been sometimes +depicted in exaggerated colours; but as compared with all that had +preceded, and with all that followed, down to the beginning of the +nineteenth century, it deserved the encomiums it has received. The +second benefit was the mingling and mutual destruction of the primitive +tribal and municipal religions, thus clearing the way for +Christianity,--a step which, regarded from a purely political point of +view, was of immense importance for the further consolidation of society +in Europe. The third benefit was the development of the Roman law into a +great body of legal precepts and principles leavened throughout with +ethical principles of universal applicability, and the gradual +substitution of this Roman law for the innumerable local usages of +ancient communities. Thus arose the idea of a common Christendom, of a +brotherhood of peoples associated both by common beliefs regarding the +unseen world and by common principles of action in the daily affairs of +life. The common ethical and traditional basis thus established for the +future development of the great nationalities of Europe is the most +fundamental characteristic distinguishing modern from ancient history. + +While, however, it secured these benefits for mankind for all time to +come, the Roman political system in itself was one which could not +possibly endure. That extension of the franchise which made Rome's +conquests possible, was, after all, the extension of a franchise which +could only be practically enjoyed within the walls of the imperial city +itself. From first to last the device of representation was never +thought of, and from first to last the Roman _comitia_ remained a +primary assembly. The result was that, as the burgherhood enlarged, the +assembly became a huge mob as little fitted for the transaction of +public business as a town-meeting of all the inhabitants of New York +would be. The functions which in Athens were performed by the assembly +were accordingly in Rome performed largely by the aristocratic senate; +and for the conflicts consequently arising between the senatorial and +the popular parties it was difficult to find any adequate constitutional +check. Outside of Italy, moreover, in the absence of a representative +system, the Roman government was a despotism which, whether more or less +oppressive, could in the nature of things be nothing else than a +despotism. But nothing is more dangerous for a free people than the +attempt to govern a dependent people despotically. The bad government +kills out the good government as surely as slave-labour destroys +free-labour, or as a debased currency drives out a sound currency. The +existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with great armies at their +beck and call, brought about such results as might have been predicted, +as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a valid excuse for +armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, the result +is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government that was +practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably +impracticable. + +As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial +government at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an +orderly and responsible administration for irregular and irresponsible +extortion. For a long time, too, it was no part of the imperial policy +to interfere with local customs and privileges. But, in the absence of a +representative system, the centralizing tendency inseparable from the +position of such a government proved to be irresistible. And the +strength of this centralizing tendency was further enhanced by the +military character of the government which was necessitated by perpetual +frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year went by, the +provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by their local +magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor only. +There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for the +decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated by +the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman +strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local +governments came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription +that were laid upon them.[14] And as "the dislocation of commerce and +industry caused by the barbarian inroads, and the increasing demands of +the central administration for the payment of its countless officials +and the maintenance of its troops, all went together," the load at last +became greater "than human nature could endure." By the time of the +great invasions of the fifth century, local political life had gone far +towards extinction throughout Roman Europe, and the tribal organization +of the Teutons prevailed in the struggle simply because it had come to +be politically stronger than any organization that was left to +oppose it. + +We have now seen how the two great political systems that were founded +upon the Ancient City both ended in failure, though both achieved +enormous and lasting results. And we have seen how largely both these +political failures were due to the absence of the principle of +representation from the public life of Greece and Rome. The chief +problem of civilization, from the political point of view, has always +been how to secure concerted action among men on a great scale without +sacrificing local independence. The ancient history of Europe shows that +it is not possible to solve this problem without the aid of the +principle of representation. Greece, until overcome by external force, +sacredly maintained local self-government, but in securing permanent +concert of action it was conspicuously unsuccessful. Rome secured +concert of action on a gigantic scale, and transformed the thousand +unconnected tribes and cities it conquered into an organized European +world, but in doing this it went far towards extinguishing local +self-government. The advent of the Teutons upon the scene seems +therefore to have been necessary, if only to supply the indispensable +element without which the dilemma of civilization could not be +surmounted. The turbulence of Europe during the Teutonic migrations was +so great and so long continued, that on a superficial view one might be +excused for regarding the good work of Rome as largely undone. And in +the feudal isolation of effort and apparent incapacity for combined +action which characterized the different parts of Europe after the +downfall of the Carolingian empire, it might well have seemed that +political society had reverted towards a primitive type of structure. In +truth, however, the retrogradation was much slighter than appeared on +the surface. Feudalism itself, with its curious net-work of fealties and +obligations running through the fabric of society in every direction, +was by no means purely disintegrative in its tendencies. The mutual +relations of rival baronies were by no means like those of rival clans +or tribes in pre-Roman days. The central power of Rome, though no longer +exerted politically through curators and prefects, was no less effective +in the potent hands of the clergy and in the traditions of the imperial +jurisprudence by which the legal ideas of mediaeval society were so +strongly coloured. So powerful, indeed, was this twofold influence of +Rome, that in the later Middle Ages, when the modern nationalities had +fairly taken shape, it was the capacity for local self-government--in +spite of all the Teutonic reinforcement it had had--that had suffered +much more than the capacity for national consolidation. Among the great +modern nations it was only England--which in its political development +had remained more independent of the Roman law and the Roman church than +even the Teutonic fatherland itself--it was only England that came out +of the mediæval crucible with its Teutonic self-government substantially +intact. On the main-land only two little spots, at the two extremities +of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth of the +Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack in +the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history +was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany +the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to +Burgundian invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic +democracy of their Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both +these free peoples, in their efforts towards national unity, were led to +frame federal unions, and one of these political achievements is, from +the stand-point of universal history, of very great significance. The +old League of High Germany, which earned immortal renown at Morgarten +and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking cantons only. But in the +fifteenth century the League won by force of arms a small bit of Italian +territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth the powerful city of +Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne and rescued the free +city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. Other Burgundian +possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; and after +awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms into +the confederation. The result is that modern Switzerland is made up of +what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four +languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the +limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are +sharply divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this, +Switzerland is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. +To the German-speaking Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of +Bavaria are foreigners, while the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva +are fellow-countrymen. Deeper down even than these deep-seated +differences of speech and creed lies the feeling that comes from the +common possession of a political freedom that is greater than that +possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the happy outcome of the +first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic descent. Complete +independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate +representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense +cohesion of interests throughout the nation as no centralized +government, however cunningly devised, could ever have secured. + +Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government +had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great +bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and +peaceful relations with one another. The empire of Trajan and Marcus +Aurelius still remained the greatest known example of political +aggregation; and men who argued from simple historic precedent without +that power of analyzing precedents which the comparative method has +supplied, came not unnaturally to the conclusions that great political +aggregates have an inherent tendency towards breaking up, and that great +political aggregates cannot be maintained except by a strongly- +centralized administration and at the sacrifice of local self- +government. A century ago the very idea of a stable federation of forty +powerful states, covering a territory nearly equal in area to the whole +of Europe, carried on by a republican government elected by universal +suffrage, and guaranteeing to every tiniest village its full meed of +local independence,--the very idea of all this would have been scouted +as a thoroughly impracticable Utopian dream. And such scepticism would +have been quite justifiable, for European history did not seem to afford +any precedents upon which such a forecast of the future could be +logically based. Between the various nations of Europe there has +certainly always existed an element of political community, bequeathed +by the Roman empire, manifested during the Middle Ages in a common +relationship to the Church, and in modern times in a common adherence to +certain uncodified rules of international law, more or less im perfectly +defined and enforced. Between England and Spain, for example, or between +France and Austria, there has never been such utter political severance +as existed normally between Greece and Persia, or Rome and Carthage. But +this community of political inheritance in Europe, it is needless to +say, falls very far short of the degree of community implied in a +federal union; and so great is the diversity of language and of creed, +and of local historic development with the deep-seated prejudices +attendant thereupon, that the formation of a European federation could +hardly be looked for except as the result of mighty though quiet and +subtle influences operating for a long time from without. From what +direction, and in what manner, such an irresistible though perfectly +pacific pressure is likely to be exerted in the future, I shall +endeavour to show in my next lecture. At present we have to observe that +the experiment of federal union on a grand scale required as its +conditions, _first_, a vast extent of unoccupied country which could be +settled without much warfare by men of the same race and speech, and +_secondly_, on the part of the settlers, a rich inheritance of political +training such as is afforded by long ages of self-government. The +Atlantic coast of North America, easily accessible to Europe, yet remote +enough to be freed from the political complications of the old world, +furnished the first of these conditions: the history of the English +people through fifty generations furnished the second. It was through +English self-government, as I argued in my first lecture, that England +alone, among the great nations of Europe, was able to found durable and +self-supporting colonies. I have now to add that it was only England, +among all the great nations of Europe, that could send forth colonists +capable of dealing successfully with the difficult problem of forming +such a political aggregate as the United States have become. For +obviously the preservation of local self-government is essential to the +very idea of a federal union. Without the Town-Meeting, or its +equivalent in some form or other, the Federal Union would become _ipso +facto_ converted into a centralizing imperial government. Should +anything of this sort ever happen--should American towns ever come to be +ruled by prefects appointed at Washington, and should American States +ever become like the administrative departments of France, or even like +the counties of England at the present day--then the time will have come +when men may safely predict the break-up of the American political +system by reason of its overgrown dimensions and the diversity of +interests between its parts. States so unlike one another as Maine and +Louisiana and California cannot be held together by the stiff bonds of a +centralizing government. The durableness of the federal union lies in +its flexibility, and it is this flexibility which makes it the only kind +of government, according to modern ideas, that is permanently applicable +to a whole continent. If ¸the United States were to-day a consolidated +republic like France, recent events in California might have disturbed +the peace of the country. But in the federal union, if California, as a +state sovereign within its own sphere, adopts a grotesque constitution +that aims at infringing on the rights of capitalists, the other states +are not directly affected. They may disapprove, but they have neither +the right nor the desire to interfere. Meanwhile the laws of nature +quietly operate to repair the blunder. Capital flows away from +California, and the business of the state is damaged, until presently +the ignorant demagogues lose favour, the silly constitution becomes a +dead-letter, and its formal repeal begins to be talked of. Not the +smallest ripple of excitement disturbs the profound peace of the country +at large. It is in this complete independence that is preserved by every +state, in all matters save those in which the federal principle itself +is concerned, that we find the surest guaranty of the permanence of the +American political system. Obviously no race of men, save the race to +which habits of self-government and the skilful use of political +representation had come to be as second nature, could ever have +succeeded in founding such a system. + + +Yet even by men of English race, working with out let or hindrance from +any foreign source, and with the better part of a continent at their +disposal for a field to work in, so great a political problem as that of +the American Union has not been solved without much toil and trouble. +The great puzzle of civilization--how to secure permanent concert of +action without sacrificing independence of action--is a puzzle which has +taxed the ingenuity of Americans as well as of older Aryan peoples. In +the year 1788 when our Federal Union was completed, the problem had +already occupied the minds of American statesmen for a century and a +half,--that is to say, ever since the English settlement of +Massachusetts. In 1643 a New England confederation was formed between +Massachusetts and Connecticut, together with Plymouth since merged in +Massachusetts and New Haven since merged in Connecticut. The +confederation was formed for defence against the French in Canada, the +Dutch on the Hudson river, and the Indians. But owing simply to the +inequality in the sizes of these colonies--Massachusetts more than +outweighing the other three combined--the practical working of this +confederacy was never very successful. In 1754, just before the outbreak +of the great war which drove the French from America, a general Congress +of the colonies was held at Albany, and a comprehensive scheme of union +was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but nothing came of the project at +that time. The commercial rivalry between the colonies, and their +disputes over boundary lines, were then quite like the similar phenomena +with which Europe had so long been familiar. In 1756 Georgia and South +Carolina actually came to blows over the navigation of the Savannah +river. The idea that the thirteen colonies could ever overcome their +mutual jealousies so far as to unite in a single political body, was +received at that time in England with a derision like that which a +proposal for a permanent federation of European States would excite in +many minds to-day. It was confidently predicted that if the common +allegiance to the British crown were once withdrawn, the colonies would +forthwith proceed to destroy themselves with internecine war. In fact, +however, it was the shaking off of allegiance to the British crown, and +the common trials and sufferings of the war of independence, that at +last welded the colonies together and made a federal union possible. As +it was, the union was consummated only by degrees. By the Articles of +Confederation, agreed on by Congress in 1777 but not adopted by all the +States until 1781, the federal government acted only upon the several +state governments and not directly upon individuals; there was no +federal judiciary for the decision of constitutional questions arising +out of the relations between the states; and the Congress was not +provided with any efficient means of raising a revenue or of enforcing +its legislative decrees. Under such a government the difficulty of +insuring concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent +personal qualities of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the +British ministry, and the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of +independence would most likely have ended in failure. After the +independence of the colonies was acknowledged, the formation of a more +perfect union was seen to be the only method of securing peace and +making a nation which should be respected by foreign powers; and so in +1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution of the United +States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very few people at +the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of compromises, +yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political wisdom. + +The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of +securing approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between +states of unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was +at last surmounted has proved effectual, although the inequalities +between the states have greatly increased. To-day the population of New +York is more than eighty times that of Nevada. In area the state of +Rhode Island is smaller than Montenegro, while the state of Texas is +larger than the Austrian empire with Bavaria and Würtemberg thrown in. +Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode Island and Texas, each send two senators +to Washington, while on the other hand in the lower house each state has +a number of representatives proportioned to its population. The upper +house of Congress is therefore a federal while the lower house is a +national body, and the government is brought into direct contact with +the people without endangering the equal rights of the several states. + +The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in the +series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the +states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and +jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of +property, marriage and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the +punishment of malefactors, each separate state is as completely a +sovereign state as France or Great Britain. In speaking to a British +audience a concrete illustration may not be superfluous. If a criminal +is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, the royal prerogative of pardon +resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: the President of the United +States has no more authority in the case than the Czar of Russia. Nor in +civil cases can an appeal lie from the state courts to the Supreme Court +of the United States, save where express provision has been made in the +Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. The chief +attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have parted are +the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition of tariff +dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration of war, +and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and +controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own +militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before +calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however, +these militias come under the control of the central government. Thus +every American citizen lives under two governments, the functions of +which are clearly and intelligibly distinct. + +To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the +Constitution created a "system of United States courts extending +throughout the states, empowered to define the boundaries of federal +authority, and to enforce its decisions by federal power." This +omnipresent federal judiciary was undoubtedly the most important +creation of the statesmen who framed the Constitution. The closely-knit +relations which it established between the states contributed powerfully +to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity throughout the whole +country. The United States today cling together with a coherency far +greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or league. Yet the +primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly that of a +permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic +sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its +neighbours and relegated its international interests to the care of a +central council in which all the states were alike represented and a +central tribunal endowed with purely judicial functions of +interpretation. It was the first attempt in the history of the world, to +apply on a grand scale to the relations between states the same legal +methods of procedure which, as long applied in all civilized countries +to the relations between individuals, have rendered private warfare +obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period of +seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in +extent, tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and +power, the federal union maintained a state of peace more profound than +the _pax romana._ + +Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted +by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to +bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism. +With the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then +reinstated with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with +their people accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with +their leaders not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in +Congress and in the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any +violent constitutional changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the +strength of the pacific implications of federalism has been more +strikingly demonstrated than if there had been no war at all. Certainly +the world never beheld such a spectacle before. In my next and +concluding lecture I shall return to this point while summing up the +argument and illustrating the part played by the English race in the +general history of civilization. + + + + +III. + + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY_." + +Among the legends of our late Civil War there is a story of a +dinner-party given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were +propounded sundry toasts concerning not so much the past and present as +the expected glories of the great American nation. In the general +character of these toasts geographical considerations were very +prominent, and the principal fact which seemed to occupy the minds of +the speakers was the unprecedented _bigness_ of our country. "Here's to +the United States," said the first speaker, "bounded on the north by +British America, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the +Atlantic, and on the west by the Pacific, Ocean." "But," said the second +speaker, "this is far too limited a view of the subject: in assigning +our boundaries we must look to the great and glorious future which is +prescribed for us by the Manifest Destiny of the Anglo-Saxon Race. +Here's to the United States,--bounded on the north by the North Pole, +on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising and on the +west by the setting sun." Emphatic applause greeted this aspiring +prophecy. But here arose the third speaker--a very serious gentleman +from the Far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic +American, "to leave the historic past and present, and take our manifest +destiny into the account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow +limits assigned by our fellow-countryman who has just sat down? I give +you the United States,--bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on +the south by the precession of the equinoxes, on the east by the +primeval chaos, and on the west by the Day of Judgment!" + +I offer this anecdote at the outset by way of self-defence, inasmuch as +I shall by and by have myself to introduce some considerations +concerning the future of our country, and of what some people, without +the fear of Mr. Freeman before their eyes, call the "Anglo-Saxon" race; +and if it should happen to strike you that my calculations are +unreasonably large, I hope you will remember that they are quite modest +after all, when compared with some others. + +The "manifest destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and the huge dimensions +of our country are favourite topics with Fourth-of-July orators, but +they are none the less interesting on that account when considered from +the point of view of the historian. To be a citizen of a great and +growing state, or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world, +is no doubt a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is +perhaps an equal justification for such a feeling in being a citizen of +a tiny state like Holland, which, in spite of its small dimensions, has +nevertheless achieved so much,--fighting at one time the battle of +freedom for the world, producing statesmen like William and Barneveldt, +generals like Maurice, scholars like Erasmus and Grotius, and thinkers +like Spinoza, and taking the lead even to-day in the study of +Christianity and in the interpretation of the Bible. But my course in +the present lecture is determined by historical or philosophical rather +than by patriotic interest, and I shall endeavour to characterize and +group events as impartially as if my home were at Leyden in the Old +World instead of Cambridge in the New. + +First of all, I shall take sides with Mr. Freeman in eschewing +altogether the word "Anglo-Saxon." The term is sufficiently absurd and +misleading as applied in England to the Old-English speech of our +forefathers, or to that portion of English history which is included +between the fifth and the eleventh centuries. But in America it is +frequently used, not indeed by scholars, but by popular writers and +speakers, in a still more loose and slovenly way. In the war of +independence our great-great-grandfathers, not yet having ceased to +think of themselves as Englishmen, used to distinguish themselves as +"Continentals," while the king's troops were known as the "British." The +quaint term "Continental" long ago fell into disuse, except in the slang +phrase "not worth a Continental" which referred to the debased condition +of our currency at the close of the Revolutionary War; but "American" +and "British" might still serve the purpose sufficiently whenever it is +necessary to distinguish between the two great English nationalities. +The term "English," however, is so often used with sole reference to +people and things in England as to have become in some measure +antithetical to "American;" and when it is found desirable to include +the two in a general expression, one often hears in America the term +"Anglo-Saxon" colloquially employed for this purpose. A more slovenly +use of language can hardly be imagined. Such a compound term as +"Anglo-American" might perhaps be logically defensible, but that has +already become restricted to the English-descended inhabitants of the +United States and Canada alone, in distinction from Spanish Americans +and red Indians. It is never so used as to include Englishmen. +Refraining from all such barbarisms, I prefer to call the English race +by the name which it has always applied to itself, from the time when it +inhabited the little district of Angeln on the Baltic coast of Sleswick +down to the time when it had begun to spread itself over three great +continents. It is a race which has shown a rare capacity for absorbing +slightly foreign elements and moulding them into conformity with a +political type that was first wrought out through centuries of effort on +British soil; and this capacity it has shown perhaps in a heightened +degree in the peculiar circumstances in which it has been placed in +America. The American has absorbed considerable quantities of closely +kindred European blood, but he is rapidly assimilating it all, and in +his political habits and aptitudes he remains as thoroughly English as +his forefathers in the days of De Montfort, or Hampden, or Washington. +Premising this, we may go on to consider some aspects of the work which +the English race has done and is doing in the world, and we need not +feel discouraged if, in order to do justice to the subject, we have to +take our start far back in ancient history. We shall begin, it may be +said, somewhere near the primeval chaos, and though we shall indeed +stop short of the day of judgment, we shall hope at all events to reach +the millennium. + +Our eloquent friends of the Paris dinner-party seem to have been +strongly impressed with the excellence of enormous political aggregates. +We, too, approaching the subject from a different point of view, have +been led to see how desirable it is that self-governing groups of men +should be enabled to work together in permanent harmony and on a great +scale. In this kind of political integration the work of civilization +very largely consists. We have seen how in its most primitive form +political society is made up of small self-governing groups that are +perpetually at war with one another. Now the process of change which we +call civilization means quite a number of things. But there is no doubt +that on its political side it means primarily the gradual substitution +of a state of peace for a state of war. This change is the condition +precedent for all the other kinds of improvement that are connoted by +such a term as "civilization." Manifestly the development of industry is +largely dependent upon the cessation or restriction of warfare; and +furthermore, as the industrial phase of civilization slowly supplants +the military phase, men's characters undergo, though very slowly, a +corresponding change. Men become less inclined to destroy life or to +inflict pain; or--to use the popular terminology which happens here to +coincide precisely with that of the Doctrine of Evolution--they become +less _brutal_ and more _humane_. Obviously then the prime feature of the +process called civilization is the general diminution of warfare. But we +have seen that a general diminution of warfare is rendered possible only +by the union of small political groups into larger groups that are kept +together by community of interests, and that can adjust their mutual +relations by legal discussion without coming to blows. In the preceding +lecture we considered this process of political integration as variously +exemplified by communities of Hellenic, of Roman, and of Teutonic race, +and we saw how manifold were the difficulties which the process had to +encounter. We saw how the Teutons--at least in Switzerland, England, and +America--had succeeded best through the retention of local +self-government combined with central representation. We saw how the +Romans failed of ultimate success because by weakening self-government +they weakened that community of interest which is essential to the +permanence of a great political aggregate. We saw how the Greeks, after +passing through their most glorious period in a state of chronic +warfare, had begun to achieve considerable success in forming a pacific +federation when their independent career was suddenly cut short by the +Roman conqueror. + +This last example introduces us to a fresh consideration, of very great +importance. It is not only that every progressive community has had to +solve, in one way or another, the problem of securing permanent concert +of action without sacrificing local independence of action; but while +engaged in this difficult work the community has had to defend itself +against the attacks of other communities. In the case just cited, of the +conquest of Greece by Rome, little harm was done perhaps. But under +different circumstances immense damage may have been done in this way, +and the nearer we go to the beginnings of civilization the greater the +danger. At the dawn of history we see a few brilliant points of +civilization surrounded on every side by a midnight blackness of +barbarism. In order that the pacific community may be able to go on +doing its work, it must be strong enough and warlike enough to overcome +its barbaric neighbours who have no notion whatever of keeping peace. +This is another of the seeming paradoxes of the history of +civilization, that for a very long time the possibility of peace can be +guaranteed only through war. Obviously the permanent peace of the world +can be secured only through the gradual concentration of the +preponderant military strength into the hands of the most pacific +communities. With infinite toil and trouble this point has been slowly +gained by mankind, through the circumstance that the very same political +aggregation of small primitive communities which makes them less +disposed to quarrel among themselves tends also to make them more than a +match for the less coherent groups of their more barbarous neighbours. +The same concert of action which tends towards internal harmony tends +also towards external victory, and both ends are promoted by the +co-operation of the same sets of causes. But for a long time all the +political problems of the civilized world were complicated by the fact +that the community had to fight for its life. We seldom stop to reflect +upon the imminent danger from outside attacks, whether from surrounding +barbarism or from neighbouring civilizations of lower type, amid which +the rich and high-toned civilizations of Greece and Rome were developed. +When the king of Persia undertook to reduce Greece to the condition of a +Persian satrapy, there was imminent danger that all the enormous +fruition of Greek thought in the intellectual life of the European world +might have been nipped in the bud. And who can tell how often, in +prehistoric times, some little gleam of civilization, less bright and +steady than this one had become, may have been quenched in slavery or +massacre? The greatest work which the Romans performed in the world was +to assume the aggressive against menacing barbarism, to subdue it, to +tame it, and to enlist its brute force on the side of law and order. +This was a murderous work, and in doing it the Romans became excessively +cruel, but it had to be done by some one before you could expect to have +great and peaceful civilizations like our own. The warfare of Rome is by +no means adequately explained by the theory of a deliberate immoral +policy of aggression,--"infernal," I believe, is the stronger adjective +which Dr. Draper uses. The aggressive wars of Rome were largely dictated +by just such considerations as those which a century ago made it +necessary for the English to put down the raids of the Scotch +Highlanders, and which have since made it necessary for Russia to subdue +the Caucasus. It is not easy for a turbulent community to live next to +an orderly one without continually stirring up frontier disturbances +which call for stern repression from the orderly community. Such +considerations go far towards explaining the military history of the +Romans, and it is a history with which, on the whole, we ought to +sympathize. In its European relations that history is the history of the +moving of the civilized frontier northward and eastward against the +disastrous encroachments of barbarous peoples. This great movement has, +on the whole, been steadily kept up, in spite of some apparent +fluctuation in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era, and +it is still going on to-day. It was a great gain for civilization when +the Romans overcame the Keltiberians of Spain, and taught them good +manners and the Latin language, and made it for their interest hereafter +to fight against barbarians. The third European peninsula was thus won +over to the side of law and order. Danger now remained on the north. The +Gauls had once sacked the city of Rome; hordes of Teutons had lately +menaced the very heart of civilization, but had been overthrown in +murderous combat by Caius Marius; another great Teutonic movement, led +by Ariovistus, now threatened to precipitate the whole barbaric force of +south-eastern Gaul upon the civilized world; and so it occurred to the +prescient genius of Caesar to be beforehand and conquer Gaul, and +enlist all its giant barbaric force on the side of civilization. This +great work was as thoroughly done as anything that was ever done in +human history, and we ought to be thankful to Caesar for it every day +that we live. The frontier to be defended against barbarism was now +moved away up to the Rhine, and was very much shortened; but above all, +the Gauls were made to feel themselves to be Romans. Their country +became one of the chief strongholds of civilization and of Christianity; +and when the frightful shock of barbarism came--the most formidable blow +that has ever been directed by barbaric brute force against European +civilization--it was in Gaul that it was repelled and that its force was +spent. At the beginning of the fifth century an enormous horde of yellow +Mongolians, known as Huns, poured down into Europe with avowed intent to +burn and destroy all the good work which Rome had wrought in the world; +and terrible was the havoc they effected in the course of fifty years. +If Attila had carried his point, it has been thought that the work of +European civilization might have had to be begun over again. But near +Chálons-on-the-Marne, in the year 451, in one of the most obstinate +struggles of which history preserves the record, the career of the +"Scourge of God" was arrested, and mainly by the prowess of Gauls and of +Visigoths whom the genius of Rome had tamed. That was the last day on +which barbarism was able to contend with civilization on equal terms. It +was no doubt a critical day for all future history; and for its +favourable issue we must largely thank the policy adopted by Caesar five +centuries before. By the end of the eighth century the great power of +the Franks had become enlisted in behalf of law and order, and the Roman +throne was occupied by a Frank,--the ablest man who had appeared in the +world since Caesar's death; and one of the worthiest achievements of +Charles the Great was the conquest and conversion of pagan Germany, +which threw the frontier against barbarism eastward as far as the Oder, +and made it so much the easier to defend Europe. In the thirteenth +century this frontier was permanently carried forward to the Vistula by +the Teutonic Knights who, under commission from the emperor Frederick +II., overcame the heathen Prussians and Lithuanians; and now it began to +be shown how greatly the military strength of Europe had increased. In +this same century Batu, the grandson of Jinghis Khan, came down into +Europe with a horde of more than a million Mongols, and tried to repeat +the experiment of Attila. Batu penetrated as far as Silesia, and won a +great battle at Liegnitz in 1241, but in spite of his victory he had to +desist from the task of conquering Europe. Since the fifth century the +physical power of the civilized world had grown immensely; and the +impetus of this barbaric invasion was mainly spent upon Russia, the +growth of which it succeeded in retarding for more than two centuries. +Finally since the sixteenth century we have seen the Russians, redeemed +from their Mongolian oppressors, and rich in many of the elements of a +vigorous national life,--we have seen the Russians resume the aggressive +in this conflict of ages, beginning to do for Central Asia in some sort +what the Romans did for Europe. The frontier against barbarism, which +Cæsar left at the Rhine, has been carried eastward to the Volga, and is +now advancing even to the Oxus. The question has sometimes been raised +whether it would be possible for European civilization to be seriously +threatened by any future invasion of barbarism or of some lower type of +civilization. By barbarism certainly not: all the nomad strength of +Mongolian Asia would throw itself in vain against the insuperable +barrier constituted by Russia. But I have heard it quite seriously +suggested that if some future Attila or Jinghis were to wield as a unit +the entire military strength of the four hundred millions of Chinese, +possessed with some suddenly-conceived idea of conquering the world, +even as Omar and Abderrahman wielded as a unit the newly-welded power of +the Saracens in the seventh and eighth centuries, then perhaps a +staggering blow might yet be dealt against European civilization. I will +not waste precious time in considering this imaginary case, further than +to remark that if the Chinese are ever going to try anything of this +sort, they cannot afford to wait very long; for within another century, +as we shall presently see, their very numbers will be surpassed by those +of the English race alone. By that time all the elements of military +predominance on the earth, including that of simple numerical +superiority, will have been gathered into the hands not merely of men of +European descent in general, but more specifically into the hands of the +offspring of the Teutonic tribes who conquered Britain in the fifth +century. So far as the relations of civilization with barbarism are +concerned to-day, the only serious question is by what process of +modification the barbarous races are to maintain their foothold upon the +earth at all. While once such people threatened the very continuance of +civilization, they now exist only on sufferance. + +In this brief survey of the advancing frontier of European +civilization, I have said nothing about the danger that has from time to +time been threatened by the followers of Mohammed,--of the overthrow of +the Saracens in Gaul by the grandfather of Charles the Great, or their +overthrow at Constantinople by the image-breaking Leo, of the great +mediæval Crusades, or of the mischievous but futile career of the Turks. +For if I were to attempt to draw this outline with anything like +completeness, I should have no room left for the conclusion of my +argument. Considering my position thus far as sufficiently illustrated, +let us go on to contemplate for a moment some of the effects of all this +secular turmoil upon the political development of the progressive +nations of Europe. I think we may safely lay it down, as a large and +general rule, that all this prodigious warfare required to free the +civilized world from peril of barbarian attack served greatly to +increase the difficulty of solving the great initial problem of +civilization. In the first place, the turbulence thus arising was a +serious obstacle to the formation of closely-coherent political +aggregates; as we see exemplified in the terrible convulsions of the +fifth and sixth centuries, and again in the ascendency acquired by the +isolating features of feudalism between the time of Charles the Great +and the time of Louis VI. of France. In the second place, this +perpetual turbulence was a serious obstacle to the preservation of +popular liberties. It is a very difficult thing for a free people to +maintain its free, constitution if it has to keep perpetually fighting +for its life. The "one-man-power." less fit for, carrying on the +peaceful pursuits of life, is sure to be brought into the foreground in +a state of endless warfare. It is a still more difficult thing for a +free people to maintain its free constitution when it undertakes to +govern a dependent people despotically, as has been wont to happen when +a portion of the barbaric world has been overcome and annexed to the +civilized world. Under the weight, of these two difficulties combined, +the free institutions of the ancient Romans succumbed, and their +government gradually passed into the hands of a kind of close +corporation more despotic than anything else of the sort that Europe has +ever seen. This despotic character--this tendency, if you will pardon +the phrase, towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life--was continued +by inheritance in the Roman Church, the influence of which was +beneficent so long as it constituted a wholesome check to the isolating +tendencies of feudalism, but began to become noxious the moment these +tendencies yielded to the centralizing monarchical tendency in nearly +all parts of Europe. The asiaticizing tendency of Roman political life +had become so powerful by the fourth century, and has since been so +powerfully propagated through the Church, that we ought to be glad that +the Teutons came into the empire as masters rather than as subjects. As +the Germanic tribes got possession of the government in one part of +Europe after another, they brought with them free institutions again. +The political ideas of the Goths in Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, and +of the Franks and Burgundians in Gaul, were as distinctly free as those +of the Angles in Britain. But as the outcome of the long and +uninterrupted turmoil of the Middle Ages, society throughout the +continent of Europe remained predominantly military in type, and this +fact greatly increased the tendency towards despotism which was +bequeathed by Rome. After the close of the thirteenth century the whole +power of the Church was finally thrown into the scale against the +liberties of the people; and as the result of all these forces combined, +we find that at the time when America was discovered government was +hardening into despotism in all the great countries of Europe except +England. Even in England the tendency towards despotism had begun to +become quite conspicuous after the wholesale slaughter of the great +barons and the confiscation of their estates which took place in the +Wars of the Roses. The constitutional history of England during the +Tudor and Stuart periods is mainly the history of the persistent effort +of the English sovereign to free himself from constitutional checks, as +his brother sovereigns on the continent were doing. But how different +the result! How enormous the political difference between William III. +and Louis XIV., compared with the difference between Henry VIII. and +Francis I.! The close of the seventeenth century, which marks the +culmination of the asiaticizing tendency in Europe, saw despotism both +political and religious firmly established in France and Spain and +Italy, and in half of Germany; while the rest of Germany seemed to have +exhausted itself in the attempt to throw off the incubus. But in England +this same epoch saw freedom both political and religious established on +so firm a foundation as never again to be shaken, never again with +impunity to be threatened, so long as the language of Locke and Milton +and Sydney shall remain a living speech on the lips of men. Now this +wonderful difference between the career of popular liberty in England +and on the Continent was due no doubt to a complicated variety of +causes, one or two of which I have already sought to point out. In my +first lecture I alluded to the curious combination of circumstances +which prevented anything like a severance of interests between the upper +and the lower ranks of society; and something was also said about the +feebleness of the grasp of imperial Rome upon Britain compared with its +grasp upon the continent of Europe. But what I wish now to point +out--since we are looking at the military aspect of the subject--is the +enormous advantage of what we may call the _strategic position_ of +England in the long mediæval struggle between civilization and +barbarism. In Professor Stubbs's admirable collection of charters and +documents illustrative of English history, we read that "on the 6th of +July [1264] the whole force of the country was summoned to London for +the 3d of August, to resist the army which was coming from France under +the queen and her son Edmund. _The invading fleet was prevented by the +weather from sailing until too late in the season_.... The papal legate, +Guy Foulquois, who soon after became Clement IV., threatened the barons +with excommunication, but the bull containing the sentence was taken by +the men of Dover as soon as it arrived, and was thrown into the +sea." [15] As I read this, I think of the sturdy men of Connecticut, +beating the drum to prevent the reading of the royal order of James II. +depriving the colony of the control of its own militia, and feel with +pride that the indomitable spirit of English liberty is alike +indomitable in every land where men of English race have set their feet +as masters. But as the success of Americans in withstanding the +unconstitutional pretensions of the crown was greatly favoured by the +barrier of the ocean, so the success of Englishmen in defying the +enemies of their freedom has no doubt been greatly favoured by the +barrier of the British channel. The war between Henry III. and the +barons was an event in English history no less critical than the war +between Charles I. and the parliament four centuries later; and British +and Americans alike have every reason to be thankful that a great French +army was not able to get across the channel in August, 1264. Nor was +this the only time when the insular position of England did goodly +service in maintaining its liberties and its internal peace. We cannot +forget how Lord Howard of Effingham, aided also by the weather, defeated +the armada that boasted itself "invincible," sent to strangle freedom in +its chosen home by the most execrable and ruthless tyrant that Europe +has ever seen, a tyrant whose victory would have meant not simply the +usurpation of the English crown but the establishment of the Spanish +Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what longing +eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces of +France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one +European land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in +these latter days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the +prowess of the sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible +for the thoughtful student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square, +and gaze on the image of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on +the summit of his lofty column and guarded by the royal lions, looking +down towards the government-house of the land that he freed from the +dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards that ancient church wherein the +most sacred memories of English talent and English toil are clustered +together,--it is impossible, I say, to look at this, and not admire both +the artistic instinct that devised so happy a symbolism, and the rare +good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing a territorial +position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic powers. +But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external +attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This +ease in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the +internal polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English +government to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external +defence a navy was all-sufficient; and there is this practical +difference between a permanent army and a permanent navy. Both are +originally designed for purposes of external defence; but the one can +readily be used for purposes of internal oppression, and the other +cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up an empire at auction and +knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius Julianus. When, +therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from external +attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political +development to go on internally without those manifold military +hinderances that have ordinarily been so obstructive in the history of +civilization. Hence we not only see why, after the Norman Conquest had +operated to increase its unity and its strength, England enjoyed a far +greater amount of security and was far more peaceful than any other +country in Europe; but we also see why society never assumed the +military type in England which it assumed upon the continent; we see how +it was that the bonds of feudalism were far looser here than elsewhere, +and therefore how it happened that nowhere else was the condition of the +common people so good politically. We now begin to see, moreover, how +thoroughly Professor Stubbs and Mr. Freeman are justified in insisting +upon the fact that the political institutions of the Germans of Tacitus +have had a more normal and uninterrupted development in England than +anywhere else. Nowhere, indeed, in the whole history of the human race, +can we point to such a well-rounded and unbroken continuity of political +life as we find in the thousand years of English history that have +elapsed since the victory of William the Norman at Senlac. In England +the free government of the primitive Aryans has been to this day +uninterruptedly maintained, though everywhere lost or seriously impaired +on the continent of Europe, except in remote Scandinavia and impregnable +Switzerland. But obviously, if in the conflict of ages between +civilization and barbarism England had occupied such an inferior +strategic position as that occupied by Hungary or Poland or Spain, if +her territory had been liable once or twice in a century to be overrun +by fanatical Saracens or beastly Mongols, no such remarkable and quite +exceptional result could have been achieved. Having duly fathomed the +significance of this strategic position of the English race while +confined within the limits of the British islands, we are now prepared +to consider the significance of the stupendous expansion of the English +race which first became possible through the discovery and settlement of +North America. I said, at the close of my first lecture, that the +victory of Wolfe at Quebec marks the greatest turning-point as yet +discernible in all modern history. At the first blush such an +unqualified statement may have sounded as if an American student of +history were inclined to attach an undue value to events that have +happened upon his own soil. After the survey of universal history which +we have now taken, however, I am fully prepared to show that the +conquest of the North American continent by men of English race was +unquestionably the most prodigious event in the political annals of man +kind. Let us consider, for a moment, the cardinal facts which this +English conquest and settlement of North America involved. + +Chronologically the discovery of America coincides precisely with the +close of the Middle Ages, and with the opening of the drama of what is +called _modern_ history. The coincidence is in many ways significant. +The close of the Middle Ages--as we have seen--was characterized by the +increasing power of the crown in all the great countries of Europe, and +by strong symptoms of popular restlessness in view of this increasing +power. It was characterized also by the great Protestant outbreak +against the despotic pretensions of the Church, which once, in its +antagonism to the rival temporal power, had befriended the liberties of +the people, but now (especially since the death of Boniface VIII.) +sought to enthrall them with a tyranny far worse than that of +irresponsible king or emperor. As we have seen Aryan civilization in +Europe struggling for many centuries to prove itself superior to the +assaults of outer barbarism, so here we find a decisive struggle +beginning between the antagonist tendencies which had grown up in the +midst of this civilization. Having at length won the privilege of living +without risk of slaughter and pillage at the hands of Saracens or +Mongols, the question now arose whether the people of Europe should go +on and apply their intelligence freely to the problem of making life as +rich and fruitful as possible in varied material and spiritual +achievement, or should fall forever into the barren and monotonous way +of living and thinking which has always distinguished the half-civilized +populations of Asia. This--and nothing less than this, I think--was the +practical political question really at stake in the sixteenth century +between Protestantism and Catholicism. Holland and England entered the +lists in behalf of the one solution of this question, while Spain and +the Pope defended the other, and the issue was fought out on European +soil, as we have seen, with varying success. But the discovery of +America now came to open up an enormous region in which whatever seed of +civilization should be planted was sure to grow to such enormous +dimensions as by and by to exert a controlling influence upon all such +controversies. It was for Spain, France, and England to contend for the +possession of this vast region, and to prove by the result of the +struggle which kind of civilization was endowed with the higher and +sturdier political life. The race which here should gain the victory was +clearly destined hereafter to take the lead in the world, though the +rival powers could not in those days fully appreciate this fact. They +who founded colonies in America as trading-stations or military outposts +probably did not foresee that these colonies must by and by become +imperial states far greater in physical mass than the states which +planted them. It is not likely that they were philosophers enough to +foresee that this prodigious physical development would mean that the +political ideas of the parent state should acquire a hundred-fold power +and seminal influence in the future work of the world. It was not until +the American Resolution that this began to be dimly realized by a few +prescient thinkers. It is by no means so fully realized even now that a +clear and thorough-going statement of it has not somewhat an air of +novelty. When the highly-civilized community, representing the ripest +political ideas of England, was planted in America, removed from the +manifold and complicated checks we have just been studying in the +history of the Old World, the growth was portentously rapid and steady. +There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only a Philip or a +Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty annoyance as +compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. There +was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles of +self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought of +calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior +type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously +troublesome, it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country, +under the guidance of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers, +undertook to act upon the antiquated theory that the new communities +were merely groups of trading-stations, the political bond of connection +was severed; yet the war which ensued was not like the war which had but +just now been so gloriously ended by the victory of Wolfe. It was not a +struggle between two different peoples, like the French of the Old +Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic theories of how +political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' War of the +thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, it was a +struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of +principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all. And so the +issue only made it apparent to an astonished world that instead of _one_ +there were now _two Englands_, alike prepared to work with might and +main toward the political regeneration of mankind. + +Let us consider now to what conclusions the rapidity and unabated +steadiness of the increase of the English race in America must lead us +as we go on to forecast the future. Carlyle somewhere speaks slightingly +of the fact that the Americans double their numbers every twenty years, +as if to have forty million dollar-hunters in the world were any better +than to have twenty million dollar-hunters! The implication that +Americans are nothing but dollar-hunters, and are thereby +distinguishable from the rest of mankind, would not perhaps bear too +elaborate scrutiny. But during the present lecture we have been +considering the gradual transfer of the preponderance of physical +strength from the hands of the war-loving portion of the human race into +the hands of the peace-loving portion,--into the hands of the +dollar-hunters, if you please, but out of the hands of the +scalp-hunters. Obviously to double the numbers of a pre-eminently +industrious, peaceful, orderly, and free-thinking community, is somewhat +to increase the weight in the world of the tendencies that go towards +making communities free and orderly and peaceful and industrious. So +that, from this point of view, the fact we are speaking of is well worth +considering, even for its physical dimensions. I do not know whether the +United States could support a population everywhere as dense as that of +Belgium; so I will suppose that, with ordinary improvement in +cultivation and in the industrial arts, we might support a population +half as dense as that of Belgium,--and this is no doubt an extremely +moderate supposition. Now a very simple operation in arithmetic will +show that this means a population of fifteen hundred millions, or more +than the population of the whole world at the present date. Another +very simple operation in arithmetic will show that if we were to go on +doubling our numbers, even once in every twenty-five years, we should +reach that stupendous figure at about the close of the twentieth +century,--that is, in the days of our great-greatgrandchildren. I do not +predict any such result, for there are discernible economic reasons for +believing that there will be a diminution in the rate of increase. The +rate must nevertheless continue to be very great, in the absence of such +causes as formerly retarded the growth of population in Europe. Our +modern wars are hideous enough, no doubt, but they are short. They are +settled with a few heavy blows, and the loss of life and property +occasioned by them is but trifling when compared with the awful ruin and +desolation wrought by the perpetual and protracted contests of antiquity +and of the Middle Ages. Chronic warfare, both private and public, +periodic famines, and sweeping pestilences like the Black Death,--these +were the things which formerly shortened human life and kept down +population. In the absence of such causes, and with the abundant +capacity of our country for feeding its people, I think it an extremely +moderate statement if we say that by the end of the next century the +English race in the United States will number at least six or seven +hundred millions. + +It used to be said that so huge a people as this could not be kept +together as a single national aggregate,--or, if kept together at all, +could only be so by means of a powerful centralized government, like +that of ancient Rome under the emperors. I think we are now prepared to +see that this is a great mistake. If the Roman Empire could have +possessed that political vitality in all its parts which is secured to +the United States by the principles of equal representation and of +limited state sovereignty, it might well have defied all the shocks +which tribally-organized barbarism could ever have directed against it. +As it was, its strong centralized government did _not_ save it from +political disintegration. One of its weakest political features was +precisely this,--that its "strong centralized government" was a kind of +close corporation, governing a score of provinces in its own interest +rather than in the interest of the provincials. In contrast with such a +system as that of the Roman Empire, the skilfully elaborated American +system of federalism appears as one of the most important contributions +that the English race has made to the general work of civilization. The +working out of this feature in our national constitution, by Hamilton +and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of +constructive statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these +statesmen originated the principle, but they gave form and expression to +the principle which was latent in the circumstances under which the +group of American colonies had grown up, and which suggested itself so +forcibly that the clear vision of these thinkers did not fail to seize +upon it as the fundamental principle upon which alone could the affairs +of a great people, spreading over a vast continent, be kept in a +condition approaching to something like permanent peace. Stated broadly, +so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal proposition, the +principle of federalism is just this:--that the people of a state shall +have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, which +directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage with +more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body +could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern +between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached, +not by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic +legislation of a central government which represents both states and +people, and whose decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by +the combined physical power of all the states. This principle, in +various practical applications, is so familiar to Americans to-day that +we seldom pause to admire it, any more than we stop to admire the air +which we breathe or the sun which gives us light and life. Yet I believe +that if no other political result than this could to-day be pointed out +as coming from the colonization of America by Englishmen, we should +still be justified in regarding that event as one of the most important +in the history of mankind. For obviously the principle of federalism, as +thus broadly stated, contains within itself the seeds of permanent peace +between nations; and to this glorious end I believe it will come in the +fulness of time. + +And now we may begin to see distinctly what it was that the American +government fought for in the late civil war,--a point which at the time +was by no means clearly apprehended outside the United States. We used +to hear it often said, while that war was going on, that we were +fighting not so much for the emancipation of the negro as for the +maintenance of our federal union; and I well remember that to many who +were burning to see our country purged of the folly and iniquity of +negro slavery this used to seem like taking a low and unrighteous view +of the case. From the stand-point of universal history it was +nevertheless the correct and proper view. The emancipation of the negro, +as an incidental result of the struggle, was a priceless gain which was +greeted warmly by all right-minded people. But deeper down than this +question, far more subtly interwoven with the innermost fibres of our +national well-being, far heavier laden too with weighty consequences for +the future weal of all mankind, was the question whether this great +pacific principle of union joined with independence should be overthrown +by the first deep-seated social difficulty it had to encounter, or +should stand as an example of priceless value to other ages and to other +lands. The solution was well worth the effort it cost. There have been +many useless wars, but this was not one of them, for more than most wars +that have been, it was fought in the direct interest of peace, and the +victory so dearly purchased and so humanely used was an earnest of +future peace and happiness for the world. + +The object, therefore, for which the American government fought, was the +perpetual maintenance of that peculiar state of things which the federal +union had created,--a state of things in which, throughout the whole +vast territory over which the Union holds sway, questions between +states, like questions between individuals, must be settled by legal +argument and judicial decisions and not by wager of battle. Far better +to demonstrate this point once for all, at whatever cost, than to be +burdened hereafter, like the states of Europe, with frontier fortresses +and standing armies and all the barbaric apparatus of mutual suspicion! +For so great an end did this most pacific people engage in an obstinate +war, and never did any war so thoroughly illustrate how military power +may be wielded, when necessary, by a people that has passed entirely +from the military into the industrial stage of civilization. The events +falsified all the predictions that were drawn from the contemplation of +societies less advanced politically. It was thought that so peaceful a +people could not raise a great army on demand; yet within a twelvemonth +the government had raised five hundred thousand men by voluntary +enlistment. It was thought that a territory involving military +operations at points as far apart as Paris and Moscow could never be +thoroughly conquered; yet in April 1865 the federal armies might have +inarched from end to end of the Gulf States without meeting any force to +oppose them. It was thought that the maintenance of a great army would +beget a military temper in the Americans and lead to manifestations of +Bonapartism,--domestic usurpation and foreign aggression; yet the moment +the work was done the great army vanished, and a force of twenty-five +thousand men was found sufficient for the military needs of the whole +country. It was thought that eleven states which had struggled so hard +to escape from the federal tie could not be re-admitted to voluntary +co-operation in the general government, but must henceforth be held as +conquered territory,--a most dangerous experiment for any free people to +try. Yet within a dozen years we find the old federal relations resumed +in all their completeness, and the disunion party powerless and +discredited in the very states where once it had wrought such mischief. +Nay more, we even see a curiously disputed presidential election, in +which the votes of the southern states were given almost with unanimity +to one of the candidates, decided quietly by a court of arbitration; and +we see a universal acquiescence in the decision, even in spite of a +general belief that an extraordinary combination of legal subtleties +resulted in adjudging the presidency to the candidate who was not +really elected. + +Such has been the result of the first great attempt to break up the +federal union in America. It is not probable that another attempt can +ever be made with anything like an equal chance of success. Here were +eleven states, geographically contiguous, governed by groups of men who +for half a century had pursued a well-defined policy in common, united +among themselves and marked off from most of the other states by a +difference far more deeply rooted in the groundwork of society than any +mere economic difference,--the difference between slave-labour and +free-labour. These eleven states, moreover, held such an economic +relationship with England that they counted upon compelling the naval +power of England to be used in their behalf. And finally it had not yet +been demonstrated that the maintenance of the federal union was +something for which the great mass of the people would cheerfully fight. +Never could the experiment of secession be tried, apparently, under +fairer auspices; yet how tremendous the defeat! It was a defeat that +wrought conviction,--the conviction that no matter how grave the +political questions that may arise hereafter, they must be settled in +accordance with the legal methods the Constitution has provided, and +that no state can be allowed to break the peace. It is the thoroughness +of this conviction that has so greatly facilitated the reinstatement of +the revolted states in their old federal relations; and the good sense +and good faith with which the southern people, in spite of the chagrin +of defeat, have accepted the situation and acted upon it, is something +unprecedented in history, and calls for the warmest sympathy and +admiration on the part of their brethren of the north. The federal +principle in America has passed through this fearful ordeal and come out +stronger than ever; and we trust it will not again be put to so severe a +test. But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any +further increase of territory or of population should overtask the +resources of our government. + +In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore +doubtless have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power +and in dimensions any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now +consider for a moment the probable future career of the English race in +other parts of the world. The colonization of North America by +Englishmen had its direct effects upon the eastern as well as upon the +western side of the Atlantic. The immense growth of the commercial and +naval strength of England between the time of Cromwell and the time of +the elder Pitt was intimately connected with the colonization of North +America and the establishment of plantations in the West Indies. These +circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material development of +England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign trade, +increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her in the +eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this +maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize +upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta, +the isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after +island in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the +pathways of maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous +countries which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural +heritage. Any well-filled album of postage-stamps is an eloquent +commentary on this maritime supremacy of England. It is enough to turn +one's head to look over her colonial blue-books. The natural outcome of +all this overflowing vitality it is not difficult to foresee. No one can +carefully watch what is going on in Africa to-day without recognizing it +as the same sort of thing which was going on in North America in the +seventeenth century; and it cannot fail to bring forth similar results +in course of time. Here is a vast country, rich in beautiful scenery and +in resources of timber and minerals, with a salubrious climate and +fertile soil, with great navigable rivers and inland lakes, which will +not much longer be left in control of tawny lions and long-eared +elephants and negro fetich-worshippers. Already five flourishing English +states have been established in the south, besides the settlements on +the Gold Coast and those at Aden commanding the Red Sea. English +explorers work their way, with infinite hardship, through its +untravelled wilds, and track the courses of the Congo and the Nile as +their forefathers tracked the Potomac and the Hudson. The work of La +Salle and Smith is finding its counterpart in the labours of Baker and +Livingstone. Who can doubt that within two or three centuries the +African continent will be occupied by a mighty nation of English +descent, and covered with populous cities and flourishing farms, with +railroads and telegraphs and other devices of civilization as yet +undreamed of? + +If we look next to Australia, we find a country of more than two-thirds +the area of the United States, with a temperate climate and immense +resources, agricultural and mineral,--a country sparsely peopled by a +race of irredeemable savages hardly above the level of brutes. Here +England within the present century has planted six greatly thriving +states, concerning which I have not time to say much, but one fact will +serve as a specimen. When in America we wish to illustrate in one word +the wonderful growth of our so-called north-western states, we refer to +Chicago,--a city of half-a-million inhabitants standing on a spot which +fifty years ago was an uninhabited marsh. In Australia the city of +Melbourne was founded in 1837, the year when the present queen of +England began to reign, and the state of which it is the capital was +hence called Victoria. This city, now[16] just forty-three years old, +has a population half as great as that of Chicago, has a public library +of 200,000 volumes, and has a university with at least one professor of +world-wide renown. When we see, by the way, within a period of five +years and at such remote points upon the earth's surface, such erudite +and ponderous works in the English language issuing from the press as +those of Professor Hearn of Melbourne, of Bishop Colenso of Natal, and +of Mr. Hubert Bancroft of San Francisco,--even such a little commonplace +fact as this is fraught with wonderful significance when we think of all +that it implies. Then there is New Zealand, with its climate of +perpetual spring, where the English race is now multiplying faster than +anywhere else in the world unless it be in Texas and Minnesota. And +there are in the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we +shall very soon see the same things going on. + +It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is +enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the +English race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on +until every land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of +an old civilization shall become English in its language, in its +political habits and traditions, and to a predominant extent in the +blood of its people. The day is at hand when, four-fifths of the human +race will trace its pedigree to English forefathers, as four-fifths of +the white people in the United States trace their pedigree to-day. The +race thus spread over both hemispheres, and from the rising to the +setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty of the sea and that +commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when England first +stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia and +Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will not +be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, but +perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and +writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be +transacted by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that +whatever language any man may have learned in his infancy he will find +it necessary sooner or later to learn to express his thoughts in +English. And in this way it is by no means improbable that, as Grimm the +German and Candolle the Frenchman long since foretold, the language of +Shakespeare may ultimately become the language of mankind. + +In view of these considerations as to the stupendous future of the +English race, does it not seem very probable that in due course of time +Europe--which has learned some valuable lessons from America +already--will find it worth while to adopt the lesson of federalism? +Probably the European states, in order to preserve their relative weight +in the general polity of the world, will find it necessary to do so. In +that most critical period of American history between the winning of +independence and the framing of the Constitution, one of the strongest +of the motives which led the confederated states to sacrifice part of +their sovereignty by entering into a federal union was their keen sense +of their weakness when taken severally. In physical strength such a +state as Massachusetts at that time amounted to little more than Hamburg +or Bremen; but the thirteen states taken together made a nation of +respectable power. Even the wonderful progress we have made in a century +has not essentially changed this relation of things. Our greatest state, +New York, taken singly, is about the equivalent of Belgium; our weakest +state, Nevada, would scarcely be a match for tha county of Dorset; yet +the United States, taken together, are probably at this moment the +strongest nation in the world. + +Now a century hence, with a population of six hundred millions in the +United States, and a hundred and fifty millions in Australia and New +Zealand, to say nothing of the increase of power in other parts of the +English-speaking world, the relative weights will be very different from +what they were in 1788. The population of Europe will not increase in +anything like the same proportion, and a very considerable part of the +increase will be transferred by emigration to the English-speaking world +outside of Europe. By the end of the twentieth century such nations as +France and Germany can only claim such a relative position in the +political world as Holland and Switzerland now occupy. Their greatness +in thought and scholarship, in industrial and aesthetic art, will +doubtless continue unabated. But their political weights will severally +have come to be insignificant; and as we now look back, with historic +curiosity, to the days when Holland was navally and commercially the +rival of England, so people will then need to be reminded that there was +actually once a time when little France was the most powerful nation on +the earth. It will then become as desirable for the states of Europe to +enter into a federal union as it was for the states of North America a +century ago. + +It is only by thus adopting the lesson of federalism that Europe can do +away with the chances of useless warfare which remain so long as its +different states own no allegiance to any common authority. War, as we +have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite +occupation. As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism, +it remains a too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and +Christian nations it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly +with wars such as that which Russia has lately concluded, for setting +free a kindred race endowed with capacity for progress, and for humbling +the worthless barbarian who during four centuries has wrought such +incalculable damage to the European world. But a sanguinary struggle for +the Rhine frontier, between two civilized Christian nations who have +each enough work to do in ithe world without engaging in such a strife +as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned by the general opinion +of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled by discussion in some +sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe would keep pace with +America in the advance towards universal law and order. All will admit +that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let us see if it is +really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. No doubt the +lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would have +thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred +years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great +stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which +to shoot at people going by. Yet to-day a country gentleman in some +parts of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his +front-door. We have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we +have at least made private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public +opinion against it to such an extent that the police-court usually makes +short shrift for the misguided man who tries to wreak vengeance on his +enemy. Is it too much to hope that by and by we may similarly put public +warfare under the ban? I think not. Already in America, as wre have +seen, it has become customary to deal with questions between states just +as we would deal with questions between individuals. This we have seen +to be the real purport of American federalism. To have established such +a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very good beginning +towards establishing it over the world. To establish such a system in +Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal with an +immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and +ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon +Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before +long overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition +between the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous +within the last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and +Kansas are already formidable competitors with England, France, and +Germany; but this is but the beginning. It is but the first spray from +the tremendous wave of economic competition that is gathering in the +Mississippi valley. By and by, when our shameful tariff--falsely called +"protective"--shall have been done away with, and our manufacturers +shall produce superior articles at less cost of raw material, we shall +begin to compete with European countries in all the markets of the +world; and the competition in manufactures will become as keen as it is +now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will not be long in +coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, and in +the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born of +crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. When +this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse +of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure +exerted upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great +indeed. It will not be long before this economic pressure will make it +simply impossible for the states of Europe to keep up such military +armaments as they are now maintaining. The disparity between the United +States, with a standing army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn +from industrial pursuits, and the states of Europe, with their standing +armies amounting to four millions of men, is something that cannot +possibly be kept up. The economic competition will become so keen that +European armies will have to be disbanded, the swords will have to be +turned into ploughshares, and _thus_ the victory of the industrial over +the military type of civilization will at last become complete. But to +disband the great armies of Europe will necessarily involve the forcing +of the great states of Europe into some sort of federal relation, in +which Congresses--already held on rare occasions--will become more +frequent, in which the principles of international law will acquire a +more definite sanction, and in which the combined physical power of all +the states will constitute (as it now does in America) a permanent +threat against any state that dares to wish for selfish reasons to break +the peace. In some such way as this, I believe, the industrial +development of the English race outside of Europe will by and by enforce +federalism upon Europe. As regards the serious difficulties that grow +out of prejudices attendant upon differences in language, race, and +creed, a most valuable lesson is furnished us by the history of +Switzerland. I am inclined to think that the greatest contribution which +Switzerland has made to the general progress of civilization has been to +show us how such obstacles can be surmounted, even on a small scale. To +surmount them on a great scale will soon become the political problem of +Europe; and it is America which has set the example and indicated +the method. + +Thus we may foresee in general outline how, through the gradual +concentration of the preponderance of physical power into the hands of +the most pacific communities, the wretched business of warfare must +finally become obsolete all over the globe. The element of distance is +now fast becoming eliminated from political problems, and the history of +human progress politically will continue in the future to be what it has +been in the past,--the history of the successive union of groups of men +into larger and more complex aggregates. As this process goes on, it may +after many more ages of political experience become apparent that there +is really no reason, in the nature of things, why the whole of mankind +should not constitute politically one huge federation,--each little +group managing its local affairs in entire independence, but relegating +all questions of international interest to the decision of one central +tribunal supported by the public opinion of the entire human race. I +believe that the time will come when such a state of things will exist +upon the earth, when it will be possible (with our friends of the Paris +dinner-party) to speak of the UNITED STATES as stretching from pole to +pole,--or, with Tennyson, to celebrate the "parliament of man and the +federation of the world." Indeed, only when such a state of things has +begun to be realized, can Civilization, as sharply demarcated from +Barbarism, be said to have fairly begun. Only then can the world be said +to have become truly Christian. Many ages of toil and doubt and +perplexity will no doubt pass by before such a desideratum is reached. +Meanwhile it is pleasant to feel that the dispassionate contemplation of +great masses of historical facts goes far towards confirming our faith +in this ultimate triumph of good over evil. Our survey began with +pictures of horrid slaughter and desolation: it ends with the picture of +a world covered with cheerful homesteads, blessed with a sabbath of +perpetual peace. + + + + +[Footnote 1: Freeman, "Norman Conquest," v. 482.] + +[Footnote 2: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 264.] + +[Footnote 3: This is disputed, however. See Ross, "Early History of +Landholding among the Germans."] + +[Footnote 4: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 84.] + +[Footnote 5: Kemble, "Saxons in England," i. 59.] + +[Footnote 6: Maine, "Village Communities," Lond., 1871, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 7: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 85.] + +[Footnote 8: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 118.] + +[Footnote 9: Geffroy, "Rome et les Barbares," 209.] + +[Footnote 10: Maine, "Village Communities," 118.] + +[Footnote 11: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 625.] + +[Footnote 12: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 13: "La Cité Antique," 441.] + +[Footnote 14: Arnold, "Roman Provincial Administration," 237.] + +[Footnote 15: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 16: In 1880.] + + + +INDEX. + + +Abderrahman +Achaian league +Aden +Adoption +Aetolian league +Africa, English colonies in +Albany Congress +Amphiktyonic Council +Angeln +Angles +Anglo-American +Anglo-Saxon +Appomattox +Arable mark +Ariovistus +Armada, the Invincible +Armies of Europe will be disbanded +Arminius +Arnold, M. +Asiaticization +Athens, grandeur of + incorporated demes of Attika, + old tribal divisions modified, + school of political training + maritime empire of +Attila +Australia +Austria + +Baker, Sir S. +Bancroft, Hubert +Barons, war of the +Basileus +Batu +Belgium +Benefices +Bern +Bonaparte, N. +Bonapartism +Boroughs, special privileges of +Boston, growth of + its Common +Boundaries of United States +Burgundians +By-laws + +Caesar, J. +California, social experiments in +Canada under Old Régime +Candolle, A. de, +Canton, +Carlyle on dollar-hunters, +Centralized government, weakness of, +Century, +Ceylon, +Châlons, battle of, +Charles I., +Charles the Bold, +Charles Martel, +Charles the Great, +Chatham, Lord, +Chester, +Chicago, +Chinese, +Christianity, +Church, mediaeval, +Cities in England and America, + origin of, +City, the ancient, +Civilization, its primary phase, + long threatened by neighbouring barbarism, +Clan-system of political union, +Claudius, emperor, +Clement IV., +Cleveland, city of. +Colenso, J.W. +Colonies, how founded, +Comitia, +Commendation, +Commons, House of, +Commons, origin of, +Communal farming in England, +Communal landholding, +Competition, industrial, between Europe and America, +Confederation, articles of, +Connecticut, men of, defy James II., +Constitution of the United States, +Continentals and British, +Cromwell, O., +Curia, + + +Delian confederacy, +Derne, +Departments of France, +Dependencies, danger of governing them despotically, +Didius Julianus, +Diocletian, +Domestic service in a New England village, +Dorset, +Dover, men of, throw papal bull into sea, +Duke, +Dutch republic, + + +Ealdorman, +Ecclesia, +Eden, Chuzzlewit's, +Electoral commission, +Emancipation of slaves, +England, maritime supremacy of +English colonization + language, future of + self-government, how preserved, + villages + +Famines +Federal union on great scale, + conditions of + its durableness lies in its flexibility +Federalism, pacific implications of + will be adopted by Europe +Federation and conquest +Federations in Greece +Feudal system, origin of +Fick, A. +France, political development of + contrasted with England as a colonizer +France and Germany, their late war + their political weight a century hence +Francis I. +Franklin, B. +Franks +Freeman, E.A. +Freiburg +French villages + +Gau +Gaul, Roman conquest of +Geneva +Gens +Georgia +Germany conquered and converted by Charles the Great +Gibraltar +Goths +Great states, method of forming, + notion of their having an inherent tendency to break up + difficulty of forming +Grimm, J. + +Haddon Hall +Hamburg +Hamilton, A. +Hampden, J. +Hannibal's invasion of Italy +Hearn, Professor +Henry VIII. +Heretoga +Hindustan, village communities in + cities in +Holland +Howard of Effingham +Hundred +Hungary +Hunnish invasion of Europe + +Incorporation +Iroquois tribes + +James II. +Jinghis Khan, +Judiciary, federal, + +Kansas, +Kemble, J., +Kingship among ancient Teutons, + +La Salle, R., +Lausanne, +Leo's defeat of the Saracens, +Lewes, battle of, +Liegnitz, battle of, +Lincoln, A., +Lincoln, city of, +Livingstone, Dr., +Lombards, +London, growth of, +Louis VI., +Louis XIV., + + +Madison, J., +Maine, Sir II., +Maintz, +Malta, +Manorial courts, +Manors, origin of, +March meetings in New England, +Marius, C., +Mark, + in England, + meaning of the word, +Mark-mote, +Massachusetts, +May assemblies in Switzerland, +Melbourne, city of, +Middle Ages, turbulence of, +Military strength of civilized world, its increase, +Minnesota, +Mir, or Russian village, +Mongolian Khans in Russia, +Mongols, +Montenegro, +Montfort, S. de, + + +Naseby, battle of, +Navies less dangerous than standing armies, +Nebraska, +Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square, +Nevada, +New England confederacy, +New York, +New Zealand, +Norman conquest, +North America, struggle for possession of, + + +Omar, + + +Pagus, +Paris, American dinner-party in, +Parish, its relation to township, +Parkman, F. +Pax romana +Peace of the world, how secured, +Peerage of England +Peloponnesian war +Persian war against Greece +Pestilences +Petersham +Philip, King +Phratries +Pictet, A. +Poland +Pontiac +Population of United States a century hence +Private property in land +Problem of political civilization +Protestantism and Catholicism, political question at stake between +Prussia conquered by Teutonic knights +Puritanism +Puritans of New England, their origin + + +Quebec, Wolfe's victory at + + +Rebellion against Charles I. +Redivision of arable lands +Re-election of town officers +Representation unknown to Greeks and Romans + origin of + federal, in United States +Rex +Rhode Island +Roman law +Rome, plebeian revolution at + early stages of + secret of its power + advantages of its dominion + causes of its political failure, + powerful influence of, in Middle Ages + meaning of its great wars +Roses, wars of the +Ross, D. +Russia, Mongolian conquest of + village communities in + its late war against the Turks + its despotic government contrasted with that of France under Old Régime + + +SARACENS +Scandinavia +Secession, war of +Selectmen +Self-government preserved in England + lost in France +Shakespeare +Shires +Shottery, cottage at +Smith, J. +Social war +South Carolina +Spain, Roman conquest of +Sparta +State sovereignty in America +Strasburg +Strategic position of England +Stubbs, W. +Suez +Swiss cantonal assemblies +Switzerland, lesson of its history + self-government preserved in + +Tacitus +Tariff in America +Tax-taking despotisms +Tennyson, A. +Teutonic civilization contrasted with Graeco-Roman +Teutonic knights +Teutonic village communities +Texas +Thegnhood +Thirty Years' War +Thukydides +Tocqueville +Tourist in United States +Town, meaning of the word +Town-meetings, origin of +Town-names formed from patronymics +Township in New England, + in western states +Tribe and shire +Turks + +Versailles +Vestry-meetings +Victoria, Australia +Village-mark +Villages of New England +Virginia, parishes in +Visigoths + +Wallace, D.M. +War of independence +Warfare, universal in early times + how diminished + interferes with political development + less destructive now than in ancient times + how effectively waged by the most pacific of peoples +Washington, city of +Washington, G. +William III. +Witenagemote +Wolfe's victory at Quebec + +Yorktown + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Political Ideas Viewed From +The Standpoint Of Universal History, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + +***** This file should be named 10112-8.txt or 10112-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/1/10112/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: American Political Ideas Viewed From The Standpoint Of Universal History + +Author: John Fiske + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10112] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS</h1> + +<h1> +VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY</h1> + +<h2> +Three Lectures</h2> + +<h2> +DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880</h2> + +<h1> +BY JOHN FISKE</h1> + +<blockquote><i>Voici un fait entièrement nouveau dans le monde, +et dont l'imagination elle-même ne saurait saisir la portée.</i> +<br>TOCQUEVILLE</blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<h3> +TO</h3> + +<h3> +EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS</h3> + +<h3> +NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS</h3> + +<h3> +WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE +PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN</h3> + +<h3> +I dedicate this Book</h3> + +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<h2> +PREFACE.</h2> +In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting-house in Boston a +course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and presently, +through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the course was repeated +at University College in London. The lectures there were attended by very +large audiences, and awakened such an interest in American history that +I was invited to return to England in the following year and treat of some +of the philosophical aspects of my subject in a course of lectures at the +Royal Institution. +<p>In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation, +and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to +illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting +forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is impossible +thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any department +of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups of facts; +and the political history of the American people can be rightly understood +only when it is studied in connection with that general process of political +evolution which has been going on from the earliest times, and of which +it is itself one of the most important and remarkable phases. The government +of the United States is not the result of special creation, but of evolution. +As the town-meetings of New England are lineally descended from the village +assemblies of the early Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago +foreshadowed in the little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so +the great political problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving +is the very same problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working +ever since civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action +throughout the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom +in the Parts,--this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed +on its political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations politically +according to their failure or success in attaining this supreme end. When +thus considered in the light of the comparative method, our American history +acquires added dignity and interest, and a broad and rational basis is +secured for the detailed treatment of political questions. +<p>When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history +become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is clothed +with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in insisting +upon the fact that the history of the English people does not begin with +the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our +American history +does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or even with the settlements +of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in unbroken continuity from +the days when stout Arminius in the forests of northern Germany successfully +defied the might of imperial Rome. In a more restricted sense, the statesmanship +of Washington and Lincoln appears in the noblest light when regarded as +the fruition of the various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. +The good fight begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly +crowned at Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further +come to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common +mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher +civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone +before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the history +which English-speaking men have so magnificently wrought out upon American +soil. +<p>In dealing concisely with a subject so vast, only brief hints and suggestions +can be expected; and I have not thought it worth while, for the present +at least, to change or amplify the manner of treatment. The lectures are +printed exactly as they were delivered at the Royal Institution, more than +four years ago. On one point of detail some change will very likely by +and by be called for. In the lecture on the Town-meeting I have adopted +the views of Sir Henry Maine as to the common holding of the arable land +in the ancient German mark, and as to the primitive character of the periodical +redistribution of land in the Russian village community. It now seems highly +probable that these views will have to undergo serious modification in +consequence of the valuable evidence lately brought forward by my friend +Mr. Denman Ross, in his learned and masterly treatise on "The Early History +of Landholding among the Germans;" but as I am not yet quite clear as to +how far this modification will go, and as it can in nowise affect the general +drift of my argument, I have made no change in my incidental remarks on +this difficult and disputed question. +<p>In describing some of the characteristic features of country life in +New England, I had especially in mind the beautiful mountain village in +which this preface is written, and in which for nearly a quarter of a century +I have felt myself more at home than in any other spot in the world. +<p>In writing these lectures, designed as they were for a special occasion, +no attempt was made to meet the ordinary requirements of popular audiences; +yet they have been received in many places with unlooked-for favour. The +lecture on "Manifest Destiny" was three times repeated in London, and once +in Edinburgh; seven times in Boston; four times in New York; twice in Brooklyn, +N.Y., Plainfield, N.J., and Madison, Wis.; once in Washington, Baltimore, +Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, +and Milwaukee; in Appleton and Waukesha, Wis.; Portland, Lewiston, and +Brunswick, Me.; Lowell, Concord, Newburyport, Peabody, Stoneham, Maiden, +Newton Highlands, and Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Middletown and Stamford, +Conn.; Newburg and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Orange, N.J.; and at Cornell University +and Haverford College. In several of these places the course was given. +<p>PETERSHAM, <i>September 13, 1884</i>. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3> +I.</h3> + +<h3> +<i>THE TOWN-MEETING.</i></h3> +Differences in outward aspect between a village in England and a village +in Massachusetts. Life in a typical New England mountain village. Tenure +of land, domestic service, absence of poverty and crime, universality of +labour and of culture, freedom of thought, complete democracy. This state +of things is to some extent passing away. Remarkable characteristics of +the Puritan settlers of New England, and extent to which their characters +and aims have influenced American history. Town governments in New England. +Different meanings of the word "city" in England and America. Importance +of local self-government in the political life of the United States. Origin +of the town-meeting. Mr. Freeman on the cantonal assemblies of Switzerland. +The old Teutonic "mark," or dwelling-place of a clan. Political union originally +based, not on territorial contiguity, but on blood-relationship. Divisions +of the mark. Origin of the village Common. The <i>mark-mote</i>. Village +communities in Russia and Hindustan. Difference between the despotism of +Russia and that of France under the Old Régime. Elements of sound +political life fostered by the Russian village. Traces of the mark in England. +Feudalization of Europe, and partial metamorphosis of the mark or township +into the manor. Parallel transformation of the township, in some of its +features, into the parish. The court leet and the vestry-meeting. The New +England town-meeting a revival of the ancient mark-mote. +<p>Vicissitudes of local self-government in the various portions of the +Aryan world illustrated in the contrasted cases of France and England. +Significant contrast between the aristocracy of England and that of the +Continent. Difference between the Teutonic conquests of Gaul and of Britain. +Growth of centralization in France. Why the English have always been more +successful than the French in founding colonies. Struggle between France +and England for the possession of North America, and prodigious significance +of the victory of England. +<h3> +II.</h3> + +<h3> +<i>THE FEDERAL UNION</i>.</h3> +Wonderful greatness of ancient Athens. Causes of the political failure +of Greek civilization. Early stages of political aggregation,--the +<i>hundred</i>, +the [Greek: <i>phratria</i>], the <i>curia</i>; the <i>shire</i>, the +<i>deme</i>, +and the <i>pagus</i>. Aggregation of clans into tribes. Differences in +the mode of aggregation in Greece and Rome on the one hand, and in Teutonic +countries on the other. The Ancient City. Origin of cities in Hindustan, +Germany, England, and the United States. Religious character of the ancient +city. Burghership not granted to strangers. Consequences of the political +difference between the Graeco-Roman city and the Teutonic shire. The <i>folk-mote</i>, +or primary assembly, and the +<i>witenagemote</i>, or assembly of notables. +Origin of representative government in the Teutonic shire. Representation +unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The ancient city as a school for political +training. Intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent self-governing +groups of men. Smallness of simple social aggregates and universality of +warfare in primitive times. For the formation of larger and more complex +social aggregates, only two methods are practicable,--<i>conquest</i> or +<i>federation</i>. Greek attempts at employing the higher method, that +of federation. The Athenian hegemony and its overthrow. The Achaian and +Aetolian leagues. In a low stage of political development the Roman method +of <i>conquest with incorporation</i> was the only one practicable. Peculiarities +of the Roman conquest of Italy. Causes of the universal dominion of Rome. +Advantages and disadvantages of this dominion:--on the one hand the <i>pax +romana</i>, and the breaking down of primitive local superstitions and +prejudices; on the other hand the partial extinction of local self-government. +Despotism inevitable in the absence of representation. Causes of the political +failure of the Roman system. Partial reversion of Europe, between the fifth +and eleventh centuries, towards a more primitive type of social structure. +Power of Rome still wielded through the Church and the imperial jurisprudence. +Preservation of local self-government in England, and at the two ends of +the Rhine. The Dutch and Swiss federations. The lesson to be learned from +Switzerland. Federation on a great scale could only be attempted successfully +by men of English political training, when working without let or hindrance +in a vast country not preoccupied by an old civilization. Without local +self-government a great Federal Union is impossible. Illustrations from +American history. Difficulty of the problem, and failure of the early attempts +at federation in New England. Effects of the war for independence. The +"Articles of Confederation" and the "Constitution." Pacific implications +of American federalism. +<h3> +III.</h3> + +<h3> +"<i>MANIFEST DESTINY.</i>"</h3> +The Americans boast of the bigness of their country. How to "bound" the +United States. "Manifest Destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon Race." The term "Anglo-Saxon" +slovenly and misleading. Statements relating to the "English Race" have +a common interest for Americans and for Englishmen. Work of the English +race in the world. The prime feature of civilization is the diminution +of warfare, which becomes possible only through the formation of great +political aggregates in which the parts retain their local and individual +freedom. In the earlier stages of civilization, the possibility of peace +can be guaranteed only through war, but the preponderant military strength +is gradually concentrated in the hands of the most pacific communities, +and by the continuance of this process the permanent peace of the world +will ultimately be secured. Illustrations from the early struggles of European +civilization with outer barbarism, and with aggressive civilizations of +lower type. Greece and Persia. Keltic and Teutonic enemies of Rome. The +defensible frontier of European civilization carried northward and eastward +to the Rhine by Caesar; to the Oder by Charles the Great; to the Vistula +by the Teutonic Knights; to the Volga and the Oxus by the Russians. Danger +in the Dark Ages from Huns and Mongols on the one hand, from Mussulmans +on the other. Immense increase of the area and physical strength of European +civilization, which can never again be in danger from outer barbarism. +Effect of all this secular turmoil upon the political institutions of Europe. +It hindered the formation of closely coherent nations, and was at the same +time an obstacle to the preservation of popular liberties. Tendency towards +the <i>Asiaticization</i> of European life. Opposing influences of the +Church, and of the Germanic tribal organizations. Military type of society +on the Continent. Old Aryan self-government happily preserved in England. +Strategic position of England favourable to the early elimination of warfare +from her soil. Hence the exceptionally normal and plastic political development +of the English race. Significant coincidence of the discovery of America +with the beginnings of the Protestant revolt against the asiaticizing tendency. +Significance of the struggle between Spain, France, and England for the +possession of an enormous area of virgin soil which should insure to the +conqueror an unprecedented opportunity for future development. The race +which gained control of North America must become the dominant race of +the world, and its political ideas must prevail in the struggle for life. +Moral significance of the rapid increase of the English race in America. +Fallacy of the notion that centralized governments are needed for very +large nations. It is only through federalism, combined with local self-government, +that the stability of so huge an aggregate as the United States can be +permanently maintained. What the American government really fought for +in the late Civil War. Magnitude of the results achieved. Unprecedented +military strength shown by this most pacific and industrial of peoples. +Improbability of any future attempt to break up the Federal Union. Stupendous +future of the English race,--in Africa, in Australia, and in the islands +of the Pacific Ocean. Future of the English language. Probable further +adoption of federalism. Probable effects upon Europe of industrial competition +with the United States: impossibility of keeping up the present military +armaments. The States of Europe will be forced, by pressure of circumstances, +into some kind of federal union. A similar process will go on until the +whole of mankind shall constitute a single political body, and warfare +shall disappear forever from the face of the earth. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h1> +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS.</h1> + +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +I.</h2> + +<h2> +THE TOWN-MEETING.</h2> +The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal for +a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to another +of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, or Chicago, +stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, perhaps, after +traversing a distance like that which separates England from Mesopotamia, +reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and inspects their interesting +fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians and Mormons. In a journey +of this sort one gets a very superficial view of the peculiarities, physical +and social, which characterize the different portions of our country; and +in this there is nothing to complain of, since the knowledge gained in +a vacation-journey cannot well be expected to be thorough or profound. +The traveller, however, who should visit the United States in a more leisurely +way, with the purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, +would find it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself +richly repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of +which is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book +on Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable +experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivánofka in the +province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might visit +in America, there are none which would better reward such careful observation, +or which are more full of interest for the comparative historian, than +the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; that part of English +America which is oldest in civilization (though not in actual date of settlement), +and which, while most completely English in blood and in traditions, is +at the same time most completely American in so far as it has most distinctly +illustrated and most successfully represented those political ideas which +have given to American history its chief significance in the general work +of civilization. +<p>The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," +in terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, +and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of the +Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before the beginning +of the present century. New England, however, has a history which carries +us back to the times of James I.; and while its cities are full of such +bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or Manchester or Glasgow, +its rural towns show us much that is old-fashioned in aspect,--much that +one can approach in an antiquarian spirit. We are there introduced to a +phase of social life which is highly interesting on its own account and +which has played an important part in the world, yet which, if not actually +passing away, is at least becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme +for grave reflections to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. +As any far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, +due to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one +of the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, +on the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes +upon the <i>personnel</i> and upon the occupations of rural New England, +we are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a deterioration +in the character of the most perfect democracy the world has ever seen. +<p>In the outward aspect of a village in Massachusetts or Connecticut, +the feature which would be most likely first to impress itself upon the +mind of a visitor from England is the manner in which the village is laid +out and built. Neither in England nor anywhere else in western Europe have +I ever met with a village of the New England type. In English villages +one finds small houses closely crowded together, sometimes in blocks of +ten or a dozen, and inhabited by people belonging to the lower orders of +society; while the fine houses of gentlemen stand quite apart in the country, +perhaps out of sight of one another, and surrounded by very extensive grounds. +The origin of the village, in a mere aggregation of tenants of the lord +of the manor, is thus vividly suggested. In France one is still more impressed, +I think, with this closely packed structure of the village. In the New +England village, on the other hand, the finer and the poorer houses stand +side by side along the road. There are wide straight streets overarched +with spreading elms and maples, and on either side stand the houses, with +little green lawns in front, called in rustic parlance "door-yards." The +finer houses may stand a thousand feet apart from their neighbours on either +side, while between the poorer ones there may be intervals of from twenty +to one hundred feet, but they are never found crowded together in blocks. +Built in this capacious fashion, a village of a thousand inhabitants may +have a main street more than a mile in length, with half a dozen crossing +streets losing themselves gradually in long stretches of country road. +The finest houses are not ducal palaces, but may be compared with the ordinary +country-houses of gentlemen in England. The poorest houses are never hovels, +such as one sees in the Scotch Highlands. The picturesque and cosy cottage +at Shottery, where Shakespeare used to do his courting, will serve very +well as a sample of the humblest sort of old-fashioned New England farm-house. +But most of the dwellings in the village come between these extremes. They +are plain neat wooden houses, in capaciousness more like villas than cottages. +A New England village street, laid out in this way, is usually very picturesque +and beautiful, and it is highly characteristic. In comparing it with things +in Europe, where one rarely finds anything at all like it, one must go +to something very different from a village. As you stand in the Court of +Heroes at Versailles and look down the broad and noble avenue that leads +to Paris, the effect of the vista is much like that of a New England village +street. As American villages grow into cities, the increase in the value +of land usually tends to crowd the houses together into blocks as in a +European city. But in some of our western cities founded and settled by +people from New England, this spacious fashion of building has been retained +for streets occupied by dwelling-houses. In Cleveland--a city on the southern +shore of Lake Erie, with a population about equal to that of Edinburgh--there +is a street some five or six miles in length and five hundred feet in width, +bordered on each side with a double row of arching trees, and with handsome +stone houses, of sufficient variety and freedom in architectural design, +standing at intervals of from one to two hundred feet along the entire +length of the street. The effect, it is needless to add, is very noble +indeed. The vistas remind one of the nave and aisles of a huge cathedral. +<p>Now this generous way in which a New England village is built is very +closely associated with the historical origin of the village and with the +peculiar kind of political and social life by which it is characterized. +First of all, it implies abundance of land. As a rule the head of each +family owns the house in which he lives and the ground on which it is built. +The relation of landlord and tenant, though not unknown, is not commonly +met with. No sort of social distinction or political privilege is associated +with the ownership of land; and the legal differences between real and +personal property, especially as regards ease of transfer, have been reduced +to the smallest minimum that practical convenience will allow. Each householder, +therefore, though an absolute proprietor, cannot be called a miniature +lord of the manor, because there exists no permanent dependent class such +as is implied in the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends +in person to the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his own +sons or by neighbours working for hire in the leisure left over from the +care of their own smaller estates. So in the interior of the house there +is usually no domestic service that is not performed by the mother of the +family and the daughters. Yet in spite of this universality of manual labour, +the people are as far as possible from presenting the appearance of peasants. +Poor or shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there is no one in +the village whom it would be proper to address in a patronizing tone, or +who would not consider it a gross insult to be offered a shilling. As with +poverty, so with dram-drinking and with crime; all alike are conspicuous +by their absence. In a village of one thousand inhabitants there will be +a poor-house where five or six decrepit old people are supported at the +common charge; and there will be one tavern where it is not easy to find +anything stronger to drink than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves +is so slight that it is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer +doors of the house at night. The universality of literary culture is as +remarkable as the freedom with which all persons engage in manual labour. +The village of a thousand inhabitants will be very likely to have a public +circulating library, in which you may find Professor Huxley's "Lay Sermons" +or Sir Henry Maine's "Ancient Law": it will surely have a high-school and +half a dozen schools for small children. A person unable to read and write +is as great a rarity as an albino or a person with six fingers. The farmer +who threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a piano +in his family sitting-room, with the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> on the table +and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay on his shelves, while his +daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, is perhaps ready to paint +on china in the afternoon. In former times theological questions largely +occupied the attention of the people; and there is probably no part of +the world where the Bible has been more attentively read, or where the +mysteries of Christian doctrine have to so great an extent been made the +subject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence we find in the +New England of to-day a deep religious sense combined with singular flexibility +of mind and freedom of thought. +<p>A state of society so completely democratic as that here described has +not often been found in connection with a very high and complex civilization. +In contemplating these old mountain villages of New England, one descries +slow modifications in the structure of society which threaten somewhat +to lessen its dignity. The immense productiveness of the soil in our western +states, combined with cheapness of transportation, tends to affect seriously +the agricultural interests of New England as well as those of our mother-country. +There is a visible tendency for farms to pass into the hands of proprietors +of an inferior type to that of the former owners,--men who are content +with a lower standard of comfort and culture; while the sons of the old +farmers go off to the universities to prepare for a professional career, +and the daughters marry merchants or lawyers in the cities. The mountain-streams +of New England, too, afford so much water-power as to bring in ugly factories +to disfigure the beautiful ravines, and to introduce into the community +a class of people very different from the landholding descendants of the +Puritans. When once a factory is established near a village, one no longer +feels free to sleep with doors unbolted. +<p>It will be long, however, I trust, before the simple, earnest and independent +type of character that has been nurtured on the Blue Hills of Massachusetts +and the White Hills of New Hampshire shall cease to operate like a powerful +leaven upon the whole of American society. Much has been said and sung +in praise of the spirit of chivalry, which, after all, as a great historian +reminds us, "implies the arbitrary choice of one or two virtues, to be +practised in such an exaggerated degree as to become vices, while the ordinary +laws of right and wrong are forgotten." <a NAME="FNanchor1"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_1">[1]</a></sup> +Quite enough has been said, too, in discredit of Puritanism,--its narrowness +of aim, its ascetic proclivities, its quaint affectations of Hebraism. +Yet these things were but the symptoms of the intensity of its reverence +for that grand spirit of Hebraism, of which Mr. Matthew Arnold speaks, +to which we owe the Bible and Christianity. No loftier ideal has ever been +conceived than that of the Puritan who would fain have made of the world +a City of God. If we could sum up all that England owes to Puritanism, +the story would be a great one indeed. As regards the United States, we +may safely say that what is noblest in our history to-day, and of happiest +augury for our social and political future, is the impress left upon the +character of our people by the heroic men who came to New England early +in the seventeenth century. +<p>The settlement of New England by the Puritans occupies a peculiar position +in the annals of colonization, and without understanding this we cannot +properly appreciate the character of the purely democratic society which +I have sought to describe. As a general rule colonies have been founded, +either by governments or by private enterprise, for political or commercial +reasons. The aim has been--on the part of governments--to annoy some rival +power, or to get rid of criminals, or to open some new avenue of trade, +or--on the part of the people--to escape from straitened circumstances +at home, or to find a refuge from religious persecution. In the settlement +of New England none of these motives were operative except the last, and +that only to a slight extent. The Puritans who fled from Nottinghamshire +to Holland in 1608, and twelve years afterwards crossed the ocean in the +<i>Mayflower</i>, may be said to have been driven from England by persecution. +But this was not the case with the Puritans who between 1630 and 1650 went +from Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and from Dorset and Devonshire, +and founded the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. These men left +their homes at a time when Puritanism was waxing powerful and could not +be assailed with impunity. They belonged to the upper and middle classes +of the society of that day, outside of the peerage. Mr. Freeman has pointed +out the importance of the change by which, after the Norman Conquest, the +Old-English nobility or <i>thegnhood</i> was pushed down into "a secondary +place in the political and social scale." Of the far-reaching effects of +this change upon the whole subsequent history of the English race I shall +hereafter have occasion to speak. The proximate effect was that "the ancient +lords of the soil, thus thrust down into the second rank, formed that great +body of freeholders, the stout gentry and yeomanry of England, who were +for so many ages the strength of the land." <a NAME="FNanchor2"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_2">[2]</a></sup> +It was from this ancient thegnhood that the Puritan settlers of New England +were mainly descended. It is no unusual thing for a Massachusetts family +to trace its pedigree to a lord of the manor in the thirteenth or fourteenth +century. The leaders of the New England emigration were country gentlemen +of good fortune, similar in position to such men as Hampden and Cromwell; +a large proportion of them had taken degrees at Cambridge. The rank and +file were mostly intelligent and prosperous yeomen. The lowest ranks of +society were not represented in the emigration; and all idle, shiftless, +or disorderly people were rigorously refused admission into the new communities, +the early history of which was therefore singularly free from anything +like riot or mutiny. To an extent unparalleled, therefore, in the annals +of colonization, the settlers of New England were a body of <i>picked men</i>. +Their Puritanism was the natural outcome of their free-thinking, combined +with an earnestness of character which could constrain them to any sacrifices +needful for realizing their high ideal of life. They gave up pleasant homes +in England, and they left them with no feeling of rancour towards their +native land, in order that, by dint of whatever hardship, they might establish +in the American wilderness what should approve itself to their judgment +as a god-fearing community. It matters little that their conceptions were +in some respects narrow. In the unflinching adherence to duty which prompted +their enterprise, and in the sober intelligence with which it was carried +out, we have, as I said before, the key to what is best in the history +of the American people. +<p>Out of such a colonization as that here described nothing but a democratic +society could very well come, save perhaps in case of a scarcity of arable +land. Between the country gentleman and the yeoman who has become a landed +proprietor, the difference is not great enough to allow the establishment +of permanent distinctions, social or political. Immediately on their arrival +in New England, the settlers proceeded to form for themselves a government +as purely democratic as any that has ever been seen in the world. Instead +of scattering about over the country, the requirements of education and +of public worship, as well as of defence against Indian attacks, obliged +them to form small village communities. As these villages multiplied, the +surface of the country came to be laid out in small districts (usually +from six to ten miles in length and breadth) called <i>townships</i>. Each +township contained its village together with the woodlands surrounding +it. In later days two or more villages have often grown up within the limits +of the same township, and the road from one village to another is sometimes +bordered with homesteads and cultivated fields throughout nearly its whole +length. In the neighbourhood of Boston villages and small towns crowd closely +together for twenty miles in every direction; and all these will no doubt +by and by grow together into a vast and complicated city, in somewhat the +same way that London has grown. +<p>From the outset the government of the township was vested in the TOWN-MEETING,--an +institution which in its present form is said to be peculiar to New England, +but which, as we shall see, has close analogies with local self-governing +bodies in other ages and countries. Once in each year--usually in the month +of March--a meeting is held, at which every adult male residing within +the limits of the township is expected to be present, and is at liberty +to address the meeting or to vote upon any question that may come up. +<p>In the first years of the colonies it seems to have been attempted to +hold town-meetings every month, and to discuss all the affairs of the community +in these assemblies; but this was soon found to be a cumbrous way of transacting +public business, and as early as 1635 we find +<i>selectmen</i> chosen to +administer the affairs of the township during the intervals between the +assemblies. As the system has perfected itself, at each annual town-meeting +there are chosen not less than three or more than nine selectmen, according +to the size of the township. Besides these, there are chosen a town-clerk, +a town-treasurer, a school-committee, assessors of taxes, overseers of +the poor, constables, surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, and other officers. +In very small townships the selectmen themselves may act as assessors of +taxes or overseers of the poor. The selectmen may appoint police-officers +if such are required; they may act as a Board of Health; in addition to +sundry specific duties too numerous to mention here, they have the general +superintendence of all public business save such as is expressly assigned +to the other officers; and whenever circumstances may seem to require it +they are authorized to call a town-meeting. The selectmen are thus the +principal town-magistrates; and through the annual election their responsibility +to the town is maintained at the maximum. Yet in many New England towns +re-election of the same persons year after year has very commonly prevailed. +I know of an instance where the office of town-clerk was filled by three +members of one family during one hundred and fourteen consecutive years. +<p>Besides choosing executive officers, the town-meeting has the power +of enacting by-laws, of making appropriations of money for town-purposes, +and of providing for miscellaneous emergencies by what might be termed +special legislation. Besides the annual meeting held in the spring for +transacting all this local business, the selectmen are required to call +a meeting in the autumn of each year for the election of state and county +officers, each second year for the election of representatives to the federal +Congress, and each fourth year for the election of the President of the +United States. +<p>It only remains to add that, as an assembly of the whole people becomes +impracticable in a large community, so when the population of a township +has grown to ten or twelve thousand, the town-meeting is discontinued, +the town is incorporated as a city, and its affairs are managed by a mayor, +a board of aldermen, and a common council, according to the system adopted +in London in the reign of Edward I. In America, therefore, the distinction +between cities and towns has nothing to do with the presence or absence +of a cathedral, but refers solely to differences in the communal or municipal +government. In the city the common council, as a representative body, replaces +(in a certain sense) the town-meeting; a representative government is substituted +for a pure democracy. But the city officers, like the selectmen of towns, +are elected annually; and in no case (I believe) has municipal government +fallen into the hands of a self-perpetuating body, as it has done in so +many instances in England owing to the unwise policy pursued by the Tudors +and Stuarts in their grants of charters. +<p>It is only in New England that the township system is to be found in +its completeness. In several southern and western states the administrative +unit is the county, and local affairs are managed by county commissioners +elected by the people. Elsewhere we find a mixture of the county and township +systems. In some of the western states settled by New England people, town-meetings +are held, though their powers are somewhat less extensive than in New England. +In the settlement of Virginia it was attempted to copy directly the parishes +and vestries, boroughs and guilds of England. But in the southern states +generally the great size of the plantations and the wide dispersion of +the population hindered the growth of towns, so that it was impossible +to have an administrative unit smaller than the county. As Tocqueville +said fifty years ago, "the farther south we go the less active does the +business of the township or parish become; the population exercises a less +immediate influence on affairs; the power of the elected magistrate is +augmented and that of the election diminished, while the public spirit +of the local communities is less quickly awakened and less influential." +This is almost equally true to-day; yet with all these differences in local +organization, there is no part of our country in which the spirit of local +self-government can be called weak or uncertain. I have described the Town-meeting +as it exists in the states where it first grew up and has since chiefly +flourished. But something very like the "town-meeting principle" lies at +the bottom of all the political life of the United States. To maintain +vitality in the centre without sacrificing it in the parts; to preserve +tranquillity in the mutual relations of forty powerful states, while keeping +the people everywhere as far as possible in direct contact with the government; +such is the political problem which the American Union exists for the purpose +of solving; and of this great truth every American citizen is supposed +to have some glimmering, however crude. +<p>It has been said that the town-governments of New England were established +without any conscious reference to precedent; but, however this may be, +they are certainly not without precedents and analogies, to enumerate which +will carry us very far back in the history of the Aryan world. At the beginning +of his essay on the "Growth of the English Constitution," Mr. Freeman gives +an eloquent account of the May assemblies of Uri and Appenzell, when the +whole people elect their magistrates for the year and vote upon amendments +to the old laws or upon the adoption of new ones. Such a sight Mr. Freeman +seems to think can be seen nowhere but in Switzerland, and he reckons it +among the highest privileges of his life to have looked upon it. But I +am unable to see in what respect the town-meeting in Massachusetts differs +from the <i>Landesgemeinde</i> or cantonal assembly in Switzerland, save +that it is held in a town-hall and not in the open air, that it is conducted +with somewhat less of pageantry, and that the freemen who attend do not +carry arms even by way of ceremony. In the Swiss assembly, as Mr. Freeman +truly observes, we see exemplified the most democratic phase of the old +Teutonic constitution as described in the "Germania" of Tacitus, "the earliest +picture which history can give us of the political and social being of +our own forefathers." The same remark, in precisely the same terms, would +be true of the town-meetings of New England. Political institutions, on +the White Mountains and on the Alps, not only closely resemble each other, +but are connected by strict bonds of descent from a common original. +<p>The most primitive self-governing body of which we have any knowledge +is the village-community of the ancient Teutons, of which such strict counterparts +are found in other parts of the Aryan world as to make it apparent that +in its essential features it must be an inheritance from prehistoric Aryan +antiquity. In its Teutonic form the primitive village-community (or rather, +the spot inhabited by it) is known as the +<i>Mark</i>,--that is, a place +defined by a boundary-line. One characteristic of the mark-community is +that all its free members are in theory supposed to be related to each +other through descent from a common progenitor; and in this respect the +mark-community agrees with the +<i>gens</i>, [Greek: <i>ginos</i>], or <i>clan</i>. +The earliest form of political union in the world is one which rests, not +upon territorial contiguity, but upon I blood-relationship, either real +or assumed through the legal fiction of adoption. In the lowest savagery +blood-relationship is the only admissible or conceivable ground for sustained +common action among groups of men. Among peoples which wander about, supporting +themselves either by hunting, or at a somewhat more advanced stage of development +by the rearing of flocks and herds, a group of men, thus permanently associated +through ties of blood-relationship, is what we call a <i>clan</i>. When +by the development of agricultural pursuits the nomadic mode of life is +brought to an end, when the clan remains stationary upon some piece of +territory surrounded by a strip of forest-land, or other boundaries natural +or artificial, then the clan becomes a mark-community. The profound linguistic +researches of Pictet, Fick, and others have made it probable that at the +time when the Old-Aryan language was broken up into the dialects from which +the existing languages of Europe are descended, the Aryan tribes were passing +from a purely pastoral stage of barbarism into an incipient agricultural +stage, somewhat like that which characterized the Iroquois tribes in America +in the seventeenth century. The comparative study of institutions leads +to results in harmony with this view, showing us the mark-community of +our Teutonic ancestors with the clear traces of its origin in the more +primitive clan; though, with Mr. Kemble, I do not doubt that by the time +of Tacitus the German tribes had long since reached the agricultural stage. +<p>Territorially the old Teutonic mark consisted of three divisions. There +was the <i>village mark</i>, where the people lived in houses crowded closely +together, no doubt for defensive purposes; there was the <i>arable mark</i>, +divided into as many lots as there were householders; and there was the +<i>common +mark</i>, or border-strip of untilled land, wherein all the inhabitants +of the village had common rights of pasturage and of cutting firewood. +All this land originally was the property not of any one family or individual, +but of the community. The study of the mark carries us back to a time when +there may have been private property in weapons, utensils, or trinkets, +but not in real estate.<a NAME="FNanchor3"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></sup> +Of the three kinds of land the common mark, save where curtailed or usurped +by lords in the days of feudalism, has generally remained public property +to this day. The pleasant green commons or squares which occur in the midst +of towns and cities in England and the United States most probably originated +from the coalescence of adjacent mark-communities, whereby the border-land +used in common by all was brought into the centre of the new aggregate. +In towns of modern date this origin of the common is of course forgotten, +and in accordance with the general law by which the useful thing after +discharging its functions survives for purposes of ornament, it is introduced +as a pleasure-ground. In old towns of New England, however, the little +park where boys play ball or children and nurses "take the air" was once +the common pasture of the town. Even Boston Common did not entirely cease +to be a grazing-field until 1830. It was in the village-mark, or assemblage +of homesteads, that private property in real estate naturally began. In +the Russian villages to-day the homesteads are private property, while +the cultivated land is owned in common. This was the case with the <i>arable +mark</i> of our ancestors. The arable mark belonged to the community, and +was temporarily divided into as many fields as there were households, though +the division was probably not into equal parts: more likely, as in Russia +to-day, the number of labourers in each household was taken into the account; +and at irregular intervals, as fluctuations in population seemed to require +it, a thorough-going redivision was effected. In carrying out such divisions +and redivisions, as well as in all matters relating to village, ploughed +field, or pasture, the mark-community was a law unto itself. Though individual +freedom was by no means considerable, the legal existence of the individual +being almost entirely merged in that of his clan, the mark-community was +a completely self-governing body. The assembly of the mark-men, or members +of the community, allotted land for tillage, determined the law or declared +the custom as to methods of tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, +voted upon the admission of new families into the village, and in general +transacted what was then regarded as the public business of the community. +In all essential respects this village assembly or <i>mark-mote</i> would +seem to have resembled the town-meetings of New England. +<p>Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly +from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of +English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in Hindustan +we find the same primitive form of social organization existing with very +little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and in Russian village-communities +we find the group of habitations, each despotically ruled by a <i>pater-familias;</i> +we find the pasture-land owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable +land divided into separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute +regulations established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution +of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in others; +the arable mark has become private property, as well as the homesteads. +In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at irregular intervals +averaging something like fifteen years. In India the local government is +carried on in some places by a Council of Village Elders, and in other +places by a Headman whose office is sometimes described as hereditary, +but is more probably elective, the choice being confined, as in the case +of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of a particular family. In +the Russian village, on the other hand, the government is conducted by +an assembly at which every head of a household is expected to be present +and vote on all matters of public concern. This assembly elects the Village +Elder, or chief executive officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and +the communal herd-boy; it directs the allotment of the arable land; and +in general matters of local legislation its power is as great as that of +the New England town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since +the precise extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, +and (according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against +its decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply +as a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising. +To those who, because the Russian government is called a bureaucracy, have +been led to think of it as analogous to the government of France under +the Old Régime, it may seem incredible that the decisions of a village-assembly +should not admit of appeal to a higher authority. But in point of fact, +no two despotic governments could be less alike than that of modern Russia +and that of France under the Old Régime. The Russian government +is autocratic inasmuch as over the larger part of the country it has simply +succeeded to the position of the Mongolian khans who from the thirteenth +to the fifteenth century held the Russian people in subjection. This Mongolian +government was--to use a happy distinction suggested by Sir Henry Maine--a +tax-taking despotism, not a legislative despotism. The conquerors exacted +tribute, but did not interfere with the laws and customs of the subject +people. When the Russians drove out the Mongols they exchanged a despotism +which they hated for one in which they felt a national pride, but in one +curious respect the position of the people with reference to their rulers +has remained the same. The imperial government exacts from each village-community +a tax in gross, for which the community as a whole is responsible, and +which may or may not be oppressive in amount; but the government has never +interfered with local legislation or with local customs. Thus in the +<i>mir</i>, +or village-community, the Russians still retain an element of sound political +life, the importance of which appears when we consider that five-sixths +of the population of European Russia is comprised in these communities. +The tax assessed upon them by the imperial government is, however, a feature +which--even more than their imperfect system of property and their low +grade of mental culture--separates them by a world-wide interval from the +New England township, to the primeval embryonic stage of which they correspond. +<p>From these illustrations we see that the mark, or self-governing village-community, +is an institution which must be referred back to early Aryan times. Whether +the mark ever existed in England, in anything like the primitive form in +which it is seen in the Russian <i>mir</i>, is doubtful. Professor Stubbs +(one of the greatest living authorities on such a subject) is inclined +to think that the Teutonic settlers of Britain had passed beyond this stage +before they migrated from Germany.<a NAME="FNanchor4"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a></sup> +Nevertheless the traces of the mark, as all admit, are plentiful enough +in England; and some of its features have survived down to modern times. +In the great number of town-names that are formed from patronymics, such +as <i>Walsingham</i> "the home of the Walsings," +<i>Harlington</i> "the +town of the Harlings," etc.,<a NAME="FNanchor5"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_5">[5]</a></sup> +we have unimpeachable evidence of a time when the town was regarded as +the dwelling-place of a clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word +<i>mark</i> in English laws, charters, and local names (to which Professor +Stubbs alludes) may be due to the fact that the word <i>town</i> has precisely +the same meaning. <i>Mark</i> means originally the belt of waste land encircling +the village, and secondarily the village with its periphery. <i>Town</i> +means originally a hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is +enclosed: the modern German <i>zaun</i>, a "hedge," preserves the original +meaning. But traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. +I have already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. +What is still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation +in common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of +the mark appears in the <i>tunscipesmot</i>,--a word which is simply Old-English +for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm foothold, +the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of enacting +its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have to-day. But +above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of itself in the +constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or township, transformed +by the process of feudalization, becomes the manor. The process of feudalization, +throughout western Europe in general, was no doubt begun by the institution +of Benefices, or "grants of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of +the" Teutonic "tribes which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being +conferred on their associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest +was military service." <a NAME="FNanchor6"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a></sup> +The feudal régime naturally reached its most complete development +in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman territory +overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic conquerors. Other +causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps being the chaotic +condition of European society during the break-up of the Carolingian Empire +and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions. Land was better protected +when held of a powerful chieftain than when held in one's own right; and +hence the practice of commendation, by which free allodial proprietors +were transformed into the tenants of a lord, became fashionable and was +gradually extended to all kinds of estates. In England the effects of feudalization +were different from what they were in France, but the process was still +carried very far, especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up +that all the public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that +all landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the +common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's tenants. +Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even by such a +change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in England +lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as Sir Henry +Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty in the rights +of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no authority to disturb +customary rights. The old township-assembly partially survived in the Court +Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court of the Manor; and in these courts +the arrangements for the common husbandry were determined. +<p>This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but +partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township into +the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has pointed +out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or townships with +which it coincides are generally the same: in small parishes the idea and +even the name of township is frequently, at the present day, sunk in that +of the parish; and all the business that is not manorial is despatched +in vestry-meetings, which are however primarily meetings of the township +for church purposes." <a NAME="FNanchor7"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a></sup> +The parish officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens, +are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And +while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by charter, +or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial grant, "all +matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the management of +the vestry." +<p>In England, therefore, the free village-community, though perhaps nowhere +found in its primitive integrity, has nevertheless survived in partially +transfigured forms which have played no unimportant part in the history +of the English people. In one shape or another the assembly of freemen +for purposes of local legislation has always existed. The Puritans who +colonized New England, therefore, did not invent the town-meeting. They +were familiar already with the proceedings of the vestry-meeting and the +manorial courts, but they were severed now from church and from aristocracy. +So they had but to discard the ecclesiastical and lordly terminology, with +such limitations as they involved, and to reintegrate the separate jurisdictions +into one,--and forthwith the old assembly of the township, founded in immemorial +tradition, but revivified by new thoughts and purposes gained through ages +of political training, emerged into fresh life and entered upon a more +glorious career. +<p>It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need +to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of +the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful national +life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local self-government in the +various portions of the Aryan world, we see the contrasted fortunes of +France and England illustrating for us most forcibly the significance of +this truth. For the preservation of local self-government in England various +causes may be assigned; but of these there are two which may be cited as +especially prominent. In the first place, owing to the peculiar circumstances +of the Teutonic settlement of Britain, the civilization of England previous +to the Norman Conquest was but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. +In the second place the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman +Conquest (to which I have already alluded) checked the growth of a <i>noblesse</i> +or <i>adel</i> of the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common +people like a separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown +into such a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage +which arose after the Conquest was something different from a +<i>noblesse</i>. +It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or privilege. +The peers were those men who retained the right of summons to the Great +Council, or Witenagemote, which has survived as the House of Lords. The +peer was therefore the holder of a legislative and judicial office, which +only one of his children could inherit, from the very nature of the case, +and which none of his children could share with him. Hence the brothers +and younger children of a peer were always commoners, and their interests +were not remotely separated from those of other commoners. Hence after +the establishment of a House of Commons, their best chance for a political +career lay in representing the interests of the people in the lower house. +Hence between the upper and lower strata of English society there has always +been kept up a circulation or interchange of ideas and interests, and the +effect of this upon English history has been prodigious. While on the continent +a sovereign like Charles the Bold could use his nobility to extinguish +the liberties of the merchant towns of Flanders, nothing of the sort was +ever possible in England. Throughout the Middle Ages, in every contest +between the people and the crown, the weight of the peerage was thrown +into the scale in favour of popular liberties. But for this peculiar position +of the peerage we might have had no Earl Simon; it is largely through it +that representative government and local liberties have been preserved +to the English race. +<p>In France the course of events has brought about very different results. +I shall defer to my next lecture the consideration of the vicissitudes +of local self-government under the Roman Empire, because that point is +really incident upon the study of the formation of vast national aggregates. +Suffice it now to say that when the Teutons overcame Gaul, they became +rulers over a population which had been subjected for five centuries to +that slow but mighty process of trituration which the Empire everywhere +brought to bear upon local self-government. While the Teutons in Britain, +moreover, enslaved their slightly romanized subjects and gave little heed +to their language, religion, or customs; the Teutons in Gaul, on the other +hand, quickly adopted the language and religion of their intensely romanized +subjects and acquired to some extent their way of looking at things. Hence +in the early history of France there was no such stubborn mass of old Aryan +liberties to be dealt with as in the early history of England. Nor was +there any powerful middle class distributed through the country to defend +such liberties as existed. Beneath the turbulent throng of Teutonic nobles, +among whom the king was only the most exalted and not always the strongest, +there lay the Gallo-Roman population which had so long been accustomed +to be ruled without representation by a distant government exercising its +authority through innumerable prefects. Such Teutonic rank and file as +there was became absorbed into this population; and except in sundry chartered +towns there was nothing like a social stratum interposed between the nobles +and the common people. +<p>The slow conversion of the feudal monarchy of the early Capetians into +the absolute despotism of Louis XIV. was accomplished by the king gradually +<i>conquering</i> his vassals one after another, and adding their domains +to his own. As one vassal territory after another was added to the royal +domain, the king sent prefects, responsible only to himself, to administer +its local affairs, sedulously crushing out, so far as possible, the last +vestiges of self-government. The nobles, deprived of their provincial rule, +in great part flocked to Paris to become idle courtiers. The means for +carrying on the gigantic machinery of centralized administration, and for +supporting the court in its follies, were wrung from the groaning peasantry +with a cynical indifference like that with which tribute is extorted by +barbaric chieftains from a conquered enemy. And thus came about that abominable +state of things which a century since was abruptly ended by one of the +fiercest convulsions of modern times. The prodigious superiority--in respect +to national vitality--of a freely governed country over one that is governed +by a centralized despotism, is nowhere more brilliantly illustrated than +in the contrasted fortunes of France and England as +<i>colonizing</i> nations. +When we consider the declared rivalry between France and England in their +plans for colonizing the barbarous regions of the earth, when we consider +that the military power of the two countries has been not far from equal, +and that France has at times shown herself a maritime power by no means +to be despised, it seems to me that her overwhelming and irretrievable +defeat by England in the struggle for colonial empire is one of the most +striking and one of the most instructive facts in all modern history. In +my lectures of last year (at University College) I showed that, in the +struggle for the possession of North America, where the victory of England +was so decisive as to settle the question for all coming time, the causes +of the French failure are very plainly to be seen. The French colony in +Canada was one of the most complete examples of a despotic government that +the world has ever seen. All the autocratic and bureaucratic ideas of Louis +XIV. were here carried out without let or hindrance. It would be incredible, +were it not attested by such abundant evidence, that the affairs of any +people could be subjected to such minute and sleepless supervision as were +the affairs of the French colonists in Canada. A man could not even build +his own house, or rear his own cattle, or sow his own seed, or reap his +own grain, save under the supervision of prefects acting under instructions +from the home government. No one was allowed to enter or leave the colony +without permission, not from the colonists but from the king. No farmer +could visit Montreal or Quebec without permission. No Huguenot could set +his foot on Canadian soil. No public meetings of any kind were tolerated, +nor were there any means of giving expression to one's opinions on any +subject. The details of all this, which may be read in Mr. Parkman's admirable +work on "The Old Regime in Canada," make a wonderful chapter of history. +Never was a colony, moreover, so loaded with bounties, so fostered, petted, +and protected. The result was absolute paralysis, political and social. +When after a century of irritation and skirmishing the French in Canada +came to a life-and-death struggle with the self-governing colonists of +New England, New York, and Virginia, the result for the French power in +America was instant and irretrievable annihilation. The town-meeting pitted +against the bureaucracy was like a Titan overthrowing a cripple. The historic +lesson owes its value to the fact that this ruin of the French scheme of +colonial empire was due to no accidental circumstances, but was involved +in the very nature of the French political system. Obviously it is impossible +for a people to plant beyond sea a colony which shall be self-supporting, +unless it has retained intact the power of self-government at home. It +is to the self-government of England, and to no lesser cause, that we are +to look for the secret of that boundless vitality which has given to men +of English speech the uttermost parts of the earth for an inheritance. +The conquest of Canada first demonstrated this truth, and when--in the +two following lectures--we shall have made some approach towards comprehending +its full import, we shall all, I think, be ready to admit that the triumph +of Wolfe marks the greatest turning-point as yet discernible in modern +history. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +II.</h2> + +<h2> +THE FEDERAL UNION.</h2> +The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries still +ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of political +wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books in the world. +At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other time in the career +of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with such luxuriance as at +Athens during the eighty-five years which intervened between the victory +of Marathon and the defeat of Ægospotamos. In no other like interval +of time, and in no other community of like dimensions, has so much work +been accomplished of which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema +es aei],--an eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day +so distant, or an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by +Athens shall cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers +shall cease to be read with fresh profit and delight. We understand these +things far better to-day than did those monsters of erudition in the sixteenth +century who studied the classics for philological purposes mainly. Indeed, +the older the world grows, the more varied our experience of practical +politics, the more comprehensive our survey of universal history, the stronger +our grasp upon the comparative method of inquiry, the more brilliant is +the light thrown upon that brief day of Athenian greatness, and the more +wonderful and admirable does it all seem. To see this glorious community +overthrown, shorn of half its virtue (to use the Homeric phrase), and thrust +down into an inferior position in the world, is a mournful spectacle indeed. +And the book which sets before us, so impartially yet so eloquently, the +innumerable petty misunderstandings and contemptible jealousies which brought +about this direful result, is one of the most mournful of books. +<p>We may console ourselves, however, for the premature overthrow of the +power of Athens, by the reflection that that power rested upon political +conditions which could not in any case have been permanent or even long-enduring. +The entire political system of ancient Greece, based as it was upon the +idea of the sovereign independence of each single city, was one which could +not fail sooner or later to exhaust itself through chronic anarchy. The +only remedy lay either in some kind of permanent federation, combined with +representative government; or else in what we might call "incorporation +and assimilation," after the Roman fashion. But the incorporation of one +town with another, though effected with brilliant results in the early +history of Attika, involved such a disturbance of all the associations +which in the Greek mind clustered about the conception of a city that it +was quite impracticable on any large or general scale. Schemes of federal +union were put into operation, though too late to be of avail against the +assaults of Macedonia and Rome. But as for the principle of representation, +that seems to have been an invention of the Teutonic mind; no statesman +of antiquity, either in Greece or at Rome, seems to have conceived the +idea of a city sending delegates armed with plenary powers to represent +its interests in a general legislative assembly. To the Greek statesmen, +no doubt, this too would have seemed derogatory to the dignity of the sovereign +city. +<p>This feeling with which the ancient Greek statesmen, and to some extent +the Romans also, regarded the city, has become almost incomprehensible +to the modern mind, so far removed are we from the political circumstances +which made such a feeling possible. Teutonic civilization, indeed, has +never passed through a stage in which the foremost position has been held +by civic communities. Teutonic civilization passed directly from the stage +of tribal into that of national organization, before any Teutonic city +had acquired sufficient importance to have claimed autonomy for itself; +and at the time when Teutonic nationalities were forming, moreover, all +the cities in Europe had so long been accustomed to recognize a master +outside of them in the person of the Roman emperor that the very tradition +of civic autonomy, as it existed in ancient Greece, had become extinct. +This difference between the political basis of Teutonic and of Græco-Roman +civilization is one of which it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance; +and when thoroughly understood it goes farther, perhaps, than anything +else towards accounting for the successive failures of the Greek and Roman +political systems, and towards inspiring us with confidence in the future +stability of the political system which has been wrought out by the genius +of the English race. +<p>We saw, in the preceding lecture, how the most primitive form of political +association known to have existed is that of the <i>clan</i>, or group +of families held together by ties of descent from a common ancestor. We +saw how the change from a nomadic to a stationary mode of life, attendant +upon the adoption of agricultural pursuits, converted the clan into a <i>mark</i> +or village-community, something like those which exist to-day in Russia. +The political progress of primitive society seems to have consisted largely +in the coalescence of these small groups into larger groups. The first +series of compound groups resulting from the coalescence of adjacent marks +is that which was known in nearly all Teutonic lands as the <i>hundred</i>, +in Athens as the [Greek: <i>phratria</i>] or +<i>brotherhood</i>, in Rome +as the <i>curia</i>. Yet alongside of the Roman group called the <i>curia</i> +there is a group whose name, the <i>century</i>, exactly translates the +name of the Teutonic group; and, as Mr. Freeman says, it is difficult to +believe that the Roman <i>century</i> did not at the outset in some way +correspond to the Teutonic <i>hundred</i> as a stage in political organization. +But both these terms, as we know them in history, are survivals from some +prehistoric state of things; and whether they were originally applied to +a hundred of houses, or of families, or of warriors, we do not know.<a NAME="FNanchor8"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a></sup> +M. Geffroy, in his interesting essay on the Germania of Tacitus, suggests +that the term <i>canton</i> may have a similar origin.<a NAME="FNanchor9"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_9">[9]</a></sup> +The outlines of these primitive groups are, however, more obscure than +those of the more primitive mark, because in most cases they have been +either crossed and effaced or at any rate diminished in importance by the +more highly compounded groups which came next in order of formation. Next +above the <i>hundred</i>, in order of composition, comes the group known +in ancient Italy as the<i>pagus</i>, in Attika perhaps as the +<i>deme</i>, +in Germany and at first in England as the <i>gau</i> or <i>ga</i>, at a +later date in England as the <i>shire</i>. Whatever its name, this group +answers to the <i>tribe</i> regarded as settled upon a certain determinate +territory. Just as in the earlier nomadic life the aggregation of clans +makes ultimately the tribe, so in the more advanced agricultural life of +our Aryan ancestors the aggregation of marks or village-communities makes +ultimately the <i>gau</i> or <i>shire</i>. Properly speaking, the name +<i>shire</i> +is descriptive of division and not of aggregation; but this term came into +use in England after the historic order of formation had been forgotten, +and when the <i>shire</i> was looked upon as a <i>piece</i> of some larger +whole, such as the kingdom of Mercia or Wessex. Historically, however, +the <i>shire</i> was not made, like the <i>departments</i> of modern France, +by the division of the kingdom for administrative purposes, but the kingdom +was made by the union of shires that were previously autonomous. In the +primitive process of aggregation, the <i>shire</i> or +<i>gau</i>, governed +by its <i>witenagemote</i> or "meeting of wise men," and by its chief magistrate +who was called <i>ealdorman</i> in time of peace and +<i>heretoga</i>, "army-leader," +<i>dux</i>, or <i>duke</i>, in time of war,--the +<i>shire</i>, I say, in +this form, is the largest and most complex political body we find previous +to the formation of kingdoms and nations. But in saying this, we have already +passed beyond the point at which we can include in the same general formula +the process of political development in Teutonic countries on the one hand +and in Greece and Rome on the other. Up as far as the formation of the +tribe, territorially regarded, the parallelism is preserved; but at this +point there begins an all-important divergence. In the looser and more +diffused society of the rural Teutons, the tribe is spread over a shire, +and the aggregation of shires makes a kingdom, embracing cities, towns, +and rural districts held together by similar bonds of relationship to the +central governing power. But in the society of the old Greeks and Italians, +the aggregation of tribes, crowded together on fortified hill-tops, makes +the <i>Ancient City</i>,--a very different thing, indeed, from the modern +city of later-Roman or Teutonic foundation. Let us consider, for a moment, +the difference. +<p>Sir Henry Maine tells us that in Hindustan nearly all the great towns +and cities have arisen either from the simple expansion or from the expansion +and coalescence of primitive village-communities; and such as have not +arisen in this way, including some of the greatest of Indian cities, have +grown up about the intrenched camps of the Mogul emperors.<a NAME="FNanchor10"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_10">[10]</a></sup> +The case has been just the same in modern Europe. Some famous cities of +England and Germany--such as Chester and Lincoln, Strasburg and Maintz,--grew +up about the camps of the Roman legions. But in general the Teutonic city +has been formed by the expansion and coalescence of thickly-peopled townships +and hundreds. In the United States nearly all cities have come from the +growth and expansion of villages, with such occasional cases of coalescence +as that of Boston with Roxbury and Charlestown. Now and then a city has +been laid out as a city <i>ab initio</i>, with full consciousness of its +purpose, as a man would build a house; and this was the case not merely +with Martin Chuzzlewit's "Eden," but with the city of Washington, the seat +of our federal government. But, to go back to the early ages of England--the +country which best exhibits the normal development of Teutonic institutions--the +point which I wish especially to emphasize is this: <i>in no case does +the city appear as equivalent to the dwelling-place of a tribe or of a +confederation of tribes</i>. In no case does citizenship, or burghership, +appear to rest upon the basis of a real or assumed community of descent +from a single real or mythical progenitor. In the primitive mark, as we +have seen, the bond which kept the community together and constituted it +a political unit was the bond of blood-relationship, real or assumed; but +this was not the case with the city or borough. The city did not correspond +with the tribe, as the mark corresponded with the clan. The aggregation +of clans into tribes corresponded with the aggregation of marks, not into +<i>cities</i> but into <i>shires</i>. The multitude of compound political +units, by the further compounding of which a nation was to be formed, did +not consist of cities but of shires. The city was simply a point in the +shire distinguished by greater density of population. The relations sustained +by the thinly-peopled rural townships and hundreds to the general government +of the shire were co-ordinate with the relations sustained to the same +government by those thickly-peopled townships and hundreds which upon their +coalescence were known as cities or boroughs. Of course I am speaking now +in a broad and general way, and without reference to such special privileges +or immunities as cities and boroughs frequently obtained by royal charter +in feudal times. Such special privileges--as for instance the exemption +of boroughs from the ordinary sessions of the county court, under Henry +I.<a NAME="FNanchor11"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_11">[11]</a></sup>--were +in their nature grants from an external source, and were in nowise inherent +in the position or mode of origin of the Teutonic city. And they were, +moreover, posterior in date to that embryonic period of national growth +of which I am now speaking. They do not affect in any way the correctness +of my general statement, which is sufficiently illustrated by the fact +that the oldest shire-motes, or county-assemblies, were attended by representatives +from all the townships and hundreds in the shire, whether such townships +and hundreds formed parts of boroughs or not. +<p>Very different from this was the embryonic growth of political society +in ancient Greece and Italy. There the aggregation of clans into tribes +and confederations of tribes resulted directly, as we have seen, in the +City. There burghership, with its political and social rights and duties, +had its theoretical basis in descent from a common ancestor, or from a +small group of closely-related common ancestors. The group of fellow-citizens +was associated through its related groups of ancestral household-deities, +and through religious rites performed in common to which it would have +been sacrilege to have admitted a stranger. Thus the Ancient City was a +religious as well as a political body, and in either character it was complete +in itself and it was sovereign. Thus in ancient Greece and Italy the primitive +clan-assembly or township-meeting did not grow by aggregation into the +assembly of the shire, but it developed into the <i>comitia</i> or <i>ecclesia</i> +of the city. The chief magistrate was not the <i>ealdorman</i> of early +English history, but the +<i>rex</i> or <i>basileus</i> who combined in +himself the functions of king, general, and priest. Thus, too, there was +a severance, politically, between city and country such as the Teutonic +world has never known. The rural districts surrounding a city might be +subject to it, but could neither share its franchise nor claim a co-ordinate +franchise with it. Athens, indeed, at an early period, went so far as to +incorporate with itself Eleusis and Marathon and the other rural towns +of Attika. In this one respect Athens transgressed the bounds of ancient +civic organization, and no doubt it gained greatly in power thereby. But +generally in the Hellenic world the rural population in the neighbourhood +of a great city were mere [Greek: <i>perioikoi</i>], or "dwellers in the +vicinity"; the inhabitants of the city who had moved thither from some +other city, both they and their descendants, were mere [Greek: metoikoi], +or "dwellers in the place"; and neither the one class nor the other could +acquire the rights and privileges of citizenship. A revolution, indeed, +went on at Athens, from the time of Solon to the time of Kleisthenes, which +essentially modified the old tribal divisions and admitted to the franchise +all such families resident from time immemorial as did not belong to the +tribes of eupatrids by whom the city was founded. But this change once +accomplished, the civic exclusiveness of Athens remained very much what +it was before. The popular assembly was enlarged, and public harmony was +secured; but Athenian burghership still remained a privilege which could +not be acquired by the native of any other city. Similar revolutions, with +a similarly limited purpose and result, occurred at Sparta, Elis, and other +Greek cities. At Rome, by a like revolution, the plebeians of the Capitoline +and Aventine acquired parallel rights of citizenship with the patricians +of the original city on the Palatine; but this revolution, as we shall +presently see, had different results, leading ultimately to the overthrow +of the city-system throughout the ancient world. +<p>The deep-seated difference between the Teutonic political system based +on the shire and the Græco-Roman system based on the city is now, +I think, sufficiently apparent. Now from this fundamental difference have +come two consequences of enormous importance,--consequences of which it +is hardly too much to say that, taken together, they furnish the key to +the whole history of European civilization as regarded purely from a political +point of view. +<p>The first of these consequences had no doubt a very humble origin in +the mere difference between the shire and the city in territorial extent +and in density of population. When people live near together it is easy +for them to attend a town-meeting, and the assembly by which public business +is transacted is likely to remain a <i>primary assembly</i>, in the true +sense of the term. But when people are dispersed over a wide tract of country, +the primary assembly inevitably shrinks up into an assembly of such persons +as can best afford the time and trouble of attending it, or who have the +strongest interest in going, or are most likely to be listened to after +they get there. Distance and difficulty, and in early times danger too, +keep many people away. And though a shire is not a wide tract of country +for most purposes, and according to modern ideas, it was nevertheless quite +wide enough in former times to bring about the result I have mentioned. +In the times before the Norman conquest, if not before the completed union +of England under Edgar, the shire-mote or county assembly, though in theory +still a folk-mote or primary assembly, had shrunk into what was virtually +a witenagemote or assembly of the most important persons in the county. +But the several townships, in order to keep their fair share of control +over county affairs, and not wishing to leave the matter to chance, sent +to the meetings each its +<i>representatives</i> in the persons of the town-reeve +and four "discreet men." I believe it has not been determined at what precise +time this step was taken, but it no doubt long antedates the Norman conquest. +It is mentioned by Professor Stubbs as being already, in the reign of Henry +III., a custom of immemorial antiquity.<a NAME="FNanchor12"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_12">[12]</a></sup> +It was one of the greatest steps ever taken in the political history of +mankind. In these four discreet men we have the forerunners of the two +burghers from each town who were summoned by Earl Simon to the famous parliament +of 1265, as well as of the two knights from each shire whom the king had +summoned eleven years before. In these four discreet men sent to speak +for their township in the old county assembly, we have the germ of institutions +that have ripened into the House of Commons and into the legislatures of +modern kingdoms and republics. In the system of representation thus inaugurated +lay the future possibility of such gigantic political aggregates as the +United States of America. +<p>In the ancient city, on the other hand, the extreme compactness of the +political structure made representation unnecessary and prevented it from +being thought of in circumstances where it might have proved of immense +value. In an aristocratic Greek city, like Sparta, all the members of the +ruling class met together and voted in the assembly; in a democratic city, +like Athens, all the free citizens met and voted; in each case the assembly +was primary and not representative. The only exception, in all Greek antiquity, +is one which emphatically proves the rule. The Amphiktyonic Council, an +institution of prehistoric origin, concerned mainly with religious affairs +pertaining to the worship of the Delphic Apollo, furnished a precedent +for a representative, and indeed for a federal, assembly. Delegates from +various Greek tribes and cities attended it. The fact that with such a +suggestive precedent before their eyes the Greeks never once hit upon the +device of representation, even in their attempts at framing federal unions, +shows how thoroughly their whole political training had operated to exclude +such a conception from their minds. +<p>The second great consequence of the Graeco-Roman city-system was linked +in many ways with this absence of the representative principle. In Greece +the formation of political aggregates higher and more extensive than the +city was, until a late date, rendered impossible. The good and bad sides +of this peculiar phase of civilization have been often enough commented +on by historians. On the one hand the democratic assembly of such an imperial +city as Athens furnished a school of political training superior to anything +else that the world has ever seen. It was something like what the New England +town-meeting would be if it were continually required to adjust complicated +questions of international polity, if it were carried on in the very centre +or point of confluence of all contemporary streams of culture, and if it +were in the habit every few days of listening to statesmen and orators +like Hamilton or Webster, jurists like Marshall, generals like Sherman, +poets like Lowell, historians like Parkman. Nothing in all history has +approached the high-wrought intensity and brilliancy of the political life +of Athens. +<p>On the other hand, the smallness of the independent city, as a political +aggregate, made it of little or no use in diminishing the liability to +perpetual warfare which is the curse of all primitive communities. In a +group of independent cities, such as made up the Hellenic world, the tendency +to warfare is almost as strong, and the occasions for warfare are almost +as frequent, as in a congeries of mutually hostile tribes of barbarians. +There is something almost lurid in the sharpness of contrast with which +the wonderful height of humanity attained by Hellas is set off against +the fierce barbarism which characterized the relations of its cities to +one another. It may be laid down as a general rule that in an early state +of society, where the political aggregations are small, warfare is universal +and cruel. From the intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent +self-governing groups of men, nothing short of chronic warfare can result, +until some principle of union is evolved by which disputes can be settled +in accordance with general principles admitted by all. Among peoples that +have never risen above the tribal stage of aggregation, such as the American +Indians, war is the normal condition of things, and there is nothing fit +to be called +<i>peace</i>,--there are only truces of brief and uncertain +duration. Were it not for this there would be somewhat less to be said +in favour of great states and kingdoms. As modern life grows more and more +complicated and interdependent, the Great State subserves innumerable useful +purposes; but in the history of civilization its first service, both in +order of time and in order of importance, consists in the diminution of +the quantity of warfare and in the narrowing of its sphere. For within +the territorial limits of any great and permanent state, the tendency is +for warfare to become the exception and peace the rule. In this direction +the political careers of the Greek cities assisted the progress of civilization +but little. +<p>Under the conditions of Graeco-Roman civic life there were but two practicable +methods of forming a great state and diminishing the quantity of warfare. +The one method was <i>conquest with incorporation</i>, the other method +was <i>federation</i>. Either one city might conquer all the others and +endow their citizens with its own franchise, or all the cities might give +up part of their sovereignty to a federal body which should have power +to keep the peace, and should represent the civilized world of the time +in its relations with outlying barbaric peoples. Of these two methods, +obviously the latter is much the more effective, but it presupposes for +its successful adoption a higher general state of civilization than the +former. Neither method was adopted by the Greeks in their day of greatness. +The Spartan method of extending its power was conquest without incorporation: +when Sparta conquered another Greek city, she sent a <i>harmost</i> to +govern it like a tyrant; in other words she virtually enslaved the subject +city. The efforts of Athens tended more in the direction of a peaceful +federalism. In the great Delian confederacy which developed into the maritime +empire of Athens, the Ægean cities were treated as allies rather +than subjects. As regards their local affairs they were in no way interfered +with, and could they have been represented in some kind of a federal council +at Athens, the course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered. +As it was, they were all deprived of one essential element of sovereignty,--the +power of controlling their own military forces. Some of them, as Chios +and Mitylene, furnished troops at the demand of Athens; others maintained +no troops, but paid a fixed tribute to Athens in return for her protection. +In either case they felt shorn of part of their dignity, though otherwise +they had nothing to complain of; and during the Peloponnesian war Athens +had to reckon with their tendency to revolt as well as with her Dorian +enemies. Such a confederation was naturally doomed to speedy overthrow. +<p>In the century following the death of Alexander, in the closing age +of Hellenic independence, the federal idea appears in a much more advanced +stage of elaboration, though in a part of Greece which had been held of +little account in the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the Achaian +federation, framed in 274 B.C., and the United States of America, there +are some interesting points of resemblance which have been elaborately +discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his "History of Federal Government." About +the same time the Aetolian League came into prominence in the north. Both +these leagues were instances of true federal government, and were not mere +confederations; that is, the central government acted directly upon all +the citizens and not merely upon the local governments. Each of these leagues +had for its chief executive officer a General elected for one year, with +powers similar to those of an American President. In each the supreme assembly +was a primary assembly at which every citizen from every city of the league +had a right to be present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural consequence +these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic bodies. In Ætolia, +which was a group of mountain cantons similar to Switzerland, the federal +union was more complete than in Achaia, which was a group of cities. In +Achaia cases occurred in which a single city was allowed to deal separately +with foreign powers. Here, as in earlier Greek history, the instinct of +autonomy was too powerful to admit of complete federation. Yet the career +of the Achaian League was not an inglorious one. For nearly a century and +a half it gave the Peloponnesos a larger measure of orderly government +than the country had ever known before, without infringing upon local liberties. +It defied successfully the threats and assaults of Macedonia, and yielded +at last only to the all-conquering might of Rome. +<p>Thus in so far as Greece contributed anything towards the formation +of great and pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts +at +<i>federation</i>. But in so low a state of political development as +that which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in pre-Christian +times, the more barbarous method of <i>conquest with incorporation</i> +was more likely to be successful on a great scale. This was well illustrated +in the history of Rome,--a civic community of the same generic type with +Sparta and Athens, but presenting specific differences of the highest importance. +The beginnings of Rome, unfortunately, are prehistoric. I have often thought +that if some beneficent fairy could grant us the power of somewhere raising +the veil of oblivion which enshrouds the earliest ages of Aryan dominion +in Europe, there is no place from which the historian should be more glad +to see it lifted than from Rome in the centuries which saw the formation +of the city, and which preceded the expulsion of the kings. Even the legends, +which were uncritically accepted from the days of Livy to those of our +grandfathers, are provokingly silent upon the very points as to which we +would fain get at least a hint. This much is plain, however, that in the +embryonic stage of the Roman commonwealth some obscure processes of fusion +or commingling went on. The tribal population of Rome was more heterogeneous +than that of the great cities of Greece, and its earliest municipal religion +seems to have been an assemblage of various tribal religions that had points +of contact with other tribal religions throughout large portions of the +Græco-Italic world. As M. de Coulanges observes,<a NAME="FNanchor13"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_13">[13]</a></sup> +Rome was almost the only city of antiquity which was not kept apart from +other cities by its religion. There was hardly a people in Greece or Italy +which it was restrained from admitting to participation in its municipal +rites. +<p>However this may have been, it is certain that Rome early succeeded +in freeing itself from that insuperable prejudice which elsewhere prevented +the ancient city from admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And +in this victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of Rome's +mighty career. The victory was not indeed completed until after the terrible +Social War of B.C. 90, but it was begun at least four centuries earlier +with the admission of the plebeians. At the consummation of the conquest +of Italy in B.C. 270 Roman burghership already extended, in varying degrees +of completeness, through the greater part of Etruria and Campania, from +the coast to the mountains; while all the rest of Italy was admitted to +privileges for which ancient history had elsewhere furnished no precedent. +Hence the invasion of Hannibal half a century later, even with its stupendous +victories of Thrasymene and Cannae, effected nothing toward detaching the +Italian subjects from their allegiance to Rome; and herein we have a most +instructive contrast to the conduct of the communities subject to Athens +at several critical moments of the Peloponnesian War. With this consolidation +of Italy, thus triumphantly demonstrated, the whole problem of the conquering +career of Rome was solved. All that came afterwards was simply a corollary +from this. The concentration of all the fighting power of the peninsula +into the hands of the ruling city formed a stronger political aggregate +than anything the world had as yet seen. It was not only proof against +the efforts of the greatest military genius of antiquity, but whenever +it was brought into conflict with the looser organizations of Greece, Africa, +and Asia, or with the semi-barbarous tribes of Spain and Gaul, the result +of the struggle was virtually predetermined. The universal dominion of +Rome was inevitable, so soon as the political union of Italy had been accomplished. +Among the Romans themselves there were those who thoroughly understood +this point, as we may see from the interesting speech of the emperor Claudius +in favour of admitting Gauls to the senate. +<p>The benefits conferred upon the world by the, universal dominion of +Rome were of quite inestimable value. First of these benefits, and (as +it were) the material basis of the others, was the prolonged peace that +was enforced throughout large portions of the world where chronic warfare +had hitherto prevailed. The <i>pax romana</i> has perhaps been sometimes +depicted in exaggerated colours; but as compared with all that had preceded, +and with all that followed, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, +it deserved the encomiums it has received. The second benefit was the mingling +and mutual destruction of the primitive tribal and municipal religions, +thus clearing the way for Christianity,--a step which, regarded from a +purely political point of view, was of immense importance for the further +consolidation of society in Europe. The third benefit was the development +of the Roman law into a great body of legal precepts and principles leavened +throughout with ethical principles of universal applicability, and the +gradual substitution of this Roman law for the innumerable local usages +of ancient communities. Thus arose the idea of a common Christendom, of +a brotherhood of peoples associated both by common beliefs regarding the +unseen world and by common principles of action in the daily affairs of +life. The common ethical and traditional basis thus established for the +future development of the great nationalities of Europe is the most fundamental +characteristic distinguishing modern from ancient history. +<p>While, however, it secured these benefits for mankind for all time to +come, the Roman political system in itself was one which could not possibly +endure. That extension of the franchise which made Rome's conquests possible, +was, after all, the extension of a franchise which could only be practically +enjoyed within the walls of the imperial city itself. From first to last +the device of representation was never thought of, and from first to last +the Roman <i>comitia</i> remained a primary assembly. The result was that, +as the burgherhood enlarged, the assembly became a huge mob as little fitted +for the transaction of public business as a town-meeting of all the inhabitants +of New York would be. The functions which in Athens were performed by the +assembly were accordingly in Rome performed largely by the aristocratic +senate; and for the conflicts consequently arising between the senatorial +and the popular parties it was difficult to find any adequate constitutional +check. Outside of Italy, moreover, in the absence of a representative system, +the Roman government was a despotism which, whether more or less oppressive, +could in the nature of things be nothing else than a despotism. But nothing +is more dangerous for a free people than the attempt to govern a dependent +people despotically. The bad government kills out the good government as +surely as slave-labour destroys free-labour, or as a debased currency drives +out a sound currency. The existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with +great armies at their beck and call, brought about such results as might +have been predicted, as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a +valid excuse for armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, +the result is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government +that was practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably +impracticable. +<p>As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial government +at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an orderly and responsible +administration for irregular and irresponsible extortion. For a long time, +too, it was no part of the imperial policy to interfere with local customs +and privileges. But, in the absence of a representative system, the centralizing +tendency inseparable from the position of such a government proved to be +irresistible. And the strength of this centralizing tendency was further +enhanced by the military character of the government which was necessitated +by perpetual frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year +went by, the provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by +their local magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor +only. There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for +the decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated +by the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman +strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local governments +came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription that were +laid upon them.<a NAME="FNanchor14"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a></sup> +And as "the dislocation of commerce and industry caused by the barbarian +inroads, and the increasing demands of the central administration for the +payment of its countless officials and the maintenance of its troops, all +went together," the load at last became greater "than human nature could +endure." By the time of the great invasions of the fifth century, local +political life had gone far towards extinction throughout Roman Europe, +and the tribal organization of the Teutons prevailed in the struggle simply +because it had come to be politically stronger than any organization that +was left to oppose it. +<p>We have now seen how the two great political systems that were founded +upon the Ancient City both ended in failure, though both achieved enormous +and lasting results. And we have seen how largely both these political +failures were due to the absence of the principle of representation from +the public life of Greece and Rome. The chief problem of civilization, +from the political point of view, has always been how to secure concerted +action among men on a great scale without sacrificing local independence. +The ancient history of Europe shows that it is not possible to solve this +problem without the aid of the principle of representation. Greece, until +overcome by external force, sacredly maintained local self-government, +but in securing permanent concert of action it was conspicuously unsuccessful. +Rome secured concert of action on a gigantic scale, and transformed the +thousand unconnected tribes and cities it conquered into an organized European +world, but in doing this it went far towards extinguishing local self-government. +The advent of the Teutons upon the scene seems therefore to have been necessary, +if only to supply the indispensable element without which the dilemma of +civilization could not be surmounted. The turbulence of Europe during the +Teutonic migrations was so great and so long continued, that on a superficial +view one might be excused for regarding the good work of Rome as largely +undone. And in the feudal isolation of effort and apparent incapacity for +combined action which characterized the different parts of Europe after +the downfall of the Carolingian empire, it might well have seemed that +political society had reverted towards a primitive type of structure. In +truth, however, the retrogradation was much slighter than appeared on the +surface. Feudalism itself, with its curious net-work of fealties and obligations +running through the fabric of society in every direction, was by no means +purely disintegrative in its tendencies. The mutual relations of rival +baronies were by no means like those of rival clans or tribes in pre-Roman +days. The central power of Rome, though no longer exerted politically through +curators and prefects, was no less effective in the potent hands of the +clergy and in the traditions of the imperial jurisprudence by which the +legal ideas of mediaeval society were so strongly coloured. So powerful, +indeed, was this twofold influence of Rome, that in the later Middle Ages, +when the modern nationalities had fairly taken shape, it was the capacity +for local self-government--in spite of all the Teutonic reinforcement it +had had--that had suffered much more than the capacity for national consolidation. +Among the great modern nations it was only England--which in its political +development had remained more independent of the Roman law and the Roman +church than even the Teutonic fatherland itself--it was only England that +came out of the mediæval crucible with its Teutonic self-government +substantially intact. On the main-land only two little spots, at the two +extremities of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth +of the Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack +in the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history +was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany +the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to Burgundian +invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic democracy of their +Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both these free peoples, in +their efforts towards national unity, were led to frame federal unions, +and one of these political achievements is, from the stand-point of universal +history, of very great significance. The old League of High Germany, which +earned immortal renown at Morgarten and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking +cantons only. But in the fifteenth century the League won by force of arms +a small bit of Italian territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth +the powerful city of Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne +and rescued the free city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. +Other Burgundian possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; +and after awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms +into the confederation. The result is that modern Switzerland is made up +of what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four +languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the +limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are sharply +divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this, Switzerland +is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. To the German-speaking +Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of Bavaria are foreigners, while +the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva are fellow-countrymen. Deeper +down even than these deep-seated differences of speech and creed lies the +feeling that comes from the common possession of a political freedom that +is greater than that possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the +happy outcome of the first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic +descent. Complete independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate +representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense cohesion +of interests throughout the nation as no centralized government, however +cunningly devised, could ever have secured. +<p>Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government +had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great +bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and peaceful +relations with one another. The empire of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius still +remained the greatest known example of political aggregation; and men who +argued from simple historic precedent without that power of analyzing precedents +which the comparative method has supplied, came not unnaturally to the +conclusions that great political aggregates have an inherent tendency towards +breaking up, and that great political aggregates cannot be maintained except +by a strongly-centralized administration and at the sacrifice of local +self-government. A century ago the very idea of a stable federation of +forty powerful states, covering a territory nearly equal in area to the +whole of Europe, carried on by a republican government elected by universal +suffrage, and guaranteeing to every tiniest village its full meed of local +independence,--the very idea of all this would have been scouted as a thoroughly +impracticable Utopian dream. And such scepticism would have been quite +justifiable, for European history did not seem to afford any precedents +upon which such a forecast of the future could be logically based. Between +the various nations of Europe there has certainly always existed an element +of political community, bequeathed by the Roman empire, manifested during +the Middle Ages in a common relationship to the Church, and in modern times +in a common adherence to certain uncodified rules of international law, +more or less im perfectly defined and enforced. Between England and Spain, +for example, or between France and Austria, there has never been such utter +political severance as existed normally between Greece and Persia, or Rome +and Carthage. But this community of political inheritance in Europe, it +is needless to say, falls very far short of the degree of community implied +in a federal union; and so great is the diversity of language and of creed, +and of local historic development with the deep-seated prejudices attendant +thereupon, that the formation of a European federation could hardly be +looked for except as the result of mighty though quiet and subtle influences +operating for a long time from without. From what direction, and in what +manner, such an irresistible though perfectly pacific pressure is likely +to be exerted in the future, I shall endeavour to show in my next lecture. +At present we have to observe that the experiment of federal union on a +grand scale required as its conditions, <i>first</i>, a vast extent of +unoccupied country which could be settled without much warfare by men of +the same race and speech, and +<i>secondly</i>, on the part of the settlers, +a rich inheritance of political training such as is afforded by long ages +of self-government. The Atlantic coast of North America, easily accessible +to Europe, yet remote enough to be freed from the political complications +of the old world, furnished the first of these conditions: the history +of the English people through fifty generations furnished the second. It +was through English self-government, as I argued in my first lecture, that +England alone, among the great nations of Europe, was able to found durable +and self-supporting colonies. I have now to add that it was only England, +among all the great nations of Europe, that could send forth colonists +capable of dealing successfully with the difficult problem of forming such +a political aggregate as the United States have become. For obviously the +preservation of local self-government is essential to the very idea of +a federal union. Without the Town-Meeting, or its equivalent in some form +or other, the Federal Union would become <i>ipso facto</i> converted into +a centralizing imperial government. Should anything of this sort ever happen--should +American towns ever come to be ruled by prefects appointed at Washington, +and should American States ever become like the administrative departments +of France, or even like the counties of England at the present day--then +the time will have come when men may safely predict the break-up of the +American political system by reason of its overgrown dimensions and the +diversity of interests between its parts. States so unlike one another +as Maine and Louisiana and California cannot be held together by the stiff +bonds of a centralizing government. The durableness of the federal union +lies in its flexibility, and it is this flexibility which makes it the +only kind of government, according to modern ideas, that is permanently +applicable to a whole continent. If ¸the United States were to-day +a consolidated republic like France, recent events in California might +have disturbed the peace of the country. But in the federal union, if California, +as a state sovereign within its own sphere, adopts a grotesque constitution +that aims at infringing on the rights of capitalists, the other states +are not directly affected. They may disapprove, but they have neither the +right nor the desire to interfere. Meanwhile the laws of nature quietly +operate to repair the blunder. Capital flows away from California, and +the business of the state is damaged, until presently the ignorant demagogues +lose favour, the silly constitution becomes a dead-letter, and its formal +repeal begins to be talked of. Not the smallest ripple of excitement disturbs +the profound peace of the country at large. It is in this complete independence +that is preserved by every state, in all matters save those in which the +federal principle itself is concerned, that we find the surest guaranty +of the permanence of the American political system. Obviously no race of +men, save the race to which habits of self-government and the skilful use +of political representation had come to be as second nature, could ever +have succeeded in founding such a system. +<p>Yet even by men of English race, working with out let or hindrance from +any foreign source, and with the better part of a continent at their disposal +for a field to work in, so great a political problem as that of the American +Union has not been solved without much toil and trouble. The great puzzle +of civilization--how to secure permanent concert of action without sacrificing +independence of action--is a puzzle which has taxed the ingenuity of Americans +as well as of older Aryan peoples. In the year 1788 when our Federal Union +was completed, the problem had already occupied the minds of American statesmen +for a century and a half,--that is to say, ever since the English settlement +of Massachusetts. In 1643 a New England confederation was formed between +Massachusetts and Connecticut, together with Plymouth since merged in Massachusetts +and New Haven since merged in Connecticut. The confederation was formed +for defence against the French in Canada, the Dutch on the Hudson river, +and the Indians. But owing simply to the inequality in the sizes of these +colonies--Massachusetts more than outweighing the other three combined--the +practical working of this confederacy was never very successful. In 1754, +just before the outbreak of the great war which drove the French from America, +a general Congress of the colonies was held at Albany, and a comprehensive +scheme of union was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but nothing came of +the project at that time. The commercial rivalry between the colonies, +and their disputes over boundary lines, were then quite like the similar +phenomena with which Europe had so long been familiar. In 1756 Georgia +and South Carolina actually came to blows over the navigation of the Savannah +river. The idea that the thirteen colonies could ever overcome their mutual +jealousies so far as to unite in a single political body, was received +at that time in England with a derision like that which a proposal for +a permanent federation of European States would excite in many minds to-day. +It was confidently predicted that if the common allegiance to the British +crown were once withdrawn, the colonies would forthwith proceed to destroy +themselves with internecine war. In fact, however, it was the shaking off +of allegiance to the British crown, and the common trials and sufferings +of the war of independence, that at last welded the colonies together and +made a federal union possible. As it was, the union was consummated only +by degrees. By the Articles of Confederation, agreed on by Congress in +1777 but not adopted by all the States until 1781, the federal government +acted only upon the several state governments and not directly upon individuals; +there was no federal judiciary for the decision of constitutional questions +arising out of the relations between the states; and the Congress was not +provided with any efficient means of raising a revenue or of enforcing +its legislative decrees. Under such a government the difficulty of insuring +concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent personal qualities +of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the British ministry, and +the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of independence would most +likely have ended in failure. After the independence of the colonies was +acknowledged, the formation of a more perfect union was seen to be the +only method of securing peace and making a nation which should be respected +by foreign powers; and so in 1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution +of the United States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very +few people at the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of +compromises, yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political +wisdom. +<p>The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of securing +approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between states of +unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was at last surmounted +has proved effectual, although the inequalities between the states have +greatly increased. To-day the population of New York is more than eighty +times that of Nevada. In area the state of Rhode Island is smaller than +Montenegro, while the state of Texas is larger than the Austrian empire +with Bavaria and Würtemberg thrown in. Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode +Island and Texas, each send two senators to Washington, while on the other +hand in the lower house each state has a number of representatives proportioned +to its population. The upper house of Congress is therefore a federal while +the lower house is a national body, and the government is brought into +direct contact with the people without endangering the equal rights of +the several states. +<p>The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in +the series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the +states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and jurisdiction, +civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of property, marriage +and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the punishment of malefactors, +each separate state is as completely a sovereign state as France or Great +Britain. In speaking to a British audience a concrete illustration may +not be superfluous. If a criminal is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, +the royal prerogative of pardon resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: +the President of the United States has no more authority in the case than +the Czar of Russia. Nor in civil cases can an appeal lie from the state +courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, save where express provision +has been made in the Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. +The chief attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have +parted are the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition +of tariff dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration +of war, and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and +controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own +militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before +calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however, these +militias come under the control of the central government. Thus every American +citizen lives under two governments, the functions of which are clearly +and intelligibly distinct. +<p>To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the Constitution +created a "system of United States courts extending throughout the states, +empowered to define the boundaries of federal authority, and to enforce +its decisions by federal power." This omnipresent federal judiciary was +undoubtedly the most important creation of the statesmen who framed the +Constitution. The closely-knit relations which it established between the +states contributed powerfully to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity +throughout the whole country. The United States today cling together with +a coherency far greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or +league. Yet the primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly +that of a permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic +sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its neighbours +and relegated its international interests to the care of a central council +in which all the states were alike represented and a central tribunal endowed +with purely judicial functions of interpretation. It was the first attempt +in the history of the world, to apply on a grand scale to the relations +between states the same legal methods of procedure which, as long applied +in all civilized countries to the relations between individuals, have rendered +private warfare obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period +of seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in extent, +tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and power, the federal +union maintained a state of peace more profound than the <i>pax romana.</i> +<p>Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted +by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to +bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism. With +the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then reinstated +with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with their people +accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with their leaders +not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in Congress and in +the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any violent constitutional +changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the strength of the pacific +implications of federalism has been more strikingly demonstrated than if +there had been no war at all. Certainly the world never beheld such a spectacle +before. In my next and concluding lecture I shall return to this point +while summing up the argument and illustrating the part played by the English +race in the general history of civilization. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +III.</h2> + +<h2> +"MANIFEST DESTINY."</h2> +Among the legends of our late Civil War there is a story of a dinner-party +given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were propounded sundry +toasts concerning not so much the past and present as the expected glories +of the great American nation. In the general character of these toasts +geographical considerations were very prominent, and the principal fact +which seemed to occupy the minds of the speakers was the unprecedented +<i>bigness</i> of our country. "Here's to the United States," said the +first speaker, "bounded on the north by British America, on the south by +the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the +Pacific, Ocean." "But," said the second speaker, "this is far too limited +a view of the subject: in assigning our boundaries we must look to the +great and glorious future which is prescribed for us by the Manifest Destiny +of the Anglo-Saxon Race. Here's to the United States,--bounded on the north +by the North Pole, on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising +and on the west by the setting sun." Emphatic applause greeted this aspiring +prophecy. But here arose the third speaker--a very serious gentleman from +the Far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic American, "to +leave the historic past and present, and take our manifest destiny into +the account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow limits assigned by +our fellow-countryman who has just sat down? I give you the United States,--bounded +on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the precession of +the equinoxes, on the east by the primeval chaos, and on the west by the +Day of Judgment!" +<p>I offer this anecdote at the outset by way of self-defence, inasmuch +as I shall by and by have myself to introduce some considerations concerning +the future of our country, and of what some people, without the fear of +Mr. Freeman before their eyes, call the "Anglo-Saxon" race; and if it should +happen to strike you that my calculations are unreasonably large, I hope +you will remember that they are quite modest after all, when compared with +some others. +<p>The "manifest destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and the huge dimensions +of our country are favourite topics with Fourth-of-July orators, but they +are none the less interesting on that account when considered from the +point of view of the historian. To be a citizen of a great and growing +state, or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world, is no doubt +a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is perhaps an equal +justification for such a feeling in being a citizen of a tiny state like +Holland, which, in spite of its small dimensions, has nevertheless achieved +so much,--fighting at one time the battle of freedom for the world, producing +statesmen like William and Barneveldt, generals like Maurice, scholars +like Erasmus and Grotius, and thinkers like Spinoza, and taking the lead +even to-day in the study of Christianity and in the interpretation of the +Bible. But my course in the present lecture is determined by historical +or philosophical rather than by patriotic interest, and I shall endeavour +to characterize and group events as impartially as if my home were at Leyden +in the Old World instead of Cambridge in the New. +<p>First of all, I shall take sides with Mr. Freeman in eschewing altogether +the word "Anglo-Saxon." The term is sufficiently absurd and misleading +as applied in England to the Old-English speech of our forefathers, or +to that portion of English history which is included between the fifth +and the eleventh centuries. But in America it is frequently used, not indeed +by scholars, but by popular writers and speakers, in a still more loose +and slovenly way. In the war of independence our great-great-grandfathers, +not yet having ceased to think of themselves as Englishmen, used to distinguish +themselves as "Continentals," while the king's troops were known as the +"British." The quaint term "Continental" long ago fell into disuse, except +in the slang phrase "not worth a Continental" which referred to the debased +condition of our currency at the close of the Revolutionary War; but "American" +and "British" might still serve the purpose sufficiently whenever it is +necessary to distinguish between the two great English nationalities. The +term "English," however, is so often used with sole reference to people +and things in England as to have become in some measure antithetical to +"American;" and when it is found desirable to include the two in a general +expression, one often hears in America the term "Anglo-Saxon" colloquially +employed for this purpose. A more slovenly use of language can hardly be +imagined. Such a compound term as "Anglo-American" might perhaps be logically +defensible, but that has already become restricted to the English-descended +inhabitants of the United States and Canada alone, in distinction from +Spanish Americans and red Indians. It is never so used as to include Englishmen. +Refraining from all such barbarisms, I prefer to call the English race +by the name which it has always applied to itself, from the time when it +inhabited the little district of Angeln on the Baltic coast of Sleswick +down to the time when it had begun to spread itself over three great continents. +It is a race which has shown a rare capacity for absorbing slightly foreign +elements and moulding them into conformity with a political type that was +first wrought out through centuries of effort on British soil; and this +capacity it has shown perhaps in a heightened degree in the peculiar circumstances +in which it has been placed in America. The American has absorbed considerable +quantities of closely kindred European blood, but he is rapidly assimilating +it all, and in his political habits and aptitudes he remains as thoroughly +English as his forefathers in the days of De Montfort, or Hampden, or Washington. +Premising this, we may go on to consider some aspects of the work which +the English race has done and is doing in the world, and we need not feel +discouraged if, in order to do justice to the subject, we have to take +our start far back in ancient history. We shall begin, it may be said, +somewhere near the primeval chaos, and though we shall indeed stop short +of the day of judgment, we shall hope at all events to reach the millennium. +<p>Our eloquent friends of the Paris dinner-party seem to have been strongly +impressed with the excellence of enormous political aggregates. We, too, +approaching the subject from a different point of view, have been led to +see how desirable it is that self-governing groups of men should be enabled +to work together in permanent harmony and on a great scale. In this kind +of political integration the work of civilization very largely consists. +We have seen how in its most primitive form political society is made up +of small self-governing groups that are perpetually at war with one another. +Now the process of change which we call civilization means quite a number +of things. But there is no doubt that on its political side it means primarily +the gradual substitution of a state of peace for a state of war. This change +is the condition precedent for all the other kinds of improvement that +are connoted by such a term as "civilization." Manifestly the development +of industry is largely dependent upon the cessation or restriction of warfare; +and furthermore, as the industrial phase of civilization slowly supplants +the military phase, men's characters undergo, though very slowly, a corresponding +change. Men become less inclined to destroy life or to inflict pain; or--to +use the popular terminology which happens here to coincide precisely with +that of the Doctrine of Evolution--they become less <i>brutal</i> and more +<i>humane</i>. Obviously then the prime feature of the process called civilization +is the general diminution of warfare. But we have seen that a general diminution +of warfare is rendered possible only by the union of small political groups +into larger groups that are kept together by community of interests, and +that can adjust their mutual relations by legal discussion without coming +to blows. In the preceding lecture we considered this process of political +integration as variously exemplified by communities of Hellenic, of Roman, +and of Teutonic race, and we saw how manifold were the difficulties which +the process had to encounter. We saw how the Teutons--at least in Switzerland, +England, and America--had succeeded best through the retention of local +self-government combined with central representation. We saw how the Romans +failed of ultimate success because by weakening self-government they weakened +that community of interest which is essential to the permanence of a great +political aggregate. We saw how the Greeks, after passing through their +most glorious period in a state of chronic warfare, had begun to achieve +considerable success in forming a pacific federation when their independent +career was suddenly cut short by the Roman conqueror. +<p>This last example introduces us to a fresh consideration, of very great +importance. It is not only that every progressive community has had to +solve, in one way or another, the problem of securing permanent concert +of action without sacrificing local independence of action; but while engaged +in this difficult work the community has had to defend itself against the +attacks of other communities. In the case just cited, of the conquest of +Greece by Rome, little harm was done perhaps. But under different circumstances +immense damage may have been done in this way, and the nearer we go to +the beginnings of civilization the greater the danger. At the dawn of history +we see a few brilliant points of civilization surrounded on every side +by a midnight blackness of barbarism. In order that the pacific community +may be able to go on doing its work, it must be strong enough and warlike +enough to overcome its barbaric neighbours who have no notion whatever +of keeping peace. This is another of the seeming paradoxes of the history +of civilization, that for a very long time the possibility of peace can +be guaranteed only through war. Obviously the permanent peace of the world +can be secured only through the gradual concentration of the preponderant +military strength into the hands of the most pacific communities. With +infinite toil and trouble this point has been slowly gained by mankind, +through the circumstance that the very same political aggregation of small +primitive communities which makes them less disposed to quarrel among themselves +tends also to make them more than a match for the less coherent groups +of their more barbarous neighbours. The same concert of action which tends +towards internal harmony tends also towards external victory, and both +ends are promoted by the co-operation of the same sets of causes. But for +a long time all the political problems of the civilized world were complicated +by the fact that the community had to fight for its life. We seldom stop +to reflect upon the imminent danger from outside attacks, whether from +surrounding barbarism or from neighbouring civilizations of lower type, +amid which the rich and high-toned civilizations of Greece and Rome were +developed. When the king of Persia undertook to reduce Greece to the condition +of a Persian satrapy, there was imminent danger that all the enormous fruition +of Greek thought in the intellectual life of the European world might have +been nipped in the bud. And who can tell how often, in prehistoric times, +some little gleam of civilization, less bright and steady than this one +had become, may have been quenched in slavery or massacre? The greatest +work which the Romans performed in the world was to assume the aggressive +against menacing barbarism, to subdue it, to tame it, and to enlist its +brute force on the side of law and order. This was a murderous work, and +in doing it the Romans became excessively cruel, but it had to be done +by some one before you could expect to have great and peaceful civilizations +like our own. The warfare of Rome is by no means adequately explained by +the theory of a deliberate immoral policy of aggression,--"infernal," I +believe, is the stronger adjective which Dr. Draper uses. The aggressive +wars of Rome were largely dictated by just such considerations as those +which a century ago made it necessary for the English to put down the raids +of the Scotch Highlanders, and which have since made it necessary for Russia +to subdue the Caucasus. It is not easy for a turbulent community to live +next to an orderly one without continually stirring up frontier disturbances +which call for stern repression from the orderly community. Such considerations +go far towards explaining the military history of the Romans, and it is +a history with which, on the whole, we ought to sympathize. In its European +relations that history is the history of the moving of the civilized frontier +northward and eastward against the disastrous encroachments of barbarous +peoples. This great movement has, on the whole, been steadily kept up, +in spite of some apparent fluctuation in the fifth and sixth centuries +of the Christian era, and it is still going on to-day. It was a great gain +for civilization when the Romans overcame the Keltiberians of Spain, and +taught them good manners and the Latin language, and made it for their +interest hereafter to fight against barbarians. The third European peninsula +was thus won over to the side of law and order. Danger now remained on +the north. The Gauls had once sacked the city of Rome; hordes of Teutons +had lately menaced the very heart of civilization, but had been overthrown +in murderous combat by Caius Marius; another great Teutonic movement, led +by Ariovistus, now threatened to precipitate the whole barbaric force of +south-eastern Gaul upon the civilized world; and so it occurred to the +prescient genius of Caesar to be beforehand and conquer Gaul, and enlist +all its giant barbaric force on the side of civilization. This great work +was as thoroughly done as anything that was ever done in human history, +and we ought to be thankful to Caesar for it every day that we live. The +frontier to be defended against barbarism was now moved away up to the +Rhine, and was very much shortened; but above all, the Gauls were made +to feel themselves to be Romans. Their country became one of the chief +strongholds of civilization and of Christianity; and when the frightful +shock of barbarism came--the most formidable blow that has ever been directed +by barbaric brute force against European civilization--it was in Gaul that +it was repelled and that its force was spent. At the beginning of the fifth +century an enormous horde of yellow Mongolians, known as Huns, poured down +into Europe with avowed intent to burn and destroy all the good work which +Rome had wrought in the world; and terrible was the havoc they effected +in the course of fifty years. If Attila had carried his point, it has been +thought that the work of European civilization might have had to be begun +over again. But near Chálons-on-the-Marne, in the year 451, in one +of the most obstinate struggles of which history preserves the record, +the career of the "Scourge of God" was arrested, and mainly by the prowess +of Gauls and of Visigoths whom the genius of Rome had tamed. That was the +last day on which barbarism was able to contend with civilization on equal +terms. It was no doubt a critical day for all future history; and for its +favourable issue we must largely thank the policy adopted by Caesar five +centuries before. By the end of the eighth century the great power of the +Franks had become enlisted in behalf of law and order, and the Roman throne +was occupied by a Frank,--the ablest man who had appeared in the world +since Caesar's death; and one of the worthiest achievements of Charles +the Great was the conquest and conversion of pagan Germany, which threw +the frontier against barbarism eastward as far as the Oder, and made it +so much the easier to defend Europe. In the thirteenth century this frontier +was permanently carried forward to the Vistula by the Teutonic Knights +who, under commission from the emperor Frederick II., overcame the heathen +Prussians and Lithuanians; and now it began to be shown how greatly the +military strength of Europe had increased. In this same century Batu, the +grandson of Jinghis Khan, came down into Europe with a horde of more than +a million Mongols, and tried to repeat the experiment of Attila. Batu penetrated +as far as Silesia, and won a great battle at Liegnitz in 1241, but in spite +of his victory he had to desist from the task of conquering Europe. Since +the fifth century the physical power of the civilized world had grown immensely; +and the impetus of this barbaric invasion was mainly spent upon Russia, +the growth of which it succeeded in retarding for more than two centuries. +Finally since the sixteenth century we have seen the Russians, redeemed +from their Mongolian oppressors, and rich in many of the elements of a +vigorous national life,--we have seen the Russians resume the aggressive +in this conflict of ages, beginning to do for Central Asia in some sort +what the Romans did for Europe. The frontier against barbarism, which Cæsar +left at the Rhine, has been carried eastward to the Volga, and is now advancing +even to the Oxus. The question has sometimes been raised whether it would +be possible for European civilization to be seriously threatened by any +future invasion of barbarism or of some lower type of civilization. By +barbarism certainly not: all the nomad strength of Mongolian Asia would +throw itself in vain against the insuperable barrier constituted by Russia. +But I have heard it quite seriously suggested that if some future Attila +or Jinghis were to wield as a unit the entire military strength of the +four hundred millions of Chinese, possessed with some suddenly-conceived +idea of conquering the world, even as Omar and Abderrahman wielded as a +unit the newly-welded power of the Saracens in the seventh and eighth centuries, +then perhaps a staggering blow might yet be dealt against European civilization. +I will not waste precious time in considering this imaginary case, further +than to remark that if the Chinese are ever going to try anything of this +sort, they cannot afford to wait very long; for within another century, +as we shall presently see, their very numbers will be surpassed by those +of the English race alone. By that time all the elements of military predominance +on the earth, including that of simple numerical superiority, will have +been gathered into the hands not merely of men of European descent in general, +but more specifically into the hands of the offspring of the Teutonic tribes +who conquered Britain in the fifth century. So far as the relations of +civilization with barbarism are concerned to-day, the only serious question +is by what process of modification the barbarous races are to maintain +their foothold upon the earth at all. While once such people threatened +the very continuance of civilization, they now exist only on sufferance. +<p>In this brief survey of the advancing frontier of European civilization, +I have said nothing about the danger that has from time to time been threatened +by the followers of Mohammed,--of the overthrow of the Saracens in Gaul +by the grandfather of Charles the Great, or their overthrow at Constantinople +by the image-breaking Leo, of the great mediæval Crusades, or of +the mischievous but futile career of the Turks. For if I were to attempt +to draw this outline with anything like completeness, I should have no +room left for the conclusion of my argument. Considering my position thus +far as sufficiently illustrated, let us go on to contemplate for a moment +some of the effects of all this secular turmoil upon the political development +of the progressive nations of Europe. I think we may safely lay it down, +as a large and general rule, that all this prodigious warfare required +to free the civilized world from peril of barbarian attack served greatly +to increase the difficulty of solving the great initial problem of civilization. +In the first place, the turbulence thus arising was a serious obstacle +to the formation of closely-coherent political aggregates; as we see exemplified +in the terrible convulsions of the fifth and sixth centuries, and again +in the ascendency acquired by the isolating features of feudalism between +the time of Charles the Great and the time of Louis VI. of France. In the +second place, this perpetual turbulence was a serious obstacle to the preservation +of popular liberties. It is a very difficult thing for a free people to +maintain its free, constitution if it has to keep perpetually fighting +for its life. The "one-man-power." less fit for, carrying on the peaceful +pursuits of life, is sure to be brought into the foreground in a state +of endless warfare. It is a still more difficult thing for a free people +to maintain its free constitution when it undertakes to govern a dependent +people despotically, as has been wont to happen when a portion of the barbaric +world has been overcome and annexed to the civilized world. Under the weight, +of these two difficulties combined, the free institutions of the ancient +Romans succumbed, and their government gradually passed into the hands +of a kind of close corporation more despotic than anything else of the +sort that Europe has ever seen. This despotic character--this tendency, +if you will pardon the phrase, towards the <i>Asiaticization</i> of European +life--was continued by inheritance in the Roman Church, the influence of +which was beneficent so long as it constituted a wholesome check to the +isolating tendencies of feudalism, but began to become noxious the moment +these tendencies yielded to the centralizing monarchical tendency in nearly +all parts of Europe. The asiaticizing tendency of Roman political life +had become so powerful by the fourth century, and has since been so powerfully +propagated through the Church, that we ought to be glad that the Teutons +came into the empire as masters rather than as subjects. As the Germanic +tribes got possession of the government in one part of Europe after another, +they brought with them free institutions again. The political ideas of +the Goths in Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, and of the Franks and Burgundians +in Gaul, were as distinctly free as those of the Angles in Britain. But +as the outcome of the long and uninterrupted turmoil of the Middle Ages, +society throughout the continent of Europe remained predominantly military +in type, and this fact greatly increased the tendency towards despotism +which was bequeathed by Rome. After the close of the thirteenth century +the whole power of the Church was finally thrown into the scale against +the liberties of the people; and as the result of all these forces combined, +we find that at the time when America was discovered government was hardening +into despotism in all the great countries of Europe except England. Even +in England the tendency towards despotism had begun to become quite conspicuous +after the wholesale slaughter of the great barons and the confiscation +of their estates which took place in the Wars of the Roses. The constitutional +history of England during the Tudor and Stuart periods is mainly the history +of the persistent effort of the English sovereign to free himself from +constitutional checks, as his brother sovereigns on the continent were +doing. But how different the result! How enormous the political difference +between William III. and Louis XIV., compared with the difference between +Henry VIII. and Francis I.! The close of the seventeenth century, which +marks the culmination of the asiaticizing tendency in Europe, saw despotism +both political and religious firmly established in France and Spain and +Italy, and in half of Germany; while the rest of Germany seemed to have +exhausted itself in the attempt to throw off the incubus. But in England +this same epoch saw freedom both political and religious established on +so firm a foundation as never again to be shaken, never again with impunity +to be threatened, so long as the language of Locke and Milton and Sydney +shall remain a living speech on the lips of men. Now this wonderful difference +between the career of popular liberty in England and on the Continent was +due no doubt to a complicated variety of causes, one or two of which I +have already sought to point out. In my first lecture I alluded to the +curious combination of circumstances which prevented anything like a severance +of interests between the upper and the lower ranks of society; and something +was also said about the feebleness of the grasp of imperial Rome upon Britain +compared with its grasp upon the continent of Europe. But what I wish now +to point out--since we are looking at the military aspect of the subject--is +the enormous advantage of what we may call the <i>strategic position</i> +of England in the long mediæval struggle between civilization and +barbarism. In Professor Stubbs's admirable collection of charters and documents +illustrative of English history, we read that "on the 6th of July [1264] +the whole force of the country was summoned to London for the 3d of August, +to resist the army which was coming from France under the queen and her +son Edmund. <i>The invading fleet was prevented by the weather from sailing +until too late in the season</i>.... The papal legate, Guy Foulquois, who +soon after became Clement IV., threatened the barons with excommunication, +but the bull containing the sentence was taken by the men of Dover as soon +as it arrived, and was thrown into the sea." <a NAME="FNanchor15"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_15">[15]</a></sup> +As I read this, I think of the sturdy men of Connecticut, beating the drum +to prevent the reading of the royal order of James II. depriving the colony +of the control of its own militia, and feel with pride that the indomitable +spirit of English liberty is alike indomitable in every land where men +of English race have set their feet as masters. But as the success of Americans +in withstanding the unconstitutional pretensions of the crown was greatly +favoured by the barrier of the ocean, so the success of Englishmen in defying +the enemies of their freedom has no doubt been greatly favoured by the +barrier of the British channel. The war between Henry III. and the barons +was an event in English history no less critical than the war between Charles +I. and the parliament four centuries later; and British and Americans alike +have every reason to be thankful that a great French army was not able +to get across the channel in August, 1264. Nor was this the only time when +the insular position of England did goodly service in maintaining its liberties +and its internal peace. We cannot forget how Lord Howard of Effingham, +aided also by the weather, defeated the armada that boasted itself "invincible," +sent to strangle freedom in its chosen home by the most execrable and ruthless +tyrant that Europe has ever seen, a tyrant whose victory would have meant +not simply the usurpation of the English crown but the establishment of +the Spanish Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what +longing eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces +of France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one +European +land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in these latter +days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the prowess of the +sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible for the thoughtful +student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square, and gaze on the image +of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on the summit of his lofty +column and guarded by the royal lions, looking down towards the government-house +of the land that he freed from the dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards +that ancient church wherein the most sacred memories of English talent +and English toil are clustered together,--it is impossible, I say, to look +at this, and not admire both the artistic instinct that devised so happy +a symbolism, and the rare good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing +a territorial position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic +powers. But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external +attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This ease +in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the internal +polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English government +to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external defence a navy +was all-sufficient; and there is this practical difference between a permanent +army and a permanent navy. Both are originally designed for purposes of +external defence; but the one can readily be used for purposes of internal +oppression, and the other cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up +an empire at auction and knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius +Julianus. When, therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from +external attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political +development to go on internally without those manifold military hinderances +that have ordinarily been so obstructive in the history of civilization. +Hence we not only see why, after the Norman Conquest had operated to increase +its unity and its strength, England enjoyed a far greater amount of security +and was far more peaceful than any other country in Europe; but we also +see why society never assumed the military type in England which it assumed +upon the continent; we see how it was that the bonds of feudalism were +far looser here than elsewhere, and therefore how it happened that nowhere +else was the condition of the common people so good politically. We now +begin to see, moreover, how thoroughly Professor Stubbs and Mr. Freeman +are justified in insisting upon the fact that the political institutions +of the Germans of Tacitus have had a more normal and uninterrupted development +in England than anywhere else. Nowhere, indeed, in the whole history of +the human race, can we point to such a well-rounded and unbroken continuity +of political life as we find in the thousand years of English history that +have elapsed since the victory of William the Norman at Senlac. In England +the free government of the primitive Aryans has been to this day uninterruptedly +maintained, though everywhere lost or seriously impaired on the continent +of Europe, except in remote Scandinavia and impregnable Switzerland. But +obviously, if in the conflict of ages between civilization and barbarism +England had occupied such an inferior strategic position as that occupied +by Hungary or Poland or Spain, if her territory had been liable once or +twice in a century to be overrun by fanatical Saracens or beastly Mongols, +no such remarkable and quite exceptional result could have been achieved. +Having duly fathomed the significance of this strategic position of the +English race while confined within the limits of the British islands, we +are now prepared to consider the significance of the stupendous expansion +of the English race which first became possible through the discovery and +settlement of North America. I said, at the close of my first lecture, +that the victory of Wolfe at Quebec marks the greatest turning-point as +yet discernible in all modern history. At the first blush such an unqualified +statement may have sounded as if an American student of history were inclined +to attach an undue value to events that have happened upon his own soil. +After the survey of universal history which we have now taken, however, +I am fully prepared to show that the conquest of the North American continent +by men of English race was unquestionably the most prodigious event in +the political annals of man kind. Let us consider, for a moment, the cardinal +facts which this English conquest and settlement of North America involved. +<p>Chronologically the discovery of America coincides precisely with the +close of the Middle Ages, and with the opening of the drama of what is +called <i>modern</i> history. The coincidence is in many ways significant. +The close of the Middle Ages--as we have seen--was characterized by the +increasing power of the crown in all the great countries of Europe, and +by strong symptoms of popular restlessness in view of this increasing power. +It was characterized also by the great Protestant outbreak against the +despotic pretensions of the Church, which once, in its antagonism to the +rival temporal power, had befriended the liberties of the people, but now +(especially since the death of Boniface VIII.) sought to enthrall them +with a tyranny far worse than that of irresponsible king or emperor. As +we have seen Aryan civilization in Europe struggling for many centuries +to prove itself superior to the assaults of outer barbarism, so here we +find a decisive struggle beginning between the antagonist tendencies which +had grown up in the midst of this civilization. Having at length won the +privilege of living without risk of slaughter and pillage at the hands +of Saracens or Mongols, the question now arose whether the people of Europe +should go on and apply their intelligence freely to the problem of making +life as rich and fruitful as possible in varied material and spiritual +achievement, or should fall forever into the barren and monotonous way +of living and thinking which has always distinguished the half-civilized +populations of Asia. This--and nothing less than this, I think--was the +practical political question really at stake in the sixteenth century between +Protestantism and Catholicism. Holland and England entered the lists in +behalf of the one solution of this question, while Spain and the Pope defended +the other, and the issue was fought out on European soil, as we have seen, +with varying success. But the discovery of America now came to open up +an enormous region in which whatever seed of civilization should be planted +was sure to grow to such enormous dimensions as by and by to exert a controlling +influence upon all such controversies. It was for Spain, France, and England +to contend for the possession of this vast region, and to prove by the +result of the struggle which kind of civilization was endowed with the +higher and sturdier political life. The race which here should gain the +victory was clearly destined hereafter to take the lead in the world, though +the rival powers could not in those days fully appreciate this fact. They +who founded colonies in America as trading-stations or military outposts +probably did not foresee that these colonies must by and by become imperial +states far greater in physical mass than the states which planted them. +It is not likely that they were philosophers enough to foresee that this +prodigious physical development would mean that the political ideas of +the parent state should acquire a hundred-fold power and seminal influence +in the future work of the world. It was not until the American Resolution +that this began to be dimly realized by a few prescient thinkers. It is +by no means so fully realized even now that a clear and thorough-going +statement of it has not somewhat an air of novelty. When the highly-civilized +community, representing the ripest political ideas of England, was planted +in America, removed from the manifold and complicated checks we have just +been studying in the history of the Old World, the growth was portentously +rapid and steady. There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only +a Philip or a Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty +annoyance as compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. +There was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles +of self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought +of calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior +type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously troublesome, +it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country, under the guidance +of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers, undertook to act upon +the antiquated theory that the new communities were merely groups of trading-stations, +the political bond of connection was severed; yet the war which ensued +was not like the war which had but just now been so gloriously ended by +the victory of Wolfe. It was not a struggle between two different peoples, +like the French of the Old Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic +theories of how political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' +War of the thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, +it was a struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of +principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all. And so the issue +only made it apparent to an astonished world that instead of <i>one</i> +there were now <i>two Englands</i>, alike prepared to work with might and +main toward the political regeneration of mankind. +<p>Let us consider now to what conclusions the rapidity and unabated steadiness +of the increase of the English race in America must lead us as we go on +to forecast the future. Carlyle somewhere speaks slightingly of the fact +that the Americans double their numbers every twenty years, as if to have +forty million dollar-hunters in the world were any better than to have +twenty million dollar-hunters! The implication that Americans are nothing +but dollar-hunters, and are thereby distinguishable from the rest of mankind, +would not perhaps bear too elaborate scrutiny. But during the present lecture +we have been considering the gradual transfer of the preponderance of physical +strength from the hands of the war-loving portion of the human race into +the hands of the peace-loving portion,--into the hands of the dollar-hunters, +if you please, but out of the hands of the scalp-hunters. Obviously to +double the numbers of a pre-eminently industrious, peaceful, orderly, and +free-thinking community, is somewhat to increase the weight in the world +of the tendencies that go towards making communities free and orderly and +peaceful and industrious. So that, from this point of view, the fact we +are speaking of is well worth considering, even for its physical dimensions. +I do not know whether the United States could support a population everywhere +as dense as that of Belgium; so I will suppose that, with ordinary improvement +in cultivation and in the industrial arts, we might support a population +half as dense as that of Belgium,--and this is no doubt an extremely moderate +supposition. Now a very simple operation in arithmetic will show that this +means a population of fifteen hundred millions, or more than the population +of the whole world at the present date. Another very simple operation in +arithmetic will show that if we were to go on doubling our numbers, even +once in every twenty-five years, we should reach that stupendous figure +at about the close of the twentieth century,--that is, in the days of our +great-greatgrandchildren. I do not predict any such result, for there are +discernible economic reasons for believing that there will be a diminution +in the rate of increase. The rate must nevertheless continue to be very +great, in the absence of such causes as formerly retarded the growth of +population in Europe. Our modern wars are hideous enough, no doubt, but +they are short. They are settled with a few heavy blows, and the loss of +life and property occasioned by them is but trifling when compared with +the awful ruin and desolation wrought by the perpetual and protracted contests +of antiquity and of the Middle Ages. Chronic warfare, both private and +public, periodic famines, and sweeping pestilences like the Black Death,--these +were the things which formerly shortened human life and kept down population. +In the absence of such causes, and with the abundant capacity of our country +for feeding its people, I think it an extremely moderate statement if we +say that by the end of the next century the English race in the United +States will number at least six or seven hundred millions. +<p>It used to be said that so huge a people as this could not be kept together +as a single national aggregate,--or, if kept together at all, could only +be so by means of a powerful centralized government, like that of ancient +Rome under the emperors. I think we are now prepared to see that this is +a great mistake. If the Roman Empire could have possessed that political +vitality in all its parts which is secured to the United States by the +principles of equal representation and of limited state sovereignty, it +might well have defied all the shocks which tribally-organized barbarism +could ever have directed against it. As it was, its strong centralized +government did <i>not</i> save it from political disintegration. One of +its weakest political features was precisely this,--that its "strong centralized +government" was a kind of close corporation, governing a score of provinces +in its own interest rather than in the interest of the provincials. In +contrast with such a system as that of the Roman Empire, the skilfully +elaborated American system of federalism appears as one of the most important +contributions that the English race has made to the general work of civilization. +The working out of this feature in our national constitution, by Hamilton +and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of constructive +statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these statesmen originated +the principle, but they gave form and expression to the principle which +was latent in the circumstances under which the group of American colonies +had grown up, and which suggested itself so forcibly that the clear vision +of these thinkers did not fail to seize upon it as the fundamental principle +upon which alone could the affairs of a great people, spreading over a +vast continent, be kept in a condition approaching to something like permanent +peace. Stated broadly, so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal +proposition, the principle of federalism is just this:--that the people +of a state shall have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, +which directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage +with more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body +could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern +between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached, not +by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic legislation +of a central government which represents both states and people, and whose +decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by the combined physical +power of all the states. This principle, in various practical applications, +is so familiar to Americans to-day that we seldom pause to admire it, any +more than we stop to admire the air which we breathe or the sun which gives +us light and life. Yet I believe that if no other political result than +this could to-day be pointed out as coming from the colonization of America +by Englishmen, we should still be justified in regarding that event as +one of the most important in the history of mankind. For obviously the +principle of federalism, as thus broadly stated, contains within itself +the seeds of permanent peace between nations; and to this glorious end +I believe it will come in the fulness of time. +<p>And now we may begin to see distinctly what it was that the American +government fought for in the late civil war,--a point which at the time +was by no means clearly apprehended outside the United States. We used +to hear it often said, while that war was going on, that we were fighting +not so much for the emancipation of the negro as for the maintenance of +our federal union; and I well remember that to many who were burning to +see our country purged of the folly and iniquity of negro slavery this +used to seem like taking a low and unrighteous view of the case. From the +stand-point of universal history it was nevertheless the correct and proper +view. The emancipation of the negro, as an incidental result of the struggle, +was a priceless gain which was greeted warmly by all right-minded people. +But deeper down than this question, far more subtly interwoven with the +innermost fibres of our national well-being, far heavier laden too with +weighty consequences for the future weal of all mankind, was the question +whether this great pacific principle of union joined with independence +should be overthrown by the first deep-seated social difficulty it had +to encounter, or should stand as an example of priceless value to other +ages and to other lands. The solution was well worth the effort it cost. +There have been many useless wars, but this was not one of them, for more +than most wars that have been, it was fought in the direct interest of +peace, and the victory so dearly purchased and so humanely used was an +earnest of future peace and happiness for the world. +<p>The object, therefore, for which the American government fought, was +the perpetual maintenance of that peculiar state of things which the federal +union had created,--a state of things in which, throughout the whole vast +territory over which the Union holds sway, questions between states, like +questions between individuals, must be settled by legal argument and judicial +decisions and not by wager of battle. Far better to demonstrate this point +once for all, at whatever cost, than to be burdened hereafter, like the +states of Europe, with frontier fortresses and standing armies and all +the barbaric apparatus of mutual suspicion! For so great an end did this +most pacific people engage in an obstinate war, and never did any war so +thoroughly illustrate how military power may be wielded, when necessary, +by a people that has passed entirely from the military into the industrial +stage of civilization. The events falsified all the predictions that were +drawn from the contemplation of societies less advanced politically. It +was thought that so peaceful a people could not raise a great army on demand; +yet within a twelvemonth the government had raised five hundred thousand +men by voluntary enlistment. It was thought that a territory involving +military operations at points as far apart as Paris and Moscow could never +be thoroughly conquered; yet in April 1865 the federal armies might have +inarched from end to end of the Gulf States without meeting any force to +oppose them. It was thought that the maintenance of a great army would +beget a military temper in the Americans and lead to manifestations of +Bonapartism,--domestic usurpation and foreign aggression; yet the moment +the work was done the great army vanished, and a force of twenty-five thousand +men was found sufficient for the military needs of the whole country. It +was thought that eleven states which had struggled so hard to escape from +the federal tie could not be re-admitted to voluntary co-operation in the +general government, but must henceforth be held as conquered territory,--a +most dangerous experiment for any free people to try. Yet within a dozen +years we find the old federal relations resumed in all their completeness, +and the disunion party powerless and discredited in the very states where +once it had wrought such mischief. Nay more, we even see a curiously disputed +presidential election, in which the votes of the southern states were given +almost with unanimity to one of the candidates, decided quietly by a court +of arbitration; and we see a universal acquiescence in the decision, even +in spite of a general belief that an extraordinary combination of legal +subtleties resulted in adjudging the presidency to the candidate who was +not really elected. +<p>Such has been the result of the first great attempt to break up the +federal union in America. It is not probable that another attempt can ever +be made with anything like an equal chance of success. Here were eleven +states, geographically contiguous, governed by groups of men who for half +a century had pursued a well-defined policy in common, united among themselves +and marked off from most of the other states by a difference far more deeply +rooted in the groundwork of society than any mere economic difference,--the +difference between slave-labour and free-labour. These eleven states, moreover, +held such an economic relationship with England that they counted upon +compelling the naval power of England to be used in their behalf. And finally +it had not yet been demonstrated that the maintenance of the federal union +was something for which the great mass of the people would cheerfully fight. +Never could the experiment of secession be tried, apparently, under fairer +auspices; yet how tremendous the defeat! It was a defeat that wrought conviction,--the +conviction that no matter how grave the political questions that may arise +hereafter, they must be settled in accordance with the legal methods the +Constitution has provided, and that no state can be allowed to break the +peace. It is the thoroughness of this conviction that has so greatly facilitated +the reinstatement of the revolted states in their old federal relations; +and the good sense and good faith with which the southern people, in spite +of the chagrin of defeat, have accepted the situation and acted upon it, +is something unprecedented in history, and calls for the warmest sympathy +and admiration on the part of their brethren of the north. The federal +principle in America has passed through this fearful ordeal and come out +stronger than ever; and we trust it will not again be put to so severe +a test. But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any +further increase of territory or of population should overtask the resources +of our government. +<p>In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore doubtless +have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power and in dimensions +any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now consider for a moment +the probable future career of the English race in other parts of the world. +The colonization of North America by Englishmen had its direct effects +upon the eastern as well as upon the western side of the Atlantic. The +immense growth of the commercial and naval strength of England between +the time of Cromwell and the time of the elder Pitt was intimately connected +with the colonization of North America and the establishment of plantations +in the West Indies. These circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material +development of England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign +trade, increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her +in the eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this +maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize +upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta, the +isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after island +in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the pathways of +maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous countries +which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural heritage. Any +well-filled album of postage-stamps is an eloquent commentary on this maritime +supremacy of England. It is enough to turn one's head to look over her +colonial blue-books. The natural outcome of all this overflowing vitality +it is not difficult to foresee. No one can carefully watch what is going +on in Africa to-day without recognizing it as the same sort of thing which +was going on in North America in the seventeenth century; and it cannot +fail to bring forth similar results in course of time. Here is a vast country, +rich in beautiful scenery and in resources of timber and minerals, with +a salubrious climate and fertile soil, with great navigable rivers and +inland lakes, which will not much longer be left in control of tawny lions +and long-eared elephants and negro fetich-worshippers. Already five flourishing +English states have been established in the south, besides the settlements +on the Gold Coast and those at Aden commanding the Red Sea. English explorers +work their way, with infinite hardship, through its untravelled wilds, +and track the courses of the Congo and the Nile as their forefathers tracked +the Potomac and the Hudson. The work of La Salle and Smith is finding its +counterpart in the labours of Baker and Livingstone. Who can doubt that +within two or three centuries the African continent will be occupied by +a mighty nation of English descent, and covered with populous cities and +flourishing farms, with railroads and telegraphs and other devices of civilization +as yet undreamed of? +<p>If we look next to Australia, we find a country of more than two-thirds +the area of the United States, with a temperate climate and immense resources, +agricultural and mineral,--a country sparsely peopled by a race of irredeemable +savages hardly above the level of brutes. Here England within the present +century has planted six greatly thriving states, concerning which I have +not time to say much, but one fact will serve as a specimen. When in America +we wish to illustrate in one word the wonderful growth of our so-called +north-western states, we refer to Chicago,--a city of half-a-million inhabitants +standing on a spot which fifty years ago was an uninhabited marsh. In Australia +the city of Melbourne was founded in 1837, the year when the present queen +of England began to reign, and the state of which it is the capital was +hence called Victoria. This city, now<a NAME="FNanchor16"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_16">[16]</a></sup> +just forty-three years old, has a population half as great as that of Chicago, +has a public library of 200,000 volumes, and has a university with at least +one professor of world-wide renown. When we see, by the way, within a period +of five years and at such remote points upon the earth's surface, such +erudite and ponderous works in the English language issuing from the press +as those of Professor Hearn of Melbourne, of Bishop Colenso of Natal, and +of Mr. Hubert Bancroft of San Francisco,--even such a little commonplace +fact as this is fraught with wonderful significance when we think of all +that it implies. Then there is New Zealand, with its climate of perpetual +spring, where the English race is now multiplying faster than anywhere +else in the world unless it be in Texas and Minnesota. And there are in +the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we shall very soon +see the same things going on. +<p>It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is +enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the English +race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on until every +land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of an old civilization +shall become English in its language, in its political habits and traditions, +and to a predominant extent in the blood of its people. The day is at hand +when, four-fifths of the human race will trace its pedigree to English +forefathers, as four-fifths of the white people in the United States trace +their pedigree to-day. The race thus spread over both hemispheres, and +from the rising to the setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty +of the sea and that commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when +England first stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia +and Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will +not be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, +but perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and +writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be transacted +by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that whatever language +any man may have learned in his infancy he will find it necessary sooner +or later to learn to express his thoughts in English. And in this way it +is by no means improbable that, as Grimm the German and Candolle the Frenchman +long since foretold, the language of Shakespeare may ultimately become +the language of mankind. +<p>In view of these considerations as to the stupendous future of the English +race, does it not seem very probable that in due course of time Europe--which +has learned some valuable lessons from America already--will find it worth +while to adopt the lesson of federalism? Probably the European states, +in order to preserve their relative weight in the general polity of the +world, will find it necessary to do so. In that most critical period of +American history between the winning of independence and the framing of +the Constitution, one of the strongest of the motives which led the confederated +states to sacrifice part of their sovereignty by entering into a federal +union was their keen sense of their weakness when taken severally. In physical +strength such a state as Massachusetts at that time amounted to little +more than Hamburg or Bremen; but the thirteen states taken together made +a nation of respectable power. Even the wonderful progress we have made +in a century has not essentially changed this relation of things. Our greatest +state, New York, taken singly, is about the equivalent of Belgium; our +weakest state, Nevada, would scarcely be a match for tha county of Dorset; +yet the United States, taken together, are probably at this moment the +strongest nation in the world. +<p>Now a century hence, with a population of six hundred millions in the +United States, and a hundred and fifty millions in Australia and New Zealand, +to say nothing of the increase of power in other parts of the English-speaking +world, the relative weights will be very different from what they were +in 1788. The population of Europe will not increase in anything like the +same proportion, and a very considerable part of the increase will be transferred +by emigration to the English-speaking world outside of Europe. By the end +of the twentieth century such nations as France and Germany can only claim +such a relative position in the political world as Holland and Switzerland +now occupy. Their greatness in thought and scholarship, in industrial and +aesthetic art, will doubtless continue unabated. But their political weights +will severally have come to be insignificant; and as we now look back, +with historic curiosity, to the days when Holland was navally and commercially +the rival of England, so people will then need to be reminded that there +was actually once a time when little France was the most powerful nation +on the earth. It will then become as desirable for the states of Europe +to enter into a federal union as it was for the states of North America +a century ago. +<p>It is only by thus adopting the lesson of federalism that Europe can +do away with the chances of useless warfare which remain so long as its +different states own no allegiance to any common authority. War, as we +have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite occupation. +As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism, it remains a +too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and Christian nations +it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly with wars such as that +which Russia has lately concluded, for setting free a kindred race endowed +with capacity for progress, and for humbling the worthless barbarian who +during four centuries has wrought such incalculable damage to the European +world. But a sanguinary struggle for the Rhine frontier, between two civilized +Christian nations who have each enough work to do in ithe world without +engaging in such a strife as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned +by the general opinion of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled +by discussion in some sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe +would keep pace with America in the advance towards universal law and order. +All will admit that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let +us see if it is really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. +No doubt the lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would +have thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred +years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great +stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which +to shoot at people going by. Yet to-day a country gentleman in some parts +of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his front-door. We +have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we have at least made +private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public opinion against it to such +an extent that the police-court usually makes short shrift for the misguided +man who tries to wreak vengeance on his enemy. Is it too much to hope that +by and by we may similarly put public warfare under the ban? I think not. +Already in America, as wre have seen, it has become customary to deal with +questions between states just as we would deal with questions between individuals. +This we have seen to be the real purport of American federalism. To have +established such a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very +good beginning towards establishing it over the world. To establish such +a system in Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal +with an immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and +ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon +Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before long +overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition between +the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous within the +last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas are already +formidable competitors with England, France, and Germany; but this is but +the beginning. It is but the first spray from the tremendous wave of economic +competition that is gathering in the Mississippi valley. By and by, when +our shameful tariff--falsely called "protective"--shall have been done +away with, and our manufacturers shall produce superior articles at less +cost of raw material, we shall begin to compete with European countries +in all the markets of the world; and the competition in manufactures will +become as keen as it is now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will +not be long in coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, +and in the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born +of crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. +When this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse +of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure exerted +upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great indeed. It +will not be long before this economic pressure will make it simply impossible +for the states of Europe to keep up such military armaments as they are +now maintaining. The disparity between the United States, with a standing +army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn from industrial pursuits, +and the states of Europe, with their standing armies amounting to four +millions of men, is something that cannot possibly be kept up. The economic +competition will become so keen that European armies will have to be disbanded, +the swords will have to be turned into ploughshares, and <i>thus</i> the +victory of the industrial over the military type of civilization will at +last become complete. But to disband the great armies of Europe will necessarily +involve the forcing of the great states of Europe into some sort of federal +relation, in which Congresses--already held on rare occasions--will become +more frequent, in which the principles of international law will acquire +a more definite sanction, and in which the combined physical power of all +the states will constitute (as it now does in America) a permanent threat +against any state that dares to wish for selfish reasons to break the peace. +In some such way as this, I believe, the industrial development of the +English race outside of Europe will by and by enforce federalism upon Europe. +As regards the serious difficulties that grow out of prejudices attendant +upon differences in language, race, and creed, a most valuable lesson is +furnished us by the history of Switzerland. I am inclined to think that +the greatest contribution which Switzerland has made to the general progress +of civilization has been to show us how such obstacles can be surmounted, +even on a small scale. To surmount them on a great scale will soon become +the political problem of Europe; and it is America which has set the example +and indicated the method. +<p>Thus we may foresee in general outline how, through the gradual concentration +of the preponderance of physical power into the hands of the most pacific +communities, the wretched business of warfare must finally become obsolete +all over the globe. The element of distance is now fast becoming eliminated +from political problems, and the history of human progress politically +will continue in the future to be what it has been in the past,--the history +of the successive union of groups of men into larger and more complex aggregates. +As this process goes on, it may after many more ages of political experience +become apparent that there is really no reason, in the nature of things, +why the whole of mankind should not constitute politically one huge federation,--each +little group managing its local affairs in entire independence, but relegating +all questions of international interest to the decision of one central +tribunal supported by the public opinion of the entire human race. I believe +that the time will come when such a state of things will exist upon the +earth, when it will be possible (with our friends of the Paris dinner-party) +to speak of the UNITED STATES as stretching from pole to pole,--or, with +Tennyson, to celebrate the "parliament of man and the federation of the +world." Indeed, only when such a state of things has begun to be realized, +can Civilization, as sharply demarcated from Barbarism, be said to have +fairly begun. Only then can the world be said to have become truly Christian. +Many ages of toil and doubt and perplexity will no doubt pass by before +such a desideratum is reached. Meanwhile it is pleasant to feel that the +dispassionate contemplation of great masses of historical facts goes far +towards confirming our faith in this ultimate triumph of good over evil. +Our survey began with pictures of horrid slaughter and desolation: it ends +with the picture of a world covered with cheerful homesteads, blessed with +a sabbath of perpetual peace. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<p><a NAME="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> Freeman, "Norman +Conquest," v. 482. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a> Freeman, "Comparative +Politics," 264. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a> This is disputed, +however. See Ross, "Early History of Landholding among the Germans." +<br><a NAME="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 84. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a> Kemble, "Saxons +in England," i. 59. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a> Maine, "Village +Communities," Lond., 1871, p. 132. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 85. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a> Freeman, "Comparative +Politics," 118. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a> Geffroy, "Rome +et les Barbares," 209. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10">[10]</a> Maine, "Village +Communities," 118. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11">[11]</a> Stubbs, "Constitutional +History," i. 625. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12">[12]</a> Stubbs, "Select +Charters," 401. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13">[13]</a> "La Cité +Antique," 441. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14">[14]</a> Arnold, "Roman +Provincial Administration," 237. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor15">[15]</a> Stubbs, "Select +Charters," 401. +<br><a NAME="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor16">[16]</a> In 1880. +<p> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<h2> +<b>INDEX.</b></h2> +Abderrahman +<br>Achaian league +<br>Aden +<br>Adoption +<br>Aetolian league +<br>Africa, English colonies in +<br>Albany Congress +<br>Amphiktyonic Council +<br>Angeln +<br>Angles +<br>Anglo-American +<br>Anglo-Saxon +<br>Appomattox +<br>Arable mark +<br>Ariovistus +<br>Armada, the Invincible +<br>Armies of Europe will be disbanded +<br>Arminius +<br>Arnold, M. +<br>Asiaticization +<br>Athens, grandeur of incorporated demes of Attika, +<br> old tribal divisions modified, +<br> school of political training +<br> maritime empire of +<br>Attila Australia Austria +<p>Baker, Sir S. +<br>Bancroft, Hubert +<br>Barons, war of the +<br>Basileus +<br>Batu Belgium +<br>Benefices +<br>Bern +<br>Bonaparte, N. +<br>Bonapartism +<br>Boroughs, special privileges of +<br>Boston, growth of its Common +<br>Boundaries of United States +<br>Burgundians By-laws +<p>Caesar, J. +<br>California, social experiments in +<br>Canada under Old Régime +<br>Candolle, A. de, +<br>Canton, Carlyle on dollar-hunters, +<br>Centralized government, weakness of, +<br>Century, +<br>Ceylon, +<br>Châlons, battle of, +<br>Charles I., +<br>Charles the Bold, +<br>Charles Martel, +<br>Charles the Great, +<br>Chatham, Lord, +<br>Chester, +<br>Chicago, +<br>Chinese, +<br>Christianity, +<br>Church, mediaeval, +<br>Cities in England and America, origin of, +<br>City, the ancient, +<br>Civilization, its primary phase, +<br> long threatened by neighbouring barbarism, +<br>Clan-system of political union, +<br>Claudius, emperor, +<br>Clement IV., +<br>Cleveland, city of. +<br>Colenso, J.W. +<br>Colonies, how founded, +<br>Comitia, +<br>Commendation, +<br>Commons, House of, +<br>Commons, origin of, +<br>Communal farming in England, +<br>Communal landholding, +<br>Competition, industrial, between Europe and America, +<br>Confederation, articles of, +<br>Connecticut, men of, defy James II., +<br>Constitution of the United States, +<br>Continentals and British, +<br>Cromwell, O., +<br>Curia, +<p>Delian confederacy, +<br>Derne, +<br>Departments of France, +<br>Dependencies, danger of governing them despotically, +<br>Didius Julianus, +<br>Diocletian, +<br>Domestic service in a New England village, +<br>Dorset, +<br>Dover, men of, throw papal bull into sea, +<br>Duke, +<br>Dutch republic, +<p>Ealdorman, +<br>Ecclesia, +<br>Eden, Chuzzlewit's, +<br>Electoral commission, +<br>Emancipation of slaves, +<br>England, maritime supremacy of +<br>English colonization +<br> language, future of +<br> self-government, how preserved, +<br> villages +<p>Famines +<br>Federal union on great scale, +<br> conditions of +<br> its durableness lies in its flexibility +<br>Federalism, pacific implications of +<br> will be adopted by Europe +<br>Federation and conquest +<br>Federations in Greece +<br>Feudal system, origin of +<br>Fick, A. +<br>France, political development of +<br> contrasted with +<br>England as a colonizer +<br>France and Germany, their late war +<br> their political weight a century hence +<br>Francis I. +<br>Franklin, B. +<br>Franks +<br>Freeman, E.A. +<br>Freiburg +<br>French villages +<p>Gau +<br>Gaul, Roman conquest of +<br>Geneva +<br>Gens +<br>Georgia +<br>Germany conquered and converted by Charles the Great +<br>Gibraltar +<br>Goths +<br>Great states, method of forming, +<br> notion of their having an inherent tendency to break up +<br> difficulty of forming +<br>Grimm, J. +<p>Haddon Hall +<br>Hamburg +<br>Hamilton, A. +<br>Hampden, J. +<br>Hannibal's invasion of Italy +<br>Hearn, Professor +<br>Henry VIII. +<br>Heretoga +<br>Hindustan, village communities in +<br> cities in +<br>Holland +<br>Howard of Effingham +<br>Hundred +<br>Hungary +<br>Hunnish invasion of Europe +<p>Incorporation +<br>Iroquois tribes +<p>James II. +<br>Jinghis Khan, +<br>Judiciary, federal, +<p>Kansas, +<br>Kemble, J., +<br>Kingship among ancient Teutons, +<p>La Salle, R., +<br>Lausanne, +<br>Leo's defeat of the Saracens, +<br>Lewes, battle of, +<br>Liegnitz, battle of, +<br>Lincoln, A., Lincoln, city of, +<br>Livingstone, Dr., +<br>Lombards, +<br>London, growth of, +<br>Louis VI., +<br>Louis XIV., +<p>Madison, J., +<br>Maine, Sir II., +<br>Maintz, +<br>Malta, +<br>Manorial courts, +<br>Manors, origin of, +<br>March meetings in New England, +<br>Marius, C., +<br>Mark, in England, +<br> meaning of the word, +<br>Mark-mote, +<br>Massachusetts, +<br>May assemblies in Switzerland, +<br>Melbourne, city of, +<br>Middle Ages, turbulence of, +<br>Military strength of civilized world, its increase, +<br>Minnesota, +<br>Mir, or Russian village, +<br>Mongolian Khans in Russia, +<br>Mongols, +<br>Montenegro, +<br>Montfort, S. de, +<p>Naseby, battle of, +<br>Navies less dangerous than standing armies, +<br>Nebraska, +<br>Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square, +<br>Nevada, +<br>New England confederacy, +<br>New York, New Zealand, +<br>Norman conquest, +<br>North America, struggle for possession of, +<p>Omar, +<p>Pagus, +<br>Paris, American dinner-party in, +<br>Parish, its relation to township, +<br>Parkman, F. +<br>Pax romana +<br>Peace of the world, how secured, +<br>Peerage of England +<br>Peloponnesian war +<br>Persian war against Greece +<br>Pestilences +<br>Petersham +<br>Philip, King +<br>Phratries Pictet, A. +<br>Poland +<br>Pontiac +<br>Population of United States a century hence +<br>Private property in land +<br>Problem of political civilization +<br>Protestantism and Catholicism, political question at stake between +<br>Prussia conquered by Teutonic knights +<br>Puritanism +<br>Puritans of New England, their origin +<p>Quebec, Wolfe's victory at +<p>Rebellion against Charles I. +<br>Redivision of arable lands Re-election of town officers +<br>Representation unknown to Greeks and Romans +<br> origin of +<br> federal, in United States +<br>Rex Rhode Island +<br>Roman law +<br>Rome, plebeian revolution at +<br> early stages of +<br> secret of its power +<br> advantages of its dominion +<br> causes of its political failure, +<br> powerful influence of, in Middle Ages +<br> meaning of its great wars +<br>Roses, wars of the +<br>Ross, D. +<br>Russia, Mongolian conquest of +<br> village communities in +<br> its late war against the Turks +<br> its despotic government contrasted with that of France under +Old Régime +<br> +<p>SARACENS +<br>Scandinavia +<br>Secession, war of +<br>Selectmen +<br>Self-government preserved in England +<br> lost in France +<br>Shakespeare +<br>Shires +<br>Shottery, cottage at +<br>Smith, J. +<br>Social war +<br>South Carolina +<br>Spain, Roman conquest of +<br>Sparta +<br>State sovereignty in America +<br>Strasburg +<br>Strategic position of England +<br>Stubbs, W. +<br>Suez +<br>Swiss cantonal assemblies +<br>Switzerland, lesson of its history +<br> self-government preserved in +<p>Tacitus +<br>Tariff in America +<br>Tax-taking despotisms +<br>Tennyson, A. +<br>Teutonic civilization contrasted with Graeco-Roman +<br>Teutonic knights +<br>Teutonic village communities +<br>Texas +<br>Thegnhood +<br>Thirty Years' War +<br>Thukydides + +<br>Tocqueville +<br>Tourist in United States +<br>Town, meaning of the word +<br>Town-meetings, origin of +<br>Town-names formed from patronymics +<br>Township in New England, +<br> in western states +<br>Tribe and shire +<br>Turks +<p>Versailles +<br>Vestry-meetings +<br>Victoria, Australia +<br>Village-mark Villages of New England +<br>Virginia, parishes in +<br>Visigoths +<p>Wallace, D.M. +<br>War of independence +<br>Warfare, universal in early times +<br> how diminished +<br> interferes with political development +<br> less destructive now than in ancient times +<br> how effectively waged by the most pacific of peoples +<br>Washington, city of +<br>Washington, G. +<br>William III. +<br>Witenagemote +<br>Wolfe's victory at Quebec +<p>Yorktown +<br> +<h1> +THE END.</h1> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Political Ideas Viewed From +The Standpoint Of Universal History, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + +***** This file should be named 10112-h.htm or 10112-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/1/10112/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: American Political Ideas Viewed From The Standpoint Of Universal History + +Author: John Fiske + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10112] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS + +VIEWED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +Three Lectures + +DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN IN MAY 1880 + +BY JOHN FISKE + +_Voici un fait entierement nouveau dans le monde, et dont l'imagination +elle-meme ne saurait saisir la portee._ + + +TOCQUEVILLE + + +TO + +EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS + +NOBLEST OF MEN AND DEAREST OF FRIENDS + +WHOSE UNSELFISH AND UNTIRING WORK IN EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN +THE PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PHILOSOPHY DESERVES THE GRATITUDE OF ALL MEN + +I dedicate this Book + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In the spring of 1879 I gave at the Old South Meeting-house in Boston a +course of lectures on the discovery and colonization of America, and +presently, through the kindness of my friend Professor Huxley, the +course was repeated at University College in London. The lectures there +were attended by very large audiences, and awakened such an interest in +American history that I was invited to return to England in the +following year and treat of some of the philosophical aspects of my +subject in a course of lectures at the Royal Institution. + +In the three lectures which were written in response to this invitation, +and which are now published in this little volume, I have endeavoured to +illustrate some of the fundamental ideas of American politics by setting +forth their relations to the general history of mankind. It is +impossible thoroughly to grasp the meaning of any group of facts, in any +department of study, until we have duly compared them with allied groups +of facts; and the political history of the American people can be +rightly understood only when it is studied in connection with that +general process of political evolution which has been going on from the +earliest times, and of which it is itself one of the most important and +remarkable phases. The government of the United States is not the result +of special creation, but of evolution. As the town-meetings of New +England are lineally descended from the village assemblies of the early +Aryans; as our huge federal union was long ago foreshadowed in the +little leagues of Greek cities and Swiss cantons; so the great political +problem which we are (thus far successfully) solving is the very same +problem upon which all civilized peoples have been working ever since +civilization began. How to insure peaceful concerted action throughout +the Whole, without infringing upon local and individual freedom in the +Parts,--this has ever been the chief aim of civilization, viewed on its +political side; and we rate the failure or success of nations +politically according to their failure or success in attaining this +supreme end. When thus considered in the light of the comparative +method, our American history acquires added dignity and interest, and a +broad and rational basis is secured for the detailed treatment of +political questions. + +When viewed in this light, moreover, not only does American history +become especially interesting to Englishmen, but English history is +clothed with fresh interest for Americans. Mr. Freeman has done well in +insisting upon the fact that the history of the English people does not +begin with the Norman Conquest. In the deepest and widest sense, our +American history does not begin with the Declaration of Independence, or +even with the settlements of Jamestown and Plymouth; but it descends in +unbroken continuity from the days when stout Arminius in the forests of +northern Germany successfully defied the might of imperial Rome. In a +more restricted sense, the statesmanship of Washington and Lincoln +appears in the noblest light when regarded as the fruition of the +various work of De Montfort and Cromwell and Chatham. The good fight +begun at Lewes and continued at Naseby and Quebec was fitly crowned at +Yorktown and at Appomattox. When we duly realize this, and further come +to see how the two great branches of the English race have the common +mission of establishing throughout the larger part of the earth a higher +civilization and more permanent political order than any that has gone +before, we shall the better understand the true significance of the +history which English-speaking men have so magnificently wrought out +upon American soil. + +In dealing concisely with a subject so vast, only brief hints and +suggestions can be expected; and I have not thought it worth while, for +the present at least, to change or amplify the manner of treatment. The +lectures are printed exactly as they were delivered at the Royal +Institution, more than four years ago. On one point of detail some +change will very likely by and by be called for. In the lecture on the +Town-meeting I have adopted the views of Sir Henry Maine as to the +common holding of the arable land in the ancient German mark, and as to +the primitive character of the periodical redistribution of land in the +Russian village community. It now seems highly probable that these views +will have to undergo serious modification in consequence of the valuable +evidence lately brought forward by my friend Mr. Denman Ross, in his +learned and masterly treatise on "The Early History of Landholding among +the Germans;" but as I am not yet quite clear as to how far this +modification will go, and as it can in nowise affect the general drift +of my argument, I have made no change in my incidental remarks on this +difficult and disputed question. + +In describing some of the characteristic features of country life in New +England, I had especially in mind the beautiful mountain village in +which this preface is written, and in which for nearly a quarter of a +century I have felt myself more at home than in any other spot in +the world. + +In writing these lectures, designed as they were for a special occasion, +no attempt was made to meet the ordinary requirements of popular +audiences; yet they have been received in many places with unlooked-for +favour. The lecture on "Manifest Destiny" was three times repeated in +London, and once in Edinburgh; seven times in Boston; four times in New +York; twice in Brooklyn, N.Y., Plainfield, N.J., and Madison, Wis.; once +in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, +Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Milwaukee; in Appleton and Waukesha, Wis.; +Portland, Lewiston, and Brunswick, Me.; Lowell, Concord, Newburyport, +Peabody, Stoneham, Maiden, Newton Highlands, and Martha's Vineyard, +Mass.; Middletown and Stamford, Conn.; Newburg and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; +Orange, N.J.; and at Cornell University and Haverford College. In +several of these places the course was given. + +PETERSHAM, _September 13, 1884_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + +Differences in outward aspect between a village in England and a village +in Massachusetts. Life in a typical New England mountain village. Tenure +of land, domestic service, absence of poverty and crime, universality of +labour and of culture, freedom of thought, complete democracy. This +state of things is to some extent passing away. Remarkable +characteristics of the Puritan settlers of New England, and extent to +which their characters and aims have influenced American history. Town +governments in New England. Different meanings of the word "city" in +England and America. Importance of local self-government in the +political life of the United States. Origin of the town-meeting. Mr. +Freeman on the cantonal assemblies of Switzerland. The old Teutonic +"mark," or dwelling-place of a clan. Political union originally based, +not on territorial contiguity, but on blood-relationship. Divisions of +the mark. Origin of the village Common. The _mark-mote_. Village +communities in Russia and Hindustan. Difference between the despotism of +Russia and that of France under the Old Regime. Elements of sound +political life fostered by the Russian village. Traces of the mark in +England. Feudalization of Europe, and partial metamorphosis of the mark +or township into the manor. Parallel transformation of the township, in +some of its features, into the parish. The court leet and the +vestry-meeting. The New England town-meeting a revival of the ancient +mark-mote. + +Vicissitudes of local self-government in the various portions of the +Aryan world illustrated in the contrasted cases of France and England. +Significant contrast between the aristocracy of England and that of the +Continent. Difference between the Teutonic conquests of Gaul and of +Britain. Growth of centralization in France. Why the English have always +been more successful than the French in founding colonies. Struggle +between France and England for the possession of North America, and +prodigious significance of the victory of England. + + +II. + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +Wonderful greatness of ancient Athens. Causes of the political failure +of Greek civilization. Early stages of political aggregation,--the +_hundred_, the [Greek: _phratria_], the _curia_; the _shire_, the +_deme_, and the _pagus_. Aggregation of clans into tribes. Differences +in the mode of aggregation in Greece and Rome on the one hand, and in +Teutonic countries on the other. The Ancient City. Origin of cities in +Hindustan, Germany, England, and the United States. Religious character +of the ancient city. Burghership not granted to strangers. Consequences +of the political difference between the Graeco-Roman city and the +Teutonic shire. The _folk-mote_, or primary assembly, and the +_witenagemote_, or assembly of notables. Origin of representative +government in the Teutonic shire. Representation unknown to the Greeks +and Romans. The ancient city as a school for political training. +Intensity of the jealousies and rivalries between adjacent +self-governing groups of men. Smallness of simple social aggregates and +universality of warfare in primitive times. For the formation of larger +and more complex social aggregates, only two methods are +practicable,--_conquest_ or _federation_. Greek attempts at employing +the higher method, that of federation. The Athenian hegemony and its +overthrow. The Achaian and Aetolian leagues. In a low stage of political +development the Roman method of _conquest with incorporation_ was the +only one practicable. Peculiarities of the Roman conquest of Italy. +Causes of the universal dominion of Rome. Advantages and disadvantages +of this dominion:--on the one hand the _pax romana_, and the breaking +down of primitive local superstitions and prejudices; on the other hand +the partial extinction of local self-government. Despotism inevitable in +the absence of representation. Causes of the political failure of the +Roman system. Partial reversion of Europe, between the fifth and +eleventh centuries, towards a more primitive type of social structure. +Power of Rome still wielded through the Church and the imperial +jurisprudence. Preservation of local self-government in England, and at +the two ends of the Rhine. The Dutch and Swiss federations. The lesson +to be learned from Switzerland. Federation on a great scale could only +be attempted successfully by men of English political training, when +working without let or hindrance in a vast country not preoccupied by an +old civilization. Without local self-government a great Federal Union is +impossible. Illustrations from American history. Difficulty of the +problem, and failure of the early attempts at federation in New +England. Effects of the war for independence. The "Articles of +Confederation" and the "Constitution." Pacific implications of American +federalism. + + + +III. + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY._" + +The Americans boast of the bigness of their country. How to "bound" the +United States. "Manifest Destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon Race." The term +"Anglo-Saxon" slovenly and misleading. Statements relating to the +"English Race" have a common interest for Americans and for Englishmen. +Work of the English race in the world. The prime feature of civilization +is the diminution of warfare, which becomes possible only through the +formation of great political aggregates in which the parts retain their +local and individual freedom. In the earlier stages of civilization, the +possibility of peace can be guaranteed only through war, but the +preponderant military strength is gradually concentrated in the hands of +the most pacific communities, and by the continuance of this process the +permanent peace of the world will ultimately be secured. Illustrations +from the early struggles of European civilization with outer barbarism, +and with aggressive civilizations of lower type. Greece and Persia. +Keltic and Teutonic enemies of Rome. The defensible frontier of European +civilization carried northward and eastward to the Rhine by Caesar; to +the Oder by Charles the Great; to the Vistula by the Teutonic Knights; +to the Volga and the Oxus by the Russians. Danger in the Dark Ages from +Huns and Mongols on the one hand, from Mussulmans on the other. Immense +increase of the area and physical strength of European civilization, +which can never again be in danger from outer barbarism. Effect of all +this secular turmoil upon the political institutions of Europe. It +hindered the formation of closely coherent nations, and was at the same +time an obstacle to the preservation of popular liberties. Tendency +towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life. Opposing influences of +the Church, and of the Germanic tribal organizations. Military type of +society on the Continent. Old Aryan self-government happily preserved in +England. Strategic position of England favourable to the early +elimination of warfare from her soil. Hence the exceptionally normal and +plastic political development of the English race. Significant +coincidence of the discovery of America with the beginnings of the +Protestant revolt against the asiaticizing tendency. Significance of the +struggle between Spain, France, and England for the possession of an +enormous area of virgin soil which should insure to the conqueror an +unprecedented opportunity for future development. The race which gained +control of North America must become the dominant race of the world, and +its political ideas must prevail in the struggle for life. Moral +significance of the rapid increase of the English race in America. +Fallacy of the notion that centralized governments are needed for very +large nations. It is only through federalism, combined with local +self-government, that the stability of so huge an aggregate as the +United States can be permanently maintained. What the American +government really fought for in the late Civil War. Magnitude of the +results achieved. Unprecedented military strength shown by this most +pacific and industrial of peoples. Improbability of any future attempt +to break up the Federal Union. Stupendous future of the English +race,--in Africa, in Australia, and in the islands of the Pacific +Ocean. Future of the English language. Probable further adoption of +federalism. Probable effects upon Europe of industrial competition with +the United States: impossibility of keeping up the present military +armaments. The States of Europe will be forced, by pressure of +circumstances, into some kind of federal union. A similar process will +go on until the whole of mankind shall constitute a single political +body, and warfare shall disappear forever from the face of the earth. + + + + + +AMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS. + + + + +I. + +_THE TOWN-MEETING._ + + +The traveller from the Old World, who has a few weeks at his disposal +for a visit to the United States, usually passes straight from one to +another of our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Washington, +or Chicago, stopping for a day or two perhaps at Niagara Falls,--or, +perhaps, after traversing a distance like that which separates England +from Mesopotamia, reaches the vast table-lands of the Far West and +inspects their interesting fauna of antelopes and buffaloes, red Indians +and Mormons. In a journey of this sort one gets a very superficial view +of the peculiarities, physical and social, which characterize the +different portions of our country; and in this there is nothing to +complain of, since the knowledge gained in a vacation-journey cannot +well be expected to be thorough or profound. The traveller, however, +who should visit the United States in a more leisurely way, with the +purpose of increasing his knowledge of history and politics, would find +it well to proceed somewhat differently. He would find himself richly +repaid for a sojourn in some insignificant place the very name of which +is unknown beyond sea,--just as Mr. Mackenzie Wallace--whose book on +Russia is a model of what such books should be--got so much invaluable +experience from his months of voluntary exile at Ivanofka in the +province of Novgorod. Out of the innumerable places which one might +visit in America, there are none which would better reward such careful +observation, or which are more full of interest for the comparative +historian, than the rural towns and mountain villages of New England; +that part of English America which is oldest in civilization (though not +in actual date of settlement), and which, while most completely English +in blood and in traditions, is at the same time most completely American +in so far as it has most distinctly illustrated and most successfully +represented those political ideas which have given to American history +its chief significance in the general work of civilization. + +The United States are not unfrequently spoken of as a "new country," in +terms which would be appropriate if applied to Australia or New Zealand, +and which are not inappropriate as applied to the vast region west of +the Mississippi River, where the white man had hardly set foot before +the beginning of the present century. New England, however, has a +history which carries us back to the times of James I.; and while its +cities are full of such bustling modern life as one sees in Liverpool or +Manchester or Glasgow, its rural towns show us much that is +old-fashioned in aspect,--much that one can approach in an antiquarian +spirit. We are there introduced to a phase of social life which is +highly interesting on its own account and which has played an important +part in the world, yet which, if not actually passing away, is at least +becoming so rapidly modified as to afford a theme for grave reflections +to those who have learned how to appreciate its value. As any +far-reaching change in the condition of landed property in England, due +to agricultural causes, might seriously affect the position of one of +the noblest and most useful aristocracies that has ever existed; so, on +the other hand, as we consider the possible action of similar causes +upon the _personnel_ and upon the occupations of rural New England, we +are unwillingly forced to contemplate the possibility of a +deterioration in the character of the most perfect democracy the world +has ever seen. + +In the outward aspect of a village in Massachusetts or Connecticut, the +feature which would be most likely first to impress itself upon the mind +of a visitor from England is the manner in which the village is laid out +and built. Neither in England nor anywhere else in western Europe have I +ever met with a village of the New England type. In English villages one +finds small houses closely crowded together, sometimes in blocks of ten +or a dozen, and inhabited by people belonging to the lower orders of +society; while the fine houses of gentlemen stand quite apart in the +country, perhaps out of sight of one another, and surrounded by very +extensive grounds. The origin of the village, in a mere aggregation of +tenants of the lord of the manor, is thus vividly suggested. In France +one is still more impressed, I think, with this closely packed structure +of the village. In the New England village, on the other hand, the finer +and the poorer houses stand side by side along the road. There are wide +straight streets overarched with spreading elms and maples, and on +either side stand the houses, with little green lawns in front, called +in rustic parlance "door-yards." The finer houses may stand a thousand +feet apart from their neighbours on either side, while between the +poorer ones there may be intervals of from twenty to one hundred feet, +but they are never found crowded together in blocks. Built in this +capacious fashion, a village of a thousand inhabitants may have a main +street more than a mile in length, with half a dozen crossing streets +losing themselves gradually in long stretches of country road. The +finest houses are not ducal palaces, but may be compared with the +ordinary country-houses of gentlemen in England. The poorest houses are +never hovels, such as one sees in the Scotch Highlands. The picturesque +and cosy cottage at Shottery, where Shakespeare used to do his courting, +will serve very well as a sample of the humblest sort of old-fashioned +New England farm-house. But most of the dwellings in the village come +between these extremes. They are plain neat wooden houses, in +capaciousness more like villas than cottages. A New England village +street, laid out in this way, is usually very picturesque and beautiful, +and it is highly characteristic. In comparing it with things in Europe, +where one rarely finds anything at all like it, one must go to something +very different from a village. As you stand in the Court of Heroes at +Versailles and look down the broad and noble avenue that leads to +Paris, the effect of the vista is much like that of a New England +village street. As American villages grow into cities, the increase in +the value of land usually tends to crowd the houses together into blocks +as in a European city. But in some of our western cities founded and +settled by people from New England, this spacious fashion of building +has been retained for streets occupied by dwelling-houses. In +Cleveland--a city on the southern shore of Lake Erie, with a population +about equal to that of Edinburgh--there is a street some five or six +miles in length and five hundred feet in width, bordered on each side +with a double row of arching trees, and with handsome stone houses, of +sufficient variety and freedom in architectural design, standing at +intervals of from one to two hundred feet along the entire length of the +street. The effect, it is needless to add, is very noble indeed. The +vistas remind one of the nave and aisles of a huge cathedral. + +Now this generous way in which a New England village is built is very +closely associated with the historical origin of the village and with +the peculiar kind of political and social life by which it is +characterized. First of all, it implies abundance of land. As a rule the +head of each family owns the house in which he lives and the ground on +which it is built. The relation of landlord and tenant, though not +unknown, is not commonly met with. No sort of social distinction or +political privilege is associated with the ownership of land; and the +legal differences between real and personal property, especially as +regards ease of transfer, have been reduced to the smallest minimum that +practical convenience will allow. Each householder, therefore, though an +absolute proprietor, cannot be called a miniature lord of the manor, +because there exists no permanent dependent class such as is implied in +the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends in person to +the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his own sons or by +neighbours working for hire in the leisure left over from the care of +their own smaller estates. So in the interior of the house there is +usually no domestic service that is not performed by the mother of the +family and the daughters. Yet in spite of this universality of manual +labour, the people are as far as possible from presenting the appearance +of peasants. Poor or shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there +is no one in the village whom it would be proper to address in a +patronizing tone, or who would not consider it a gross insult to be +offered a shilling. As with poverty, so with dram-drinking and with +crime; all alike are conspicuous by their absence. In a village of one +thousand inhabitants there will be a poor-house where five or six +decrepit old people are supported at the common charge; and there will +be one tavern where it is not easy to find anything stronger to drink +than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves is so slight that it +is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer doors of the house +at night. The universality of literary culture is as remarkable as the +freedom with which all persons engage in manual labour. The village of a +thousand inhabitants will be very likely to have a public circulating +library, in which you may find Professor Huxley's "Lay Sermons" or Sir +Henry Maine's "Ancient Law": it will surely have a high-school and half +a dozen schools for small children. A person unable to read and write is +as great a rarity as an albino or a person with six fingers. The farmer +who threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a +piano in his family sitting-room, with the _Atlantic Monthly_ on the +table and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay on his shelves, while +his daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, is perhaps ready to +paint on china in the afternoon. In former times theological questions +largely occupied the attention of the people; and there is probably no +part of the world where the Bible has been more attentively read, or +where the mysteries of Christian doctrine have to so great an extent +been made the subject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence we +find in the New England of to-day a deep religious sense combined with +singular flexibility of mind and freedom of thought. + +A state of society so completely democratic as that here described has +not often been found in connection with a very high and complex +civilization. In contemplating these old mountain villages of New +England, one descries slow modifications in the structure of society +which threaten somewhat to lessen its dignity. The immense +productiveness of the soil in our western states, combined with +cheapness of transportation, tends to affect seriously the agricultural +interests of New England as well as those of our mother-country. There +is a visible tendency for farms to pass into the hands of proprietors of +an inferior type to that of the former owners,--men who are content with +a lower standard of comfort and culture; while the sons of the old +farmers go off to the universities to prepare for a professional career, +and the daughters marry merchants or lawyers in the cities. The +mountain-streams of New England, too, afford so much water-power as to +bring in ugly factories to disfigure the beautiful ravines, and to +introduce into the community a class of people very different from the +landholding descendants of the Puritans. When once a factory is +established near a village, one no longer feels free to sleep with +doors unbolted. + +It will be long, however, I trust, before the simple, earnest and +independent type of character that has been nurtured on the Blue Hills +of Massachusetts and the White Hills of New Hampshire shall cease to +operate like a powerful leaven upon the whole of American society. Much +has been said and sung in praise of the spirit of chivalry, which, after +all, as a great historian reminds us, "implies the arbitrary choice of +one or two virtues, to be practised in such an exaggerated degree as to +become vices, while the ordinary laws of right and wrong are +forgotten." [1] Quite enough has been said, too, in discredit of +Puritanism,--its narrowness of aim, its ascetic proclivities, its quaint +affectations of Hebraism. Yet these things were but the symptoms of the +intensity of its reverence for that grand spirit of Hebraism, of which +Mr. Matthew Arnold speaks, to which we owe the Bible and Christianity. +No loftier ideal has ever been conceived than that of the Puritan who +would fain have made of the world a City of God. If we could sum up all +that England owes to Puritanism, the story would be a great one indeed. +As regards the United States, we may safely say that what is noblest in +our history to-day, and of happiest augury for our social and political +future, is the impress left upon the character of our people by the +heroic men who came to New England early in the seventeenth century. + +The settlement of New England by the Puritans occupies a peculiar +position in the annals of colonization, and without understanding this +we cannot properly appreciate the character of the purely democratic +society which I have sought to describe. As a general rule colonies have +been founded, either by governments or by private enterprise, for +political or commercial reasons. The aim has been--on the part of +governments--to annoy some rival power, or to get rid of criminals, or +to open some new avenue of trade, or--on the part of the people--to +escape from straitened circumstances at home, or to find a refuge from +religious persecution. In the settlement of New England none of these +motives were operative except the last, and that only to a slight +extent. The Puritans who fled from Nottinghamshire to Holland in 1608, +and twelve years afterwards crossed the ocean in the _Mayflower_, may be +said to have been driven from England by persecution. But this was not +the case with the Puritans who between 1630 and 1650 went from +Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and from Dorset and Devonshire, and +founded the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. These men left +their homes at a time when Puritanism was waxing powerful and could not +be assailed with impunity. They belonged to the upper and middle classes +of the society of that day, outside of the peerage. Mr. Freeman has +pointed out the importance of the change by which, after the Norman +Conquest, the Old-English nobility or _thegnhood_ was pushed down into +"a secondary place in the political and social scale." Of the +far-reaching effects of this change upon the whole subsequent history of +the English race I shall hereafter have occasion to speak. The proximate +effect was that "the ancient lords of the soil, thus thrust down into +the second rank, formed that great body of freeholders, the stout gentry +and yeomanry of England, who were for so many ages the strength of the +land." [2] It was from this ancient thegnhood that the Puritan settlers +of New England were mainly descended. It is no unusual thing for a +Massachusetts family to trace its pedigree to a lord of the manor in the +thirteenth or fourteenth century. The leaders of the New England +emigration were country gentlemen of good fortune, similar in position +to such men as Hampden and Cromwell; a large proportion of them had +taken degrees at Cambridge. The rank and file were mostly intelligent +and prosperous yeomen. The lowest ranks of society were not represented +in the emigration; and all idle, shiftless, or disorderly people were +rigorously refused admission into the new communities, the early history +of which was therefore singularly free from anything like riot or +mutiny. To an extent unparalleled, therefore, in the annals of +colonization, the settlers of New England were a body of _picked men_. +Their Puritanism was the natural outcome of their free-thinking, +combined with an earnestness of character which could constrain them to +any sacrifices needful for realizing their high ideal of life. They gave +up pleasant homes in England, and they left them with no feeling of +rancour towards their native land, in order that, by dint of whatever +hardship, they might establish in the American wilderness what should +approve itself to their judgment as a god-fearing community. It matters +little that their conceptions were in some respects narrow. In the +unflinching adherence to duty which prompted their enterprise, and in +the sober intelligence with which it was carried out, we have, as I said +before, the key to what is best in the history of the American people. + +Out of such a colonization as that here described nothing but a +democratic society could very well come, save perhaps in case of a +scarcity of arable land. Between the country gentleman and the yeoman +who has become a landed proprietor, the difference is not great enough +to allow the establishment of permanent distinctions, social or +political. Immediately on their arrival in New England, the settlers +proceeded to form for themselves a government as purely democratic as +any that has ever been seen in the world. Instead of scattering about +over the country, the requirements of education and of public worship, +as well as of defence against Indian attacks, obliged them to form small +village communities. As these villages multiplied, the surface of the +country came to be laid out in small districts (usually from six to ten +miles in length and breadth) called _townships_. Each township contained +its village together with the woodlands surrounding it. In later days +two or more villages have often grown up within the limits of the same +township, and the road from one village to another is sometimes bordered +with homesteads and cultivated fields throughout nearly its whole +length. In the neighbourhood of Boston villages and small towns crowd +closely together for twenty miles in every direction; and all these will +no doubt by and by grow together into a vast and complicated city, in +somewhat the same way that London has grown. + +From the outset the government of the township was vested in the +TOWN-MEETING,--an institution which in its present form is said to be +peculiar to New England, but which, as we shall see, has close analogies +with local self-governing bodies in other ages and countries. Once in +each year--usually in the month of March--a meeting is held, at which +every adult male residing within the limits of the township is expected +to be present, and is at liberty to address the meeting or to vote upon +any question that may come up. + +In the first years of the colonies it seems to have been attempted to +hold town-meetings every month, and to discuss all the affairs of the +community in these assemblies; but this was soon found to be a cumbrous +way of transacting public business, and as early as 1635 we find +_selectmen_ chosen to administer the affairs of the township during the +intervals between the assemblies. As the system has perfected itself, at +each annual town-meeting there are chosen not less than three or more +than nine selectmen, according to the size of the township. Besides +these, there are chosen a town-clerk, a town-treasurer, a +school-committee, assessors of taxes, overseers of the poor, constables, +surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, and other officers. In very small +townships the selectmen themselves may act as assessors of taxes or +overseers of the poor. The selectmen may appoint police-officers if such +are required; they may act as a Board of Health; in addition to sundry +specific duties too numerous to mention here, they have the general +superintendence of all public business save such as is expressly +assigned to the other officers; and whenever circumstances may seem to +require it they are authorized to call a town-meeting. The selectmen are +thus the principal town-magistrates; and through the annual election +their responsibility to the town is maintained at the maximum. Yet in +many New England towns re-election of the same persons year after year +has very commonly prevailed. I know of an instance where the office of +town-clerk was filled by three members of one family during one hundred +and fourteen consecutive years. + +Besides choosing executive officers, the town-meeting has the power of +enacting by-laws, of making appropriations of money for town-purposes, +and of providing for miscellaneous emergencies by what might be termed +special legislation. Besides the annual meeting held in the spring for +transacting all this local business, the selectmen are required to call +a meeting in the autumn of each year for the election of state and +county officers, each second year for the election of representatives to +the federal Congress, and each fourth year for the election of the +President of the United States. + +It only remains to add that, as an assembly of the whole people becomes +impracticable in a large community, so when the population of a township +has grown to ten or twelve thousand, the town-meeting is discontinued, +the town is incorporated as a city, and its affairs are managed by a +mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council, according to the +system adopted in London in the reign of Edward I. In America, +therefore, the distinction between cities and towns has nothing to do +with the presence or absence of a cathedral, but refers solely to +differences in the communal or municipal government. In the city the +common council, as a representative body, replaces (in a certain sense) +the town-meeting; a representative government is substituted for a pure +democracy. But the city officers, like the selectmen of towns, are +elected annually; and in no case (I believe) has municipal government +fallen into the hands of a self-perpetuating body, as it has done in so +many instances in England owing to the unwise policy pursued by the +Tudors and Stuarts in their grants of charters. + +It is only in New England that the township system is to be found in its +completeness. In several southern and western states the administrative +unit is the county, and local affairs are managed by county +commissioners elected by the people. Elsewhere we find a mixture of the +county and township systems. In some of the western states settled by +New England people, town-meetings are held, though their powers are +somewhat less extensive than in New England. In the settlement of +Virginia it was attempted to copy directly the parishes and vestries, +boroughs and guilds of England. But in the southern states generally the +great size of the plantations and the wide dispersion of the population +hindered the growth of towns, so that it was impossible to have an +administrative unit smaller than the county. As Tocqueville said fifty +years ago, "the farther south we go the less active does the business of +the township or parish become; the population exercises a less immediate +influence on affairs; the power of the elected magistrate is augmented +and that of the election diminished, while the public spirit of the +local communities is less quickly awakened and less influential." This +is almost equally true to-day; yet with all these differences in local +organization, there is no part of our country in which the spirit of +local self-government can be called weak or uncertain. I have described +the Town-meeting as it exists in the states where it first grew up and +has since chiefly flourished. But something very like the "town-meeting +principle" lies at the bottom of all the political life of the United +States. To maintain vitality in the centre without sacrificing it in the +parts; to preserve tranquillity in the mutual relations of forty +powerful states, while keeping the people everywhere as far as possible +in direct contact with the government; such is the political problem +which the American Union exists for the purpose of solving; and of this +great truth every American citizen is supposed to have some glimmering, +however crude. + +It has been said that the town-governments of New England were +established without any conscious reference to precedent; but, however +this may be, they are certainly not without precedents and analogies, to +enumerate which will carry us very far back in the history of the Aryan +world. At the beginning of his essay on the "Growth of the English +Constitution," Mr. Freeman gives an eloquent account of the May +assemblies of Uri and Appenzell, when the whole people elect their +magistrates for the year and vote upon amendments to the old laws or +upon the adoption of new ones. Such a sight Mr. Freeman seems to think +can be seen nowhere but in Switzerland, and he reckons it among the +highest privileges of his life to have looked upon it. But I am unable +to see in what respect the town-meeting in Massachusetts differs from +the _Landesgemeinde_ or cantonal assembly in Switzerland, save that it +is held in a town-hall and not in the open air, that it is conducted +with somewhat less of pageantry, and that the freemen who attend do not +carry arms even by way of ceremony. In the Swiss assembly, as Mr. +Freeman truly observes, we see exemplified the most democratic phase of +the old Teutonic constitution as described in the "Germania" of +Tacitus, "the earliest picture which history can give us of the +political and social being of our own forefathers." The same remark, in +precisely the same terms, would be true of the town-meetings of New +England. Political institutions, on the White Mountains and on the Alps, +not only closely resemble each other, but are connected by strict bonds +of descent from a common original. + +The most primitive self-governing body of which we have any knowledge is +the village-community of the ancient Teutons, of which such strict +counterparts are found in other parts of the Aryan world as to make it +apparent that in its essential features it must be an inheritance from +prehistoric Aryan antiquity. In its Teutonic form the primitive +village-community (or rather, the spot inhabited by it) is known as the +_Mark_,--that is, a place defined by a boundary-line. One characteristic +of the mark-community is that all its free members are in theory +supposed to be related to each other through descent from a common +progenitor; and in this respect the mark-community agrees with the +_gens_, [Greek: _ginos_], or _clan_. The earliest form of political +union in the world is one which rests, not upon territorial contiguity, +but upon I blood-relationship, either real or assumed through the legal +fiction of adoption. In the lowest savagery blood-relationship is the +only admissible or conceivable ground for sustained common action among +groups of men. Among peoples which wander about, supporting themselves +either by hunting, or at a somewhat more advanced stage of development +by the rearing of flocks and herds, a group of men, thus permanently +associated through ties of blood-relationship, is what we call a _clan_. +When by the development of agricultural pursuits the nomadic mode of +life is brought to an end, when the clan remains stationary upon some +piece of territory surrounded by a strip of forest-land, or other +boundaries natural or artificial, then the clan becomes a +mark-community. The profound linguistic researches of Pictet, Fick, and +others have made it probable that at the time when the Old-Aryan +language was broken up into the dialects from which the existing +languages of Europe are descended, the Aryan tribes were passing from a +purely pastoral stage of barbarism into an incipient agricultural stage, +somewhat like that which characterized the Iroquois tribes in America in +the seventeenth century. The comparative study of institutions leads to +results in harmony with this view, showing us the mark-community of our +Teutonic ancestors with the clear traces of its origin in the more +primitive clan; though, with Mr. Kemble, I do not doubt that by the time +of Tacitus the German tribes had long since reached the +agricultural stage. + +Territorially the old Teutonic mark consisted of three divisions. There +was the _village mark_, where the people lived in houses crowded closely +together, no doubt for defensive purposes; there was the _arable mark_, +divided into as many lots as there were householders; and there was the +_common mark_, or border-strip of untilled land, wherein all the +inhabitants of the village had common rights of pasturage and of cutting +firewood. All this land originally was the property not of any one +family or individual, but of the community. The study of the mark +carries us back to a time when there may have been private property in +weapons, utensils, or trinkets, but not in real estate.[3] Of the three +kinds of land the common mark, save where curtailed or usurped by lords +in the days of feudalism, has generally remained public property to this +day. The pleasant green commons or squares which occur in the midst of +towns and cities in England and the United States most probably +originated from the coalescence of adjacent mark-communities, whereby +the border-land used in common by all was brought into the centre of the +new aggregate. In towns of modern date this origin of the common is of +course forgotten, and in accordance with the general law by which the +useful thing after discharging its functions survives for purposes of +ornament, it is introduced as a pleasure-ground. In old towns of New +England, however, the little park where boys play ball or children and +nurses "take the air" was once the common pasture of the town. Even +Boston Common did not entirely cease to be a grazing-field until 1830. +It was in the village-mark, or assemblage of homesteads, that private +property in real estate naturally began. In the Russian villages to-day +the homesteads are private property, while the cultivated land is owned +in common. This was the case with the _arable mark_ of our ancestors. +The arable mark belonged to the community, and was temporarily divided +into as many fields as there were households, though the division was +probably not into equal parts: more likely, as in Russia to-day, the +number of labourers in each household was taken into the account; and at +irregular intervals, as fluctuations in population seemed to require it, +a thorough-going redivision was effected. In carrying out such +divisions and redivisions, as well as in all matters relating to +village, ploughed field, or pasture, the mark-community was a law unto +itself. Though individual freedom was by no means considerable, the +legal existence of the individual being almost entirely merged in that +of his clan, the mark-community was a completely self-governing body. +The assembly of the mark-men, or members of the community, allotted land +for tillage, determined the law or declared the custom as to methods of +tillage, fixed the dates for sowing and reaping, voted upon the +admission of new families into the village, and in general transacted +what was then regarded as the public business of the community. In all +essential respects this village assembly or _mark-mote_ would seem to +have resembled the town-meetings of New England. + +Such was the mark-community of the ancient Teutons, as we gather partly +from hints afforded by Tacitus and partly from the comparative study of +English, German, and Scandinavian institutions. In Russia and in +Hindustan we find the same primitive form of social organization +existing with very little change at the present day. Alike in Hindu and +in Russian village-communities we find the group of habitations, each +despotically ruled by a _pater-familias;_ we find the pasture-land +owned and enjoyed in common; and we find the arable land divided into +separate lots, which are cultivated according to minute regulations +established by the community. But in India the occasional redistribution +of lots survives only in a few localities, and as a mere tradition in +others; the arable mark has become private property, as well as the +homesteads. In Russia, on the other hand, re-allotments occur at +irregular intervals averaging something like fifteen years. In India the +local government is carried on in some places by a Council of Village +Elders, and in other places by a Headman whose office is sometimes +described as hereditary, but is more probably elective, the choice being +confined, as in the case of the old Teutonic kingship, to the members of +a particular family. In the Russian village, on the other hand, the +government is conducted by an assembly at which every head of a +household is expected to be present and vote on all matters of public +concern. This assembly elects the Village Elder, or chief executive +officer, the tax-collector, the watchman, and the communal herd-boy; it +directs the allotment of the arable land; and in general matters of +local legislation its power is as great as that of the New England +town-meeting,--in some respects perhaps even greater, since the precise +extent of its powers has never been determined by legislation, and +(according to Mr. Wallace) "there is no means of appealing against its +decisions." To those who are in the habit of regarding Russia simply as +a despotically-governed country, such a statement may seem surprising. +To those who, because the Russian government is called a bureaucracy, +have been led to think of it as analogous to the government of France +under the Old Regime, it may seem incredible that the decisions of a +village-assembly should not admit of appeal to a higher authority. But +in point of fact, no two despotic governments could be less alike than +that of modern Russia and that of France under the Old Regime. The +Russian government is autocratic inasmuch as over the larger part of the +country it has simply succeeded to the position of the Mongolian khans +who from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century held the Russian people +in subjection. This Mongolian government was--to use a happy distinction +suggested by Sir Henry Maine--a tax-taking despotism, not a legislative +despotism. The conquerors exacted tribute, but did not interfere with +the laws and customs of the subject people. When the Russians drove out +the Mongols they exchanged a despotism which they hated for one in +which they felt a national pride, but in one curious respect the +position of the people with reference to their rulers has remained the +same. The imperial government exacts from each village-community a tax +in gross, for which the community as a whole is responsible, and which +may or may not be oppressive in amount; but the government has never +interfered with local legislation or with local customs. Thus in the +_mir_, or village-community, the Russians still retain an element of +sound political life, the importance of which appears when we consider +that five-sixths of the population of European Russia is comprised in +these communities. The tax assessed upon them by the imperial government +is, however, a feature which--even more than their imperfect system of +property and their low grade of mental culture--separates them by a +world-wide interval from the New England township, to the primeval +embryonic stage of which they correspond. + +From these illustrations we see that the mark, or self-governing +village-community, is an institution which must be referred back to +early Aryan times. Whether the mark ever existed in England, in anything +like the primitive form in which it is seen in the Russian _mir_, is +doubtful. Professor Stubbs (one of the greatest living authorities on +such a subject) is inclined to think that the Teutonic settlers of +Britain had passed beyond this stage before they migrated from +Germany.[4] Nevertheless the traces of the mark, as all admit, are +plentiful enough in England; and some of its features have survived down +to modern times. In the great number of town-names that are formed from +patronymics, such as _Walsingham_ "the home of the Walsings," +_Harlington_ "the town of the Harlings," etc.,[5] we have unimpeachable +evidence of a time when the town was regarded as the dwelling-place of a +clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word _mark_ in English laws, +charters, and local names (to which Professor Stubbs alludes) may be due +to the fact that the word _town_ has precisely the same meaning. _Mark_ +means originally the belt of waste land encircling the village, and +secondarily the village with its periphery. _Town_ means originally a +hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is enclosed: the +modern German _zaun_, a "hedge," preserves the original meaning. But +traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. I have +already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. What is +still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation in +common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of the +mark appears in the _tunscipesmot_,--a word which is simply Old-English +for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm +foothold, the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of +enacting its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have +to-day. But above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of +itself in the constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or +township, transformed by the process of feudalization, becomes the +manor. The process of feudalization, throughout western Europe in +general, was no doubt begun by the institution of Benefices, or "grants +of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of the" Teutonic "tribes +which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being conferred on their +associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest was military +service." [6] The feudal regime naturally reached its most complete +development in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman +territory overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic +conquerors. Other causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps +being the chaotic condition of European society during the break-up of +the Carolingian Empire and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions. +Land was better protected when held of a powerful chieftain than when +held in one's own right; and hence the practice of commendation, by +which free allodial proprietors were transformed into the tenants of a +lord, became fashionable and was gradually extended to all kinds of +estates. In England the effects of feudalization were different from +what they were in France, but the process was still carried very far, +especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up that all the +public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that all +landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the +common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's +tenants. Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even +by such a change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in +England lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as +Sir Henry Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty +in the rights of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no +authority to disturb customary rights. The old township-assembly +partially survived in the Court Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court +of the Manor; and in these courts the arrangements for the common +husbandry were determined. + +This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but +partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township +into the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has +pointed out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or +townships with which it coincides are generally the same: in small +parishes the idea and even the name of township is frequently, at the +present day, sunk in that of the parish; and all the business that is +not manorial is despatched in vestry-meetings, which are however +primarily meetings of the township for church purposes." [7] The parish +officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens, +are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And +while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by +charter, or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial +grant, "all matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the +management of the vestry." + +In England, therefore, the free village-community, though perhaps +nowhere found in its primitive integrity, has nevertheless survived in +partially transfigured forms which have played no unimportant part in +the history of the English people. In one shape or another the assembly +of freemen for purposes of local legislation has always existed. The +Puritans who colonized New England, therefore, did not invent the +town-meeting. They were familiar already with the proceedings of the +vestry-meeting and the manorial courts, but they were severed now from +church and from aristocracy. So they had but to discard the +ecclesiastical and lordly terminology, with such limitations as they +involved, and to reintegrate the separate jurisdictions into one,--and +forthwith the old assembly of the township, founded in immemorial +tradition, but revivified by new thoughts and purposes gained through +ages of political training, emerged into fresh life and entered upon a +more glorious career. + +It is not to an audience which speaks the English language that I need +to argue the point that the preservation of local self-government is of +the highest importance for the maintenance of a rich and powerful +national life. As we contemplate the vicissitudes of local +self-government in the various portions of the Aryan world, we see the +contrasted fortunes of France and England illustrating for us most +forcibly the significance of this truth. For the preservation of local +self-government in England various causes may be assigned; but of these +there are two which may be cited as especially prominent. In the first +place, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the Teutonic settlement of +Britain, the civilization of England previous to the Norman Conquest was +but little affected by Roman ideas or institutions. In the second place +the thrusting down of the old thegnhood by the Norman Conquest (to which +I have already alluded) checked the growth of a _noblesse_ or _adel_ of +the continental type,--a nobility raised above the common people like a +separate caste. For the old thegnhood, which might have grown into such +a caste, was pushed down into a secondary position, and the peerage +which arose after the Conquest was something different from a +_noblesse_. It was primarily a nobility of office rather than of rank or +privilege. The peers were those men who retained the right of summons to +the Great Council, or Witenagemote, which has survived as the House of +Lords. The peer was therefore the holder of a legislative and judicial +office, which only one of his children could inherit, from the very +nature of the case, and which none of his children could share with him. +Hence the brothers and younger children of a peer were always commoners, +and their interests were not remotely separated from those of other +commoners. Hence after the establishment of a House of Commons, their +best chance for a political career lay in representing the interests of +the people in the lower house. Hence between the upper and lower strata +of English society there has always been kept up a circulation or +interchange of ideas and interests, and the effect of this upon English +history has been prodigious. While on the continent a sovereign like +Charles the Bold could use his nobility to extinguish the liberties of +the merchant towns of Flanders, nothing of the sort was ever possible in +England. Throughout the Middle Ages, in every contest between the people +and the crown, the weight of the peerage was thrown into the scale in +favour of popular liberties. But for this peculiar position of the +peerage we might have had no Earl Simon; it is largely through it that +representative government and local liberties have been preserved to the +English race. + +In France the course of events has brought about very different results. +I shall defer to my next lecture the consideration of the vicissitudes +of local self-government under the Roman Empire, because that point is +really incident upon the study of the formation of vast national +aggregates. Suffice it now to say that when the Teutons overcame Gaul, +they became rulers over a population which had been subjected for five +centuries to that slow but mighty process of trituration which the +Empire everywhere brought to bear upon local self-government. While the +Teutons in Britain, moreover, enslaved their slightly romanized subjects +and gave little heed to their language, religion, or customs; the +Teutons in Gaul, on the other hand, quickly adopted the language and +religion of their intensely romanized subjects and acquired to some +extent their way of looking at things. Hence in the early history of +France there was no such stubborn mass of old Aryan liberties to be +dealt with as in the early history of England. Nor was there any +powerful middle class distributed through the country to defend such +liberties as existed. Beneath the turbulent throng of Teutonic nobles, +among whom the king was only the most exalted and not always the +strongest, there lay the Gallo-Roman population which had so long been +accustomed to be ruled without representation by a distant government +exercising its authority through innumerable prefects. Such Teutonic +rank and file as there was became absorbed into this population; and +except in sundry chartered towns there was nothing like a social stratum +interposed between the nobles and the common people. + +The slow conversion of the feudal monarchy of the early Capetians into +the absolute despotism of Louis XIV. was accomplished by the king +gradually _conquering_ his vassals one after another, and adding their +domains to his own. As one vassal territory after another was added to +the royal domain, the king sent prefects, responsible only to himself, +to administer its local affairs, sedulously crushing out, so far as +possible, the last vestiges of self-government. The nobles, deprived of +their provincial rule, in great part flocked to Paris to become idle +courtiers. The means for carrying on the gigantic machinery of +centralized administration, and for supporting the court in its follies, +were wrung from the groaning peasantry with a cynical indifference like +that with which tribute is extorted by barbaric chieftains from a +conquered enemy. And thus came about that abominable state of things +which a century since was abruptly ended by one of the fiercest +convulsions of modern times. The prodigious superiority--in respect to +national vitality--of a freely governed country over one that is +governed by a centralized despotism, is nowhere more brilliantly +illustrated than in the contrasted fortunes of France and England as +_colonizing_ nations. When we consider the declared rivalry between +France and England in their plans for colonizing the barbarous regions +of the earth, when we consider that the military power of the two +countries has been not far from equal, and that France has at times +shown herself a maritime power by no means to be despised, it seems to +me that her overwhelming and irretrievable defeat by England in the +struggle for colonial empire is one of the most striking and one of the +most instructive facts in all modern history. In my lectures of last +year (at University College) I showed that, in the struggle for the +possession of North America, where the victory of England was so +decisive as to settle the question for all coming time, the causes of +the French failure are very plainly to be seen. The French colony in +Canada was one of the most complete examples of a despotic government +that the world has ever seen. All the autocratic and bureaucratic ideas +of Louis XIV. were here carried out without let or hindrance. It would +be incredible, were it not attested by such abundant evidence, that the +affairs of any people could be subjected to such minute and sleepless +supervision as were the affairs of the French colonists in Canada. A man +could not even build his own house, or rear his own cattle, or sow his +own seed, or reap his own grain, save under the supervision of prefects +acting under instructions from the home government. No one was allowed +to enter or leave the colony without permission, not from the colonists +but from the king. No farmer could visit Montreal or Quebec without +permission. No Huguenot could set his foot on Canadian soil. No public +meetings of any kind were tolerated, nor were there any means of giving +expression to one's opinions on any subject. The details of all this, +which may be read in Mr. Parkman's admirable work on "The Old Regime in +Canada," make a wonderful chapter of history. Never was a colony, +moreover, so loaded with bounties, so fostered, petted, and protected. +The result was absolute paralysis, political and social. When after a +century of irritation and skirmishing the French in Canada came to a +life-and-death struggle with the self-governing colonists of New +England, New York, and Virginia, the result for the French power in +America was instant and irretrievable annihilation. The town-meeting +pitted against the bureaucracy was like a Titan overthrowing a cripple. +The historic lesson owes its value to the fact that this ruin of the +French scheme of colonial empire was due to no accidental circumstances, +but was involved in the very nature of the French political system. +Obviously it is impossible for a people to plant beyond sea a colony +which shall be self-supporting, unless it has retained intact the power +of self-government at home. It is to the self-government of England, and +to no lesser cause, that we are to look for the secret of that boundless +vitality which has given to men of English speech the uttermost parts of +the earth for an inheritance. The conquest of Canada first demonstrated +this truth, and when--in the two following lectures--we shall have made +some approach towards comprehending its full import, we shall all, I +think, be ready to admit that the triumph of Wolfe marks the greatest +turning-point as yet discernible in modern history. + + + + +II. + + +_THE FEDERAL UNION_. + +The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries +still ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of +political wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books +in the world. At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other +time in the career of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with +such luxuriance as at Athens during the eighty-five years which +intervened between the victory of Marathon and the defeat of +AEgospotamos. In no other like interval of time, and in no other +community of like dimensions, has so much work been accomplished of +which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema es aei],--an +eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day so distant, or +an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by Athens shall +cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers shall +cease to be read with fresh profit and delight. We understand these +things far better to-day than did those monsters of erudition in the +sixteenth century who studied the classics for philological purposes +mainly. Indeed, the older the world grows, the more varied our +experience of practical politics, the more comprehensive our survey of +universal history, the stronger our grasp upon the comparative method of +inquiry, the more brilliant is the light thrown upon that brief day of +Athenian greatness, and the more wonderful and admirable does it all +seem. To see this glorious community overthrown, shorn of half its +virtue (to use the Homeric phrase), and thrust down into an inferior +position in the world, is a mournful spectacle indeed. And the book +which sets before us, so impartially yet so eloquently, the innumerable +petty misunderstandings and contemptible jealousies which brought about +this direful result, is one of the most mournful of books. + +We may console ourselves, however, for the premature overthrow of the +power of Athens, by the reflection that that power rested upon political +conditions which could not in any case have been permanent or even +long-enduring. The entire political system of ancient Greece, based as +it was upon the idea of the sovereign independence of each single city, +was one which could not fail sooner or later to exhaust itself through +chronic anarchy. The only remedy lay either in some kind of permanent +federation, combined with representative government; or else in what we +might call "incorporation and assimilation," after the Roman fashion. +But the incorporation of one town with another, though effected with +brilliant results in the early history of Attika, involved such a +disturbance of all the associations which in the Greek mind clustered +about the conception of a city that it was quite impracticable on any +large or general scale. Schemes of federal union were put into +operation, though too late to be of avail against the assaults of +Macedonia and Rome. But as for the principle of representation, that +seems to have been an invention of the Teutonic mind; no statesman of +antiquity, either in Greece or at Rome, seems to have conceived the idea +of a city sending delegates armed with plenary powers to represent its +interests in a general legislative assembly. To the Greek statesmen, no +doubt, this too would have seemed derogatory to the dignity of the +sovereign city. + +This feeling with which the ancient Greek statesmen, and to some extent +the Romans also, regarded the city, has become almost incomprehensible +to the modern mind, so far removed are we from the political +circumstances which made such a feeling possible. Teutonic +civilization, indeed, has never passed through a stage in which the +foremost position has been held by civic communities. Teutonic +civilization passed directly from the stage of tribal into that of +national organization, before any Teutonic city had acquired sufficient +importance to have claimed autonomy for itself; and at the time when +Teutonic nationalities were forming, moreover, all the cities in Europe +had so long been accustomed to recognize a master outside of them in the +person of the Roman emperor that the very tradition of civic autonomy, +as it existed in ancient Greece, had become extinct. This difference +between the political basis of Teutonic and of Graeco-Roman civilization +is one of which it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance; and +when thoroughly understood it goes farther, perhaps, than anything else +towards accounting for the successive failures of the Greek and Roman +political systems, and towards inspiring us with confidence in the +future stability of the political system which has been wrought out by +the genius of the English race. + +We saw, in the preceding lecture, how the most primitive form of +political association known to have existed is that of the _clan_, or +group of families held together by ties of descent from a common +ancestor. We saw how the change from a nomadic to a stationary mode of +life, attendant upon the adoption of agricultural pursuits, converted +the clan into a _mark_ or village-community, something like those which +exist to-day in Russia. The political progress of primitive society +seems to have consisted largely in the coalescence of these small groups +into larger groups. The first series of compound groups resulting from +the coalescence of adjacent marks is that which was known in nearly all +Teutonic lands as the _hundred_, in Athens as the [Greek: _phratria_] or +_brotherhood_, in Rome as the _curia_. Yet alongside of the Roman group +called the _curia_ there is a group whose name, the _century_, exactly +translates the name of the Teutonic group; and, as Mr. Freeman says, it +is difficult to believe that the Roman _century_ did not at the outset +in some way correspond to the Teutonic _hundred_ as a stage in political +organization. But both these terms, as we know them in history, are +survivals from some prehistoric state of things; and whether they were +originally applied to a hundred of houses, or of families, or of +warriors, we do not know.[8] M. Geffroy, in his interesting essay on the +Germania of Tacitus, suggests that the term _canton_ may have a similar +origin.[9] The outlines of these primitive groups are, however, more +obscure than those of the more primitive mark, because in most cases +they have been either crossed and effaced or at any rate diminished in +importance by the more highly compounded groups which came next in order +of formation. Next above the _hundred_, in order of composition, comes +the group known in ancient Italy as the_pagus_, in Attika perhaps as the +_deme_, in Germany and at first in England as the _gau_ or _ga_, at a +later date in England as the _shire_. Whatever its name, this group +answers to the _tribe_ regarded as settled upon a certain determinate +territory. Just as in the earlier nomadic life the aggregation of clans +makes ultimately the tribe, so in the more advanced agricultural life of +our Aryan ancestors the aggregation of marks or village-communities +makes ultimately the _gau_ or _shire_. Properly speaking, the name +_shire_ is descriptive of division and not of aggregation; but this term +came into use in England after the historic order of formation had been +forgotten, and when the _shire_ was looked upon as a _piece_ of some +larger whole, such as the kingdom of Mercia or Wessex. Historically, +however, the _shire_ was not made, like the _departments_ of modern +France, by the division of the kingdom for administrative purposes, but +the kingdom was made by the union of shires that were previously +autonomous. In the primitive process of aggregation, the _shire_ or +_gau_, governed by its _witenagemote_ or "meeting of wise men," and by +its chief magistrate who was called _ealdorman_ in time of peace and +_heretoga_, "army-leader," _dux_, or _duke_, in time of war,--the +_shire_, I say, in this form, is the largest and most complex political +body we find previous to the formation of kingdoms and nations. But in +saying this, we have already passed beyond the point at which we can +include in the same general formula the process of political development +in Teutonic countries on the one hand and in Greece and Rome on the +other. Up as far as the formation of the tribe, territorially regarded, +the parallelism is preserved; but at this point there begins an +all-important divergence. In the looser and more diffused society of the +rural Teutons, the tribe is spread over a shire, and the aggregation of +shires makes a kingdom, embracing cities, towns, and rural districts +held together by similar bonds of relationship to the central governing +power. But in the society of the old Greeks and Italians, the +aggregation of tribes, crowded together on fortified hill-tops, makes +the _Ancient City_,--a very different thing, indeed, from the modern +city of later-Roman or Teutonic foundation. Let us consider, for a +moment, the difference. + +Sir Henry Maine tells us that in Hindustan nearly all the great towns +and cities have arisen either from the simple expansion or from the +expansion and coalescence of primitive village-communities; and such as +have not arisen in this way, including some of the greatest of Indian +cities, have grown up about the intrenched camps of the Mogul +emperors.[10] The case has been just the same in modern Europe. Some +famous cities of England and Germany--such as Chester and Lincoln, +Strasburg and Maintz,--grew up about the camps of the Roman legions. But +in general the Teutonic city has been formed by the expansion and +coalescence of thickly-peopled townships and hundreds. In the United +States nearly all cities have come from the growth and expansion of +villages, with such occasional cases of coalescence as that of Boston +with Roxbury and Charlestown. Now and then a city has been laid out as a +city _ab initio_, with full consciousness of its purpose, as a man would +build a house; and this was the case not merely with Martin Chuzzlewit's +"Eden," but with the city of Washington, the seat of our federal +government. But, to go back to the early ages of England--the country +which best exhibits the normal development of Teutonic institutions--the +point which I wish especially to emphasize is this: _in no case does the +city appear as equivalent to the dwelling-place of a tribe or of a +confederation of tribes_. In no case does citizenship, or burghership, +appear to rest upon the basis of a real or assumed community of descent +from a single real or mythical progenitor. In the primitive mark, as we +have seen, the bond which kept the community together and constituted it +a political unit was the bond of blood-relationship, real or assumed; +but this was not the case with the city or borough. The city did not +correspond with the tribe, as the mark corresponded with the clan. The +aggregation of clans into tribes corresponded with the aggregation of +marks, not into _cities_ but into _shires_. The multitude of compound +political units, by the further compounding of which a nation was to be +formed, did not consist of cities but of shires. The city was simply a +point in the shire distinguished by greater density of population. The +relations sustained by the thinly-peopled rural townships and hundreds +to the general government of the shire were co-ordinate with the +relations sustained to the same government by those thickly-peopled +townships and hundreds which upon their coalescence were known as cities +or boroughs. Of course I am speaking now in a broad and general way, and +without reference to such special privileges or immunities as cities and +boroughs frequently obtained by royal charter in feudal times. Such +special privileges--as for instance the exemption of boroughs from the +ordinary sessions of the county court, under Henry I.[11]--were in their +nature grants from an external source, and were in nowise inherent in +the position or mode of origin of the Teutonic city. And they were, +moreover, posterior in date to that embryonic period of national growth +of which I am now speaking. They do not affect in any way the +correctness of my general statement, which is sufficiently illustrated +by the fact that the oldest shire-motes, or county-assemblies, were +attended by representatives from all the townships and hundreds in the +shire, whether such townships and hundreds formed parts of boroughs +or not. + +Very different from this was the embryonic growth of political society +in ancient Greece and Italy. There the aggregation of clans into tribes +and confederations of tribes resulted directly, as we have seen, in the +City. There burghership, with its political and social rights and +duties, had its theoretical basis in descent from a common ancestor, or +from a small group of closely-related common ancestors. The group of +fellow-citizens was associated through its related groups of ancestral +household-deities, and through religious rites performed in common to +which it would have been sacrilege to have admitted a stranger. Thus the +Ancient City was a religious as well as a political body, and in either +character it was complete in itself and it was sovereign. Thus in +ancient Greece and Italy the primitive clan-assembly or township-meeting +did not grow by aggregation into the assembly of the shire, but it +developed into the _comitia_ or _ecclesia_ of the city. The chief +magistrate was not the _ealdorman_ of early English history, but the +_rex_ or _basileus_ who combined in himself the functions of king, +general, and priest. Thus, too, there was a severance, politically, +between city and country such as the Teutonic world has never known. The +rural districts surrounding a city might be subject to it, but could +neither share its franchise nor claim a co-ordinate franchise with it. +Athens, indeed, at an early period, went so far as to incorporate with +itself Eleusis and Marathon and the other rural towns of Attika. In this +one respect Athens transgressed the bounds of ancient civic +organization, and no doubt it gained greatly in power thereby. But +generally in the Hellenic world the rural population in the +neighbourhood of a great city were mere [Greek: _perioikoi_], or +"dwellers in the vicinity"; the inhabitants of the city who had moved +thither from some other city, both they and their descendants, were mere +[Greek: metoikoi], or "dwellers in the place"; and neither the one class +nor the other could acquire the rights and privileges of citizenship. A +revolution, indeed, went on at Athens, from the time of Solon to the +time of Kleisthenes, which essentially modified the old tribal divisions +and admitted to the franchise all such families resident from time +immemorial as did not belong to the tribes of eupatrids by whom the city +was founded. But this change once accomplished, the civic exclusiveness +of Athens remained very much what it was before. The popular assembly +was enlarged, and public harmony was secured; but Athenian burghership +still remained a privilege which could not be acquired by the native of +any other city. Similar revolutions, with a similarly limited purpose +and result, occurred at Sparta, Elis, and other Greek cities. At Rome, +by a like revolution, the plebeians of the Capitoline and Aventine +acquired parallel rights of citizenship with the patricians of the +original city on the Palatine; but this revolution, as we shall +presently see, had different results, leading ultimately to the +overthrow of the city-system throughout the ancient world. + +The deep-seated difference between the Teutonic political system based +on the shire and the Graeco-Roman system based on the city is now, I +think, sufficiently apparent. Now from this fundamental difference have +come two consequences of enormous importance,--consequences of which it +is hardly too much to say that, taken together, they furnish the key to +the whole history of European civilization as regarded purely from a +political point of view. + +The first of these consequences had no doubt a very humble origin in the +mere difference between the shire and the city in territorial extent and +in density of population. When people live near together it is easy for +them to attend a town-meeting, and the assembly by which public business +is transacted is likely to remain a _primary assembly_, in the true +sense of the term. But when people are dispersed over a wide tract of +country, the primary assembly inevitably shrinks up into an assembly of +such persons as can best afford the time and trouble of attending it, or +who have the strongest interest in going, or are most likely to be +listened to after they get there. Distance and difficulty, and in early +times danger too, keep many people away. And though a shire is not a +wide tract of country for most purposes, and according to modern ideas, +it was nevertheless quite wide enough in former times to bring about the +result I have mentioned. In the times before the Norman conquest, if not +before the completed union of England under Edgar, the shire-mote or +county assembly, though in theory still a folk-mote or primary assembly, +had shrunk into what was virtually a witenagemote or assembly of the +most important persons in the county. But the several townships, in +order to keep their fair share of control over county affairs, and not +wishing to leave the matter to chance, sent to the meetings each its +_representatives_ in the persons of the town-reeve and four "discreet +men." I believe it has not been determined at what precise time this +step was taken, but it no doubt long antedates the Norman conquest. It +is mentioned by Professor Stubbs as being already, in the reign of Henry +III., a custom of immemorial antiquity.[12] It was one of the greatest +steps ever taken in the political history of mankind. In these four +discreet men we have the forerunners of the two burghers from each town +who were summoned by Earl Simon to the famous parliament of 1265, as +well as of the two knights from each shire whom the king had summoned +eleven years before. In these four discreet men sent to speak for their +township in the old county assembly, we have the germ of institutions +that have ripened into the House of Commons and into the legislatures of +modern kingdoms and republics. In the system of representation thus +inaugurated lay the future possibility of such gigantic political +aggregates as the United States of America. + +In the ancient city, on the other hand, the extreme compactness of the +political structure made representation unnecessary and prevented it +from being thought of in circumstances where it might have proved of +immense value. In an aristocratic Greek city, like Sparta, all the +members of the ruling class met together and voted in the assembly; in a +democratic city, like Athens, all the free citizens met and voted; in +each case the assembly was primary and not representative. The only +exception, in all Greek antiquity, is one which emphatically proves the +rule. The Amphiktyonic Council, an institution of prehistoric origin, +concerned mainly with religious affairs pertaining to the worship of the +Delphic Apollo, furnished a precedent for a representative, and indeed +for a federal, assembly. Delegates from various Greek tribes and cities +attended it. The fact that with such a suggestive precedent before their +eyes the Greeks never once hit upon the device of representation, even +in their attempts at framing federal unions, shows how thoroughly their +whole political training had operated to exclude such a conception from +their minds. + +The second great consequence of the Graeco-Roman city-system was linked +in many ways with this absence of the representative principle. In +Greece the formation of political aggregates higher and more extensive +than the city was, until a late date, rendered impossible. The good and +bad sides of this peculiar phase of civilization have been often enough +commented on by historians. On the one hand the democratic assembly of +such an imperial city as Athens furnished a school of political training +superior to anything else that the world has ever seen. It was something +like what the New England town-meeting would be if it were continually +required to adjust complicated questions of international polity, if it +were carried on in the very centre or point of confluence of all +contemporary streams of culture, and if it were in the habit every few +days of listening to statesmen and orators like Hamilton or Webster, +jurists like Marshall, generals like Sherman, poets like Lowell, +historians like Parkman. Nothing in all history has approached the +high-wrought intensity and brilliancy of the political life of Athens. + +On the other hand, the smallness of the independent city, as a political +aggregate, made it of little or no use in diminishing the liability to +perpetual warfare which is the curse of all primitive communities. In a +group of independent cities, such as made up the Hellenic world, the +tendency to warfare is almost as strong, and the occasions for warfare +are almost as frequent, as in a congeries of mutually hostile tribes of +barbarians. There is something almost lurid in the sharpness of contrast +with which the wonderful height of humanity attained by Hellas is set +off against the fierce barbarism which characterized the relations of +its cities to one another. It may be laid down as a general rule that in +an early state of society, where the political aggregations are small, +warfare is universal and cruel. From the intensity of the jealousies and +rivalries between adjacent self-governing groups of men, nothing short +of chronic warfare can result, until some principle of union is evolved +by which disputes can be settled in accordance with general principles +admitted by all. Among peoples that have never risen above the tribal +stage of aggregation, such as the American Indians, war is the normal +condition of things, and there is nothing fit to be called +_peace_,--there are only truces of brief and uncertain duration. Were it +not for this there would be somewhat less to be said in favour of great +states and kingdoms. As modern life grows more and more complicated and +interdependent, the Great State subserves innumerable useful purposes; +but in the history of civilization its first service, both in order of +time and in order of importance, consists in the diminution of the +quantity of warfare and in the narrowing of its sphere. For within the +territorial limits of any great and permanent state, the tendency is for +warfare to become the exception and peace the rule. In this direction +the political careers of the Greek cities assisted the progress of +civilization but little. + +Under the conditions of Graeco-Roman civic life there were but two +practicable methods of forming a great state and diminishing the +quantity of warfare. The one method was _conquest with incorporation_, +the other method was _federation_. Either one city might conquer all +the others and endow their citizens with its own franchise, or all the +cities might give up part of their sovereignty to a federal body which +should have power to keep the peace, and should represent the civilized +world of the time in its relations with outlying barbaric peoples. Of +these two methods, obviously the latter is much the more effective, but +it presupposes for its successful adoption a higher general state of +civilization than the former. Neither method was adopted by the Greeks +in their day of greatness. The Spartan method of extending its power was +conquest without incorporation: when Sparta conquered another Greek +city, she sent a _harmost_ to govern it like a tyrant; in other words +she virtually enslaved the subject city. The efforts of Athens tended +more in the direction of a peaceful federalism. In the great Delian +confederacy which developed into the maritime empire of Athens, the +AEgean cities were treated as allies rather than subjects. As regards +their local affairs they were in no way interfered with, and could they +have been represented in some kind of a federal council at Athens, the +course of Grecian history might have been wonderfully altered. As it +was, they were all deprived of one essential element of +sovereignty,--the power of controlling their own military forces. Some +of them, as Chios and Mitylene, furnished troops at the demand of +Athens; others maintained no troops, but paid a fixed tribute to Athens +in return for her protection. In either case they felt shorn of part of +their dignity, though otherwise they had nothing to complain of; and +during the Peloponnesian war Athens had to reckon with their tendency to +revolt as well as with her Dorian enemies. Such a confederation was +naturally doomed to speedy overthrow. + +In the century following the death of Alexander, in the closing age of +Hellenic independence, the federal idea appears in a much more advanced +stage of elaboration, though in a part of Greece which had been held of +little account in the great days of Athens and Sparta. Between the +Achaian federation, framed in 274 B.C., and the United States of +America, there are some interesting points of resemblance which have +been elaborately discussed by Mr. Freeman, in his "History of Federal +Government." About the same time the Aetolian League came into +prominence in the north. Both these leagues were instances of true +federal government, and were not mere confederations; that is, the +central government acted directly upon all the citizens and not merely +upon the local governments. Each of these leagues had for its chief +executive officer a General elected for one year, with powers similar to +those of an American President. In each the supreme assembly was a +primary assembly at which every citizen from every city of the league +had a right to be present, to speak, and to vote; but as a natural +consequence these assemblies shrank into comparatively aristocratic +bodies. In AEtolia, which was a group of mountain cantons similar to +Switzerland, the federal union was more complete than in Achaia, which +was a group of cities. In Achaia cases occurred in which a single city +was allowed to deal separately with foreign powers. Here, as in earlier +Greek history, the instinct of autonomy was too powerful to admit of +complete federation. Yet the career of the Achaian League was not an +inglorious one. For nearly a century and a half it gave the Peloponnesos +a larger measure of orderly government than the country had ever known +before, without infringing upon local liberties. It defied successfully +the threats and assaults of Macedonia, and yielded at last only to the +all-conquering might of Rome. + +Thus in so far as Greece contributed anything towards the formation of +great and pacific political aggregates, she did it through attempts at +_federation_. But in so low a state of political development as that +which prevailed throughout the Mediterranean world in pre-Christian +times, the more barbarous method of _conquest with incorporation_ was +more likely to be successful on a great scale. This was well illustrated +in the history of Rome,--a civic community of the same generic type with +Sparta and Athens, but presenting specific differences of the highest +importance. The beginnings of Rome, unfortunately, are prehistoric. I +have often thought that if some beneficent fairy could grant us the +power of somewhere raising the veil of oblivion which enshrouds the +earliest ages of Aryan dominion in Europe, there is no place from which +the historian should be more glad to see it lifted than from Rome in the +centuries which saw the formation of the city, and which preceded the +expulsion of the kings. Even the legends, which were uncritically +accepted from the days of Livy to those of our grandfathers, are +provokingly silent upon the very points as to which we would fain get at +least a hint. This much is plain, however, that in the embryonic stage +of the Roman commonwealth some obscure processes of fusion or +commingling went on. The tribal population of Rome was more +heterogeneous than that of the great cities of Greece, and its earliest +municipal religion seems to have been an assemblage of various tribal +religions that had points of contact with other tribal religions +throughout large portions of the Graeco-Italic world. As M. de Coulanges +observes,[13] Rome was almost the only city of antiquity which was not +kept apart from other cities by its religion. There was hardly a people +in Greece or Italy which it was restrained from admitting to +participation in its municipal rites. + +However this may have been, it is certain that Rome early succeeded in +freeing itself from that insuperable prejudice which elsewhere prevented +the ancient city from admitting aliens to a share in its franchise. And +in this victory over primeval political ideas lay the whole secret of +Rome's mighty career. The victory was not indeed completed until after +the terrible Social War of B.C. 90, but it was begun at least four +centuries earlier with the admission of the plebeians. At the +consummation of the conquest of Italy in B.C. 270 Roman burghership +already extended, in varying degrees of completeness, through the +greater part of Etruria and Campania, from the coast to the mountains; +while all the rest of Italy was admitted to privileges for which ancient +history had elsewhere furnished no precedent. Hence the invasion of +Hannibal half a century later, even with its stupendous victories of +Thrasymene and Cannae, effected nothing toward detaching the Italian +subjects from their allegiance to Rome; and herein we have a most +instructive contrast to the conduct of the communities subject to Athens +at several critical moments of the Peloponnesian War. With this +consolidation of Italy, thus triumphantly demonstrated, the whole +problem of the conquering career of Rome was solved. All that came +afterwards was simply a corollary from this. The concentration of all +the fighting power of the peninsula into the hands of the ruling city +formed a stronger political aggregate than anything the world had as yet +seen. It was not only proof against the efforts of the greatest military +genius of antiquity, but whenever it was brought into conflict with the +looser organizations of Greece, Africa, and Asia, or with the +semi-barbarous tribes of Spain and Gaul, the result of the struggle was +virtually predetermined. The universal dominion of Rome was inevitable, +so soon as the political union of Italy had been accomplished. Among the +Romans themselves there were those who thoroughly understood this point, +as we may see from the interesting speech of the emperor Claudius in +favour of admitting Gauls to the senate. + +The benefits conferred upon the world by the, universal dominion of Rome +were of quite inestimable value. First of these benefits, and (as it +were) the material basis of the others, was the prolonged peace that was +enforced throughout large portions of the world where chronic warfare +had hitherto prevailed. The _pax romana_ has perhaps been sometimes +depicted in exaggerated colours; but as compared with all that had +preceded, and with all that followed, down to the beginning of the +nineteenth century, it deserved the encomiums it has received. The +second benefit was the mingling and mutual destruction of the primitive +tribal and municipal religions, thus clearing the way for +Christianity,--a step which, regarded from a purely political point of +view, was of immense importance for the further consolidation of society +in Europe. The third benefit was the development of the Roman law into a +great body of legal precepts and principles leavened throughout with +ethical principles of universal applicability, and the gradual +substitution of this Roman law for the innumerable local usages of +ancient communities. Thus arose the idea of a common Christendom, of a +brotherhood of peoples associated both by common beliefs regarding the +unseen world and by common principles of action in the daily affairs of +life. The common ethical and traditional basis thus established for the +future development of the great nationalities of Europe is the most +fundamental characteristic distinguishing modern from ancient history. + +While, however, it secured these benefits for mankind for all time to +come, the Roman political system in itself was one which could not +possibly endure. That extension of the franchise which made Rome's +conquests possible, was, after all, the extension of a franchise which +could only be practically enjoyed within the walls of the imperial city +itself. From first to last the device of representation was never +thought of, and from first to last the Roman _comitia_ remained a +primary assembly. The result was that, as the burgherhood enlarged, the +assembly became a huge mob as little fitted for the transaction of +public business as a town-meeting of all the inhabitants of New York +would be. The functions which in Athens were performed by the assembly +were accordingly in Rome performed largely by the aristocratic senate; +and for the conflicts consequently arising between the senatorial and +the popular parties it was difficult to find any adequate constitutional +check. Outside of Italy, moreover, in the absence of a representative +system, the Roman government was a despotism which, whether more or less +oppressive, could in the nature of things be nothing else than a +despotism. But nothing is more dangerous for a free people than the +attempt to govern a dependent people despotically. The bad government +kills out the good government as surely as slave-labour destroys +free-labour, or as a debased currency drives out a sound currency. The +existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with great armies at their +beck and call, brought about such results as might have been predicted, +as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a valid excuse for +armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, the result +is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government that was +practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably +impracticable. + +As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial +government at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an +orderly and responsible administration for irregular and irresponsible +extortion. For a long time, too, it was no part of the imperial policy +to interfere with local customs and privileges. But, in the absence of a +representative system, the centralizing tendency inseparable from the +position of such a government proved to be irresistible. And the +strength of this centralizing tendency was further enhanced by the +military character of the government which was necessitated by perpetual +frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year went by, the +provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by their local +magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor only. +There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for the +decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated by +the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman +strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local +governments came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription +that were laid upon them.[14] And as "the dislocation of commerce and +industry caused by the barbarian inroads, and the increasing demands of +the central administration for the payment of its countless officials +and the maintenance of its troops, all went together," the load at last +became greater "than human nature could endure." By the time of the +great invasions of the fifth century, local political life had gone far +towards extinction throughout Roman Europe, and the tribal organization +of the Teutons prevailed in the struggle simply because it had come to +be politically stronger than any organization that was left to +oppose it. + +We have now seen how the two great political systems that were founded +upon the Ancient City both ended in failure, though both achieved +enormous and lasting results. And we have seen how largely both these +political failures were due to the absence of the principle of +representation from the public life of Greece and Rome. The chief +problem of civilization, from the political point of view, has always +been how to secure concerted action among men on a great scale without +sacrificing local independence. The ancient history of Europe shows that +it is not possible to solve this problem without the aid of the +principle of representation. Greece, until overcome by external force, +sacredly maintained local self-government, but in securing permanent +concert of action it was conspicuously unsuccessful. Rome secured +concert of action on a gigantic scale, and transformed the thousand +unconnected tribes and cities it conquered into an organized European +world, but in doing this it went far towards extinguishing local +self-government. The advent of the Teutons upon the scene seems +therefore to have been necessary, if only to supply the indispensable +element without which the dilemma of civilization could not be +surmounted. The turbulence of Europe during the Teutonic migrations was +so great and so long continued, that on a superficial view one might be +excused for regarding the good work of Rome as largely undone. And in +the feudal isolation of effort and apparent incapacity for combined +action which characterized the different parts of Europe after the +downfall of the Carolingian empire, it might well have seemed that +political society had reverted towards a primitive type of structure. In +truth, however, the retrogradation was much slighter than appeared on +the surface. Feudalism itself, with its curious net-work of fealties and +obligations running through the fabric of society in every direction, +was by no means purely disintegrative in its tendencies. The mutual +relations of rival baronies were by no means like those of rival clans +or tribes in pre-Roman days. The central power of Rome, though no longer +exerted politically through curators and prefects, was no less effective +in the potent hands of the clergy and in the traditions of the imperial +jurisprudence by which the legal ideas of mediaeval society were so +strongly coloured. So powerful, indeed, was this twofold influence of +Rome, that in the later Middle Ages, when the modern nationalities had +fairly taken shape, it was the capacity for local self-government--in +spite of all the Teutonic reinforcement it had had--that had suffered +much more than the capacity for national consolidation. Among the great +modern nations it was only England--which in its political development +had remained more independent of the Roman law and the Roman church than +even the Teutonic fatherland itself--it was only England that came out +of the mediaeval crucible with its Teutonic self-government substantially +intact. On the main-land only two little spots, at the two extremities +of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth of the +Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack in +the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history +was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany +the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to +Burgundian invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic +democracy of their Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both +these free peoples, in their efforts towards national unity, were led to +frame federal unions, and one of these political achievements is, from +the stand-point of universal history, of very great significance. The +old League of High Germany, which earned immortal renown at Morgarten +and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking cantons only. But in the +fifteenth century the League won by force of arms a small bit of Italian +territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth the powerful city of +Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne and rescued the free +city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. Other Burgundian +possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; and after +awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms into +the confederation. The result is that modern Switzerland is made up of +what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four +languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the +limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are +sharply divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this, +Switzerland is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe. +To the German-speaking Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of +Bavaria are foreigners, while the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva +are fellow-countrymen. Deeper down even than these deep-seated +differences of speech and creed lies the feeling that comes from the +common possession of a political freedom that is greater than that +possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the happy outcome of the +first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic descent. Complete +independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate +representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense +cohesion of interests throughout the nation as no centralized +government, however cunningly devised, could ever have secured. + +Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government +had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great +bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and +peaceful relations with one another. The empire of Trajan and Marcus +Aurelius still remained the greatest known example of political +aggregation; and men who argued from simple historic precedent without +that power of analyzing precedents which the comparative method has +supplied, came not unnaturally to the conclusions that great political +aggregates have an inherent tendency towards breaking up, and that great +political aggregates cannot be maintained except by a strongly- +centralized administration and at the sacrifice of local self- +government. A century ago the very idea of a stable federation of forty +powerful states, covering a territory nearly equal in area to the whole +of Europe, carried on by a republican government elected by universal +suffrage, and guaranteeing to every tiniest village its full meed of +local independence,--the very idea of all this would have been scouted +as a thoroughly impracticable Utopian dream. And such scepticism would +have been quite justifiable, for European history did not seem to afford +any precedents upon which such a forecast of the future could be +logically based. Between the various nations of Europe there has +certainly always existed an element of political community, bequeathed +by the Roman empire, manifested during the Middle Ages in a common +relationship to the Church, and in modern times in a common adherence to +certain uncodified rules of international law, more or less im perfectly +defined and enforced. Between England and Spain, for example, or between +France and Austria, there has never been such utter political severance +as existed normally between Greece and Persia, or Rome and Carthage. But +this community of political inheritance in Europe, it is needless to +say, falls very far short of the degree of community implied in a +federal union; and so great is the diversity of language and of creed, +and of local historic development with the deep-seated prejudices +attendant thereupon, that the formation of a European federation could +hardly be looked for except as the result of mighty though quiet and +subtle influences operating for a long time from without. From what +direction, and in what manner, such an irresistible though perfectly +pacific pressure is likely to be exerted in the future, I shall +endeavour to show in my next lecture. At present we have to observe that +the experiment of federal union on a grand scale required as its +conditions, _first_, a vast extent of unoccupied country which could be +settled without much warfare by men of the same race and speech, and +_secondly_, on the part of the settlers, a rich inheritance of political +training such as is afforded by long ages of self-government. The +Atlantic coast of North America, easily accessible to Europe, yet remote +enough to be freed from the political complications of the old world, +furnished the first of these conditions: the history of the English +people through fifty generations furnished the second. It was through +English self-government, as I argued in my first lecture, that England +alone, among the great nations of Europe, was able to found durable and +self-supporting colonies. I have now to add that it was only England, +among all the great nations of Europe, that could send forth colonists +capable of dealing successfully with the difficult problem of forming +such a political aggregate as the United States have become. For +obviously the preservation of local self-government is essential to the +very idea of a federal union. Without the Town-Meeting, or its +equivalent in some form or other, the Federal Union would become _ipso +facto_ converted into a centralizing imperial government. Should +anything of this sort ever happen--should American towns ever come to be +ruled by prefects appointed at Washington, and should American States +ever become like the administrative departments of France, or even like +the counties of England at the present day--then the time will have come +when men may safely predict the break-up of the American political +system by reason of its overgrown dimensions and the diversity of +interests between its parts. States so unlike one another as Maine and +Louisiana and California cannot be held together by the stiff bonds of a +centralizing government. The durableness of the federal union lies in +its flexibility, and it is this flexibility which makes it the only kind +of government, according to modern ideas, that is permanently applicable +to a whole continent. If the United States were to-day a consolidated +republic like France, recent events in California might have disturbed +the peace of the country. But in the federal union, if California, as a +state sovereign within its own sphere, adopts a grotesque constitution +that aims at infringing on the rights of capitalists, the other states +are not directly affected. They may disapprove, but they have neither +the right nor the desire to interfere. Meanwhile the laws of nature +quietly operate to repair the blunder. Capital flows away from +California, and the business of the state is damaged, until presently +the ignorant demagogues lose favour, the silly constitution becomes a +dead-letter, and its formal repeal begins to be talked of. Not the +smallest ripple of excitement disturbs the profound peace of the country +at large. It is in this complete independence that is preserved by every +state, in all matters save those in which the federal principle itself +is concerned, that we find the surest guaranty of the permanence of the +American political system. Obviously no race of men, save the race to +which habits of self-government and the skilful use of political +representation had come to be as second nature, could ever have +succeeded in founding such a system. + + +Yet even by men of English race, working with out let or hindrance from +any foreign source, and with the better part of a continent at their +disposal for a field to work in, so great a political problem as that of +the American Union has not been solved without much toil and trouble. +The great puzzle of civilization--how to secure permanent concert of +action without sacrificing independence of action--is a puzzle which has +taxed the ingenuity of Americans as well as of older Aryan peoples. In +the year 1788 when our Federal Union was completed, the problem had +already occupied the minds of American statesmen for a century and a +half,--that is to say, ever since the English settlement of +Massachusetts. In 1643 a New England confederation was formed between +Massachusetts and Connecticut, together with Plymouth since merged in +Massachusetts and New Haven since merged in Connecticut. The +confederation was formed for defence against the French in Canada, the +Dutch on the Hudson river, and the Indians. But owing simply to the +inequality in the sizes of these colonies--Massachusetts more than +outweighing the other three combined--the practical working of this +confederacy was never very successful. In 1754, just before the outbreak +of the great war which drove the French from America, a general Congress +of the colonies was held at Albany, and a comprehensive scheme of union +was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but nothing came of the project at +that time. The commercial rivalry between the colonies, and their +disputes over boundary lines, were then quite like the similar phenomena +with which Europe had so long been familiar. In 1756 Georgia and South +Carolina actually came to blows over the navigation of the Savannah +river. The idea that the thirteen colonies could ever overcome their +mutual jealousies so far as to unite in a single political body, was +received at that time in England with a derision like that which a +proposal for a permanent federation of European States would excite in +many minds to-day. It was confidently predicted that if the common +allegiance to the British crown were once withdrawn, the colonies would +forthwith proceed to destroy themselves with internecine war. In fact, +however, it was the shaking off of allegiance to the British crown, and +the common trials and sufferings of the war of independence, that at +last welded the colonies together and made a federal union possible. As +it was, the union was consummated only by degrees. By the Articles of +Confederation, agreed on by Congress in 1777 but not adopted by all the +States until 1781, the federal government acted only upon the several +state governments and not directly upon individuals; there was no +federal judiciary for the decision of constitutional questions arising +out of the relations between the states; and the Congress was not +provided with any efficient means of raising a revenue or of enforcing +its legislative decrees. Under such a government the difficulty of +insuring concerted action was so great that, but for the transcendent +personal qualities of Washington, the bungling mismanagement of the +British ministry, and the timely aid of the French fleet, the war of +independence would most likely have ended in failure. After the +independence of the colonies was acknowledged, the formation of a more +perfect union was seen to be the only method of securing peace and +making a nation which should be respected by foreign powers; and so in +1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution of the United +States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very few people at +the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of compromises, +yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political wisdom. + +The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of +securing approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between +states of unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was +at last surmounted has proved effectual, although the inequalities +between the states have greatly increased. To-day the population of New +York is more than eighty times that of Nevada. In area the state of +Rhode Island is smaller than Montenegro, while the state of Texas is +larger than the Austrian empire with Bavaria and Wuertemberg thrown in. +Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode Island and Texas, each send two senators +to Washington, while on the other hand in the lower house each state has +a number of representatives proportioned to its population. The upper +house of Congress is therefore a federal while the lower house is a +national body, and the government is brought into direct contact with +the people without endangering the equal rights of the several states. + +The second great compromise of the American constitution consists in the +series of arrangements by which sovereignty is divided between the +states and the federal government. In all domestic legislation and +jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in all matters relating to tenure of +property, marriage and divorce, the fulfilment of contracts and the +punishment of malefactors, each separate state is as completely a +sovereign state as France or Great Britain. In speaking to a British +audience a concrete illustration may not be superfluous. If a criminal +is condemned to death in Pennsylvania, the royal prerogative of pardon +resides in the Governor of Pennsylvania: the President of the United +States has no more authority in the case than the Czar of Russia. Nor in +civil cases can an appeal lie from the state courts to the Supreme Court +of the United States, save where express provision has been made in the +Constitution. Within its own sphere the state is supreme. The chief +attributes of sovereignty with which the several states have parted are +the coining of money, the carrying of mails, the imposition of tariff +dues, the granting of patents and copyrights, the declaration of war, +and the maintenance of a navy. The regular army is supported and +controlled by the federal government, but each state maintains its own +militia which it is bound to use in case of internal disturbance before +calling upon the central government for aid. In time of war, however, +these militias come under the control of the central government. Thus +every American citizen lives under two governments, the functions of +which are clearly and intelligibly distinct. + +To insure the stability of the federal union thus formed, the +Constitution created a "system of United States courts extending +throughout the states, empowered to define the boundaries of federal +authority, and to enforce its decisions by federal power." This +omnipresent federal judiciary was undoubtedly the most important +creation of the statesmen who framed the Constitution. The closely-knit +relations which it established between the states contributed powerfully +to the growth of a feeling of national solidarity throughout the whole +country. The United States today cling together with a coherency far +greater than the coherency of any ordinary federation or league. Yet the +primary aspect of the federal Constitution was undoubtedly that of a +permanent league, in which each state, while retaining its domestic +sovereignty intact, renounced forever its right to make war upon its +neighbours and relegated its international interests to the care of a +central council in which all the states were alike represented and a +central tribunal endowed with purely judicial functions of +interpretation. It was the first attempt in the history of the world, to +apply on a grand scale to the relations between states the same legal +methods of procedure which, as long applied in all civilized countries +to the relations between individuals, have rendered private warfare +obsolete. And it was so far successful that, during a period of +seventy-two years in which the United States increased fourfold in +extent, tenfold in population, and more than tenfold in wealth and +power, the federal union maintained a state of peace more profound than +the _pax romana._ + +Twenty years ago this unexampled state of peace was suddenly interrupted +by a tremendous war, which in its results, however, has served only to +bring out with fresh emphasis the pacific implications of federalism. +With the eleven revolted states at first completely conquered and then +reinstated with full rights and privileges in the federal union, with +their people accepting in good faith the results of the contest, with +their leaders not executed as traitors but admitted again to seats in +Congress and in the Cabinet, and with all this accomplished without any +violent constitutional changes,--I think we may fairly claim that the +strength of the pacific implications of federalism has been more +strikingly demonstrated than if there had been no war at all. Certainly +the world never beheld such a spectacle before. In my next and +concluding lecture I shall return to this point while summing up the +argument and illustrating the part played by the English race in the +general history of civilization. + + + + +III. + + +"_MANIFEST DESTINY_." + +Among the legends of our late Civil War there is a story of a +dinner-party given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were +propounded sundry toasts concerning not so much the past and present as +the expected glories of the great American nation. In the general +character of these toasts geographical considerations were very +prominent, and the principal fact which seemed to occupy the minds of +the speakers was the unprecedented _bigness_ of our country. "Here's to +the United States," said the first speaker, "bounded on the north by +British America, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the +Atlantic, and on the west by the Pacific, Ocean." "But," said the second +speaker, "this is far too limited a view of the subject: in assigning +our boundaries we must look to the great and glorious future which is +prescribed for us by the Manifest Destiny of the Anglo-Saxon Race. +Here's to the United States,--bounded on the north by the North Pole, +on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising and on the +west by the setting sun." Emphatic applause greeted this aspiring +prophecy. But here arose the third speaker--a very serious gentleman +from the Far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic +American, "to leave the historic past and present, and take our manifest +destiny into the account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow +limits assigned by our fellow-countryman who has just sat down? I give +you the United States,--bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on +the south by the precession of the equinoxes, on the east by the +primeval chaos, and on the west by the Day of Judgment!" + +I offer this anecdote at the outset by way of self-defence, inasmuch as +I shall by and by have myself to introduce some considerations +concerning the future of our country, and of what some people, without +the fear of Mr. Freeman before their eyes, call the "Anglo-Saxon" race; +and if it should happen to strike you that my calculations are +unreasonably large, I hope you will remember that they are quite modest +after all, when compared with some others. + +The "manifest destiny" of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and the huge dimensions +of our country are favourite topics with Fourth-of-July orators, but +they are none the less interesting on that account when considered from +the point of view of the historian. To be a citizen of a great and +growing state, or to belong to one of the dominant races of the world, +is no doubt a legitimate source of patriotic pride, though there is +perhaps an equal justification for such a feeling in being a citizen of +a tiny state like Holland, which, in spite of its small dimensions, has +nevertheless achieved so much,--fighting at one time the battle of +freedom for the world, producing statesmen like William and Barneveldt, +generals like Maurice, scholars like Erasmus and Grotius, and thinkers +like Spinoza, and taking the lead even to-day in the study of +Christianity and in the interpretation of the Bible. But my course in +the present lecture is determined by historical or philosophical rather +than by patriotic interest, and I shall endeavour to characterize and +group events as impartially as if my home were at Leyden in the Old +World instead of Cambridge in the New. + +First of all, I shall take sides with Mr. Freeman in eschewing +altogether the word "Anglo-Saxon." The term is sufficiently absurd and +misleading as applied in England to the Old-English speech of our +forefathers, or to that portion of English history which is included +between the fifth and the eleventh centuries. But in America it is +frequently used, not indeed by scholars, but by popular writers and +speakers, in a still more loose and slovenly way. In the war of +independence our great-great-grandfathers, not yet having ceased to +think of themselves as Englishmen, used to distinguish themselves as +"Continentals," while the king's troops were known as the "British." The +quaint term "Continental" long ago fell into disuse, except in the slang +phrase "not worth a Continental" which referred to the debased condition +of our currency at the close of the Revolutionary War; but "American" +and "British" might still serve the purpose sufficiently whenever it is +necessary to distinguish between the two great English nationalities. +The term "English," however, is so often used with sole reference to +people and things in England as to have become in some measure +antithetical to "American;" and when it is found desirable to include +the two in a general expression, one often hears in America the term +"Anglo-Saxon" colloquially employed for this purpose. A more slovenly +use of language can hardly be imagined. Such a compound term as +"Anglo-American" might perhaps be logically defensible, but that has +already become restricted to the English-descended inhabitants of the +United States and Canada alone, in distinction from Spanish Americans +and red Indians. It is never so used as to include Englishmen. +Refraining from all such barbarisms, I prefer to call the English race +by the name which it has always applied to itself, from the time when it +inhabited the little district of Angeln on the Baltic coast of Sleswick +down to the time when it had begun to spread itself over three great +continents. It is a race which has shown a rare capacity for absorbing +slightly foreign elements and moulding them into conformity with a +political type that was first wrought out through centuries of effort on +British soil; and this capacity it has shown perhaps in a heightened +degree in the peculiar circumstances in which it has been placed in +America. The American has absorbed considerable quantities of closely +kindred European blood, but he is rapidly assimilating it all, and in +his political habits and aptitudes he remains as thoroughly English as +his forefathers in the days of De Montfort, or Hampden, or Washington. +Premising this, we may go on to consider some aspects of the work which +the English race has done and is doing in the world, and we need not +feel discouraged if, in order to do justice to the subject, we have to +take our start far back in ancient history. We shall begin, it may be +said, somewhere near the primeval chaos, and though we shall indeed +stop short of the day of judgment, we shall hope at all events to reach +the millennium. + +Our eloquent friends of the Paris dinner-party seem to have been +strongly impressed with the excellence of enormous political aggregates. +We, too, approaching the subject from a different point of view, have +been led to see how desirable it is that self-governing groups of men +should be enabled to work together in permanent harmony and on a great +scale. In this kind of political integration the work of civilization +very largely consists. We have seen how in its most primitive form +political society is made up of small self-governing groups that are +perpetually at war with one another. Now the process of change which we +call civilization means quite a number of things. But there is no doubt +that on its political side it means primarily the gradual substitution +of a state of peace for a state of war. This change is the condition +precedent for all the other kinds of improvement that are connoted by +such a term as "civilization." Manifestly the development of industry is +largely dependent upon the cessation or restriction of warfare; and +furthermore, as the industrial phase of civilization slowly supplants +the military phase, men's characters undergo, though very slowly, a +corresponding change. Men become less inclined to destroy life or to +inflict pain; or--to use the popular terminology which happens here to +coincide precisely with that of the Doctrine of Evolution--they become +less _brutal_ and more _humane_. Obviously then the prime feature of the +process called civilization is the general diminution of warfare. But we +have seen that a general diminution of warfare is rendered possible only +by the union of small political groups into larger groups that are kept +together by community of interests, and that can adjust their mutual +relations by legal discussion without coming to blows. In the preceding +lecture we considered this process of political integration as variously +exemplified by communities of Hellenic, of Roman, and of Teutonic race, +and we saw how manifold were the difficulties which the process had to +encounter. We saw how the Teutons--at least in Switzerland, England, and +America--had succeeded best through the retention of local +self-government combined with central representation. We saw how the +Romans failed of ultimate success because by weakening self-government +they weakened that community of interest which is essential to the +permanence of a great political aggregate. We saw how the Greeks, after +passing through their most glorious period in a state of chronic +warfare, had begun to achieve considerable success in forming a pacific +federation when their independent career was suddenly cut short by the +Roman conqueror. + +This last example introduces us to a fresh consideration, of very great +importance. It is not only that every progressive community has had to +solve, in one way or another, the problem of securing permanent concert +of action without sacrificing local independence of action; but while +engaged in this difficult work the community has had to defend itself +against the attacks of other communities. In the case just cited, of the +conquest of Greece by Rome, little harm was done perhaps. But under +different circumstances immense damage may have been done in this way, +and the nearer we go to the beginnings of civilization the greater the +danger. At the dawn of history we see a few brilliant points of +civilization surrounded on every side by a midnight blackness of +barbarism. In order that the pacific community may be able to go on +doing its work, it must be strong enough and warlike enough to overcome +its barbaric neighbours who have no notion whatever of keeping peace. +This is another of the seeming paradoxes of the history of +civilization, that for a very long time the possibility of peace can be +guaranteed only through war. Obviously the permanent peace of the world +can be secured only through the gradual concentration of the +preponderant military strength into the hands of the most pacific +communities. With infinite toil and trouble this point has been slowly +gained by mankind, through the circumstance that the very same political +aggregation of small primitive communities which makes them less +disposed to quarrel among themselves tends also to make them more than a +match for the less coherent groups of their more barbarous neighbours. +The same concert of action which tends towards internal harmony tends +also towards external victory, and both ends are promoted by the +co-operation of the same sets of causes. But for a long time all the +political problems of the civilized world were complicated by the fact +that the community had to fight for its life. We seldom stop to reflect +upon the imminent danger from outside attacks, whether from surrounding +barbarism or from neighbouring civilizations of lower type, amid which +the rich and high-toned civilizations of Greece and Rome were developed. +When the king of Persia undertook to reduce Greece to the condition of a +Persian satrapy, there was imminent danger that all the enormous +fruition of Greek thought in the intellectual life of the European world +might have been nipped in the bud. And who can tell how often, in +prehistoric times, some little gleam of civilization, less bright and +steady than this one had become, may have been quenched in slavery or +massacre? The greatest work which the Romans performed in the world was +to assume the aggressive against menacing barbarism, to subdue it, to +tame it, and to enlist its brute force on the side of law and order. +This was a murderous work, and in doing it the Romans became excessively +cruel, but it had to be done by some one before you could expect to have +great and peaceful civilizations like our own. The warfare of Rome is by +no means adequately explained by the theory of a deliberate immoral +policy of aggression,--"infernal," I believe, is the stronger adjective +which Dr. Draper uses. The aggressive wars of Rome were largely dictated +by just such considerations as those which a century ago made it +necessary for the English to put down the raids of the Scotch +Highlanders, and which have since made it necessary for Russia to subdue +the Caucasus. It is not easy for a turbulent community to live next to +an orderly one without continually stirring up frontier disturbances +which call for stern repression from the orderly community. Such +considerations go far towards explaining the military history of the +Romans, and it is a history with which, on the whole, we ought to +sympathize. In its European relations that history is the history of the +moving of the civilized frontier northward and eastward against the +disastrous encroachments of barbarous peoples. This great movement has, +on the whole, been steadily kept up, in spite of some apparent +fluctuation in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era, and +it is still going on to-day. It was a great gain for civilization when +the Romans overcame the Keltiberians of Spain, and taught them good +manners and the Latin language, and made it for their interest hereafter +to fight against barbarians. The third European peninsula was thus won +over to the side of law and order. Danger now remained on the north. The +Gauls had once sacked the city of Rome; hordes of Teutons had lately +menaced the very heart of civilization, but had been overthrown in +murderous combat by Caius Marius; another great Teutonic movement, led +by Ariovistus, now threatened to precipitate the whole barbaric force of +south-eastern Gaul upon the civilized world; and so it occurred to the +prescient genius of Caesar to be beforehand and conquer Gaul, and +enlist all its giant barbaric force on the side of civilization. This +great work was as thoroughly done as anything that was ever done in +human history, and we ought to be thankful to Caesar for it every day +that we live. The frontier to be defended against barbarism was now +moved away up to the Rhine, and was very much shortened; but above all, +the Gauls were made to feel themselves to be Romans. Their country +became one of the chief strongholds of civilization and of Christianity; +and when the frightful shock of barbarism came--the most formidable blow +that has ever been directed by barbaric brute force against European +civilization--it was in Gaul that it was repelled and that its force was +spent. At the beginning of the fifth century an enormous horde of yellow +Mongolians, known as Huns, poured down into Europe with avowed intent to +burn and destroy all the good work which Rome had wrought in the world; +and terrible was the havoc they effected in the course of fifty years. +If Attila had carried his point, it has been thought that the work of +European civilization might have had to be begun over again. But near +Chalons-on-the-Marne, in the year 451, in one of the most obstinate +struggles of which history preserves the record, the career of the +"Scourge of God" was arrested, and mainly by the prowess of Gauls and of +Visigoths whom the genius of Rome had tamed. That was the last day on +which barbarism was able to contend with civilization on equal terms. It +was no doubt a critical day for all future history; and for its +favourable issue we must largely thank the policy adopted by Caesar five +centuries before. By the end of the eighth century the great power of +the Franks had become enlisted in behalf of law and order, and the Roman +throne was occupied by a Frank,--the ablest man who had appeared in the +world since Caesar's death; and one of the worthiest achievements of +Charles the Great was the conquest and conversion of pagan Germany, +which threw the frontier against barbarism eastward as far as the Oder, +and made it so much the easier to defend Europe. In the thirteenth +century this frontier was permanently carried forward to the Vistula by +the Teutonic Knights who, under commission from the emperor Frederick +II., overcame the heathen Prussians and Lithuanians; and now it began to +be shown how greatly the military strength of Europe had increased. In +this same century Batu, the grandson of Jinghis Khan, came down into +Europe with a horde of more than a million Mongols, and tried to repeat +the experiment of Attila. Batu penetrated as far as Silesia, and won a +great battle at Liegnitz in 1241, but in spite of his victory he had to +desist from the task of conquering Europe. Since the fifth century the +physical power of the civilized world had grown immensely; and the +impetus of this barbaric invasion was mainly spent upon Russia, the +growth of which it succeeded in retarding for more than two centuries. +Finally since the sixteenth century we have seen the Russians, redeemed +from their Mongolian oppressors, and rich in many of the elements of a +vigorous national life,--we have seen the Russians resume the aggressive +in this conflict of ages, beginning to do for Central Asia in some sort +what the Romans did for Europe. The frontier against barbarism, which +Caesar left at the Rhine, has been carried eastward to the Volga, and is +now advancing even to the Oxus. The question has sometimes been raised +whether it would be possible for European civilization to be seriously +threatened by any future invasion of barbarism or of some lower type of +civilization. By barbarism certainly not: all the nomad strength of +Mongolian Asia would throw itself in vain against the insuperable +barrier constituted by Russia. But I have heard it quite seriously +suggested that if some future Attila or Jinghis were to wield as a unit +the entire military strength of the four hundred millions of Chinese, +possessed with some suddenly-conceived idea of conquering the world, +even as Omar and Abderrahman wielded as a unit the newly-welded power of +the Saracens in the seventh and eighth centuries, then perhaps a +staggering blow might yet be dealt against European civilization. I will +not waste precious time in considering this imaginary case, further than +to remark that if the Chinese are ever going to try anything of this +sort, they cannot afford to wait very long; for within another century, +as we shall presently see, their very numbers will be surpassed by those +of the English race alone. By that time all the elements of military +predominance on the earth, including that of simple numerical +superiority, will have been gathered into the hands not merely of men of +European descent in general, but more specifically into the hands of the +offspring of the Teutonic tribes who conquered Britain in the fifth +century. So far as the relations of civilization with barbarism are +concerned to-day, the only serious question is by what process of +modification the barbarous races are to maintain their foothold upon the +earth at all. While once such people threatened the very continuance of +civilization, they now exist only on sufferance. + +In this brief survey of the advancing frontier of European +civilization, I have said nothing about the danger that has from time to +time been threatened by the followers of Mohammed,--of the overthrow of +the Saracens in Gaul by the grandfather of Charles the Great, or their +overthrow at Constantinople by the image-breaking Leo, of the great +mediaeval Crusades, or of the mischievous but futile career of the Turks. +For if I were to attempt to draw this outline with anything like +completeness, I should have no room left for the conclusion of my +argument. Considering my position thus far as sufficiently illustrated, +let us go on to contemplate for a moment some of the effects of all this +secular turmoil upon the political development of the progressive +nations of Europe. I think we may safely lay it down, as a large and +general rule, that all this prodigious warfare required to free the +civilized world from peril of barbarian attack served greatly to +increase the difficulty of solving the great initial problem of +civilization. In the first place, the turbulence thus arising was a +serious obstacle to the formation of closely-coherent political +aggregates; as we see exemplified in the terrible convulsions of the +fifth and sixth centuries, and again in the ascendency acquired by the +isolating features of feudalism between the time of Charles the Great +and the time of Louis VI. of France. In the second place, this +perpetual turbulence was a serious obstacle to the preservation of +popular liberties. It is a very difficult thing for a free people to +maintain its free, constitution if it has to keep perpetually fighting +for its life. The "one-man-power." less fit for, carrying on the +peaceful pursuits of life, is sure to be brought into the foreground in +a state of endless warfare. It is a still more difficult thing for a +free people to maintain its free constitution when it undertakes to +govern a dependent people despotically, as has been wont to happen when +a portion of the barbaric world has been overcome and annexed to the +civilized world. Under the weight, of these two difficulties combined, +the free institutions of the ancient Romans succumbed, and their +government gradually passed into the hands of a kind of close +corporation more despotic than anything else of the sort that Europe has +ever seen. This despotic character--this tendency, if you will pardon +the phrase, towards the _Asiaticization_ of European life--was continued +by inheritance in the Roman Church, the influence of which was +beneficent so long as it constituted a wholesome check to the isolating +tendencies of feudalism, but began to become noxious the moment these +tendencies yielded to the centralizing monarchical tendency in nearly +all parts of Europe. The asiaticizing tendency of Roman political life +had become so powerful by the fourth century, and has since been so +powerfully propagated through the Church, that we ought to be glad that +the Teutons came into the empire as masters rather than as subjects. As +the Germanic tribes got possession of the government in one part of +Europe after another, they brought with them free institutions again. +The political ideas of the Goths in Spain, of the Lombards in Italy, and +of the Franks and Burgundians in Gaul, were as distinctly free as those +of the Angles in Britain. But as the outcome of the long and +uninterrupted turmoil of the Middle Ages, society throughout the +continent of Europe remained predominantly military in type, and this +fact greatly increased the tendency towards despotism which was +bequeathed by Rome. After the close of the thirteenth century the whole +power of the Church was finally thrown into the scale against the +liberties of the people; and as the result of all these forces combined, +we find that at the time when America was discovered government was +hardening into despotism in all the great countries of Europe except +England. Even in England the tendency towards despotism had begun to +become quite conspicuous after the wholesale slaughter of the great +barons and the confiscation of their estates which took place in the +Wars of the Roses. The constitutional history of England during the +Tudor and Stuart periods is mainly the history of the persistent effort +of the English sovereign to free himself from constitutional checks, as +his brother sovereigns on the continent were doing. But how different +the result! How enormous the political difference between William III. +and Louis XIV., compared with the difference between Henry VIII. and +Francis I.! The close of the seventeenth century, which marks the +culmination of the asiaticizing tendency in Europe, saw despotism both +political and religious firmly established in France and Spain and +Italy, and in half of Germany; while the rest of Germany seemed to have +exhausted itself in the attempt to throw off the incubus. But in England +this same epoch saw freedom both political and religious established on +so firm a foundation as never again to be shaken, never again with +impunity to be threatened, so long as the language of Locke and Milton +and Sydney shall remain a living speech on the lips of men. Now this +wonderful difference between the career of popular liberty in England +and on the Continent was due no doubt to a complicated variety of +causes, one or two of which I have already sought to point out. In my +first lecture I alluded to the curious combination of circumstances +which prevented anything like a severance of interests between the upper +and the lower ranks of society; and something was also said about the +feebleness of the grasp of imperial Rome upon Britain compared with its +grasp upon the continent of Europe. But what I wish now to point +out--since we are looking at the military aspect of the subject--is the +enormous advantage of what we may call the _strategic position_ of +England in the long mediaeval struggle between civilization and +barbarism. In Professor Stubbs's admirable collection of charters and +documents illustrative of English history, we read that "on the 6th of +July [1264] the whole force of the country was summoned to London for +the 3d of August, to resist the army which was coming from France under +the queen and her son Edmund. _The invading fleet was prevented by the +weather from sailing until too late in the season_.... The papal legate, +Guy Foulquois, who soon after became Clement IV., threatened the barons +with excommunication, but the bull containing the sentence was taken by +the men of Dover as soon as it arrived, and was thrown into the +sea." [15] As I read this, I think of the sturdy men of Connecticut, +beating the drum to prevent the reading of the royal order of James II. +depriving the colony of the control of its own militia, and feel with +pride that the indomitable spirit of English liberty is alike +indomitable in every land where men of English race have set their feet +as masters. But as the success of Americans in withstanding the +unconstitutional pretensions of the crown was greatly favoured by the +barrier of the ocean, so the success of Englishmen in defying the +enemies of their freedom has no doubt been greatly favoured by the +barrier of the British channel. The war between Henry III. and the +barons was an event in English history no less critical than the war +between Charles I. and the parliament four centuries later; and British +and Americans alike have every reason to be thankful that a great French +army was not able to get across the channel in August, 1264. Nor was +this the only time when the insular position of England did goodly +service in maintaining its liberties and its internal peace. We cannot +forget how Lord Howard of Effingham, aided also by the weather, defeated +the armada that boasted itself "invincible," sent to strangle freedom in +its chosen home by the most execrable and ruthless tyrant that Europe +has ever seen, a tyrant whose victory would have meant not simply the +usurpation of the English crown but the establishment of the Spanish +Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what longing +eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces of +France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one +European land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in +these latter days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the +prowess of the sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible +for the thoughtful student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square, +and gaze on the image of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on +the summit of his lofty column and guarded by the royal lions, looking +down towards the government-house of the land that he freed from the +dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards that ancient church wherein the +most sacred memories of English talent and English toil are clustered +together,--it is impossible, I say, to look at this, and not admire both +the artistic instinct that devised so happy a symbolism, and the rare +good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing a territorial +position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic powers. +But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external +attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This +ease in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the +internal polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English +government to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external +defence a navy was all-sufficient; and there is this practical +difference between a permanent army and a permanent navy. Both are +originally designed for purposes of external defence; but the one can +readily be used for purposes of internal oppression, and the other +cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up an empire at auction and +knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius Julianus. When, +therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from external +attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political +development to go on internally without those manifold military +hinderances that have ordinarily been so obstructive in the history of +civilization. Hence we not only see why, after the Norman Conquest had +operated to increase its unity and its strength, England enjoyed a far +greater amount of security and was far more peaceful than any other +country in Europe; but we also see why society never assumed the +military type in England which it assumed upon the continent; we see how +it was that the bonds of feudalism were far looser here than elsewhere, +and therefore how it happened that nowhere else was the condition of the +common people so good politically. We now begin to see, moreover, how +thoroughly Professor Stubbs and Mr. Freeman are justified in insisting +upon the fact that the political institutions of the Germans of Tacitus +have had a more normal and uninterrupted development in England than +anywhere else. Nowhere, indeed, in the whole history of the human race, +can we point to such a well-rounded and unbroken continuity of political +life as we find in the thousand years of English history that have +elapsed since the victory of William the Norman at Senlac. In England +the free government of the primitive Aryans has been to this day +uninterruptedly maintained, though everywhere lost or seriously impaired +on the continent of Europe, except in remote Scandinavia and impregnable +Switzerland. But obviously, if in the conflict of ages between +civilization and barbarism England had occupied such an inferior +strategic position as that occupied by Hungary or Poland or Spain, if +her territory had been liable once or twice in a century to be overrun +by fanatical Saracens or beastly Mongols, no such remarkable and quite +exceptional result could have been achieved. Having duly fathomed the +significance of this strategic position of the English race while +confined within the limits of the British islands, we are now prepared +to consider the significance of the stupendous expansion of the English +race which first became possible through the discovery and settlement of +North America. I said, at the close of my first lecture, that the +victory of Wolfe at Quebec marks the greatest turning-point as yet +discernible in all modern history. At the first blush such an +unqualified statement may have sounded as if an American student of +history were inclined to attach an undue value to events that have +happened upon his own soil. After the survey of universal history which +we have now taken, however, I am fully prepared to show that the +conquest of the North American continent by men of English race was +unquestionably the most prodigious event in the political annals of man +kind. Let us consider, for a moment, the cardinal facts which this +English conquest and settlement of North America involved. + +Chronologically the discovery of America coincides precisely with the +close of the Middle Ages, and with the opening of the drama of what is +called _modern_ history. The coincidence is in many ways significant. +The close of the Middle Ages--as we have seen--was characterized by the +increasing power of the crown in all the great countries of Europe, and +by strong symptoms of popular restlessness in view of this increasing +power. It was characterized also by the great Protestant outbreak +against the despotic pretensions of the Church, which once, in its +antagonism to the rival temporal power, had befriended the liberties of +the people, but now (especially since the death of Boniface VIII.) +sought to enthrall them with a tyranny far worse than that of +irresponsible king or emperor. As we have seen Aryan civilization in +Europe struggling for many centuries to prove itself superior to the +assaults of outer barbarism, so here we find a decisive struggle +beginning between the antagonist tendencies which had grown up in the +midst of this civilization. Having at length won the privilege of living +without risk of slaughter and pillage at the hands of Saracens or +Mongols, the question now arose whether the people of Europe should go +on and apply their intelligence freely to the problem of making life as +rich and fruitful as possible in varied material and spiritual +achievement, or should fall forever into the barren and monotonous way +of living and thinking which has always distinguished the half-civilized +populations of Asia. This--and nothing less than this, I think--was the +practical political question really at stake in the sixteenth century +between Protestantism and Catholicism. Holland and England entered the +lists in behalf of the one solution of this question, while Spain and +the Pope defended the other, and the issue was fought out on European +soil, as we have seen, with varying success. But the discovery of +America now came to open up an enormous region in which whatever seed of +civilization should be planted was sure to grow to such enormous +dimensions as by and by to exert a controlling influence upon all such +controversies. It was for Spain, France, and England to contend for the +possession of this vast region, and to prove by the result of the +struggle which kind of civilization was endowed with the higher and +sturdier political life. The race which here should gain the victory was +clearly destined hereafter to take the lead in the world, though the +rival powers could not in those days fully appreciate this fact. They +who founded colonies in America as trading-stations or military outposts +probably did not foresee that these colonies must by and by become +imperial states far greater in physical mass than the states which +planted them. It is not likely that they were philosophers enough to +foresee that this prodigious physical development would mean that the +political ideas of the parent state should acquire a hundred-fold power +and seminal influence in the future work of the world. It was not until +the American Resolution that this began to be dimly realized by a few +prescient thinkers. It is by no means so fully realized even now that a +clear and thorough-going statement of it has not somewhat an air of +novelty. When the highly-civilized community, representing the ripest +political ideas of England, was planted in America, removed from the +manifold and complicated checks we have just been studying in the +history of the Old World, the growth was portentously rapid and steady. +There were no Attilas now to stand in the way,--only a Philip or a +Pontiac. The assaults of barbarism constituted only a petty annoyance as +compared with the conflict of ages which had gone on in Europe. There +was no occasion for society to assume a military aspect. Principles of +self-government were at once put into operation, and no one thought of +calling them in question. When the neighbouring civilization of inferior +type--I allude to the French in Canada--began to become seriously +troublesome, it was struck down at a blow. When the mother-country, +under the guidance of an ignorant king and short-sighted ministers, +undertook to act upon the antiquated theory that the new communities +were merely groups of trading-stations, the political bond of connection +was severed; yet the war which ensued was not like the war which had but +just now been so gloriously ended by the victory of Wolfe. It was not a +struggle between two different peoples, like the French of the Old +Regime and the English, each representing antagonistic theories of how +political life ought to be conducted. But, like the Barons' War of the +thirteenth century and the Parliament's War of the seventeenth, it was a +struggle sustained by a part of the English people in behalf of +principles that time has shown to be equally dear to all. And so the +issue only made it apparent to an astonished world that instead of _one_ +there were now _two Englands_, alike prepared to work with might and +main toward the political regeneration of mankind. + +Let us consider now to what conclusions the rapidity and unabated +steadiness of the increase of the English race in America must lead us +as we go on to forecast the future. Carlyle somewhere speaks slightingly +of the fact that the Americans double their numbers every twenty years, +as if to have forty million dollar-hunters in the world were any better +than to have twenty million dollar-hunters! The implication that +Americans are nothing but dollar-hunters, and are thereby +distinguishable from the rest of mankind, would not perhaps bear too +elaborate scrutiny. But during the present lecture we have been +considering the gradual transfer of the preponderance of physical +strength from the hands of the war-loving portion of the human race into +the hands of the peace-loving portion,--into the hands of the +dollar-hunters, if you please, but out of the hands of the +scalp-hunters. Obviously to double the numbers of a pre-eminently +industrious, peaceful, orderly, and free-thinking community, is somewhat +to increase the weight in the world of the tendencies that go towards +making communities free and orderly and peaceful and industrious. So +that, from this point of view, the fact we are speaking of is well worth +considering, even for its physical dimensions. I do not know whether the +United States could support a population everywhere as dense as that of +Belgium; so I will suppose that, with ordinary improvement in +cultivation and in the industrial arts, we might support a population +half as dense as that of Belgium,--and this is no doubt an extremely +moderate supposition. Now a very simple operation in arithmetic will +show that this means a population of fifteen hundred millions, or more +than the population of the whole world at the present date. Another +very simple operation in arithmetic will show that if we were to go on +doubling our numbers, even once in every twenty-five years, we should +reach that stupendous figure at about the close of the twentieth +century,--that is, in the days of our great-greatgrandchildren. I do not +predict any such result, for there are discernible economic reasons for +believing that there will be a diminution in the rate of increase. The +rate must nevertheless continue to be very great, in the absence of such +causes as formerly retarded the growth of population in Europe. Our +modern wars are hideous enough, no doubt, but they are short. They are +settled with a few heavy blows, and the loss of life and property +occasioned by them is but trifling when compared with the awful ruin and +desolation wrought by the perpetual and protracted contests of antiquity +and of the Middle Ages. Chronic warfare, both private and public, +periodic famines, and sweeping pestilences like the Black Death,--these +were the things which formerly shortened human life and kept down +population. In the absence of such causes, and with the abundant +capacity of our country for feeding its people, I think it an extremely +moderate statement if we say that by the end of the next century the +English race in the United States will number at least six or seven +hundred millions. + +It used to be said that so huge a people as this could not be kept +together as a single national aggregate,--or, if kept together at all, +could only be so by means of a powerful centralized government, like +that of ancient Rome under the emperors. I think we are now prepared to +see that this is a great mistake. If the Roman Empire could have +possessed that political vitality in all its parts which is secured to +the United States by the principles of equal representation and of +limited state sovereignty, it might well have defied all the shocks +which tribally-organized barbarism could ever have directed against it. +As it was, its strong centralized government did _not_ save it from +political disintegration. One of its weakest political features was +precisely this,--that its "strong centralized government" was a kind of +close corporation, governing a score of provinces in its own interest +rather than in the interest of the provincials. In contrast with such a +system as that of the Roman Empire, the skilfully elaborated American +system of federalism appears as one of the most important contributions +that the English race has made to the general work of civilization. The +working out of this feature in our national constitution, by Hamilton +and Madison and their associates, was the finest specimen of +constructive statesmanship that the world has ever seen. Not that these +statesmen originated the principle, but they gave form and expression to +the principle which was latent in the circumstances under which the +group of American colonies had grown up, and which suggested itself so +forcibly that the clear vision of these thinkers did not fail to seize +upon it as the fundamental principle upon which alone could the affairs +of a great people, spreading over a vast continent, be kept in a +condition approaching to something like permanent peace. Stated broadly, +so as to acquire somewhat the force of a universal proposition, the +principle of federalism is just this:--that the people of a state shall +have full and entire control of their own domestic affairs, which +directly concern them only, and which they will naturally manage with +more intelligence and with more zeal than any distant governing body +could possibly exercise; but that, as regards matters of common concern +between a group of states, a decision shall in every case be reached, +not by brutal warfare or by weary diplomacy, but by the systematic +legislation of a central government which represents both states and +people, and whose decisions can always be enforced, if necessary, by +the combined physical power of all the states. This principle, in +various practical applications, is so familiar to Americans to-day that +we seldom pause to admire it, any more than we stop to admire the air +which we breathe or the sun which gives us light and life. Yet I believe +that if no other political result than this could to-day be pointed out +as coming from the colonization of America by Englishmen, we should +still be justified in regarding that event as one of the most important +in the history of mankind. For obviously the principle of federalism, as +thus broadly stated, contains within itself the seeds of permanent peace +between nations; and to this glorious end I believe it will come in the +fulness of time. + +And now we may begin to see distinctly what it was that the American +government fought for in the late civil war,--a point which at the time +was by no means clearly apprehended outside the United States. We used +to hear it often said, while that war was going on, that we were +fighting not so much for the emancipation of the negro as for the +maintenance of our federal union; and I well remember that to many who +were burning to see our country purged of the folly and iniquity of +negro slavery this used to seem like taking a low and unrighteous view +of the case. From the stand-point of universal history it was +nevertheless the correct and proper view. The emancipation of the negro, +as an incidental result of the struggle, was a priceless gain which was +greeted warmly by all right-minded people. But deeper down than this +question, far more subtly interwoven with the innermost fibres of our +national well-being, far heavier laden too with weighty consequences for +the future weal of all mankind, was the question whether this great +pacific principle of union joined with independence should be overthrown +by the first deep-seated social difficulty it had to encounter, or +should stand as an example of priceless value to other ages and to other +lands. The solution was well worth the effort it cost. There have been +many useless wars, but this was not one of them, for more than most wars +that have been, it was fought in the direct interest of peace, and the +victory so dearly purchased and so humanely used was an earnest of +future peace and happiness for the world. + +The object, therefore, for which the American government fought, was the +perpetual maintenance of that peculiar state of things which the federal +union had created,--a state of things in which, throughout the whole +vast territory over which the Union holds sway, questions between +states, like questions between individuals, must be settled by legal +argument and judicial decisions and not by wager of battle. Far better +to demonstrate this point once for all, at whatever cost, than to be +burdened hereafter, like the states of Europe, with frontier fortresses +and standing armies and all the barbaric apparatus of mutual suspicion! +For so great an end did this most pacific people engage in an obstinate +war, and never did any war so thoroughly illustrate how military power +may be wielded, when necessary, by a people that has passed entirely +from the military into the industrial stage of civilization. The events +falsified all the predictions that were drawn from the contemplation of +societies less advanced politically. It was thought that so peaceful a +people could not raise a great army on demand; yet within a twelvemonth +the government had raised five hundred thousand men by voluntary +enlistment. It was thought that a territory involving military +operations at points as far apart as Paris and Moscow could never be +thoroughly conquered; yet in April 1865 the federal armies might have +inarched from end to end of the Gulf States without meeting any force to +oppose them. It was thought that the maintenance of a great army would +beget a military temper in the Americans and lead to manifestations of +Bonapartism,--domestic usurpation and foreign aggression; yet the moment +the work was done the great army vanished, and a force of twenty-five +thousand men was found sufficient for the military needs of the whole +country. It was thought that eleven states which had struggled so hard +to escape from the federal tie could not be re-admitted to voluntary +co-operation in the general government, but must henceforth be held as +conquered territory,--a most dangerous experiment for any free people to +try. Yet within a dozen years we find the old federal relations resumed +in all their completeness, and the disunion party powerless and +discredited in the very states where once it had wrought such mischief. +Nay more, we even see a curiously disputed presidential election, in +which the votes of the southern states were given almost with unanimity +to one of the candidates, decided quietly by a court of arbitration; and +we see a universal acquiescence in the decision, even in spite of a +general belief that an extraordinary combination of legal subtleties +resulted in adjudging the presidency to the candidate who was not +really elected. + +Such has been the result of the first great attempt to break up the +federal union in America. It is not probable that another attempt can +ever be made with anything like an equal chance of success. Here were +eleven states, geographically contiguous, governed by groups of men who +for half a century had pursued a well-defined policy in common, united +among themselves and marked off from most of the other states by a +difference far more deeply rooted in the groundwork of society than any +mere economic difference,--the difference between slave-labour and +free-labour. These eleven states, moreover, held such an economic +relationship with England that they counted upon compelling the naval +power of England to be used in their behalf. And finally it had not yet +been demonstrated that the maintenance of the federal union was +something for which the great mass of the people would cheerfully fight. +Never could the experiment of secession be tried, apparently, under +fairer auspices; yet how tremendous the defeat! It was a defeat that +wrought conviction,--the conviction that no matter how grave the +political questions that may arise hereafter, they must be settled in +accordance with the legal methods the Constitution has provided, and +that no state can be allowed to break the peace. It is the thoroughness +of this conviction that has so greatly facilitated the reinstatement of +the revolted states in their old federal relations; and the good sense +and good faith with which the southern people, in spite of the chagrin +of defeat, have accepted the situation and acted upon it, is something +unprecedented in history, and calls for the warmest sympathy and +admiration on the part of their brethren of the north. The federal +principle in America has passed through this fearful ordeal and come out +stronger than ever; and we trust it will not again be put to so severe a +test. But with this principle unimpaired, there is no reason why any +further increase of territory or of population should overtask the +resources of our government. + +In the United States of America a century hence we shall therefore +doubtless have a political aggregation immeasurably surpassing in power +and in dimensions any empire that has as yet existed. But we must now +consider for a moment the probable future career of the English race in +other parts of the world. The colonization of North America by +Englishmen had its direct effects upon the eastern as well as upon the +western side of the Atlantic. The immense growth of the commercial and +naval strength of England between the time of Cromwell and the time of +the elder Pitt was intimately connected with the colonization of North +America and the establishment of plantations in the West Indies. These +circumstances reacted powerfully upon the material development of +England, multiplying manifold the dimensions of her foreign trade, +increasing proportionately her commercial marine, and giving her in the +eighteenth century the dominion over the seas. Endowed with this +maritime supremacy, she has with an unerring instinct proceeded to seize +upon the keys of empire in all parts of the world,--Gibraltar, Malta, +the isthmus of Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the coasts of Australia, island after +island in the Pacific,--every station, in short, that commands the +pathways of maritime commerce, or guards the approaches to the barbarous +countries which she is beginning to regard as in some way her natural +heritage. Any well-filled album of postage-stamps is an eloquent +commentary on this maritime supremacy of England. It is enough to turn +one's head to look over her colonial blue-books. The natural outcome of +all this overflowing vitality it is not difficult to foresee. No one can +carefully watch what is going on in Africa to-day without recognizing it +as the same sort of thing which was going on in North America in the +seventeenth century; and it cannot fail to bring forth similar results +in course of time. Here is a vast country, rich in beautiful scenery and +in resources of timber and minerals, with a salubrious climate and +fertile soil, with great navigable rivers and inland lakes, which will +not much longer be left in control of tawny lions and long-eared +elephants and negro fetich-worshippers. Already five flourishing English +states have been established in the south, besides the settlements on +the Gold Coast and those at Aden commanding the Red Sea. English +explorers work their way, with infinite hardship, through its +untravelled wilds, and track the courses of the Congo and the Nile as +their forefathers tracked the Potomac and the Hudson. The work of La +Salle and Smith is finding its counterpart in the labours of Baker and +Livingstone. Who can doubt that within two or three centuries the +African continent will be occupied by a mighty nation of English +descent, and covered with populous cities and flourishing farms, with +railroads and telegraphs and other devices of civilization as yet +undreamed of? + +If we look next to Australia, we find a country of more than two-thirds +the area of the United States, with a temperate climate and immense +resources, agricultural and mineral,--a country sparsely peopled by a +race of irredeemable savages hardly above the level of brutes. Here +England within the present century has planted six greatly thriving +states, concerning which I have not time to say much, but one fact will +serve as a specimen. When in America we wish to illustrate in one word +the wonderful growth of our so-called north-western states, we refer to +Chicago,--a city of half-a-million inhabitants standing on a spot which +fifty years ago was an uninhabited marsh. In Australia the city of +Melbourne was founded in 1837, the year when the present queen of +England began to reign, and the state of which it is the capital was +hence called Victoria. This city, now[16] just forty-three years old, +has a population half as great as that of Chicago, has a public library +of 200,000 volumes, and has a university with at least one professor of +world-wide renown. When we see, by the way, within a period of five +years and at such remote points upon the earth's surface, such erudite +and ponderous works in the English language issuing from the press as +those of Professor Hearn of Melbourne, of Bishop Colenso of Natal, and +of Mr. Hubert Bancroft of San Francisco,--even such a little commonplace +fact as this is fraught with wonderful significance when we think of all +that it implies. Then there is New Zealand, with its climate of +perpetual spring, where the English race is now multiplying faster than +anywhere else in the world unless it be in Texas and Minnesota. And +there are in the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we +shall very soon see the same things going on. + +It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is +enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the +English race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on +until every land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of +an old civilization shall become English in its language, in its +political habits and traditions, and to a predominant extent in the +blood of its people. The day is at hand when, four-fifths of the human +race will trace its pedigree to English forefathers, as four-fifths of +the white people in the United States trace their pedigree to-day. The +race thus spread over both hemispheres, and from the rising to the +setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty of the sea and that +commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when England first +stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia and +Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will not +be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, but +perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and +writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be +transacted by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that +whatever language any man may have learned in his infancy he will find +it necessary sooner or later to learn to express his thoughts in +English. And in this way it is by no means improbable that, as Grimm the +German and Candolle the Frenchman long since foretold, the language of +Shakespeare may ultimately become the language of mankind. + +In view of these considerations as to the stupendous future of the +English race, does it not seem very probable that in due course of time +Europe--which has learned some valuable lessons from America +already--will find it worth while to adopt the lesson of federalism? +Probably the European states, in order to preserve their relative weight +in the general polity of the world, will find it necessary to do so. In +that most critical period of American history between the winning of +independence and the framing of the Constitution, one of the strongest +of the motives which led the confederated states to sacrifice part of +their sovereignty by entering into a federal union was their keen sense +of their weakness when taken severally. In physical strength such a +state as Massachusetts at that time amounted to little more than Hamburg +or Bremen; but the thirteen states taken together made a nation of +respectable power. Even the wonderful progress we have made in a century +has not essentially changed this relation of things. Our greatest state, +New York, taken singly, is about the equivalent of Belgium; our weakest +state, Nevada, would scarcely be a match for tha county of Dorset; yet +the United States, taken together, are probably at this moment the +strongest nation in the world. + +Now a century hence, with a population of six hundred millions in the +United States, and a hundred and fifty millions in Australia and New +Zealand, to say nothing of the increase of power in other parts of the +English-speaking world, the relative weights will be very different from +what they were in 1788. The population of Europe will not increase in +anything like the same proportion, and a very considerable part of the +increase will be transferred by emigration to the English-speaking world +outside of Europe. By the end of the twentieth century such nations as +France and Germany can only claim such a relative position in the +political world as Holland and Switzerland now occupy. Their greatness +in thought and scholarship, in industrial and aesthetic art, will +doubtless continue unabated. But their political weights will severally +have come to be insignificant; and as we now look back, with historic +curiosity, to the days when Holland was navally and commercially the +rival of England, so people will then need to be reminded that there was +actually once a time when little France was the most powerful nation on +the earth. It will then become as desirable for the states of Europe to +enter into a federal union as it was for the states of North America a +century ago. + +It is only by thus adopting the lesson of federalism that Europe can do +away with the chances of useless warfare which remain so long as its +different states own no allegiance to any common authority. War, as we +have seen, is with barbarous races both a necessity and a favourite +occupation. As long as civilization comes into contact with barbarism, +it remains a too frequent necessity. But as between civilized and +Christian nations it is a wretched absurdity. One sympathizes keenly +with wars such as that which Russia has lately concluded, for setting +free a kindred race endowed with capacity for progress, and for humbling +the worthless barbarian who during four centuries has wrought such +incalculable damage to the European world. But a sanguinary struggle for +the Rhine frontier, between two civilized Christian nations who have +each enough work to do in ithe world without engaging in such a strife +as this, will, I am sure, be by and by condemned by the general opinion +of mankind. Such questions will have to be settled by discussion in some +sort of federal council or parliament, if Europe would keep pace with +America in the advance towards universal law and order. All will admit +that such a state of things is a great desideratum: let us see if it is +really quite so utopian as it may seem at the first glance. No doubt the +lord who dwelt in Haddon Hall in the fifteenth century would have +thought it very absurd if you had told him that within four hundred +years it would not be necessary for country gentlemen to live in great +stone dungeons with little cross-barred windows and loopholes from which +to shoot at people going by. Yet to-day a country gentleman in some +parts of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his +front-door. We have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we +have at least made private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public +opinion against it to such an extent that the police-court usually makes +short shrift for the misguided man who tries to wreak vengeance on his +enemy. Is it too much to hope that by and by we may similarly put public +warfare under the ban? I think not. Already in America, as wre have +seen, it has become customary to deal with questions between states just +as we would deal with questions between individuals. This we have seen +to be the real purport of American federalism. To have established such +a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very good beginning +towards establishing it over the world. To establish such a system in +Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal with an +immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and +ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon +Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before +long overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition +between the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous +within the last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and +Kansas are already formidable competitors with England, France, and +Germany; but this is but the beginning. It is but the first spray from +the tremendous wave of economic competition that is gathering in the +Mississippi valley. By and by, when our shameful tariff--falsely called +"protective"--shall have been done away with, and our manufacturers +shall produce superior articles at less cost of raw material, we shall +begin to compete with European countries in all the markets of the +world; and the competition in manufactures will become as keen as it is +now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will not be long in +coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, and in +the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born of +crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. When +this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse +of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure +exerted upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great +indeed. It will not be long before this economic pressure will make it +simply impossible for the states of Europe to keep up such military +armaments as they are now maintaining. The disparity between the United +States, with a standing army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn +from industrial pursuits, and the states of Europe, with their standing +armies amounting to four millions of men, is something that cannot +possibly be kept up. The economic competition will become so keen that +European armies will have to be disbanded, the swords will have to be +turned into ploughshares, and _thus_ the victory of the industrial over +the military type of civilization will at last become complete. But to +disband the great armies of Europe will necessarily involve the forcing +of the great states of Europe into some sort of federal relation, in +which Congresses--already held on rare occasions--will become more +frequent, in which the principles of international law will acquire a +more definite sanction, and in which the combined physical power of all +the states will constitute (as it now does in America) a permanent +threat against any state that dares to wish for selfish reasons to break +the peace. In some such way as this, I believe, the industrial +development of the English race outside of Europe will by and by enforce +federalism upon Europe. As regards the serious difficulties that grow +out of prejudices attendant upon differences in language, race, and +creed, a most valuable lesson is furnished us by the history of +Switzerland. I am inclined to think that the greatest contribution which +Switzerland has made to the general progress of civilization has been to +show us how such obstacles can be surmounted, even on a small scale. To +surmount them on a great scale will soon become the political problem of +Europe; and it is America which has set the example and indicated +the method. + +Thus we may foresee in general outline how, through the gradual +concentration of the preponderance of physical power into the hands of +the most pacific communities, the wretched business of warfare must +finally become obsolete all over the globe. The element of distance is +now fast becoming eliminated from political problems, and the history of +human progress politically will continue in the future to be what it has +been in the past,--the history of the successive union of groups of men +into larger and more complex aggregates. As this process goes on, it may +after many more ages of political experience become apparent that there +is really no reason, in the nature of things, why the whole of mankind +should not constitute politically one huge federation,--each little +group managing its local affairs in entire independence, but relegating +all questions of international interest to the decision of one central +tribunal supported by the public opinion of the entire human race. I +believe that the time will come when such a state of things will exist +upon the earth, when it will be possible (with our friends of the Paris +dinner-party) to speak of the UNITED STATES as stretching from pole to +pole,--or, with Tennyson, to celebrate the "parliament of man and the +federation of the world." Indeed, only when such a state of things has +begun to be realized, can Civilization, as sharply demarcated from +Barbarism, be said to have fairly begun. Only then can the world be said +to have become truly Christian. Many ages of toil and doubt and +perplexity will no doubt pass by before such a desideratum is reached. +Meanwhile it is pleasant to feel that the dispassionate contemplation of +great masses of historical facts goes far towards confirming our faith +in this ultimate triumph of good over evil. Our survey began with +pictures of horrid slaughter and desolation: it ends with the picture of +a world covered with cheerful homesteads, blessed with a sabbath of +perpetual peace. + + + + +[Footnote 1: Freeman, "Norman Conquest," v. 482.] + +[Footnote 2: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 264.] + +[Footnote 3: This is disputed, however. See Ross, "Early History of +Landholding among the Germans."] + +[Footnote 4: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 84.] + +[Footnote 5: Kemble, "Saxons in England," i. 59.] + +[Footnote 6: Maine, "Village Communities," Lond., 1871, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 7: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 85.] + +[Footnote 8: Freeman, "Comparative Politics," 118.] + +[Footnote 9: Geffroy, "Rome et les Barbares," 209.] + +[Footnote 10: Maine, "Village Communities," 118.] + +[Footnote 11: Stubbs, "Constitutional History," i. 625.] + +[Footnote 12: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 13: "La Cite Antique," 441.] + +[Footnote 14: Arnold, "Roman Provincial Administration," 237.] + +[Footnote 15: Stubbs, "Select Charters," 401.] + +[Footnote 16: In 1880.] + + + +INDEX. + + +Abderrahman +Achaian league +Aden +Adoption +Aetolian league +Africa, English colonies in +Albany Congress +Amphiktyonic Council +Angeln +Angles +Anglo-American +Anglo-Saxon +Appomattox +Arable mark +Ariovistus +Armada, the Invincible +Armies of Europe will be disbanded +Arminius +Arnold, M. +Asiaticization +Athens, grandeur of + incorporated demes of Attika, + old tribal divisions modified, + school of political training + maritime empire of +Attila +Australia +Austria + +Baker, Sir S. +Bancroft, Hubert +Barons, war of the +Basileus +Batu +Belgium +Benefices +Bern +Bonaparte, N. +Bonapartism +Boroughs, special privileges of +Boston, growth of + its Common +Boundaries of United States +Burgundians +By-laws + +Caesar, J. +California, social experiments in +Canada under Old Regime +Candolle, A. de, +Canton, +Carlyle on dollar-hunters, +Centralized government, weakness of, +Century, +Ceylon, +Chalons, battle of, +Charles I., +Charles the Bold, +Charles Martel, +Charles the Great, +Chatham, Lord, +Chester, +Chicago, +Chinese, +Christianity, +Church, mediaeval, +Cities in England and America, + origin of, +City, the ancient, +Civilization, its primary phase, + long threatened by neighbouring barbarism, +Clan-system of political union, +Claudius, emperor, +Clement IV., +Cleveland, city of. +Colenso, J.W. +Colonies, how founded, +Comitia, +Commendation, +Commons, House of, +Commons, origin of, +Communal farming in England, +Communal landholding, +Competition, industrial, between Europe and America, +Confederation, articles of, +Connecticut, men of, defy James II., +Constitution of the United States, +Continentals and British, +Cromwell, O., +Curia, + + +Delian confederacy, +Derne, +Departments of France, +Dependencies, danger of governing them despotically, +Didius Julianus, +Diocletian, +Domestic service in a New England village, +Dorset, +Dover, men of, throw papal bull into sea, +Duke, +Dutch republic, + + +Ealdorman, +Ecclesia, +Eden, Chuzzlewit's, +Electoral commission, +Emancipation of slaves, +England, maritime supremacy of +English colonization + language, future of + self-government, how preserved, + villages + +Famines +Federal union on great scale, + conditions of + its durableness lies in its flexibility +Federalism, pacific implications of + will be adopted by Europe +Federation and conquest +Federations in Greece +Feudal system, origin of +Fick, A. +France, political development of + contrasted with England as a colonizer +France and Germany, their late war + their political weight a century hence +Francis I. +Franklin, B. +Franks +Freeman, E.A. +Freiburg +French villages + +Gau +Gaul, Roman conquest of +Geneva +Gens +Georgia +Germany conquered and converted by Charles the Great +Gibraltar +Goths +Great states, method of forming, + notion of their having an inherent tendency to break up + difficulty of forming +Grimm, J. + +Haddon Hall +Hamburg +Hamilton, A. +Hampden, J. +Hannibal's invasion of Italy +Hearn, Professor +Henry VIII. +Heretoga +Hindustan, village communities in + cities in +Holland +Howard of Effingham +Hundred +Hungary +Hunnish invasion of Europe + +Incorporation +Iroquois tribes + +James II. +Jinghis Khan, +Judiciary, federal, + +Kansas, +Kemble, J., +Kingship among ancient Teutons, + +La Salle, R., +Lausanne, +Leo's defeat of the Saracens, +Lewes, battle of, +Liegnitz, battle of, +Lincoln, A., +Lincoln, city of, +Livingstone, Dr., +Lombards, +London, growth of, +Louis VI., +Louis XIV., + + +Madison, J., +Maine, Sir II., +Maintz, +Malta, +Manorial courts, +Manors, origin of, +March meetings in New England, +Marius, C., +Mark, + in England, + meaning of the word, +Mark-mote, +Massachusetts, +May assemblies in Switzerland, +Melbourne, city of, +Middle Ages, turbulence of, +Military strength of civilized world, its increase, +Minnesota, +Mir, or Russian village, +Mongolian Khans in Russia, +Mongols, +Montenegro, +Montfort, S. de, + + +Naseby, battle of, +Navies less dangerous than standing armies, +Nebraska, +Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square, +Nevada, +New England confederacy, +New York, +New Zealand, +Norman conquest, +North America, struggle for possession of, + + +Omar, + + +Pagus, +Paris, American dinner-party in, +Parish, its relation to township, +Parkman, F. +Pax romana +Peace of the world, how secured, +Peerage of England +Peloponnesian war +Persian war against Greece +Pestilences +Petersham +Philip, King +Phratries +Pictet, A. +Poland +Pontiac +Population of United States a century hence +Private property in land +Problem of political civilization +Protestantism and Catholicism, political question at stake between +Prussia conquered by Teutonic knights +Puritanism +Puritans of New England, their origin + + +Quebec, Wolfe's victory at + + +Rebellion against Charles I. +Redivision of arable lands +Re-election of town officers +Representation unknown to Greeks and Romans + origin of + federal, in United States +Rex +Rhode Island +Roman law +Rome, plebeian revolution at + early stages of + secret of its power + advantages of its dominion + causes of its political failure, + powerful influence of, in Middle Ages + meaning of its great wars +Roses, wars of the +Ross, D. +Russia, Mongolian conquest of + village communities in + its late war against the Turks + its despotic government contrasted with that of France under Old Regime + + +SARACENS +Scandinavia +Secession, war of +Selectmen +Self-government preserved in England + lost in France +Shakespeare +Shires +Shottery, cottage at +Smith, J. +Social war +South Carolina +Spain, Roman conquest of +Sparta +State sovereignty in America +Strasburg +Strategic position of England +Stubbs, W. +Suez +Swiss cantonal assemblies +Switzerland, lesson of its history + self-government preserved in + +Tacitus +Tariff in America +Tax-taking despotisms +Tennyson, A. +Teutonic civilization contrasted with Graeco-Roman +Teutonic knights +Teutonic village communities +Texas +Thegnhood +Thirty Years' War +Thukydides +Tocqueville +Tourist in United States +Town, meaning of the word +Town-meetings, origin of +Town-names formed from patronymics +Township in New England, + in western states +Tribe and shire +Turks + +Versailles +Vestry-meetings +Victoria, Australia +Village-mark +Villages of New England +Virginia, parishes in +Visigoths + +Wallace, D.M. +War of independence +Warfare, universal in early times + how diminished + interferes with political development + less destructive now than in ancient times + how effectively waged by the most pacific of peoples +Washington, city of +Washington, G. +William III. +Witenagemote +Wolfe's victory at Quebec + +Yorktown + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Political Ideas Viewed From +The Standpoint Of Universal History, by John Fiske + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL IDEAS *** + +***** This file should be named 10112.txt or 10112.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/1/10112/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Debra Storr and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions 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