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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Institutions and Their Influence, by
+Alexis de Tocqueville et al.
+
+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 Institutions and Their Influence
+
+Author: Alexis de Tocqueville et al.
+
+Commentator: John C. Spencer
+
+
+Release Date: August, 2005  [EBook #8690]
+This file was first posted on August 1, 2003
+Last Updated: May 31, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lee Dawei, David King, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE.
+
+By Alexis De Tocqueville.
+
+With Notes, by Hon. John C. Spencer.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851,
+
+BY A.S. BARNES & CO.,
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+
+Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT.
+
+The American publishers of M. De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America,"
+have been frequently solicited to furnish the work in a form adapted
+to seminaries of learning, and at a price which would secure its more
+general circulation, and enable trustees of School District Libraries,
+and other libraries, to place it among their collections. Desirous to
+attain these objects, they have consulted several gentlemen, in whose
+judgment they confided, and particularly the editor of the American
+editions, to ascertain whether the work was capable of abridgment or
+condensation, so as to bring the expense of its publication within the
+necessary limits. They are advised that the nature of the work renders
+it impossible to condense it by omitting any remarks or illustrations of
+the author upon any subject discussed by him, even if common justice to
+him did not forbid any such attempt; and that the only mode of reducing
+its bulk, is to exclude wholly such subjects as are deemed not to be
+essential.
+
+It will be recollected that the first volume was originally published
+separately, and was complete in itself. It treated of the influence
+of democracy upon the political institutions of the United States,
+and exhibited views of the nature of our government, and of their
+complicated machinery, so new, so striking, and so just, as to excite
+the admiration and even the wonder of our countrymen. It was universally
+admitted to be the best, if not the first systematic and philosophic
+view of the great principles of our constitutions which has been
+presented to the world. As a treatise upon the spirit of our
+governments, it was full and finished, and was deemed worthy of being
+introduced as a text-book in some of our Seminaries of Learning.
+The publication of the first volume alone would therefore seem to be
+sufficient to accomplish in the main the objects of the publishers above
+stated.
+
+And upon a careful re-examination of the second volume, this impression
+is confirmed. It is entirely independent of the first volume, and is
+in no way essential to a full understanding of the principles and views
+contained in that volume. It discusses the effects of the democratic
+principle upon the tastes, feelings, habits, and manners of the
+Americans; and although deeply interesting and valuable, yet the
+observations of the author on these subjects are better calculated for
+foreign countries than for our own citizens. As he wrote for Europe
+they were necessary to his plan. They follow naturally and properly the
+profound views which had already been presented, and which they carry
+out and illustrate. But they furnish no new developments of those views,
+nor any facts that would be new to us.
+
+The publishers were therefore advised that the printing of the first
+volume complete and entire, was the only mode of attaining the object
+they had in view. They have accordingly determined to adopt that course,
+intending, if the public sentiment should require it, hereafter to print
+the second volume in the same style, so that both may be had at the same
+moderate price.
+
+A few notes, in addition to those contained in the former editions, have
+been made by the American editor, which upon a reperusal of the volume
+seemed useful if not necessary: and some statistical results of the
+census of 1840 have been added, in connection with similar results given
+by the author from returns previous to that year.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
+
+The following work of M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has attracted great attention
+throughout Europe, where it is universally regarded as a sound,
+philosophical, impartial, and remarkably clear and distinct view of our
+political institutions, and of our manners, opinions, and habits, as
+influencing or influenced by those institutions. Writers, reviewers, and
+statesmen of all parties, have united in the highest commendations of
+its ability and integrity. The people, described by a work of such a
+character, should not be the only one in Christendom unacquainted with
+its contents. At least, so thought many of our most distinguished men,
+who have urged the publishers of this edition to reprint the work, and
+present it to the American public. They have done so in the hope of
+promoting among their countrymen a more thorough knowledge of their
+frames of government, and a more just appreciation of the great
+principles on which they are founded.
+
+But it seemed to them that a reprint in America of the views of an
+author so well entitled to regard and confidence, without any correction
+of the few errors or mistakes that might be found, would be in effect
+to give authenticity to the whole work, and that foreign readers,
+especially, would consider silence, under such circumstances, as strong
+evidence of the accuracy of its statements. The preface to the English
+edition, too, was not adapted to this country, having been written, as
+it would seem, in reference to the political questions which agitate
+Great Britain. The publishers, therefore, applied to the writer of this,
+to furnish them with a short preface, and such notes upon the text as
+might appear necessary to correct any erroneous impressions. Having had
+the honor of a personal acquaintance with M. DE TOCQUEVILLE while he was
+in this country; having discussed with him many of the topics treated
+of in this book; having entered deeply into the feelings and sentiments
+which guided and impelled him in his task, and having formed a high
+admiration of his character and of this production, the writer felt
+under some obligation to aid in procuring for one whom he ventures
+to call his friend, a hearing from those who were the subjects of his
+observations. These circumstances furnish to his own mind an apology for
+undertaking what no one seemed willing to attempt, notwithstanding
+his want of practice in literary composition, and notwithstanding
+the impediments of professional avocations, constantly recurring, and
+interrupting that strict and continued examination of the work, which
+became necessary, as well to detect any errors of the author, as any
+misunderstanding or misrepresentation of his meaning by his translator.
+If the same circumstances will atone in the least for the imperfections
+of what the editor has contributed to this edition, and will serve to
+mitigate the severity of judgment upon those contributions, it is all he
+can hope or ask.
+
+The NOTES are confined, with very few exceptions, to the correction of
+what appeared to be misapprehensions of the author in regard to some
+matters of fact, or some principles of law, and to explaining his
+meaning where the translator had misconceived it. For the latter purpose
+the original was consulted; and it affords great pleasure to bear
+witness to the general fidelity with which Mr. REEVE has transferred
+the author's ideas from French into English. He has not been a literal
+translator, and this has been the cause of the very few errors which
+have been discovered: but he has been more and better: he has caught the
+spirit of M. DE TOCQUEVILLE, has understood the sentiment he meant to
+express, and has clothed it in the language which M. DE TOCQUEVILLE
+would have himself used, had he possessed equal facility in writing the
+English language.
+
+Being confined to the objects before mentioned, the reader will not find
+any comments on the theoretical views of our author. He has discussed
+many subjects on which very different opinions are entertained in the
+United States; but with an ability, a candor, and an evident devotion
+to the cause of truth, which will commend his views to those who most
+radically dissent from them. Indeed, readers of the most discordant
+opinions will find that he frequently agrees with both sides, and as
+frequently differs from them. As an instance, his remarks on slavery
+will not be found to coincide throughout with the opinions either of
+abolitionists or of slaveholders: but they will be found to present a
+masterly view of a most perplexing and interesting subject, which seems
+to cover the whole ground, and to lead to the melancholy conclusion of
+the utter impotency of human effort to eradicate this acknowledged evil.
+But on this, and on the various topics of the deepest interest which are
+discussed in this work, it was thought that the American readers would
+be fully competent to form their own opinions, and to detect any errors
+of the author, if such there are, without any attempt of the present
+editor to enlighten them. At all events, it is to be hoped that
+the citizens of the United States will patiently read, and candidly
+consider, the views of this accomplished foreigner, however hostile they
+may be to their own preconceived opinions or prejudices. He says: "There
+are certain truths which Americans can only learn from strangers, or
+from experience." Let us, then, at least listen to one who admires us
+and our institutions, and whose complaints, when he makes any, are, that
+we have not perfected our own glorious plans, and that there are some
+things yet to be amended. We shall thus furnish a practical proof, that
+public opinion in this country is not so intolerant as the author may be
+understood to represent it. However mistaken he may be, his manly appeal
+to our understandings and to our consciences, should at least be heard.
+"If ever," he says, "these lines are read in America, I am well assured
+of two things: in the first place, that all who peruse them will raise
+their voice to condemn me; and, in the second place, that very many of
+them will acquit me at the bottom of their consciences." He is writing
+on that very sore subject, the tyranny of public opinion in the United
+States.
+
+Fully to comprehend the scope of the present work, the author's motive
+and object in preparing it should be distinctly kept in view. He has
+written, not for America, but for France. "It was not, then, merely to
+satisfy a legitimate curiosity," he says, "that I have examined America:
+my wish has been to find instruction, by which we might ourselves
+profit."--"I sought the image of democracy itself, with its
+inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order
+to learn what we have to hope or fear from its progress." He thinks that
+the principle of democracy has sprung into new life throughout Europe,
+and particularly in France, and that it is advancing: with a firm and
+steady march to the control of all civilized governments. In his own
+country, he had seen a recent attempt to repress its energies within due
+bounds, and to prevent the consequences of its excesses. And it seems
+to be a main object with him, to ascertain whether these bounds can be
+relied upon; whether the dikes and embankments of human contrivance
+can keep within any appointed channel this mighty and majestic stream.
+Giving the fullest confidence to his declaration, that his book "is
+written to favor no particular views and with no design of serving or
+attacking any party," it is yet evident that his mind has been very open
+to receive impressions unfavorable to the admission into France of the
+unbounded and unlimited democracy which reigns in these United States.
+A knowledge of this inclination of his mind will necessarily induce some
+caution in his readers, while perusing those parts of the work which
+treat of the effects of our democracy upon the stability of our
+government and its administration. While the views of the author,
+respecting the application of the democratic principle, in the extent
+that it exists with us, to the institutions of France, or to any of
+the European nations, are of the utmost importance to the people and
+statesmen of those countries, they are scarcely less entitled to the
+attention of Americans. He has exhibited, with admirable skill, the
+causes and circumstances which prepared our forefathers, gradually, for
+the enjoyment of free institutions, and which enable them to sustain,
+without abusing, the utmost liberty that was ever enjoyed by any people.
+In tracing these causes, in examining how far they continue to influence
+our conduct, manners, and opinions, and in searching for the means of
+preventing their decay or destruction, the intelligent American reader
+will find no better guide than M. DE TOCQUEVILLE.
+
+Fresh from the scenes of the "three days" revolution in France, the
+author came among us to observe, carefully and critically, the operation
+of the new principle on which the happiness of his country, and, as he
+seems to believe, the destinies of the civilized world, depend. Filled
+with the love of liberty, but remembering the atrocities which, in its
+name, had been committed under former dynasties at home, he sought to
+discover the means by which it was regulated in America, and reconciled
+with social order. By his laborious investigations, and minute
+observations of the history of the settlement of the country, and of its
+progress through the colonial state to independence, he found the object
+of his inquiry in the manners, habits, and opinions, of a people who had
+been gradually prepared, by a long course of peculiar circumstances, and
+by their local position, for self-government; and he has explained, with
+a pencil of light, the mystery that has baffled Europeans and perplexed
+Americans. He exhibits us, in our present condition, a new, and to
+Europeans, a strange people. His views of our political institutions are
+more general, comprehensive, and philosophic than have been presented by
+any writer, domestic or foreign. He has traced them from their source,
+democracy--the power of the people--and has steadily pursued this
+foundation-principle in all its forms and modifications: in the frame of
+our governments, in their administration by the different executives, in
+our legislation, in the arrangement of our judiciary, in our manners,
+in religion, in the freedom and licentiousness of the press, in the
+influence of public opinion, and in various subtle recesses, where its
+existence was scarcely suspected. In all these, he analyzes and dissects
+the tendencies of democracy; heartily applauds where he can, and
+faithfully and independently gives warning of dangers that he foresees.
+No one can read the result of his observations without better and
+clearer perceptions of the structure of out governments, of the great
+pillars on which they rest, and of the dangers to which they are
+exposed: nor without a more profound and more intelligent admiration
+of the harmony and beauty of their formation, and of the safeguards
+provided for preserving and transmitting them to a distant posterity.
+The more that general and indefinite notions of our own liberty,
+greatness, happiness, &c., are made to give place to precise and
+accurate knowledge of the true merits of our institutions, the peculiar
+objects they are calculated to attain or promote, and the means provided
+for that purpose, the better will every citizen be enabled to discharge
+his great political duty of guarding those means against the approach
+of corruption, and of sustaining them against the violence of party
+commotions. No foreigner has ever exhibited such a deep, clear, and
+correct insight of the machinery of our complicated systems of federal
+and state governments. The most intelligent Europeans are confounded
+with our _imperium in imperio_; and their constant wonder is, that these
+systems are not continually jostling each other. M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has
+clearly perceived, and traced correctly and distinctly, the orbits
+in which they move, and has described, or rather defined, our federal
+government, with an accurate precision, unsurpassed even by an American
+pen. There is no citizen of this country who will not derive instruction
+from our author's account of our national government, or, at least, who
+will not find his own ideas systematised, and rendered more fixed and
+precise, by the perusal of that account.
+
+Among other subjects discussed by the author, that of the _political
+influence_ of the institution of trial by jury, is one of the most
+curious and interesting. He has certainly presented it in a light
+entirely new, and as important as it is new. It may be that he has
+exaggerated its influence as "a gratuitous public school;" but if he
+has, the error will be readily forgiven.
+
+His views of religion, as connected with patriotism, in other words,
+with the democratic principle, which he steadily keeps in view, are
+conceived in the noblest spirit of philanthropy, and cannot fail to
+confirm the principles already so thoroughly and universally entertained
+by the American people. And no one can read his observations on the
+union of "church and state," without a feeling of deep gratitude to the
+founders of our government, for saving us from such a prolific source of
+evil.
+
+These allusions to topics that have interested the writer, are not
+intended as an enumeration of the various subjects which will arrest the
+attention of the American reader. They have been mentioned rather with a
+view of exciting an appetite for the whole feast, than as exhibiting the
+choice dainties which cover the board.
+
+It remains only to observe, that in this edition the constitutions of
+the United States and of the state of New York, which had been published
+at large in the original and in the English edition, have been omitted,
+as they are documents to which every American reader has access. The
+map which the author annexed to his work, and which has been hitherto
+omitted, is now for the first time inserted in the American edition, to
+which has been added the census of 1840.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
+  Introduction
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  Exterior form of North America
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  Origin of the Anglo-Americans, and its Importance in Relation to their
+      future Condition
+  Reasons of certain Anomalies which the Laws and Customs of the
+      Anglo-Americans present
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans
+  The striking Characteristic of the social Condition of the
+      Anglo-Americans is its essential Democracy
+  Political Consequences of the social Condition of the Anglo-Americans
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  The Principle of the Sovereignty of the People in America
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  Necessity of examining the Condition of the States before that of the
+      Union at large
+  The American System of Townships and municipal Bodies
+  Limits of the Townships
+  Authorities of the Township in New England
+  Existence of the Township
+  Public Spirit of the Townships of New England
+  The Counties of New England
+  Administration in New England
+  General Remarks on the Administration of the United States
+      Of the State
+  Legislative Power of the State
+  The executive Power of the State
+  Political Effects of the System of local Administration in the
+      United States
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  Judicial Power in the United States, and its Influence on Political
+      Society
+  Other Powers granted to the American Judges
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  Political Jurisdiction in the United States
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  The federal Constitution
+  History of the federal Constitution
+  Summary of the federal Constitution
+  Prerogative of the federal Government
+  Federal Powers
+  Legislative Powers
+  A farther Difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives
+  The executive Power
+  Differences between the Position of the President of the United States
+      and that of a constitutional King of France.
+  Accidental Causes which may increase the Influence of the executive
+      Government
+  Why the President of the United States does not require the Majority of
+      the two Houses in Order to carry on the Government
+  Election of the President
+  Mode of Election
+  Crisis of the Election
+  Re-Election of the President
+  Federal Courts
+  Means of determining the Jurisdiction of the federal Courts
+  Different Cases of Jurisdiction
+  Procedure of the federal Courts
+  High Rank of the supreme Courts among the great Powers of the State
+  In what Respects the federal Constitution is superior to that of the
+      States
+  Characteristics which distinguish the federal Constitution of the United
+      States of America from all other federal Constitutions
+  Advantages of the federal System in General, and its special Utility in
+      America
+  Why the federal System is not adapted to all Peoples, and how the
+      Anglo-Americans were enabled to adopt it
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  Why the People may strictly be said to govern in the United States
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  Parties in the United States
+  Remains of the aristocratic Party in the United States
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  Liberty of the Press in the United States
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  Political Associations in the United States
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  Government of the Democracy in America
+  Universal Suffrage
+  Choice of the People, and instinctive Preferences of the American
+      Democracy
+  Causes which may partly correct the Tendencies of the Democracy
+  Influence which the American Democracy has exercised on the Laws
+      relating to Elections
+  Public Officers under the control of the Democracy in America
+  Arbitrary Power of Magistrates under the Rule of the American Democracy
+  Instability of the Administration in the United States
+  Charges levied by the State under the rule of the American Democracy
+  Tendencies of the American Democracy as regards the Salaries of public
+      Officers
+  Difficulties of distinguishing the Causes which contribute to the
+      Economy of the American Government
+  Whether the Expenditure of the United States can be compared to that of
+      France
+  Corruption and vices of the Rulers in a Democracy, and consequent
+      Effects upon public Morality
+  Efforts of which a Democracy is capable
+  Self-control of the American Democracy
+  Conduct of foreign Affairs, by the American Democracy
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  What the real Advantages are which American Society derives from the
+      Government of the Democracy
+  General Tendency of the Laws under the Rule of the American Democracy,
+      and Habits of those who apply them
+  Public Spirit in the United States
+  Notion of Rights in the United States
+  Respect for the Law in the United States
+  Activity which pervades all the Branches of the Body politic in the
+      United States; Influence which it exercises upon Society
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States, and its
+      Consequences
+  How the unlimited Power of the Majority increases in America, the
+      Instability of Legislation inherent in Democracy
+  Tyranny of the Majority
+  Effects of the unlimited Power of the Majority upon the arbitrary
+      Authority of the American public Officers
+  Power exercised by the Majority in America upon public Opinion
+  Effects of the Tyranny of the Majority upon the national Character of
+      the Americans
+  The greatest Dangers of the American Republics proceed from the
+      unlimited Power of the Majority
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  Causes which Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority in the United States
+  Absence of central Administration
+  The Profession of the Law in the United States serves to Counterpoise
+      the Democracy
+  Trial by Jury in the United States considered as a political Institution
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  Principal Causes which tend to maintain the democratic Republic in the
+      United States
+  Accidental or providential Causes which contribute to the Maintenance of
+      the democratic Republic in the United States
+  Influence of the Laws upon the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in
+      the United States
+  Influence of Manners upon the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in
+      the United States
+  Religion considered as a political Institution, which powerfully
+      Contributes to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic among the
+      Americans
+  Indirect Influence of religious Opinions upon political Society in the
+      United States
+  Principal Causes which render Religion powerful in America
+  How the Instruction, the Habits, and the practical Experience of the
+      Americans, promote the Success of their democratic Institutions
+  The Laws contribute more to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic
+      in the United States than the physical Circumstances of the Country,
+      and the Manners more than the Laws
+  Whether Laws and Manners are sufficient to maintain democratic
+      Institutions in other Countries beside America
+  Importance of what precedes with respect to the State of Europe
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+  The present and probable future Condition of the three Races which
+      Inhabit the Territory of the United States
+  The present and probable future Condition of the Indian Tribes which
+      Inhabit the Territory possessed by the Union
+  Situation of the black Population in the United States, and Dangers with
+      which its Presence threatens the Whites
+  What are the Chances in favor of the Duration of the American Union, and
+      what Dangers threaten it
+  Of the republican Institutions of the United States, and what their
+      Chances of Duration are
+  Reflections on the Causes of the commercial Prosperity of the United
+      States
+
+  Conclusion
+
+  Appendix
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in
+the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general
+equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence
+which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by
+giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to
+the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar
+habits to the governed.
+
+I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond
+the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has
+no less empire over civil society than over the government; it creates
+opinions, engenders sentiments, the ordinary practices of life, and
+modifies whatever it does not produce.
+
+The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I
+perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from
+which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all
+my observations constantly terminated.
+
+I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined that
+I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New World
+presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is daily
+advancing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have reached
+in the United States; and that the democracy which governs the American
+communities, appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe.
+
+I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader.
+
+It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is
+going on among us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and
+consequences. To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such
+may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the
+most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is
+to be found in history.
+
+Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when
+the territory was divided among a small number of families, who were
+the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right
+of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to
+generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man; and
+landed property was the sole source of power.
+
+Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and began
+to exert itself; the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the poor
+and the rich, the villain and the lord; equality penetrated into the
+government through the church, and the being who, as a serf, must have
+vegetated in perpetual bondage, took his place as a priest in the midst
+of nobles, and not unfrequently above the heads of kings.
+
+The different relations of men became more complicated and more
+numerous, as society gradually became more stable and more civilized.
+Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal
+functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their
+dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of
+the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail.
+
+While the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and
+the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders
+were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to
+be perceptible in state affairs. The transactions of business opened
+a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political
+influence in which he was at once flattered and despised.
+
+Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste
+for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science
+became the means of government, intelligence led to social power, and
+the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the state.
+
+The value attached to the privileges of birth, decreased in the exact
+proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the
+eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it
+might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and
+equality was thus introduced into the government by the aristocracy
+itself.
+
+In the course of these seven hundred years, it sometimes happened that,
+in order to resist the authority of the crown, or to diminish the power
+of their rivals, the nobles granted a certain share of political rights
+to the people. Or, more frequently the king permitted the lower orders
+to enjoy a degree of power, with the intention of repressing the
+aristocracy.
+
+In France the kings have always been the most active and the most
+constant of levellers. When they were strong and ambitious, they spared
+no pains to raise the people to the level of the nobles; when they were
+temperate or weak, they allowed the people to rise above themselves.
+Some assisted the democracy by their talents, others by their vices.
+Louis XI. and Louis XIV. reduced every rank beneath the throne to the
+same subjection; Louis XV. descended, himself and all his court, into
+the dust.
+
+As soon as land was held on any other than a feudal tenure, and
+personal property began in its turn to confer influence and power, every
+improvement which was introduced in commerce or manufacture, was a fresh
+element of the equality of conditions. Henceforward every new discovery,
+every new want which it engendered, and every new desire which craved
+satisfaction, was a step toward the universal level. The taste for
+luxury, the love of war, the sway of fashion, the most superficial, as
+well as the deepest passions of the human heart, co-operated to enrich
+the poor and to impoverish the rich.
+
+From the time when the exercise of the intellect became the source of
+strength and of wealth, it is impossible not to consider every addition
+to science, every fresh truth, and every new idea, as a germe of power
+placed within the reach of the people. Poetry, eloquence, and memory,
+the grace of wit, the glow of imagination, the depth of thought, and all
+the gifts which are bestowed by Providence with an equal hand, turned
+to the advantage of the democracy; and even when they were in the
+possession of its adversaries, they still served its cause by throwing
+into relief the natural greatness of man; its conquests spread,
+therefore, with those of civilisation and knowledge; and literature
+became an arsenal, where the poorest and weakest could always find
+weapons to their hand.
+
+In perusing the pages of our history, we shall scarcely meet with a
+single great event, in the lapse of seven hundred years, which has not
+turned to the advantage of equality.
+
+The crusades and the wars of the English decimated the nobles, and
+divided their possessions; the erection of communes introduced an
+element of democratic liberty into the bosom of feudal monarchy; the
+invention of firearms equalized the villain and the noble on the field
+of battle; printing opened the same resources to the minds of all
+classes; the post was organized so as to bring the same information to
+the door of the poor man's cottage and to the gate of the palace; and
+protestantism proclaimed that all men are alike able to find the road
+to heaven. The discovery of America offered a thousand new paths to
+fortune, and placed riches and power within the reach of the adventurous
+and the obscure.
+
+If we examine what has happened in France at intervals of fifty years,
+beginning with the eleventh century, we shall invariably perceive that
+a twofold revolution has taken place in the state of society. The noble
+has gone down on the social ladder, and the _roturier_ has gone up; the
+one descends as the other rises. Every half-century brings them nearer
+to each other, and they will very shortly meet.
+
+Nor is this phenomenon at all peculiar to France. Whithersoever we turn
+our eyes, we shall discover the same continual revolution throughout the
+whole of Christendom.
+
+The various occurrences of national existence have everywhere turned to
+the advantage of democracy; all men have aided it by their exertions;
+those who have intentionally labored in its cause, and those who have
+served it unwittingly--those who have fought for it, and those who have
+declared themselves its opponents--have all been driven along in the
+same track, have all labored to one end, some ignorantly, and some
+unwillingly; all have been blind instruments in the hands of God.
+
+The gradual development of the equality of conditions is, therefore, a
+providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine
+decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human
+interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its
+progress.
+
+Would it, then, be wise to imagine that a social impulse which dates
+from so far back, can be checked by the efforts of a generation? Is it
+credible that the democracy which has annihilated the feudal system, and
+vanquished kings, will respect the citizen and the capitalist? Will it
+stop now that it has grown so strong and its adversaries so weak?
+
+None can say which way we are going, for all terms of comparison are
+wanting: the equality of conditions is more complete in the Christian,
+countries of the present day, than it has been at any time, or in any
+part of the world; so that the extent of what already exists prevents us
+from foreseeing what may be yet to come.
+
+The whole book which is here offered to the public, has been written
+under the impression of a kind of religious dread, produced in the
+author's mind by the contemplation of so irresistible a revolution,
+which has advanced for centuries in spite of such amazing obstacles, and
+which is still proceeding in the midst of the ruins it has made.
+
+It is not necessary that God himself should speak in order to disclose
+to us the unquestionable signs of his will; we can discern them in the
+habitual course of nature, and in the invariable tendency of events; I
+know, without a special revelation, that the planets move in the orbits
+traced by the Creator's fingers.
+
+If the men of our time were led by attentive observation and by sincere
+reflection, to acknowledge that the gradual and progressive development
+of social equality is at once the past and future of their history, this
+solitary truth would confer the sacred character of a divine decree
+upon the change. To attempt to check democracy would be in that case
+to resist the will of God; and the nations would then be constrained to
+make the best of the social lot awarded to them by Providence.
+
+The Christian nations of our age seem to me to present a most alarming
+spectacle; the impulse which is bearing them along is so strong that it
+cannot be stopped, but it is not yet so rapid that it cannot be guided:
+their fate is in their hands; yet a little while and it may be so no
+longer.
+
+The first duty which is at this time imposed upon those who direct
+our affairs is to educate the democracy; to warm its faith, if that be
+possible; to purify its morals; to direct its energies; to substitute a
+knowledge of business for its inexperience, and an acquaintance with its
+true interests for its blind propensities; to adapt its government to
+time and place, and to modify it in compliance with the occurrences and
+the actors of the age.
+
+A new science of politics is indispensable to a new world.
+
+This, however, is what we think of least; launched in the middle of a
+rapid stream, we obstinately fix our eyes on the ruins which may still
+be descried upon the shore we have left, while the current sweeps us
+along, and drives us backward toward the gulf.
+
+In no country in Europe has the great social revolution which I have
+been describing, made such rapid progress as in France; but it has
+always been borne on by chance. The heads of the state have never had
+any forethought for its exigences, and its victories have been obtained
+without their consent or without their knowledge. The most powerful, the
+most intelligent, and the most moral classes of the nation have never
+attempted to connect themselves with it in order to guide it. The people
+have consequently been abandoned to its wild propensities, and it has
+grown up like those outcasts who receive their education in the
+public streets, and who are unacquainted with aught but the vices and
+wretchedness of society. The existence of a democracy was seemingly
+unknown, when, on a sudden, it took possession of the supreme power.
+Everything was then submitted to its caprices; it was worshipped as the
+idol of strength; until, when it was enfeebled by its own excesses, the
+legislator conceived the rash project of annihilating its power, instead
+of instructing it and correcting its vices; no attempt was made to fit
+it to govern, but all were bent on excluding it from the government.
+
+The consequence of this has been that the democratic revolution has been
+effected only in the material parts of society, without that concomitant
+change in laws, ideas, customs, and manners, which was necessary to
+render such a revolution beneficial. We have gotten a democracy, but
+without the conditions which lessen its vices, and render its natural
+advantages more prominent; and although we already perceive the evils it
+brings, we are ignorant of the benefits it may confer.
+
+While the power of the crown, supported by the aristocracy, peaceably
+governed the nations of Europe, society possessed, in the midst of its
+wretchedness, several different advantages which can now scarcely be
+appreciated or conceived.
+
+The power of a part of his subjects was an insurmountable barrier to
+the tyranny of the prince; and the monarch who felt the almost divine
+character which he enjoyed in the eyes of the multitude, derived a
+motive for the just use of his power from the respect which he inspired.
+
+High as they were placed above the people, the nobles could not but take
+that calm and benevolent interest in its fate which the shepherd feels
+toward his flock; and without acknowledging the poor as their equals,
+they watched over the destiny of those whose welfare Providence had
+intrusted to their care.
+
+The people, never having conceived the idea of a social condition
+different from its own, and entertaining no expectation of ever ranking
+with its chiefs, received benefits from them without discussing their
+rights. It grew attached to them when they were clement and just, but it
+submitted without resistance or servility to their exactions, as to the
+inevitable visitations of the arm of God. Custom, and the manners of the
+time, had moreover created a species of law in the midst of violence,
+and established certain limits to oppression.
+
+As the noble never suspected that any one would attempt to deprive him
+of the privileges which he believed to be legitimate, and as the serf
+looked upon his own inferiority as a consequence of the immutable order
+of nature, it is easy to imagine that a mutual exchange of good-will
+took place between two classes so differently gifted by fate. Inequality
+and wretchedness were then to be found in society; but the souls of
+neither rank of men were degraded.
+
+Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit
+of obedience; but by the exercise of power which they believe to be
+illegal, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped
+and oppressive.
+
+On one side were wealth, strength, and leisure, accompanied by the
+refinement of luxury, the elegance of taste, the pleasures of wit, and
+the religion of art. On the other were labor, and a rude ignorance; but
+in the midst of this coarse and ignorant multitude, it was not uncommon
+to meet with energetic passions, generous sentiments, profound religious
+convictions, and independent virtues.
+
+The body of a state thus organized, might boast of its stability, its
+power, and above all, of its glory.
+
+But the scene is now changed, and gradually the two ranks mingle; the
+divisions which once severed mankind, are lowered; property is divided,
+power is held in common, the light of intelligence spreads, and the
+capacities of all classes are equally cultivated; the state becomes
+democratic, and the empire of democracy is slowly and peaceably
+introduced into the institutions and manners of the nation.
+
+I can conceive a society in which all men would profess an equal
+attachment and respect for the laws of which they are the common
+authors; in which the authority of the state would be respected as
+necessary, though not as divine; and the loyalty of the subject to
+the chief magistrate would not be a passion, but a quiet and rational
+persuasion. Every individual being in the possession of rights which
+he is sure to retain, a kind of manly reliance and reciprocal courtesy
+would arise between all classes, alike removed from pride and meanness.
+
+The people, well acquainted with its true interests, would allow, that
+in order to profit by the advantages of society, it is necessary to
+satisfy its demands. In this state of things, the voluntary association
+of the citizens might supply the individual exertions of the nobles, and
+the community would be alike protected from anarchy and from oppression.
+
+I admit that in a democratic state thus constituted, society will not
+be stationary; but the impulses of the social body may be regulated
+and directed forward; if there be less splendor than in the halls of
+an aristocracy, the contrast of misery will be less frequent also; the
+pleasures of enjoyment may be less excessive, but those of comfort will
+be more general; the sciences may be less perfectly cultivated, but
+ignorance will be less common; the impetuosity of the feelings will be
+repressed, and the habits of the nation softened; there will be more
+vices and fewer crimes.
+
+In the absence of enthusiasm and of an ardent faith, great sacrifices
+may be obtained from the members of a commonwealth by an appeal to their
+understandings and their experience: each individual will feel the
+same necessity for uniting with his fellow-citizens to protect his own
+weakness; and as he knows that if they are to assist he must co-operate,
+he will readily perceive that his personal interest is identified with
+the interest of the community.
+
+The nation, taken as a whole, will be less brilliant, less glorious,
+and perhaps less strong; but the majority of the citizens will enjoy
+a greater degree of prosperity, and the people will remain quiet, not
+because it despairs of melioration, but because it is conscious of the
+advantages of its condition.
+
+If all the consequences of this state of things were not good or useful,
+society would at least have appropriated all such as were useful and
+good; and having once and for ever renounced the social advantages of
+aristocracy, mankind would enter into possession of all the benefits
+which democracy can afford.
+
+But here it may be asked what we have adopted in the place of those
+institutions, those ideas, and those customs of our forefathers which we
+have abandoned.
+
+The spell of royalty is broken, but it has not been succeeded by the
+majesty of the laws; the people have learned to despise all authority.
+But fear now extorts a larger tribute of obedience than that which was
+formerly paid by reverence and by love.
+
+I perceive that we have destroyed those independent beings which were
+able to cope with tyranny single-handed; but it is the government
+that has inherited the privileges of which families, corporations, and
+individuals, have been deprived; the weakness of the whole community
+has, therefore, succeeded to that influence of a small body of citizens,
+which, if it was sometimes oppressive, was often conservative.
+
+The division of property has lessened the distance which separated the
+rich from the poor; but it would seem that the nearer they draw to each
+other, the greater is their mutual hatred, and the more vehement the
+envy and the dread with which they resist each other's claims to power;
+the notion of right is alike insensible to both classes, and force
+affords to both the only argument for the present, and the only
+guarantee for the future.
+
+The poor man retains the prejudices of his forefathers without their
+faith, and their ignorance without their virtues; he has adopted
+the doctrine of self-interest as the rule of his actions, without
+understanding the science which controls it, and his egotism is no less
+blind than his devotedness was formerly.
+
+If society is tranquil, it is not because it relies upon its strength
+and its well-being, but because it knows its weakness and its
+infirmities; a single effort may cost it its life; everybody feels the
+evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure; the
+desires, the regret, the sorrows, and the joys of the time, produce
+nothing that is visible or permanent, like the passions of old men which
+terminate in impotence.
+
+We have, then, abandoned whatever advantages the old state of things
+afforded, without receiving any compensation from our present condition;
+having destroyed an aristocracy, we seem inclined to survey its ruins
+with complacency, and to fix our abode in the midst of them.
+
+The phenomena which the intellectual world presents, are not less
+deplorable. The democracy of France, checked in its course or abandoned
+to its lawless passions, has overthrown whatever crossed its path, and
+has shaken all that it has not destroyed. Its control over society has
+not been gradually introduced, or peaceably established, but it has
+constantly advanced in the midst of disorder, and the agitation of a
+conflict. In the heat of the struggle each partisan is hurried beyond
+the limits of his opinions by the opinions and the excesses of his
+opponents, until he loses sight of the end of his exertions, and holds a
+language which disguises his real sentiments or secret instincts. Hence
+arises the strange confusion which we are beholding.
+
+I cannot recall to my mind a passage in history more worthy of sorrow
+and of pity than the scenes which are happening under our eyes; it is as
+if the natural bond which unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and
+his actions to his principles, was now broken; the sympathy which has
+always been acknowledged between the feelings and the ideas of mankind,
+appears to be dissolved, and all the laws of moral analogy to be
+abolished.
+
+Zealous Christians may be found among us, whose minds are nurtured in
+the love and knowledge of a future life, and who readily espouse
+the cause of human liberty, as the source of all moral greatness.
+Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of
+God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the
+eye of the law. But, by a singular concourse of events, religion is
+entangled in those institutions which democracy assails, and it is not
+unfrequently brought to reject the equality it loves, and to curse that
+cause of liberty as a foe, which it might hallow by its alliance.
+
+By the side of these religious men I discern others whose looks are
+turned to the earth more than to heaven; they are the partisans of
+liberty, not only as the source of the noblest virtues, but more
+especially as the root of all solid advantages; and they sincerely
+desire to extend its sway, and to impart its blessings to mankind. It
+is natural that they should hasten to invoke the assistance of religion,
+for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality,
+nor morality without faith; but they have seen religion in the ranks of
+their adversaries, and they inquire no farther; some of them attack it
+openly, and the remainder are afraid to defend it.
+
+In former ages slavery has been advocated by the venal and
+slavish-minded, while the independent and the warm-hearted were
+struggling without hope to save the liberties of mankind. But men of
+high and generous characters are now to be met with, whose opinions are
+at variance with their inclinations, and who praise that servility which
+they have themselves never known. Others, on the contrary, speak in
+the name of liberty as if they were able to feel its sanctity and its
+majesty, and loudly claim for humanity those rights which they have
+always disowned.
+
+There are virtuous and peaceful individuals whose pure morality, quiet
+habits, affluence, and talents, fit them to be the leaders of the
+surrounding population; their love of their country is sincere, and they
+are prepared to make the greatest sacrifices to its welfare, but they
+confound the abuses of civilisation with its benefits, and the idea of
+evil is inseparable in their minds from that of novelty.
+
+Not far from this class is another party, whose object is to materialise
+mankind, to hit upon what is expedient without heeding what is just;
+to acquire knowledge without faith, and prosperity apart from virtue;
+assuming the title of the champions of modern civilisation, and placing
+themselves in a station which they usurp with insolence, and from which
+they are driven by their own unworthiness.
+
+Where are we then?
+
+The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty
+attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate subjection,
+and the meanest and most servile minds preach independence; honest and
+enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, while men without
+patriotism and without principles, are the apostles of civilisation and
+of intelligence.
+
+Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own?
+and has man always inhabited a world, like the present, where nothing
+is linked together, where virtue is without genius, and genius
+without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for
+oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a contempt of law;
+where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and
+where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or
+shameful, false or true?
+
+I cannot, however, believe that the Creator made man to leave him in an
+endless struggle with the intellectual miseries which surround us:
+God destines a calmer and a more certain future to the communities of
+Europe; I am unacquainted with his designs, but I shall not cease to
+believe in them because I cannot fathom them, and I had rather mistrust
+my own capacity than his justice.
+
+There is a country in the world where the great revolution which I am
+speaking of seems nearly to have reached its natural limits; it has
+been effected with ease and simplicity, say rather that this country
+has attained the consequences of the democratic revolution which we are
+undergoing, without having experienced the revolution itself.
+
+The emigrants who fixed themselves on the shores of America in the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, severed the democratic principle
+from all the principles which repressed it in the old communities of
+Europe, and transplanted it unalloyed to the New World. It has there
+been allowed to spread in perfect freedom, and to put forth its
+consequences in the laws by influencing the manners of the country.
+
+It appears to me beyond a doubt, that sooner or later we shall arrive,
+like the Americans, at an almost complete equality of conditions. But I
+do not conclude from this, that we shall ever be necessarily led to draw
+the same political consequences which the Americans have derived from
+a similar social organization. I am far from supposing that they have
+chosen the only form of government which a democracy may adopt; but the
+identity of the efficient cause of laws and manners in the two countries
+is sufficient to account for the immense interest we have in becoming
+acquainted with its effects in each of them.
+
+It is not, then, merely to satisfy a legitimate curiosity that I have
+examined America; my wish has been to find instruction by which we may
+ourselves profit. Whoever should imagine that I have intended to write a
+panegyric would be strangely mistaken, and on reading this book, he
+will perceive that such was not my design: nor has it been my object to
+advocate any form of government in particular, for I am of opinion that
+absolute excellence is rarely to be found in any legislation; I have not
+even affected to discuss whether the social revolution, which I believe
+to be irresistible, is advantageous or prejudicial to mankind; I have
+acknowledged this revolution as a fact already accomplished or on the
+eve of its accomplishment; and I have selected the nation, from among
+those which have undergone it, in which its development has been the
+most peaceful and the most complete, in order to discern its natural
+consequences, and, if it be possible, to distinguish the means by which
+it may be rendered profitable. I confess that in America I saw more than
+America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations,
+its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what
+we have to fear or to hope from its progress.
+
+In the first part of this work I have attempted to show the tendency
+given to the laws by the democracy of America, which is abandoned almost
+without restraint to its instinctive propensities; and to exhibit the
+course it prescribes to the government, and the influence it exercises
+on affairs. I have sought to discover the evils and the advantages which
+it produces. I have examined the precautions used by the Americans to
+direct it, as well as those which they have not adopted, and I have
+undertaken to point out the causes which enable it to govern society.
+
+It was my intention to depict, in a second part, the influence which the
+equality of conditions and the rule of democracy exercise on the civil
+society, the habits, the ideas, and the manners of the Americans;
+I begin, however, to feel less ardor for the accomplishment of this
+project, since the excellent work of my friend and travelling companion
+M. de Beaumont has been given to the world.[1] I do not know whether I
+have succeeded in making known what I saw in America, but I am certain
+that such has been my sincere desire, and that I have never, knowingly,
+moulded facts to ideas, instead of ideas to facts.
+
+Whenever a point could be established by the aid of written documents,
+I have had recourse to the original text, and to the most authentic and
+approved works.[2] I have cited my authorities in the notes, and any one
+may refer to them. Whenever an opinion, a political custom, or a remark
+on the manners of the country was concerned, I endeavored to consult the
+most enlightened men I met with. If the point in question was important
+or doubtful, I was not satisfied with one testimony, but I formed my
+opinion on the evidence of several witnesses. Here the reader must
+necessarily believe me upon my word. I could frequently have quoted
+names which are either known to him, or which deserve to be so, in proof
+of what I advance; but I have carefully abstained from this practice. A
+stranger frequently hears important truths at the fireside of his host,
+which the latter would perhaps conceal even from the ear of friendship;
+he consoles himself with his guest, for the silence to which he is
+restricted, and the shortness of the traveller's stay takes away all
+fear of his indiscretion. I carefully noted every conversation of this
+nature as soon as it occurred, but these notes will never leave my
+writing-case; I had rather injure the success of my statements than
+add my name to the list of those strangers who repay the generous
+hospitality they have received by subsequent chagrin and annoyance.
+
+I am aware that, notwithstanding my care, nothing will be easier than to
+criticise this book, if any one ever chooses to criticise it.
+
+Those readers who may examine it closely will discover the fundamental
+idea which connects the several parts together. But the diversity of the
+subjects I have had to treat is exceedingly great, and it will not be
+difficult to oppose an isolated fact to the body of facts which I quote,
+or an isolated idea to the body of ideas I put forth. I hope to be read
+in the spirit which has guided my labors, and that my book may be judged
+by the general impression it leaves, as I have formed my own judgment
+not on any single reason, but upon the mass of evidence.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the author who wishes to be understood is
+obliged to push all his ideas to their utmost theoretical consequences,
+and often to the verge of what is false or impracticable; for if it be
+necessary sometimes to quit the rules of logic in active life, such
+is not the case in discourse, and a man finds that almost as many
+difficulties spring from inconsistency of language, as usually arise
+from consistency of conduct.
+
+I conclude by pointing out myself what many readers will consider
+the principal defect of the work. This book is written to favor no
+particular views, and in composing it I have entertained no design
+of serving or attacking any party: I have undertaken not to see
+differently, but to look farther than parties, and while they are busied
+for the morrow, I have turned my thoughts to the future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[1] This work is entitled, Marie, ou l'Esclavage aux Etats-Unis.
+
+[2] Legislative and administrative documents have been furnished me with
+a degree of politeness which I shall always remember with gratitude.
+Among the American functionaries who thus favored my inquiries I am
+proud to name Mr. Edward Livingston, then Secretary of State and late
+American minister at Paris. During my stay at the session of Congress,
+Mr. Livingston was kind enough to furnish me with the greater part
+of the documents I possess relative to the federal government. Mr.
+Livingston is one of those rare individuals whom one loves, respects,
+and admires, from their writings, and to whom one is happy to incur the
+debt of gratitude on further acquaintance.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EXTERIOR FORM OF NORTH AMERICA.
+
+
+North America divided into two vast regions, one inclining toward the
+Pole, the other toward the Equator.--Valley of the Mississippi.--Traces
+of the Revolutions of the Globe.--Shore of the Atlantic Ocean, where the
+English Colonies were founded.--Difference in the Appearance of North
+and of South America at the Time of their Discovery.--Forests of
+North America.--Prairies.--Wandering Tribes of Natives.--Their outward
+Appearance, Manners, and Language.--Traces of an Unknown People.
+
+North America presents in its external form certain general features,
+which it is easy to discriminate at the first glance.
+
+A sort of methodical order seems to have regulated the separation of
+land and water, mountains and valleys. A simple but grand arrangement is
+discoverable amid the confusion of objects and the prodigious variety of
+scenes.
+
+This continent is divided, almost equally, into two vast regions, one of
+which is bounded, on the north by the arctic pole, and by the two great
+oceans on the east and west. It stretches toward the south, forming a
+triangle, whose irregular sides meet at length below the great lakes of
+Canada.
+
+The second region begins where the other terminates, and includes all
+the remainder of the continent.
+
+The one slopes gently toward the pole, the other toward the equator.
+
+The territory comprehended in the first regions descends toward the
+north with so imperceptible a slope that it may almost be said to form
+a level plain. Within the bounds of this immense tract of country there
+are neither high mountains nor deep valleys. Streams meander through it
+irregularly; great rivers mix their currents, separate and meet again,
+disperse and form vast marshes, losing all trace of their channels
+in the labyrinth of waters they have themselves created; and thus, at
+length, after innumerable windings, fall into the polar seas. The great
+lakes which bound this first region are not walled in, like most of
+those in the Old World, between hills and rocks. Their banks are flat,
+and rise but a few feet above the level of their waters; each of them
+thus forming a vast bowl filled to the brim. The slightest change in the
+structure of the globe would cause their waters to rush either toward
+the pole or to the tropical sea.
+
+The second region is more varied on its surface, and better suited for
+the habitation of man. Two long chains of mountains divide it from one
+extreme to the other; the Allegany ridge takes the form of the shores of
+the Atlantic ocean; the other is parallel with the Pacific.
+
+The space which lies between these two chains of mountains contains
+1,341,649 square miles.[3] Its surface is therefore about six times as
+great as that of France.
+
+This vast territory, however, forms a single valley, one side of which
+descends gradually from the rounded summits of the Alleganies, while
+the other rises in an uninterrupted course toward the tops of the Rocky
+mountains.
+
+At the bottom of the valley flows an immense river, into which the
+various streams issuing from the mountains fall from all parts. In
+memory of their native land, the French formerly called this the river
+St. Louis. The Indians, in their pompous language, have named it the
+Father of Waters, or the Mississippi.
+
+The Mississippi takes its source above the limit of the two great
+regions of which I have spoken, not far from the highest point of the
+table-land where they unite. Near the same spot rises another river,[4]
+which empties itself into the polar seas. The course of the Mississippi
+is at first devious: it winds several times toward the north, whence it
+rose; and, at length, after having been delayed in lakes and marshes, it
+flows slowly onward to the south.
+
+Sometimes quietly gliding along the argillaceous bed which nature has
+assigned to it, sometimes swollen by storms, the Mississippi waters
+2,500 miles in its course.[5] At the distance of 1,364 miles from its
+mouth this river attains an average depth of fifteen feet; and it is
+navigated by vessels of 300 tons burden for a course of nearly 500
+miles. Fifty-seven large navigable rivers contribute to swell the waters
+of the Mississippi; among others the Missouri, which traverses a space
+of 2,500 miles; the Arkansas of 1,300 miles; the Red river 1,000
+miles; four whose course is from 800 to 1000 miles in length, viz., the
+Illinois, the St. Peter's, the St. Francis, and the Moingona; besides a
+countless number of rivulets which unite from all parts their tributary
+streams.
+
+The valley which is watered by the Mississippi seems formed to be the
+bed of this mighty river, which like a god of antiquity dispenses both
+good and evil in its course. On the shores of the stream nature displays
+an inexhaustible fertility; in proportion as you recede from its banks,
+the powers of vegetation languish, the soil becomes poor, and the plants
+that survive have a sickly growth. Nowhere have the great convulsions
+of the globe left more evident traces than in the valley of the
+Mississippi: the whole aspect of the country shows the powerful effects
+of water, both by its fertility and by its barrenness. The waters of
+the primeval ocean accumulated enormous beds of vegetable mould in the
+valley, which they levelled as they retired. Upon the right shore of the
+river are seen immense plains, as smooth as if the husbandman had passed
+over them with his roller. As you approach the mountains, the soil
+becomes more and more unequal and sterile; the ground is, as it were,
+pierced in a thousand places by primitive rocks, which appear like the
+bones of a skeleton whose flesh is partly consumed. The surface of the
+earth is covered with a granitic sand, and huge irregular masses
+of stone, among which a few plants force their growth, and give the
+appearance of a green field covered with the ruins of a vast edifice.
+These stones and this sand discover, on examination, a perfect analogy
+with those which compose the arid and broken summits of the Rocky
+mountains. The flood of waters which washed the soil to the bottom of
+the valley, afterward carried away portions of the rocks themselves;
+and these, dashed and bruised against the neighboring cliffs, were left
+scattered like wrecks at their feet.[6]
+
+The valley of the Mississippi is, upon the whole, the most magnificent
+dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode; and yet it may be said
+that at present it is but a mighty desert.
+
+On the eastern side of the Alleganies, between the base of these
+mountains and the Atlantic ocean, lies a long ridge of rocks and sand,
+which the sea appears to have left behind as it retired. The mean
+breadth of this territory does not exceed one hundred miles; but it is
+about nine hundred miles in length. This part of the American continent
+has a soil which offers every obstacle to the husbandman, and its
+vegetation is scanty and unvaried.
+
+Upon this inhospitable coast the first united efforts of human industry
+were made. This tongue of arid land was the cradle of those English
+colonies which were destined one day to become the United States of
+America. The centre of power still remains there; while in the backward
+States the true elements of the great people, to whom the future control
+of the continent belongs, are secretly springing up.
+
+When the Europeans first landed on the shores of the Antilles, and
+afterwards on the coast of South America, they thought themselves
+transported into those fabulous regions of which poets had sung. The sea
+sparkled with phosphoric light, and the extraordinary transparency of
+its waters discovered to the view of the navigator all that had hitherto
+been hidden in the deep abyss.[7] Here and there appeared little islands
+perfumed with odoriferous plants, and resembling baskets of flowers,
+floating on the tranquil surface of the ocean. Every object which met
+the sight, in this enchanting region, seemed prepared to satisfy the
+wants, or contribute to the pleasures of man. Almost all the trees were
+loaded with nourishing fruits, and those which were useless as food,
+delighted the eye by the brilliancy and variety of their colors. In
+groves of fragrant lemon-trees, wild figs, flowering myrtles, acacias,
+and oleanders, which were hung with festoons of various climbing-plants,
+covered with flowers, a multitude of birds unknown in Europe displayed
+their bright plumage, glittering with purple and azure, and mingled
+their warbling in the harmony of a world teeming with life and
+motion.[8]
+
+Underneath this brilliant exterior death was concealed. The air of these
+climates had so enervating an influence that man, completely absorbed by
+the present enjoyment, was rendered regardless of the future.
+
+North America appeared under a very different aspect; there, everything
+was grave, serious, and solemn; it seemed created to be the domain of
+intelligence, as the south was that of sensual delight. A turbulent and
+foggy ocean washed its shores. It was girded round by a belt of granite
+rocks, or by wide plains of sand. The foliage of its woods was dark and
+gloomy; for they were composed of firs, larches, evergreen oaks, wild
+olive-trees, and laurels.
+
+Beyond this outer belt lay the thick shades of the central forests,
+where the largest trees which are produced in the two hemispheres grow
+side by side. The plane, the catalpa, the sugar-maple, and the Virginian
+poplar, mingled their branches with those of the oak, the beech, and the
+lime.
+
+In these, as in the forests of the Old World, destruction was
+perpetually going on. The ruins of vegetation were heaped upon each
+other; but there was no laboring hand to remove them, and their
+decay was not rapid enough to make room for the continual work of
+reproduction. Climbing-plants, grasses and other herbs, forced their way
+through the moss of dying trees; they crept along their bending trunks,
+found nourishment in their dusty cavities, and a passage beneath
+the lifeless bark. Thus decay gave its assistance to life, and their
+respective productions were mingled together. The depths of these
+forests were gloomy and obscure, and a thousand rivulets, undirected in
+their course by human industry, preserved in them a constant moisture.
+It was rare to meet with flowers, wild fruits, or birds, beneath their
+shades. The fall of a tree overthrown by age, the rushing torrent of a
+cataract, the lowing of the buffalo, and the howling of the wind, were
+the only sounds which broke the silence of nature.
+
+To the east of the great river the woods almost disappeared; in their
+stead were seen prairies of immense extent. Whether nature in her
+infinite variety had denied the germes of trees to these fertile
+plains, or whether they had once been covered with forests, subsequently
+destroyed by the hand of man, is a question which neither tradition nor
+scientific research has been able to resolve.
+
+These immense deserts were not, however, devoid of human inhabitants.
+Some wandering tribes had been for ages scattered among the forest
+shades or the green pastures of the prairie. From the mouth of the St.
+Lawrence to the Delta of the Mississippi, and from the Atlantic to the
+Pacific ocean, these savages possessed certain points of resemblance
+which bore witness of their common origin: but at the same time they
+differed from all other known races of men:[9] they were neither white
+like the Europeans, nor yellow like most of the Asiatics, nor black like
+the negroes. Their skin was reddish brown, their hair long and shining,
+their lips thin, and their cheek-bones very prominent. The languages
+spoken by the North American tribes were various as far as regarded
+their words, but they were subject to the same grammatical rules. Those
+rules differed in several points from such as had been observed to
+govern the origin of language.
+
+The idiom of the Americans seemed to be the product of new combinations,
+and bespoke an effort of the understanding, of which the Indians of our
+days would be incapable.[10]
+
+The social state of these tribes differed also in many respects from all
+that was seen in the Old World. They seemed to have multiplied freely in
+the midst of their deserts, without coming in contact with other races
+more civilized than their own.
+
+Accordingly, they exhibited none of those indistinct, incoherent notions
+of right and wrong, none of that deep corruption of manners that is
+usually joined with ignorance and rudeness among nations which, after
+advancing to civilisation, have relapsed into a state of barbarism. The
+Indian was indebted to no one but himself; his virtues, his vices,
+and his prejudices, were his own work; he had grown up in the wild
+independence of his nature.
+
+If, in polished countries, the lowest of the people are rude and
+uncivil, it is not merely because they are poor and ignorant, but that,
+being so, they are in daily contact with rich and enlightened men.
+The sight of their own hard lot and of their weakness, which are
+daily contrasted with the happiness and power of some of their fellow
+creatures, excites in their hearts at the same time the sentiments of
+anger and of fear: the consciousness of their inferiority and of their
+dependence irritates while it humiliates them. This state of mind
+displays itself in their manners and language; they are at once insolent
+and servile. The truth of this is easily proved by observation; the
+people are more rude in aristocratic countries than elsewhere; in
+opulent cities than in rural districts. In those places where the rich
+and powerful are assembled together, the weak and the indigent feel
+themselves oppressed by their inferior condition. Unable to perceive a
+single chance of regaining their equality, they give up to despair, and
+allow themselves to fall below the dignity of human nature.
+
+This unfortunate effect of the disparity of conditions is not observable
+in savage life; the Indians, although they are ignorant and poor, are
+equal and free.
+
+At the period when Europeans first came among them, the natives of North
+America were ignorant of the value of riches, and indifferent to the
+enjoyments which civilized man procures to himself by their means.
+Nevertheless there was nothing coarse in their demeanor; they practised
+an habitual reserve, and a kind of aristocratic politeness.
+
+Mild and hospitable when at peace, though merciless in war beyond any
+known degree of human ferocity, the Indian would expose himself to die
+of hunger in order to succor the stranger who asked admittance by night
+at the door of his hut--yet he could tear in pieces with his hands the
+still quivering limbs of his prisoner. The famous republics of antiquity
+never gave examples of more unshaken courage, more haughty spirits, or
+more intractable love of independence, than were hidden in former times
+among the wild forests of the New World.[11] The Europeans produced
+no great impression when they landed upon the shores of North America:
+their presence engendered neither envy nor fear. What influence could
+they possess over such men as we have described? The Indian could live
+without wants, suffer without complaint, and pour out his death-song
+at the stake.[12] Like all the other members of the great human family,
+these savages believed in the existence of a better world, and adored,
+under different names, God, the Creator of the universe. Their
+notions on the great intellectual truths were, in general, simple and
+philosophical.[13]
+
+Although we have here traced the character of a primitive people, yet it
+cannot be doubted that another people, more civilized and more advanced
+in all respects, had preceded it in the same regions.
+
+An obscure tradition, which prevailed among the Indians to the north of
+the Atlantic, informs us that these very tribes formerly dwelt on
+the west side of the Mississippi. Along the banks of the Ohio, and
+throughout the central valley, there are frequently found, at this day,
+_tumuli_ raised by the hands of men. On exploring these heaps of
+earth to their centre, it is usual to meet with human bones, strange
+instruments, arms and utensils of all kinds, made of a metal, or
+destined for purposes, unknown to the present race.
+
+The Indians of our time are unable to give any information relative to
+the history of this unknown people. Neither did those who lived three
+hundred years ago, when America was first discovered, leave any
+accounts from which even an hypothesis could be formed. Tradition--that
+perishable, yet ever-renewed monument of the pristine world--throws no
+light upon the subject. It is an undoubted fact, however, that in this
+part of the globe thousands of our fellow-beings had lived. When they
+came hither, what was their origin, their destiny, their history, and
+how they perished, no one can tell.
+
+How strange does it appear that nations have existed, and afterward so
+completely disappeared from the earth, that the remembrance of their
+very name is effaced: their languages are lost; their glory is vanished
+like a sound without an echo; but perhaps there is not one which has
+not left behind it a tomb in memory of its passage. The most durable
+monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and
+nothingness of man.
+
+Although the vast country which we have been describing was inhabited
+by many indigenous tribes, it may justly be said, at the time of its
+discovery by Europeans, to have formed one great desert. The Indians
+occupied, without possessing it. It is by agricultural labor that man
+appropriates the soil, and the early inhabitants of North America
+lived by the produce of the chase. Their implacable prejudices, their
+uncontrolled passions, their vices, and still more, perhaps, their
+savage virtues, consigned them to inevitable destruction. The ruin of
+these nations began from the day when Europeans landed on their shores:
+it has proceeded ever since, and we are now seeing the completion of it.
+They seemed to have been placed by Providence amid the riches of the New
+World to enjoy them for a season, and then surrender them. Those coasts,
+so admirably adapted for commerce and industry; those wide and deep
+rivers; that inexhaustible valley of the Mississippi; the whole
+continent, in short, seemed prepared to be the abode of a great nation,
+yet unborn.
+
+In that land the great experiment was to be made by civilized man, of
+the attempt to construct society upon a new basis; and it was there, for
+the first time, that theories hitherto unknown, or deemed impracticable,
+were to exhibit a spectacle for which the world had not been prepared by
+the history of the past.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[3] Darby's "View of the United States."
+
+[4] Mackenzie's river.
+
+[5] Warden's "Description of the United States."
+
+[6] See Appendix A.
+
+[7] Malte Brun tells us (vol. v., p. 726) that the water of the
+Caribbean sea is so transparent, that corals and fish are discernible
+at a depth of sixty fathoms. The ship seemed to float in the air, the
+navigator became giddy as his eye penetrated through the crystal flood,
+and beheld submarine gardens, or beds of shells, or gilded fishes
+gliding among tufts and thickets of seaweed.
+
+[8] See Appendix B.
+
+[9] With the progress of discovery, some resemblance has been found to
+exist between the physical conformation, the language, and the habits
+of the Indians of North America, and those of the Tongous, Mantchous,
+Moguls, Tartars, and other wandering tribes of Asia. The land occupied
+by these tribes is not very distant from Behring's strait; which allows
+of the supposition, that at a remote period they gave inhabitants to the
+desert continent of America. But this is a point which has not yet been
+clearly elucidated by science. See Malte Brun, vol. v.; the works of
+Humboldt; Fischer, "Conjecture sur l'Origine des Americains;" Adair,
+"History of the American Indians."
+
+[10] See Appendix C.
+
+[11] We learn from President Jefferson's "Notes upon Virginia," p. 148,
+that among the Iroquois, when attacked by a superior force, aged men
+refused to fly, or to survive the destruction of their country; and they
+braved death like the ancient Romans when their capital was sacked by
+the Gauls. Further on, p. 150, he tells us, that there is no example of
+an Indian, who, having fallen into the hands of his enemies, begged for
+his life; on the contrary, the captive sought to obtain death at the
+hands of his conquerors by the use of insult and provocation.
+
+[12] See "Histoire de la Louisiane," by Lepage Dupratz; Charlevoix,
+"Histoire de la Nouvelle France;" "Lettres du Rev. G. Hecwelder;"
+"Transactions of the American Philosophical Society," v. i.; Jefferson's
+"Notes on Virginia," pp. 135-190. What is said by Jefferson is of
+especial weight, on account of the personal merit of the writer, and of
+the matter-of-fact age in which he lived.
+
+[13] See Appendix D.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-AMERICANS AND ITS IMPORTANCE, IN RELATION TO THEIR
+FUTURE CONDITION.
+
+
+Utility of knowing the Origin of Nations in order to understand their
+social Condition and their Laws.--America the only Country in which the
+Starting-Point of a great People has been clearly observable.--In what
+respects all who emigrated to British America were similar.--In what
+they differed.--Remark applicable to all the Europeans who established
+themselves on the shores of the New World.--Colonization of
+Virginia.--Colonization of New England.--Original Character of the first
+inhabitants of New England.--Their Arrival.--Their first
+Laws.--Their social Contract.--Penal Code borrowed from the Hebrew
+Legislation.--Religious Fervor.--Republican Spirit.--Intimate Union of
+the Spirit of Religion with the Spirit of Liberty.
+
+After the birth of a human being, his early years are obscurely spent in
+the toils or pleasures of childhood. As he grows up, the world receives
+him, when his manhood begins, and he enters into contact with his
+fellows. He is then studied for the first time, and it is imagined that
+the germe of the vices and the virtues of his maturer years is then
+formed.
+
+This, if I am not mistaken, is a great error. We must begin higher up;
+we must watch the infant in his mother's arms; we must see the first
+images which the external world casts upon the dark mirror of his mind;
+the first occurrences which he beholds; we must hear the first words
+which awaken the sleeping powers of thought, and stand by his earliest
+efforts, if we would understand the prejudices, the habits, and the
+passions, which will rule his life. The entire man is, so to speak, to
+be seen in the cradle of the child.
+
+The growth of nations presents something analogous to this; they all
+bear some marks of their origin; and the circumstances which accompanied
+their birth and contributed to their rise, affect the whole term of
+their being.
+
+If we were able to go back to the elements of states, and to examine the
+oldest monuments of their history, I doubt not that we should discover
+the primary cause of the prejudices, the habits, the ruling passions,
+and in short of all that constitutes what is called the national
+character: we should then find the explanation of certain customs which
+now seem at variance with prevailing manners, of such laws as conflict
+with established principles, and of such incoherent opinions as are
+here and there to be met with in society, like those fragments of broken
+chains which we sometimes see hanging from the vault of an edifice, and
+supporting nothing. This might explain the destinies of certain nations
+which seem borne along by an unknown force to ends of which they
+themselves are ignorant. But hitherto facts have been wanting to
+researches of this kind: the spirit of inquiry has only come upon
+communities in their latter days; and when they at length turned their
+attention to contemplate their origin, time had already obscured it, or
+ignorance and pride adorned it with truth-concealing fables.
+
+America is the only country in which it has been possible to study
+the natural and tranquil growth of society, and where the influence
+exercised on the future condition of states by their origin is clearly
+distinguishable.
+
+At the period when the people of Europe landed in the New World, their
+national characteristics were already completely formed; each of them
+had a physiognomy of its own; and as they had already attained that
+stage of civilisation at which men are led to study themselves, they
+have transmitted to us a faithful picture of their opinions, their
+manners, and their laws. The men of the sixteenth century are almost as
+well known to us as our contemporaries. America consequently exhibits in
+the broad light of day the phenomena which the ignorance or rudeness of
+earlier ages conceals from our researches. Near enough to the time when
+the states of America were founded to be accurately acquainted with
+their elements, and sufficiently removed from that period to judge
+of some of their results. The men of our own day seem destined to
+see farther than their predecessors into the series of human events.
+Providence has given us a torch which our forefathers did not possess,
+and has allowed us to discern fundamental causes in the history of the
+world which the obscurity of the past concealed from them.
+
+If we carefully examine the social and political state of America, after
+having studied its history, we shall remain perfectly convinced that
+not an opinion, not a custom, not a law, I may even say not an event,
+is upon record which the origin of that people will not explain. The
+readers of this book will find the germe of all that is to follow in the
+present chapter, and the key to almost the whole work.
+
+The emigrants who came at different periods to occupy the territory
+now covered by the American Union, differed from each other in many
+respects; their aim was not the same, and they governed themselves on
+different principles.
+
+These men had, however, certain features in common, and they were all
+placed in an analogous situation. The tie of language is perhaps the
+strongest and most durable that can unite mankind. All the emigrants
+spoke the same tongue; they were all offsets from the same people. Born
+in a country which had been agitated for centuries by the struggles
+of faction, and in which all parties had been obliged in their turn
+to place themselves under the protection of the laws, their political
+education had been perfected in this rude school, and they were more
+conversant with the notions of right, and the principles of true
+freedom, than the greater part of their European contemporaries. At the
+period of the first emigrations, the parish system, that fruitful germe
+of free institutions, was deeply rooted in the habits of the English;
+and with it the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people had been
+introduced even into the bosom of the monarchy of the house of Tudor.
+
+The religious quarrels which have agitated the Christian world were then
+rife. England had plunged into the new order of things with headlong
+vehemence. The character of its inhabitants, which had always been
+sedate and reflecting, became argumentative and austere. General
+information had been increased by intellectual debate, and the mind
+had received a deeper cultivation. While religion was the topic of
+discussion, the morals of the people were reformed. All these national
+features are more or less discoverable in the physiognomy of those
+adventurers who came to seek a new home on the opposite shores of the
+Atlantic.
+
+Another remark, to which we shall hereafter have occasion to recur, is
+applicable not only to the English, but to the French, the Spaniards,
+and all the Europeans who successively established themselves in the New
+World. All these European colonies contained the elements, if not the
+development of a complete democracy. Two causes led to this result. It
+may safely be advanced, that on leaving the mother-country the emigrants
+had in general no notion of superiority over one another. The happy and
+the powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of
+equality among men than poverty and misfortune. It happened, however,
+on several occasions that persons of rank were driven to America
+by political and religious quarrels. Laws were made to establish a
+gradation of ranks; but it was soon found that the soil of America was
+entirely opposed to a territorial aristocracy. To bring that refractory
+land into cultivation, the constant and interested exertions of the
+owner himself were necessary; and when the ground was prepared, its
+produce was found to be insufficient to enrich a master and a farmer
+at the same time. The land was then naturally broken up into small
+portions, which the proprietor cultivated for himself. Land is the basis
+of an aristocracy, which clings to the soil that supports it; for it
+is not by privileges alone, nor by birth, but by landed property handed
+down from generation to generation, that an aristocracy is constituted.
+A nation may present immense fortunes and extreme wretchedness; but
+unless those fortunes are territorial, there is no aristocracy, but
+simply the class of the rich and that of the poor.
+
+All the British colonies had then a great degree of similarity at the
+epoch of their settlement. All of them, from their first beginning,
+seemed destined to behold the growth, not of the aristocratic liberty of
+their mother-country, but of that freedom of the middle and lower orders
+of which the history of the world has as yet furnished no complete
+example.
+
+In this general uniformity several striking differences were however
+discernible, which it is necessary to point out. Two branches may be
+distinguished in the Anglo-American family, which have hitherto grown
+up without entirely commingling; the one in the south, the other in the
+north.
+
+Virginia received the first English colony; the emigrants took
+possession of it in 1607. The idea that mines of gold and silver are
+the sources of national wealth, was at that time singularly prevalent in
+Europe; a fatal delusion, which has done more to impoverish the nations
+which adopted it, and has cost more lives in America, than the united
+influence of war and bad laws. The men sent to Virginia[14] were seekers
+of gold, adventurers without resources and without character, whose
+turbulent and restless spirits endangered the infant colony,[15] and
+rendered its progress uncertain. The artisans and agriculturists arrived
+afterward; and although they were a more moral and orderly race of
+men, they were in nowise above the level of the inferior classes in
+England.[16] No lofty conceptions, no intellectual system directed the
+foundation of these new settlements. The colony was scarcely established
+when slavery was introduced,[17] and this was the main circumstance
+which has exercised so prodigious an influence on the character, the
+laws, and all the future prospects of the south.
+
+Slavery, as we shall afterward show, dishonors labor; it introduces
+idleness into society, and, with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury
+and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind, and benumbs the
+activity of man. The influence of slavery, united to the English
+character, explains the mariners and the social condition of the
+southern states.
+
+In the north, the same English foundation was modified by the most
+opposite shades of character; and here I may be allowed to enter into
+some details. The two or three main ideas which constitute the basis
+of the social theory of the United States, were first combined in the
+northern British colonies, more generally denominated the states of
+New England.[18] The principles of New England spread at first to the
+neighboring states; they then passed successively to the more distant
+ones; and at length they embued the whole confederation. They now extend
+their influence beyond its limits over the whole American world. The
+civilisation of New England has been like a beacon lit upon a hill,
+which, after it has diffused its warmth around, tinges the distant
+horizon with its glow.
+
+The foundation of New England was a novel spectacle, and all the
+circumstances attending it were singular and original. The large
+majority of colonies have been first inhabited either by men without
+education and without resources, driven by their poverty and their
+misconduct from the land which gave them birth, or by speculators
+and adventurers greedy of gain. Some settlements cannot even boast so
+honorable an origin: St. Domingo was founded by buccaneers; and, at the
+present day, the criminal courts of England supply the population of
+Australia.
+
+The settlers who established themselves on the shores of New England all
+belonged to the more independent classes of their native country. Their
+union on the soil of America at once presented the singular phenomenon
+of a society containing neither lords nor common people, neither rich
+nor poor. These men possessed, in proportion to their number, a greater
+mass of intelligence than is to be found in any European nation of
+our own time. All, without a single exception, had received a good
+education, and many of them were known in Europe for their talents and
+their acquirements. The other colonies had been founded by adventurers
+without family; the emigrants of New England brought with them the best
+elements of order and morality, they landed in the desert accompanied
+by their wives and children. But what most especially distinguished them
+was the aim of their undertaking. They had not been obliged by necessity
+to leave their country, the social position they abandoned was one to
+be regretted, and their means of subsistence were certain. Nor did they
+cross the Atlantic to improve their situation, or to increase their
+wealth; the call which summoned them from the comforts of their homes
+was purely intellectual; and in facing the inevitable sufferings of
+exile, their object was the triumph of an idea.
+
+The emigrants, or, as they deservedly styled themselves, the pilgrims,
+belonged to that English sect, the austerity of whose principles had
+acquired for them the name of puritans. Puritanism was not merely a
+religious doctrine, but it corresponded in many points with the most
+absolute democratic and republican theories. It was this tendency which
+had aroused its most dangerous adversaries. Persecuted by the government
+of the mother-country, and disgusted by the habits of a society opposed
+to the rigor of their own principles, the puritans went forth to seek
+some rude and unfrequented part of the world, where they could live
+according to their own opinions, and worship God in freedom.
+
+A few quotations will throw more light upon the spirit of these pious
+adventurers than all we can say of them. Nathaniel Morton,[19]
+the historian of the first years of the settlement, thus opens his
+subject:--
+
+"GENTLE READER: I have for some length of time looked upon it as a duty
+incumbent, especially on the immediate successors of those that have had
+so large experience of those many memorable and signal demonstrations
+of God's goodness, viz., the first beginning of this plantation in New
+England, to commit to writing his gracious dispensations on that
+behalf; having so many inducements thereunto, not only otherwise, but
+so plentifully in the Sacred Scriptures: that so, what we have seen, and
+what our fathers have told us (Psalm lxxviii., 3, 4), we may not hide
+from our children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the
+Lord; that especially the seed of Abraham his servant, and the children
+of Jacob his chosen (Psalm cv., 5, 6), may remember his marvellous
+works in the beginning and progress of the planting of New England, his
+wonders and the judgments of his mouth; how that God brought a vine into
+this wilderness; that he cast out the heathen and planted it; that he
+made room for it, and caused it to take deep root; and it filled the
+land (Psalm lxxx., 8, 9). And not onely so, but also that he hath guided
+his people by his strength to his holy habitation, and planted them
+in the mountain of his inheritance in respect of precious gospel
+enjoyments: and that as especially God may have the glory of all unto
+whom it is most due; so also some rays of glory may reach the names of
+those blessed saints, that were the main instruments and the beginning
+of this happy enterprise."
+
+It is impossible to read this opening paragraph without an involuntary
+feeling of religious awe; it breathes the very savor of gospel
+antiquity. The sincerity of the author heightens his power of language.
+The band, which to his eyes was a mere party of adventurers, gone forth
+to seek their fortune beyond the seas, appears to the reader as the
+germe of a great nation wafted by Providence to a predestined shore.
+
+The author thus continues his narrative of the departure of the first
+pilgrims:--
+
+"So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been
+their resting-place for above eleven years; but they knew that they were
+pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things,
+but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God
+hath prepared for them a city (Heb. xi., 16), and therein quieted their
+spirits. When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all
+things ready; and such of their friends as could come with them,
+followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt,
+and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep
+with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse,
+and other real expressions of true Christian love. The next day they
+went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the
+sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and
+prayers did sound among them; what tears did gush from every eye, and
+pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch
+strangers that stood on the key as spectators could not refrain from
+tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away that were
+thus loath to depart, their reverend pastor falling down on his knees,
+and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with most
+fervent prayers unto the Lord and his blessing; and then, with mutual
+embraces and many tears, they took their leaves one of another, which
+proved to be the last leave to many of them."
+
+The emigrants were about 150 in number, including the women and the
+children. Their object was to plant a colony on the shores of the
+Hudson; but after having been driven about for some time in the Atlantic
+ocean, they were forced to land on that arid coast of New England which
+is now the site of the town of Plymouth. The rock is still shown on
+which the pilgrims disembarked.[20]
+
+"But before we pass on," continues our historian, "let the reader with
+me make a pause, and seriously consider this poor people's present
+condition, the more to be raised up to admiration of God's goodness
+toward them in their preservation: for being now passed the vast ocean,
+and a sea of troubles before them in expectation, they had now no
+friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no
+houses, or much less towns to repair unto to seek for succor; and for
+the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country
+know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms,
+dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.
+Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full
+of wilde beasts, and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were,
+they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save
+upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in
+respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand
+in appearance with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country full
+of woods and thickets represented a wild and savage hue; if they looked
+behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was
+now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of
+the world."
+
+It must not be imagined that the piety of the puritans was of a merely
+speculative kind, or that it took no cognizance of the course of worldly
+affairs. Puritanism, as I have already remarked, was scarcely less a
+political than a religious doctrine. No sooner had the emigrants landed
+on the barren coast, described by Nathaniel Morton, than their first
+care was to constitute a society, by passing the following act:[21]--
+
+"IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN! We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal
+subjects of our dread sovereign lord King James, &c., &c., having
+undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith,
+and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first
+colony in the northern parts of Virginia: do by these presents solemnly
+and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and
+combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better
+ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid: and by
+virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws,
+ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, from time to time, as
+shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the
+colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience," &c.[22]
+
+This happened in 1620, and from that time forward the emigration went
+on. The religious and political passions which ravished the British
+empire during the whole reign of Charles I., drove fresh crowds
+of sectarians every year to the shores of America. In England the
+stronghold of puritanism was in the middle classes, and it was from the
+middle classes that the majority of the emigrants came. The population
+of New England increased rapidly; and while the hierarchy of rank
+despotically classed the inhabitants of the mother-country, the colony
+continued to present the novel spectacle of a community homogeneous in
+all its parts. A democracy, more perfect than any which antiquity
+had dreamed of, started in full size and panoply from the midst of an
+ancient feudal society.
+
+The English government was not dissatisfied with an emigration which
+removed the elements of fresh discord and of future revolutions. On the
+contrary, everything was done to encourage it, and little attention
+was paid to the destiny of those who sought a shelter from the rigor of
+their country's laws on the soil of America. It seemed as if New England
+was a region given up to the dreams of fancy, and the unrestrained
+experiments of innovators.
+
+The English colonies (and this is one of the main causes of their
+prosperity) have always enjoyed more internal freedom and more political
+independence than the colonies of other nations; but this principle of
+liberty was nowhere more extensively applied than in the states of New
+England.
+
+It was generally allowed at that period that the territories of the
+New World belonged to that European nation which had been the first to
+discover them. Nearly the whole coast of North America thus became a
+British possession toward the end of the sixteenth century. The means
+used by the English government to people these new domains were of
+several kinds: the king sometimes appointed a governor of his own
+choice, who ruled a portion of the New World in the name and under the
+immediate orders of the crown;[23] this is the colonial system adopted
+by the other countries of Europe. Sometimes grants of certain tracts
+were made by the crown to an individual or to a company,[24] in which
+case all the civil and political power fell into the hands of one or
+more persons, who, under the inspection and control of the crown, sold
+the lands and governed the inhabitants. Lastly, a third system consisted
+in allowing a certain number of emigrants to constitute a political
+society under the protection of the mother-country, and to govern
+themselves in whatever was not contrary to her laws. This mode of
+colonization, so remarkably favorable to liberty, was adopted only in
+New England.[25]
+
+In 1628,[26] a charter of this kind was granted by Charles I. to the
+emigrants who went to form the colony of Massachusetts. But, in general,
+charters were not given to the colonies of New England till they had
+acquired a certain existence. Plymouth, Providence, New Haven, the state
+of Connecticut, and that of Rhode Island,[27] were founded without the
+co-operation, and almost without the knowledge of the mother-country.
+The new settlers did not derive their incorporation from the head of
+the empire, although they did not deny its supremacy; they constituted
+a society of their own accord, and it was not till thirty or forty
+years afterward, under Charles II., that their existence was legally
+recognised by a royal charter.
+
+This frequently renders it difficult to detect the link which connected
+the emigrants with the land of their forefathers, in studying the
+earliest historical and legislative records of New England. They
+perpetually exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their
+magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations,
+and enacted laws, as if their allegiance was due only to God.[28]
+Nothing can be more curious, and at the same time more instructive than
+the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the
+great social problem which the United States now present to the world is
+to be found.
+
+Among these documents we shall notice as especially characteristic, the
+code of laws promulgated by the little state of Connecticut in 1650.[29]
+
+The legislators of Connecticut[30] begin with the penal laws, and,
+strange to say, they borrow their provisions from the text of holy writ.
+
+"Whoever shall worship any other God than the Lord," says the preamble
+of the code, "shall surely be put to death." This is followed by ten or
+twelve enactments of the same kind, copied verbatim from the books of
+Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery,[31]
+and rape were punished with death; an outrage offered by a son to his
+parents, was to be expiated by the same penalty. The legislation of a
+rude and half-civilized people was thus transferred to an enlightened
+and moral community. The consequence was, that the punishment of death
+was never more frequently prescribed by the statute, and never more
+rarely enforced toward the guilty.
+
+The chief care of the legislators, in this body of penal laws, was the
+maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community: they
+constantly invaded the domain of conscience, and there was scarcely a
+sin which they did not subject to magisterial censure. The reader is
+aware of the rigor with which these laws punished rape and adultery;
+intercourse between unmarried persons was likewise severely repressed.
+The judge was empowered to inflict a pecuniary penalty, a whipping, or
+marriage,[32] on the misdemeanants; and if the records of the old
+courts of New Haven may be believed, prosecutions of this kind were
+not infrequent. We find a sentence bearing date the first of May, 1660,
+inflicting a fine and a reprimand on a young woman who was accused of
+using improper language, and of allowing herself to be kissed.[33] The
+code of 1650 abounds in preventive measures. It punishes idleness and
+drunkenness with severity.[34] Innkeepers are forbidden to furnish more
+than a certain quantity of liquor to each customer; and simple lying,
+whenever it may be injurious,[35] is checked by a fine or a flogging. In
+other places, the legislator, entirely forgetting the great principles
+of religious toleration which he had himself upheld in Europe, renders
+attendance on divine service compulsory,[36] and goes so far as to visit
+with severe punishment,[37] and even with death, the Christians who
+chose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own.[38]
+Sometimes indeed, the zeal of his enactments induces him to descend to
+the most frivolous particulars: thus a law is to be found in the same
+code which prohibits the use of tobacco.[39] It must not be forgotten
+that these fantastical and vexatious laws were not imposed by authority,
+but that they were freely voted by all the persons interested, and that
+the manners of the community were even more austere and more puritanical
+than the laws. In 1649 a solemn association was formed in Boston to
+check the worldly luxury of long hair.[40]
+
+These errors are no doubt discreditable to the human reason; they attest
+the inferiority of our nature, which is incapable of laying firm hold
+upon what is true and just, and is often reduced to the alternative of
+two excesses. In strict connection with this penal legislation, which
+bears such striking marks of a narrow sectarian spirit, and of those
+religious passions which had been warmed by persecution, and were still
+fermenting among the people, a body of political laws is to be found,
+which, though written two hundred years ago, is still ahead of the
+liberties of our age.
+
+The general principles which are the groundwork of modern
+constitutions--principles which were imperfectly known in Europe, and
+not completely triumphant even in Great Britain, in the seventeenth
+century--were all recognised and determined by the laws of New England:
+the intervention of the people in public affairs, the free voting of
+taxes, the responsibility of authorities, personal liberty, and trial by
+jury, were all positively established without discussion.
+
+From these fruitful principles, consequences have been derived and
+applications have been made such as no nation in Europe has yet ventured
+to attempt.
+
+In Connecticut the electoral body consisted, from its origin, of the
+whole number of citizens; and this is readily to be understood,[41]
+when we recollect that this people enjoyed an almost perfect equality of
+fortune, and a still greater uniformity of capacity.[42] In Connecticut,
+at this period, all the executive functionaries were elected, including
+the governor of the state.[43] The citizens above the age of sixteen
+were obliged to bear arms; they formed a national militia, which
+appointed its own officers, and was to hold itself at all times in
+readiness to march for the defence of the country.[44]
+
+In the laws of Connecticut, as well as in those of New England, we find
+the germe and gradual development of that township independence, which
+is the life and mainspring of American liberty at the present day. The
+political existence of the majority of the nations of Europe commenced
+in the superior ranks of society, and was gradually and always
+imperfectly communicated to the different members of the social body.
+In America, on the other hand, it may be said that the township was
+organized before the county, the county before the state, the state
+before the Union.
+
+In New England, townships were completely and definitively constituted
+as early as 1650. The independence of the township was the nucleus
+around which the local interests, passions, rights, and duties,
+collected and clung. It gave scope to the activity of a real political
+life, most thoroughly democratic and republican. The colonies still
+recognised the supremacy of the mother-country; monarchy was still the
+law of the state; but the republic was already established in every
+township.
+
+The towns named their own magistrates of every kind, rated themselves,
+and levied their own taxes.[45] In the townships of New England the law
+of representation was not adopted, but the affairs of the community were
+discussed, as at Athens, in the market-place, by a general assembly of
+the citizens.
+
+In studying the laws which were promulgated at this first era of the
+American republics, it is impossible not to be struck by the remarkable
+acquaintance with the science of government, and the advanced theory of
+legislation, which they display. The ideas there formed of the duties
+of society toward its members, are evidently much loftier and more
+comprehensive than those of the European legislators at that time:
+obligations were there imposed which were elsewhere slighted. In the
+states of New England, from the first, the condition of the poor was
+provided for;[46] strict measures were taken for the maintenance of
+roads, and surveyors were appointed to attend to them;[47] registers
+were established in every parish, in which the results of public
+deliberations, and the births, deaths, and marriages of the citizens
+were entered;[48] clerks were directed to keep these registers;[49]
+officers were charged with the administration of vacant inheritances,
+and with the arbitration of litigated landmarks; and many others were
+created whose chief functions were the maintenance of public order in
+the community.[50] The law enters into a thousand useful provisions for
+a number of social wants which are at present very inadequately felt in
+France.
+
+But it is by the attention it pays to public education that the original
+character of American civilisation is at once placed in the clearest
+light. "It being," says the law, "one chief project of Satan to keep
+men from the knowledge of the Scripture by persuading from the use of
+tongues, to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of
+our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our
+endeavors."[51] Here follow clauses establishing schools in every
+township, and obliging the inhabitants, under pain of heavy fines, to
+support them. Schools of a superior kind were founded in the same manner
+in the more populous districts. The municipal authorities were bound to
+enforce the sending of children to school by their parents; they were
+empowered to inflict fines upon all who refused compliance; and in cases
+of continued resistance, society assumed the place of the parent, took
+possession of the child, and deprived the father of those natural rights
+which he used to so bad a purpose. The reader will undoubtedly have
+remarked the preamble of these enactments: in America, religion is the
+road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads men to
+civil freedom.
+
+If, after having cast a rapid glance over the state of American society
+in 1650, we turn to the condition of Europe, and more especially to that
+of the continent, at the same period, we cannot fail to be struck
+with astonishment. On the continent of Europe, at the beginning of the
+seventeenth century, absolute monarchy had everywhere triumphed over the
+ruins of the oligarchical and feudal liberties of the middle ages. Never
+were the notions of right more completely confounded than in the midst
+of the splendor and literature of Europe; never was there less political
+activity among the people; never were the principles of true freedom
+less widely circulated, and at that very time, those principles, which
+were scorned or unknown by the nations of Europe, were proclaimed in
+the deserts of the New World, and were accepted as the future creed of
+a great people. The boldest theories of the human reason were put into
+practice by a community so humble, that not a statesman condescended to
+attend to it; and a legislation without precedent was produced off-hand
+by the imagination of the citizens. In the bosom of this obscure
+democracy, which had as yet brought forth neither generals, nor
+philosophers, nor authors, a man might stand up in the face of a free
+people, and pronounce amid general acclamations the following fine
+definition of liberty:[52]--
+
+"Nor would I have you to mistake in the point of your own liberty. There
+is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts
+to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority,
+impatient of all restraint; by this liberty '_sumus omnes deteriores_;'
+it is the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God
+are bent against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty,
+which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for
+that only which is just and good: for this liberty you are to stand
+with the hazard of your very lives, and whatsoever crosses it is not
+authority, but a distemper thereof. This liberty is maintained in a way
+of subjection to authority; and the authority set over you will, in all
+administrations for your good, be quietly submitted unto by all but such
+as have a disposition to shake off the yoke and lose their true liberty,
+by their murmuring at the honor and power of authority."
+
+The remarks I have made will suffice to display the character of
+Anglo-American civilisation in its true light. It is the result (and
+this should be constantly present to the mind) of two distinct elements,
+which in other places have been in frequent hostility, but which in
+America have admirably incorporated and combined with one another. I
+allude to the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty.
+
+The settlers of New England were at the same time ardent sectarians
+and daring innovators. Narrow as the limits of some of their religious
+opinions were, they were entirely free from political prejudices.
+
+Hence arose two tendencies, distinct but not opposite, which are
+constantly discernible in the manners as well as in the laws of the
+country.
+
+It might be imagined that men who sacrificed their friends, their
+family, and their native land, to a religious conviction, were absorbed
+in the pursuit of the intellectual advantages which they purchased at
+so dear a rate. The energy, however, with which they strove for the
+acquirements of wealth, moral enjoyment, and the comforts as well as the
+liberties of the world, was scarcely inferior to that with which they
+devoted themselves to Heaven.
+
+Political principles, and all human laws and institutions were moulded
+and altered at their pleasure; the barriers of the society in which they
+were born were broken down before them; the old principles which had
+governed the world for ages were no more; a path without a turn, and
+a field without a horizon, were opened to the exploring and ardent
+curiosity of man; but at the limits of the political world he checks
+his researches, he discreetly lays aside the use of his most formidable
+faculties, he no longer consents to doubt or to innovate, but carefully
+abstaining from raising the curtain of the sanctuary, he yields with
+submissive respect to truths which he will not discuss.
+
+Thus in the moral world, everything is classed, adapted, decided, and
+foreseen; in the political world everything is agitated, uncertain, and
+disputed: in the one is a passive, though a voluntary obedience; in the
+other an independence, scornful of experience and jealous of authority.
+
+These two tendencies, apparently so discrepant, are far from
+conflicting; they advance together, and mutually support each other.
+
+Religion perceives that civil liberty affords a noble exercise to the
+faculties of man, and that the political world is a field prepared by
+the Creator for the efforts of the intelligence. Contented with the
+freedom and the power which it enjoys in its own sphere, and with the
+place which it occupies, the empire of religion is never more surely
+established than when it reigns in the hearts of men unsupported by
+aught besides its native strength.
+
+Religion is no less the companion of liberty in all its battles and
+its triumphs; the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its
+claims. The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best
+security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.[53]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+REASONS OF CERTAIN ANOMALIES WHICH THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
+ANGLO-AMERICANS PRESENT.
+
+Remains of aristocratic Institutions in the midst of a complete
+Democracy.--Why?--Distinction carefully to be drawn between what is of
+Puritanical and what is of English Origin.
+
+The reader is cautioned not to draw too general or too absolute an
+inference from what has been said. The social condition, the religion,
+and the manners of the first emigrants undoubtedly exercised an immense
+influence on the destiny of their new country. Nevertheless it was
+not in their power to found a state of things originating solely in
+themselves; no man can entirely shake off the influence of the past, and
+the settlers, unintentionally or involuntarily, mingled habits derived
+from their education and from the traditions of their country, with
+those habits and notions which were exclusively their own. To form a
+judgment on the Anglo-Americans of the present day, it is therefore
+necessary carefully to distinguish what is of puritanical from what is
+of English origin.
+
+Laws and customs are frequently to be met with in the United States
+which contrast strongly with all that surrounds them. These laws seem to
+be drawn up in a spirit contrary to the prevailing tenor of the American
+legislation; and these customs are no less opposed to the general
+tone of society. If the English colonies had been founded in an age of
+darkness, or if their origin was already lost in the lapse of years, the
+problem would be insoluble.
+
+I shall quote a single example to illustrate what I advance.
+
+The civil and criminal procedure of the Americans has only two means of
+action--committal or bail. The first measure taken by the magistrate
+is to exact security from the defendant, or, in case of refusal, to
+incarcerate him: the ground of the accusation, and the importance of the
+charges against him are then discussed.
+
+It is evident that a legislation of this kind is hostile to the poor
+man, and favorable only to the rich. The poor man has not always a
+security to produce, even in a civil cause: and if he is obliged to wait
+for justice in prison, he is speedily reduced to distress. The wealthy
+individual, on the contrary, always escapes imprisonment in civil
+causes; nay, more, he may readily elude the punishment which awaits him
+for a delinquency, by breaking his bail. So that all the penalties
+of the law are, for him, reducible to fines.[54] Nothing can be more
+aristocratic than this system of legislation. Yet in America it is the
+poor who make the law, and they usually reserve the greatest social
+advantages to themselves. The explanation of the phenomenon is to be
+found in England; the laws of which I speak are English,[55] and the
+Americans have retained them, however repugnant they may be to the tenor
+of their legislation, and the mass of their ideas.
+
+Next to its habits, the thing which a nation is least apt to change is
+its civil legislation. Civil laws are only familiarly known to legal
+men, whose direct interest it is to maintain them as they are, whether
+good or bad, simply because they themselves are conversant with them.
+The body of the nation is scarcely acquainted with them: it merely
+perceives their action in particular cases; but it has some difficulty
+in seizing their tendency, and obeys them without reflection.
+
+I have quoted one instance where it would have been easy to adduce a
+great number of others.
+
+The surface of American society is, if I may use the expression, covered
+with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic
+colors sometimes peep.[56]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[14] The charter granted by the crown of England, in 1609, stipulated,
+among other conditions, that the adventurers should pay to the crown a
+fifth of the produce of all gold and silver mines. See Marshall's "Life
+of Washington," vol i., pp. 18-66.
+
+[15] A large portion of the adventurers, says Stith (History of
+Virginia), were unprincipled young men of family, whom their parents
+were glad to ship off, discharged servants, fraudulent bankrupts, or
+debauchees: and others of the same class, people more apt to pillage
+and destroy than to assist the settlement, were the seditious chiefs who
+easily led this band into every kind of extravagance and excess. See for
+the history of Virginia the following works:--
+
+"History of Virginia, from the first Settlements in the year 1624," by
+Smith.
+
+"History of Virginia," by William Stith.
+
+"History of Virginia, from the earliest Period," by Beverley.
+
+[16] It was not till some time later that a certain number of rich
+English capitalists came to fix themselves in the colony.
+
+[17] Slavery was introduced about the year 1620, by a Dutch vessel,
+which landed twenty negroes on the banks of the river James. See
+Chalmer.
+
+[18] The states of New England are those situated to the east of the
+Hudson; they are now six in number: 1. Connecticut; 2. Rhode Island; 3.
+Massachusetts; 4. Vermont; 5. New Hampshire; 6. Maine.
+
+[19] "New England's Memorial," p. 13. Boston, 1826. See also
+"Hutchinson's History," vol. ii., p. 440
+
+[20] This rock is become an object of veneration in the United States. I
+have seen bits of it carefully preserved in several towns of the Union.
+Does not this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is
+in the soul of man? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts
+pressed for an instant, and this stone becomes famous; it is treasured
+by a great nation, its very dust is shared as a relic; and what is
+become of the gateways of a thousand palaces?
+
+[21] "New England Memorial," p. 37.
+
+[22] The emigrants who founded the state of Rhode Island in 1638, those
+who landed at New Haven in 1637, the first settlers in Connecticut in
+1639, and the founders of Providence in 1640, began in like manner by
+drawing up a social contract, which was submitted to the approval of all
+the interested parties. See "Pitkin's History," pp 42, 47.
+
+[23] This was the case in the state of New York.
+
+[24] Maryland, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, were in this
+situation. See Pitkin's History, vol. i., pp. 11-31.
+
+[25] See the work entitled, "_Historical Collection of State Papers and
+other Authentic Documents intended as Materials for a History of the
+United States of America_" by Ebenezer Hazard, Philadelphia, 1792, for a
+great number of documents relating to the commencement of the colonies,
+which are valuable from their contents and their authenticity; among
+them are the various charters granted by the king of England, and the
+first acts of the local governments.
+
+See also the analysis of all these charters given by Mr. Story, judge
+of the supreme court of the United States, in the introduction to his
+Commentary on the Constitution of the United States. It results from
+these documents that the principles of representative government and
+the external forms of political liberty were introduced into all the
+colonies at their origin. These principles were more fully acted upon in
+the North than in the South, but they existed everywhere.
+
+[26] See Pitkin's History, p. 35. See the History of the Colony of
+Massachusetts Bay, by Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 9.
+
+[27] See Pitkin's History, pp. 42, 47.
+
+[28] The inhabitants of Massachusetts had deviated from the forms which
+are preserved in the criminal and civil procedure of England: in 1650
+the decrees of justice were not yet headed by the royal style. See
+Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 452.
+
+[29] Code of 1650, p. 28. Hartford, 1830.
+
+[30] See also in Hutchinson's History, vol. i., pp. 435, 456,
+the analysis of the penal code adopted in 1648, by the colony of
+Massachusetts: this code is drawn up on the same principles as that of
+Connecticut.
+
+[31] Adultery was also punished with death by the law of Massachusetts;
+and Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 441, says that several persons actually
+suffered for this crime. He quotes a curious anecdote on this subject,
+which occurred in the year 1663. A married woman had had criminal
+intercourse with a young man; her husband died, and she married the
+lover. Several years had elapsed, when the public began to suspect the
+previous intercourse of this couple; they were thrown into prison, put
+upon trial, and very narrowly escaped capital punishment.
+
+[32] Code of 1650, p. 48. It seems sometimes to have happened that
+the judge superadded these punishments to each other, as is seen in a
+sentence pronounced in 1643 (New Haven Antiquities, p. 114), by which
+Margaret Bedford, convicted of loose conduct, was condemned to be
+whipped, and afterward to marry Nicolas Jemmings her accomplice.
+
+[33] New Haven Antiquities, p. 104. See also Hutchinson's History for
+several causes equally extraordinary.
+
+[34] Code of 1650, pp. 50, 57.
+
+[35] Ibid, p. 64.
+
+[36] Ibid, p. 44.
+
+[37] This was not peculiar to Connecticut. See for instance the law
+which, on the 13th of September, 1644, banished the ana-baptists from
+the state of Massachusetts. (Historical Collection of State Papers, vol.
+i., p. 538.) See also the law against the quakers, passed on the 14th
+of October, 1656. "Whereas," says the preamble, "an accursed race of
+heretics called quakers has sprung up," &c. The clauses of the statute
+inflict a heavy fine on all captains of ships who should import quakers
+into the country. The quakers who may be found there shall be whipped
+and imprisoned with hard labor. Those members of the sect who should
+defend their opinions shall be first fined, then imprisoned, and finally
+driven out of the province. (Historical Collection of State Papers, vol.
+i., p. 630.)
+
+[38] By the penal law of Massachusetts, any catholic priest who should
+set foot in the colony after having been once driven out of it, was
+liable to capital punishment.
+
+[39] Code of 1650, p. 96.
+
+[40] New England's Memorial, p. 316. See Appendix E.
+
+[41] Constitution of 1638, p. 17.
+
+[42] In 1641 the general assembly of Rhode Island unanimously declared
+that the government of the state was a democracy, and that the power was
+vested in the body of free citizens, who alone had the right to make the
+laws and to watch their execution. Code of 1650, p. 70.
+
+[43] Pitkin's History, p. 47.
+
+[44] Constitution of 1638, p. 12.
+
+[45] Code of 1650, p 80.
+
+[46] Code of 1650, p. 78.
+
+[47] Code of 1750, p. 94.
+
+[48] Ibid, p. 86.
+
+[49] See Hutchinson's History, vol. i. p. 455.
+
+[50] Ibid, p. 40.
+
+[51] Code of 1650, p. 90.
+
+[52] Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, vol. ii., p. 13. This speech
+was made by Winthrop; he was accused of having committed arbitrary
+actions during his magistracy, but after having made the speech of which
+the above is a fragment, he was acquitted by acclamation, and from
+that time forward he was always re-elected governor of the state. See
+Marshall, vol. i., p. 166.
+
+[53] See Appendix F.
+
+[54] Crimes no doubt exist for which bail is inadmissible, but they are
+few in number.
+
+[55] See Blackstone; and Delolme, book i., chap. x.
+
+[56] The author is not quite accurate in this statement. A person
+accused of crime is, in the first instance, arrested by virtue of a
+warrant issued by the magistrate, upon a complaint granted upon proof of
+a crime having been committed by the person charged. He is then brought
+before the magistrate, the complainant examined in his presence, other
+evidence adduced, and he is heard in explanation or defence. If the
+magistrate is satisfied that a crime has been committed, and that the
+accused is guilty, the latter is, then, and then only, required to give
+security for his appearance at the proper court to take his trial, if an
+indictment shall be found against him by a Grand Jury of twenty-three
+of his fellow-citizens. In the event of his inability or refusal to give
+the security he is incarcerated, so as to secure his appearance at a
+trial.
+
+In France, after the preliminary examination, the accused, unless
+absolutely discharged, is in all cases incarcerated, to secure his
+presence at the trial. It is the relaxation of this practice in England
+and the United States, in order to attain the ends of justice at the
+least possible inconvenience to the accused, by accepting what is
+deemed an adequate pledge for his appearance, which our author considers
+hostile to the poor man and favorable to the rich. And yet it is very
+obvious, that such is not its design or tendency. Good character, and
+probable innocence, ordinarily obtain for the accused man the required
+security. And if they do not, how can complaint be justly made that
+others are not treated with unnecessary severity, and punished in
+anticipation, because some are prevented by circumstances from availing
+themselves of a benign provision so favorable to humanity, and to that
+innocence which our law presumes, until guilt is proved? To secure the
+persons of suspected criminals, that they may abide the sentence of the
+law, is indispensable to all jurisprudence. And instead of reproof
+or aristocratic tendency, our system deserves credit for having
+ameliorated, as far as possible, the condition of persons accused.
+That this amelioration cannot be made in all instances, flows from the
+necessity of the case.
+
+It would be a mistake to suppose, as the author seems to have done,
+that the forfeiture of the security given, exonerates the accused from
+punishment. He may be again arrested and detained in prison, as security
+would not ordinarily be received from a person who had given such
+evidence of his guilt as would be derived from his attempt to escape.
+And the difficulty of escape is rendered so great by our constitutional
+provisions for the delivery, by the different states, of fugitives
+from justice, and by our treaties with England and France for the same
+purpose, that the instances of successful evasion are few and rare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE ANGLO-AMERICANS.
+
+
+A Social condition is commonly the result of circumstances, sometimes of
+laws, oftener still of these two causes united; but wherever it exists,
+it may justly be considered as the source of almost all the laws, the
+usages, and the ideas, which regulate the conduct of nations: whatever
+it does not produce, it modifies.
+
+It is, therefore, necessary, if we would become acquainted with the
+legislation and the manners of a nation, to begin by the study of its
+social condition.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE STRIKING CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE
+ANGLO-AMERICANS IS ITS ESSENTIAL DEMOCRACY.
+
+The first Emigrants of New England.--Their Equality.--Aristocratic Laws
+introduced in the South.--Period of the Revolution.--Change in the Law
+of Descent.--Effects produced by this Change.--Democracy carried to its
+utmost Limits in the new States of the West.--Equality of Education.
+
+Many important observations suggest themselves upon the social condition
+of the Anglo-Americans; but there is one which takes precedence of all
+the rest. The social condition of the Americans is eminently democratic;
+this was its character at the foundation of the colonies, and is still
+more strongly marked at the present day.
+
+I have stated in the preceding chapter that great equality existed among
+the emigrants who settled on the shores of New England. The germe
+of aristocracy was never planted in that part of the Union. The only
+influence which obtained there was that of intellect; the people were
+used to reverence certain names as the emblems of knowledge and virtue.
+Some of their fellow-citizens acquired a power over the rest which
+might truly have been called aristocratic, if it had been capable of
+invariable transmission from father to son.
+
+This was the state of things to the east of the Hudson: to the southwest
+of that river, and in the direction of the Floridas, the case was
+different. In most of the states situated to the southwest of the Hudson
+some great English proprietors had settled, who had imported with them
+aristocratic principles and the English law of descent. I have
+explained the reasons why it was impossible ever to establish a powerful
+aristocracy in America; these reasons existed with less force to the
+southwest of the Hudson. In the south, one man, aided by slaves, could
+cultivate a great extent of country: it was therefore common to see rich
+landed proprietors. But their influence was not altogether aristocratic
+as that term is understood in Europe, since they possessed no
+privileges; and the cultivation of their estates being carried on by
+slaves, they had no tenants depending on them, and consequently no
+patronage. Still, the great proprietors south of the Hudson constituted
+a superior class, having ideas and tastes of its own, and forming the
+centre of political action. This kind of aristocracy sympathized with
+the body of the people, whose passions and interests it easily embraced;
+but it was too weak and too short-lived to excite either love or hatred
+for itself. This was the class which headed the insurrection in the
+south, and furnished the best leaders of the American revolution.
+
+At the period of which we are now speaking, society was shaken to
+its centre: the people, in whose name the struggle had taken place,
+conceived the desire of exercising the authority which it had acquired;
+its democratic tendencies were awakened; and having thrown off the yoke
+of the mother-country, it aspired to independence of every kind. The
+influence of individuals gradually ceased to be felt, and custom and law
+united together to produce the same result.
+
+But the law of descent was the last step to equality. I am surprised
+that ancient and modern jurists have not attributed to this law a
+greater influence on human affairs.[57] It is true that these laws
+belong to civil affairs: but they ought nevertheless to be placed at the
+head of all political institutions; for, while political laws are
+only the symbol of a nation's condition, they exercise an incredible
+influence upon its social state. They have, moreover, a sure and uniform
+manner of operating upon society, affecting, as it were, generations yet
+unknown.
+
+Through their means man acquires a kind of preternatural power over
+the future lot of his fellow-creatures. When the legislator has once
+regulated the law of inheritance, he may rest from his labor. The
+machine once put in motion will go on for ages, and advance, as if
+self-guided, toward a given point. When framed in a particular manner,
+this law unites, draws together, and vests property and power in a few
+hands: its tendency is clearly aristocratic. On opposite principles its
+action is still more rapid; it divides, distributes, and disperses both
+property and power. Alarmed by the rapidity of its progress, those who
+despair of arresting its motion endeavor to obstruct by difficulties
+and impediments; they vainly seek to counteract its effect by contrary
+efforts: but it gradually reduces or destroys every obstacle, until
+by its incessant activity the bulwarks of the influence of wealth
+are ground down to the fine and shifting sand which is the basis of
+democracy. When the law of inheritance permits, still more when it
+decrees, the equal division of a father's property among all his
+children, its effects are of two kinds: it is important to distinguish
+them from each other, although they tend to the same end.
+
+In virtue of the law of partible inheritance, the death of every
+proprietor brings about a kind of revolution in property: not only do
+his possessions change hands, but their very nature is altered; since
+they are parcelled into shares, which become smaller and smaller at each
+division. This is the direct, and, as it were, the physical effect
+of the law. It follows, then, that in countries where equality of
+inheritance is established by law, property, and especially landed
+property, must have a tendency to perpetual diminution. The effects,
+however, of such legislation would only be perceptible after a lapse
+of time, if the law was abandoned to its own working; for supposing a
+family to consist of two children (and in a country peopled as France
+is, the average number is not above three), these children, sharing
+among them the fortune of both parents, would not be poorer than their
+father or mother.
+
+But the law of equal division exercises its influence not merely upon
+the property itself, but it affects the minds of the heirs, and brings
+their passions into play. These indirect consequences tend powerfully to
+the destruction of large fortunes, and especially of large domains.
+
+Among the nations whose law of descent is founded upon the right of
+primogeniture, landed estates often pass from generation to generation
+without undergoing division. The consequence of which is, that family
+feeling is to a certain degree incorporated with the estate. The family
+represents the estate, the estate the family; whose name, together with
+its origin, its glory, its power, and its virtues, is thus perpetuated
+in an imperishable memorial of the past, and a sure pledge of the
+future.
+
+When the equal partition of property is established by law, the intimate
+connection is destroyed between family feeling and the preservation of
+the paternal estate; the property ceases to represent the family; for,
+as it must inevitably be divided after one or two generations, it
+has evidently a constant tendency to diminish, and must in the end be
+completely dispersed. The sons of the great landed proprietor, if they
+are few in number, or if fortune befriend them, may indeed entertain the
+hope of being as wealthy as their father, but not that of possessing the
+same property as he did; their riches must necessarily be composed of
+elements different from his.
+
+Now, from the moment when you divest the land-owner of that interest in
+the preservation of his estate which he derives from association, from
+tradition, and from family pride, you may be certain that sooner or
+later he will dispose of it; for there is a strong pecuniary interest in
+favor of selling, as floating capital produces higher interest than real
+property, and is more readily available to gratify the passions of the
+moment.
+
+Great landed estates which have once been divided, never come together
+again; for the small proprietor draws from his land a better revenue in
+proportion, than the large owner does from his; and of course he sells
+it at a higher rate.[58] The calculations of gain, therefore, which
+decided the rich man to sell his domain, will still more powerfully
+influence him against buying small estates to unite them into a large
+one.
+
+What is called family pride is often founded upon an illusion of
+self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself, as it
+were, in his great-grandchildren. Where the _esprit de famille_ ceases
+to act, individual selfishness comes into play. When the idea of family
+becomes vague, indeterminate, and uncertain, a man thinks of his
+present convenience; he provides for the establishment of the succeeding
+generation, and no more.
+
+Either a man gives up the idea of perpetuating his family, or at any
+rate he seeks to accomplish it by other means than that of a landed
+estate.
+
+Thus not only does the law of partible inheritance render it difficult
+for families to preserve their ancestral domains entire, but it deprives
+them of the inclination to attempt it, and compels them in some measure
+to co-operate with the law in their own extinction.
+
+The law of equal distribution proceeds by two methods: by acting upon
+things, it acts upon persons; by influencing persons, it affects things.
+By these means the law succeeds in striking at the root of landed
+property, and dispersing rapidly both families and fortunes.[59]
+
+Most certainly is it not for us, Frenchmen of the nineteenth century,
+who daily behold the political and social changes which the law
+of partition is bringing to pass, to question its influence. It is
+perpetually conspicuous in our country, overthrowing the walls of our
+dwellings and removing the landmarks of our fields. But although it has
+produced great effects in France, much still remains for it to do. Our
+recollections, opinions, and habits, present powerful obstacles to its
+progress.
+
+In the United States it has nearly completed its work of destruction,
+and there we can best study its results. The English laws concerning the
+transmission of property were abolished in almost all the states at
+the time of the revolution. The law of entail was so modified as not to
+interrupt the free circulation of property.[60] The first having passed
+away, estates began to be parcelled out; and the change became more and
+more rapid with the progress of time. At this moment, after a lapse of
+little more than sixty years, the aspect of society is totally altered;
+the families of the great landed proprietors are almost all commingled
+with the general mass. In the state of New York, which formerly
+contained many of these, there are but two who still keep their heads
+above the stream; and they must shortly disappear. The sons of these
+opulent citizens have become merchants, lawyers, or physicians. Most of
+them have lapsed into obscurity. The last trace of hereditary ranks and
+distinctions is destroyed--the law of partition has reduced all to one
+level.
+
+I do not mean that there is any deficiency of wealthy individuals in the
+United States; I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money
+has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder
+contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of
+property. But wealth circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and
+experience shows that it is rare to find two succeeding generations in
+the full enjoyment of it.
+
+This picture, which may perhaps be thought overcharged, still gives a
+very imperfect idea of what is taking place in the new states of
+the west and southwest. At the end of the last century a few bold
+adventurers began to penetrate into the valleys of the Mississippi, and
+the mass of the population very soon began to move in that direction:
+communities unheard of till then were seen to emerge from their wilds:
+states, whose names were not in existence a few years before, claimed
+their place in the American Union; and in the western settlements we may
+behold democracy arrived at its utmost extreme. In these states,
+founded off hand, and as it were by chance, the inhabitants are but
+of yesterday. Scarcely known to one another, the nearest neighbors
+are ignorant of each other's history. In this part of the American
+continent, therefore, the population has not experienced the influence
+of great names and great wealth, nor even that of the natural
+aristocracy of knowledge and virtue. None are there to wield that
+respectable power which men willingly grant to the remembrance of a life
+spent in doing good before their eyes. The new states of the west are
+already inhabited; but society has no existence among them.
+
+It is not only the fortunes of men which are equal in America; even
+their acquirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity. I do
+not believe there is a country in the world where, in proportion to the
+population, there are so few uninstructed, and at the same time so
+few learned individuals. Primary instruction is within the reach of
+everybody; superior instruction is scarcely to be obtained by any. This
+is not surprising; it is in fact the necessary consequence of what we
+have advanced above. Almost all the Americans are in easy circumstances,
+and can therefore obtain the elements of human knowledge.
+
+In America there are comparatively few who are rich enough to live
+without a profession. Every profession requires an apprenticeship, which
+limits the time of instruction to the early years of life. At fifteen
+they enter upon their calling, and thus their education ends at the age
+when ours begins. Whatever is done afterward, is with a view to some
+special and lucrative object; a science is taken up as a matter of
+business, and the only branch of it which is attended to is such as
+admits of an immediate practical application.
+
+[This paragraph does not fairly render the meaning of the author. The
+original French is as follows:--
+
+"En Amerique il y a peu de riches; presque tous les Americains ont
+donc besoin d'exercer une profession. Or, toute profession exige an
+apprentissage. Les Americains ne peuvent donc donner a la culture
+generale de l'intelligence que les premieres annees de la vie: a quinze
+ans ils entrent dans une carriere: ainsi leur education finit le plus
+souvent a l'epoque ou la notre commence."
+
+What is meant by the remark; that "at fifteen they enter upon a career,
+and thus their education is very often finished at the epoch when ours
+commences," is not clearly perceived. Our professional men enter upon
+their course of preparation for their respective professions, wholly
+between eighteen and twenty-one years of age. Apprentices to trades
+are bound out, ordinarily, at fourteen, but what general education they
+receive is after that period. Previously, they have acquired the mere
+elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. But it is supposed there
+is nothing peculiar to America, in the age at which apprenticeship
+commences. In England, they commence at the same age, and it is believed
+that the same thing occurs throughout Europe. It is feared that the
+author has not here expressed himself with his usual clearness and
+precision.--_American Editor_.]
+
+In America most of the rich men were formerly poor; most of those who
+now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the
+consequence of which is, that when they might have had a taste for study
+they had no time for it, and when the time is at their disposal they
+have no longer the inclination.
+
+There is no class, then, in America in which the taste for intellectual
+pleasures is transmitted with hereditary fortune and leisure, and by
+which the labors of the intellect are held in honor. Accordingly there
+is an equal want of the desire and the power of application to these
+objects.
+
+A middling standard is fixed in America for human knowledge. All
+approach as near to it as they can; some as they rise, others as they
+descend. Of course, an immense multitude of persons are to be found
+who entertain the same number of ideas on religion, history, science,
+political economy, legislation, and government. The gifts of intellect
+proceed directly from God, and man cannot prevent their unequal
+distribution. But in consequence of the state of things which we have
+here represented, it happens, that although the capacities of men are
+widely different, as the Creator has doubtless intended they should be,
+they are submitted to the same method of treatment.
+
+In America the aristocratic element has always been feeble from its
+birth; and if at the present day it is not actually destroyed, it is at
+any rate so completely disabled that we can scarcely assign to it any
+degree of influence in the course of affairs.
+
+The democratic principle, on the contrary, has gained so much strength
+by time, by events, and by legislation, as to have become not only
+predominant but all-powerful. There is no family or corporate authority,
+and it is rare to find even the influence of individual character enjoy
+any durability.
+
+America, then, exhibits in her social state a most extraordinary
+phenomenon. Men are there seen on a greater equality in point of fortune
+and intellect, or in other words, more equal in their strength, than
+in any other country of the world, or, in any age of which history has
+preserved the remembrance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE ANGLO-AMERICANS.
+
+The political consequences of such a social condition as this are easily
+deducible.
+
+It is impossible to believe that equality will not eventually find its
+way into the political world as it does everywhere else. To conceive of
+men remaining for ever unequal upon one single point, yet equal on all
+others, is impossible; they must come in the end to be equal upon all.
+
+Now I know of only two methods of establishing equality in the political
+world: every citizen must be put in possession of his rights, or rights
+must be granted to no one. For nations which have arrived at the same
+stage of social existence as the Anglo-Americans, it is therefore very
+difficult to discover a medium between the sovereignty of all and the
+absolute power of one man: and it would be vain to deny that the social
+condition which I have been describing is equally liable to each of
+these consequences.
+
+There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality, which
+excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends
+to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in
+the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak
+to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to
+prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. Not that those
+nations whose social condition is democratic naturally despise liberty;
+on the contrary, they have an instinctive love of it. But liberty is not
+the chief and constant object of their desires; equality is their idol:
+they make rapid and sudden efforts to obtain liberty, and if they miss
+their aim, resign themselves to their disappointment; but nothing can
+satisfy them except equality, and rather than lose it they resolve to
+perish.
+
+On the other hand, in a state where the citizens are nearly on an
+equality, it becomes difficult for them to preserve their independence
+against the aggression of power. No one among them being strong enough
+to engage singly in the struggle with advantage, nothing but a general
+combination can protect their liberty: and such a union is not always to
+be found.
+
+From the same social position, then, nations may derive one or the other
+of two great political results; these results are extremely different
+from each other, but they may both proceed from the same cause.
+
+The Anglo-Americans are the first who, having been exposed to this
+formidable alternative, have been happy enough to escape the dominion
+of absolute power. They have been allowed by their circumstances, their
+origin, their intelligence, and especially by their moral feeling, to
+establish and maintain the sovereignty of the people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[57] I understand by the law of descent all those laws whose principal
+object it is to regulate the distribution of property after the death
+of its owner. The law of entail is of this number: it certainly prevents
+the owner from disposing of his possessions before his death; but
+this is solely with a view of preserving them entire for the heir. The
+principal object, therefore, of the law of entail is to regulate the
+descent of property after the death of its owner: its other provisions
+are merely means to this end.
+
+[58] I do not mean to say that the small proprietor cultivates his land
+better, but he cultivates it with more ardor and care; so that he makes
+up by his labor for his want of skill.
+
+[59] Land being the most stable kind of property, we find, from time
+to time, rich individuals who are disposed to make great sacrifices in
+order to obtain it, and who willingly forfeit a considerable part of
+their income to make sure of the rest. But these are accidental cases.
+The preference for landed property is no longer found habitually in
+any class but among the poor. The small land-owner, who has less
+information, less imagination, and fewer passions, than the great one,
+is generally occupied with the desire of increasing his estate; and it
+often happens that by inheritance, by marriage, or by the chances of
+trade, he is gradually furnished with the means. Thus, to balance the
+tendency which leads men to divide their estates, there exists another,
+which incites them to add to them. This tendency, which is sufficient to
+prevent estates from being divided _ad infinitum_, is not strong enough
+to create great territorial possessions, certainly not to keep them up
+in the same family.
+
+[60] See Appendix G.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
+
+It predominates over the whole of Society in America.--Application
+made of this Principle by the Americans even before their
+Revolution.--Development given to it by that Revolution.--Gradual and
+irresistible Extension of the elective Qualification.
+
+Whenever the political laws of the United States are to be discussed,
+it is with the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people that we must
+begin.
+
+The principle of the sovereignty of the people, which is to be found,
+more or less, at the bottom of almost all human institutions, generally
+remains concealed from view. It is obeyed without being recognised, or
+if for a moment it be brought to light, it is hastily cast back into the
+gloom of the sanctuary.
+
+"The will of the nation" is one of those expressions which have been
+most profusely abused by the wily and the despotic of every age. To the
+eyes of some it has been represented by the venal suffrages of a few of
+the satellites of power; to others, by the votes of a timid minority;
+and some have even discovered it in the silence of a people, on the
+supposition that the fact of submission established the right of
+command.
+
+In America, the principle of the sovereignty of the people is not either
+barren or concealed, as it is with some other nations; it is recognised
+by the customs and proclaimed by the laws; it spreads freely, and
+arrives without impediment at its most remote consequences. If there
+be a country in the world where the doctrine of the sovereignty of
+the people can be fairly appreciated, where it can be studied in its
+application to the affairs of society, and where its dangers and its
+advantages may be foreseen, that country is assuredly America.
+
+I have already observed that, from their origin, the sovereignty of
+the people was the fundamental principle of the greater number of the
+British colonies in America. It was far, however, from then exercising
+as much influence on the government of society as it now does. Two
+obstacles, the one external, the other internal, checked its invasive
+progress.
+
+It could not ostensibly disclose itself in the laws of the colonies,
+which were still constrained to obey the mother country; it was
+therefore obliged to spread secretly, and to gain ground in the
+provincial assemblies, and especially in the townships.
+
+American society was not yet prepared to adopt it with all its
+consequences. The intelligence of New England, and the wealth of the
+country to the south of the Hudson (as I have shown in the preceding
+chapter), long exercised a sort of aristocratic influence, which tended
+to limit the exercise of social authority within the hands of a few. The
+public functionaries were not universally elected, and the citizens were
+not all of them electors. The electoral franchise was everywhere placed
+within certain limits, and made dependant on a certain qualification,
+which was exceedingly low in the north, and more considerable in the
+south.
+
+The American revolution broke out, and the doctrine of the sovereignty
+of the people, which had been nurtured in the townships, took possession
+of the state; every class was enlisted in its cause; battles were
+fought, and victories obtained for it; until it became the law of laws.
+
+A scarcely less rapid change was effected in the interior of society,
+where the law of descent completed the abolition of local influences.
+
+At the very time when this consequence of the laws and of the revolution
+became apparent to every eye, victory was irrevocably pronounced in
+favor of the democratic cause. All power was, in fact, in its hands, and
+resistance was no longer possible. The higher orders submitted without
+a murmur and without a struggle to an evil which was thenceforth
+inevitable. The ordinary fate of falling powers awaited them; each
+of their several members followed his own interest; and as it was
+impossible to wring the power from the hands of a people which they
+did not detest sufficiently to brave, their only aim was to secure its
+good-will at any price. The most democratic laws were consequently voted
+by the very men whose interests they impaired; and thus, although the
+higher classes did not excite the passions of the people against their
+order, they accelerated the triumph of the new state of things; so
+that, by a singular change, the democratic impulse was found to be most
+irresistible in the very states where the aristocracy had the firmest
+hold.
+
+The state of Maryland, which had been founded by men of rank, was the
+first to proclaim universal suffrage,[61] and to introduce the most
+democratic forms into the conduct of its government.
+
+When a nation modifies the elective qualification, it may easily be
+foreseen that sooner or later that qualification will be entirely
+abolished. There is no more invariable rule in the history of society:
+the farther electoral rights are extended, the more is felt the need of
+extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy
+increases, and its demands increase with its strength. The ambition of
+those who are below the appointed rate is irritated in exact proportion
+to the great number of those who are above it. The exception at last
+becomes the rule, concession follows concession, and no stop can be made
+short of universal suffrage.
+
+At the present day the principle of the sovereignty of the people has
+acquired, in the United States, all the practical development which the
+imagination can conceive. It is unencumbered by those fictions which
+have been thrown over it in other countries, and it appears in every
+possible form according to the exigency of the occasion. Sometimes the
+laws are made by the people in a body, as at Athens; and sometimes its
+representatives, chosen by universal suffrage, transact business in its
+name, and almost under its immediate control.
+
+In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a degree foreign
+to the social body, directs it, and forces it to pursue a certain track.
+In others the ruling force is divided, being partly within and partly
+without the ranks of the people. But nothing of the kind is to be seen
+in the United States; there society governs itself for itself. All power
+centres in its bosom; and scarcely an individual is to be met with
+who would venture to conceive, or, still more, to express, the idea of
+seeking it elsewhere. The nation participates in the making of its laws
+by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution of them by the
+choice of the agents of the executive government; it may almost be said
+to govern itself, so feeble and so restricted is the share left to the
+administration, so little do the authorities forget their popular origin
+and the power from which they emanate.[62]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[61] See the amendments made to the constitution of Maryland in 1801 and
+1809.
+
+[62] See Appendix H.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+NECESSITY OF EXAMINING THE CONDITION OF THE STATES BEFORE THAT OF THE
+UNION AT LARGE.
+
+
+It is proposed to examine in the following chapter, what is the form of
+government established in America on the principle of the sovereignty of
+the people; what are its resources, its hindrances, its advantages, and
+its dangers. The first difficulty which presents itself arises from the
+complex nature of the constitution of the United States, which consists
+of two distinct social structures, connected, and, as it were, encased,
+one within the other; two governments, completely separate, and almost
+independent, the one fulfilling the ordinary duties, and responding to
+the daily and indefinite calls of a community, the other circumscribed
+within certain limits, and only exercising an exceptional authority over
+the general interests of the country. In short, there are twenty-four
+small sovereign nations, whose agglomeration constitutes the body of the
+Union. To examine the Union before we have studied the states, would be
+to adopt a method filled with obstacles. The Federal government of the
+United States was the last which was adopted; and it is in fact nothing
+more than a modification or a summary of these republican principles
+which were current in the whole community before it existed, and
+independently of its existence. Moreover, the federal government is, as
+I have just observed, the exception; the government of the states is the
+rule. The author who should attempt to exhibit the picture as a whole,
+before he had explained its details, would necessarily fall into
+obscurity and repetition.
+
+The great political principles which govern American society at this
+day, undoubtedly took their origin and their growth in the state. It
+is therefore necessary to become acquainted with the state in order to
+possess a clew to the remainder. The states which at present compose
+the American Union, all present the same features as far as regards the
+external aspect of their institutions. Their political or administrative
+existence is centred in three foci of action, which may not inaptly be
+compared to the different nervous centres which convey motion to the
+human body. The township is in the lowest order, then the county, and
+lastly the state; and I propose to devote the following chapter to the
+examination of these three divisions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF TOWNSHIPS AND MUNICIPAL BODIES.[63]
+
+Why the Author begins the Examination of the Political Institutions with
+the Township.--Its Existence in all Nations.--Difficulty of Establishing
+and Preserving Independence.--Its Importance.--Why the Author has
+selected the Township System of New England as the main Object of his
+Inquiry.
+
+It is not undesignedly that I begin this subject with the township.
+The village or township is the only association which is so perfectly
+natural, that wherever a number of men are collected, it seems to
+constitute itself.
+
+The town, or tithing, as the smallest division of a community, must
+necessarily exist in all nations, whatever their laws and customs
+may be: if man makes monarchies, and establishes republics, the first
+association of mankind seems constituted by the hand of God. But
+although the existence of the township is coeval with that of man, its
+liberties are not the less rarely respected and easily destroyed. A
+nation is always able to establish great political assemblies, because
+it habitually contains a certain number of individuals fitted by their
+talents, if not by their habits, for the direction of affairs. The
+township is, on the contrary, composed of coarser materials, which are
+less easily fashioned by the legislator. The difficulties which attend
+the consolidation of its independence rather augment than diminish with
+the increasing enlightenment of the people. A highly-civilized community
+spurns the attempts of a local independence, is disgusted at its
+numerous blunders, and is apt to despair of success before the
+experiment is completed. Again, no immunities are so ill-protected from
+the encroachments of the supreme power as those of municipal bodies in
+general: they are unable to struggle, single-handed, against a strong
+or an enterprising government, and they cannot defend their cause with
+success unless it be identified with the customs of the nation and
+supported by public opinion. Thus, until the independence of townships
+is amalgamated with the manners of a people, it is easily destroyed;
+and it is only after a long existence in the laws that it can be thus
+amalgamated. Municipal freedom eludes the exertions of man; it is rarely
+created; but it is, as it were, secretly and spontaneously engendered in
+the midst of a semi-barbarous state of society. The constant action of
+the laws and the national habits, peculiar circumstances, and above
+all, time, may consolidate it; but there is certainly no nation on the
+continent of Europe which has experienced its advantages. Nevertheless,
+local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations.
+Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to
+science; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how
+to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free
+government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot
+have the spirit of liberty. The transient passions, and the interests of
+an hour, or the chance of circumstances, may have created the external
+forms of independence; but the despotic tendency which has been repelled
+will, sooner or later, inevitably reappear on the surface.
+
+In order to explain to the reader the general principles on which the
+political organisations of the counties and townships of the United
+States rest, I have thought it expedient to choose one of the states of
+New England as an example, to examine the mechanism of its constitution,
+and then to cast a general glance over the country.
+
+The township and the county are not organized in the same manner in
+every part of the Union; it is, however, easy to perceive that the same
+principles have guided the formation of both of them throughout the
+Union. I am inclined to believe that these principles have been carried
+farther in New England than elsewhere, and consequently that they offer
+greater facilities to the observations of a stranger.
+
+The institutions of New England form a complete and regular whole; they
+have received the sanction of time, they have the support of the laws,
+and the still stronger support of the manners of the community, over
+which they exercise the most prodigious influence; they consequently
+deserve our attention on every account.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIMITS OF THE TOWNSHIP.
+
+The township of New England is a division which stands between the
+commune and the canton of France, and which corresponds in general to
+the English tithing, or town. Its average population is from two to
+three thousand;[64] so that, on the one hand, the interests of the
+inhabitants are not likely to conflict, and, on the other, men capable
+of conducting its affairs are always to be found among its citizens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AUTHORITIES OF THE TOWNSHIP IN NEW ENGLAND.
+
+The People the Source of all Power here as Elsewhere.--Manages its own
+Affairs. No Corporation.--The greater part of the Authority vested
+in the Hands of the Selectmen.--How the Selectmen
+act.--Town-meeting.--Enumeration of the public Officers of the Township
+Obligatory and remunerated Functions.
+
+In the township, as well as everywhere else, the people is the only
+source of power; but in no stage of government does the body of citizens
+exercise a more immediate influence. In America, the people is a master
+whose exigences demand obedience to the utmost limits of possibility.
+
+In New England the majority acts by representatives in the conduct
+of the public business of the state; but if such an arrangement be
+necessary in general affairs, in the township, where the legislative
+and administrative action of the government is in more immediate contact
+with the subject, the system of representation is not adopted. There is
+no corporation; but the body of electors, after having designated
+its magistrates, directs them in anything that exceeds the simple and
+ordinary executive business of the state.[65]
+
+This state of things is so contrary to our ideas, and so different from
+our customs, that it is necessary for me to adduce some examples to
+explain it thoroughly.
+
+The public duties in the township are extremely numerous and minutely
+divided, as we shall see farther on; but the large proportion of
+administrative power is vested in the hands of a small number of
+individuals called "the selectmen."[66]
+
+The general laws of the state impose a certain number of obligations on
+the selectmen, which may they fulfil without the authorization of
+the body they govern, but which they can only neglect on their own
+responsibility. The law of the state obliges them, for instance, to draw
+up the list of electors in the townships; and if they omit this part of
+their functions, they are guilty of a misdemeanor. In all the affairs,
+however, which are determined by the town-meeting, the selectmen are
+the organs of the popular mandate, as in France the maire executes
+the decree of the municipal council. They usually act upon their own
+responsibility, and merely put in practice principles which have been
+previously recognised by the majority. But if any change is to be
+introduced in the existing state of things, or if they wish to undertake
+any new enterprise, they are obliged to refer to the source of their
+power. If, for instance, a school is to be established, the selectmen
+convoke the whole body of electors on a certain day at an appointed
+place; they explain the urgency of the case; they give their opinion on
+the means of satisfying it, on the probable expense, and the site which
+seems to be most favorable. The meeting is consulted on these several
+points; it adopts the principle, marks out the site, votes the rate, and
+confides the execution of its resolution to the selectmen.
+
+The selectmen alone have the right of calling a town-meeting; but they
+may be requested to do so: if the citizens are desirous of submitting
+a new project to the assent of the township, they may demand a general
+convocation of the inhabitants; the selectmen are obliged to comply, but
+they have only the right of presiding at the meeting.[67]
+
+The selectmen are elected every year in the month of April or of
+May. The town-meeting chooses at the same time a number of municipal
+magistrates, who are intrusted with important administrative functions.
+The assessors rate the township; the collectors receive the rate. A
+constable is appointed to keep the peace, to watch the streets, and to
+forward the execution of the laws; the town-clerk records all the town
+votes, orders, grants, births, deaths, and marriages; the treasurer
+keeps the funds; the overseer of the poor performs the difficult task of
+superintending the action of the poor laws; committee-men are
+appointed to attend to the schools and to public instruction; and the
+road-surveyors, who take care of the greater and lesser thoroughfares
+of the township, complete the list of the principal functionaries. They
+are, however, still farther subdivided; and among the municipal officers
+are to be found parish commissioners, who audit the expenses of public
+worship; different classes of inspectors, some of whom are to direct
+the citizens in case of fire; tithing-men, listers, haywards,
+chimney-viewers, fence-viewers to maintain the bounds of property,
+timber-measurers, and sealers of weights and measures.[68]
+
+There are nineteen principal offices in a township. Every inhabitant
+is constrained, on pain of being fined, to undertake these different
+functions; which, however, are almost all paid, in order that the poor
+citizens may be able to give up their time without loss. In general the
+American system is not to grant a fixed salary to its functionaries.
+Every service has its price, and they are remunerated in proportion to
+what they have done.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+EXISTENCE OF THE TOWNSHIP.
+
+Every one the best Judge of his own Interest.--Corollary of the
+Principle of the Sovereignty of the People.--Application of these
+Doctrines in the Townships of America.--The Township of New England is
+Sovereign in that which concerns itself alone; subject to the State
+in all other matters.--Bond of Township and the State.--In France the
+Government lends its Agents to the _Commune_.--In America the Reverse
+occurs.
+
+I have already observed, that the principle of the sovereignty of the
+people governs the whole political system of the Anglo-Americans. Every
+page of this book will afford new instances of the same doctrine. In
+the nations by which the sovereignty of the people is recognised, every
+individual possesses an equal share of power, and participates alike in
+the government of the state. Every individual is therefore supposed
+to be as well informed, as virtuous, and as strong, as any of his
+fellow-citizens. He obeys the government, not because he is inferior to
+the authorities which conduct it, or that he is less capable than his
+neighbor of governing himself, but because he acknowledges the utility
+of an association with his fellow-men, and because he knows that no such
+association can exist without a regulating force. If he be a subject
+in all that concerns the mutual relations of citizens, he is free and
+responsible to God alone for all that concerns himself. Hence arises the
+maxim that every one is the best and the sole judge of his own private
+interest, and that society has no right to control a man's actions,
+unless they are prejudicial to the common weal, or unless the common
+weal demands his co-operation. This doctrine is universally admitted in
+the United States. I shall hereafter examine the general influence which
+it exercises on the ordinary actions of life: I am now speaking of the
+nature of municipal bodies.
+
+The township, taken as a whole, and in relation to the government of the
+country, may be looked upon as an individual to whom the theory I
+have just alluded to is applied. Municipal independence is therefore a
+natural consequence of the principle of the sovereignty of the people in
+the United States, all the American republics recognise it more or less;
+but circumstances have peculiarly favored its growth in New England.
+
+In this part of the Union the impulsion of political activity was given
+in the townships; and it may almost be said that each of them originally
+formed an independent nation. When the kings of England asserted their
+supremacy, they were contented to assume the central power of the state.
+The townships of New England remained as they were before; and although
+they are now subject to the state, they were at first scarcely dependent
+upon it. It is important to remember that they have not been invested
+with privileges, but that they seem, on the contrary, to have
+surrendered a portion of their independence to the state. The townships
+are only subordinate to the state in those interests which I shall term
+_social_, as they are common to all the citizens. They are independent
+in all that concerns themselves; and among the inhabitants of New
+England I believe that not a man is to be found who would acknowledge
+that the state has any right to interfere in their local interests. The
+towns of New England buy and sell, prosecute or are indicted, augment
+or diminish their rates, without the slightest opposition on the part of
+the administrative authority of the state.
+
+They are bound, however, to comply with the demands of the community. If
+the state is in need of money, a town can neither give nor withhold the
+supplies. If the state projects a road, the township cannot refuse to
+let it cross its territory; if a police regulation is made by the state,
+it must be enforced by the town. A uniform system of instruction is
+organised all over the country, and every town is bound to establish the
+schools which the law ordains. In speaking of the administration of the
+United States, I shall have occasion to point out the means by which the
+townships are compelled to obey in these different cases: I here merely
+show the existence of the obligation. Strict as this obligation is,
+the government of the state imposes it in principle only, and in its
+performance the township resumes all its independent rights. Thus,
+taxes are voted by the state, but they are assessed and collected by
+the township; the existence of a school is obligatory, but the township
+builds, pays, and superintends it. In France the state collector
+receives the local imposts; in America the town collector receives the
+taxes of the state. Thus the French government lends its agents to the
+commune; in America, the township is the agent of the government. This
+fact alone shows the extent of the differences which exist between the
+two nations.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLIC SPIRIT OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
+
+How the Township of New England wins the Affections of its
+Inhabitants.--Difficulty of creating local public Spirit in
+Europe.--The Rights and Duties of the American Township favorable to
+it.--Characteristics of Home in the United States.--Manifestations of
+public Spirit in New England.--Its happy Effects.
+
+In America, not only do municipal bodies exist, but they are kept alive
+and supported by public spirit. The township of New England possesses
+two advantages which infallibly secure the attentive interest of
+mankind, namely, independence and authority. Its sphere is indeed small
+and limited, but within that sphere its action is unrestrained; and its
+independence would give to it a real importance, even if its extent and
+population did not ensure it.
+
+It is to be remembered that the affections of men are generally turned
+only where there is strength. Patriotism is not durable in a conquered
+nation. The New Englander is attached to his township, not only because
+he was born in it, but because it constitutes a strong and free social
+body of which he is a member, and whose government claims and deserves
+the exercise of his sagacity. In Europe, the absence of local public
+spirit is a frequent subject of regret to those who are in power; every
+one agrees that there is no surer guarantee of order and tranquillity,
+and yet nothing is more difficult to create. If the municipal bodies
+were made powerful and independent, the authorities of the nation might
+be disunited, and the peace of the country endangered. Yet, without
+power and independence, a town may contain good subjects, but it can
+have no active citizens. Another important fact is, that the township
+of New England is so constituted as to excite the warmest of human
+affections, without arousing the ambitious passions of the heart of man.
+The officers of the county are not elected, and their authority is very
+limited. Even the state is only a second-rate community, whose tranquil
+and obscure administration offers no inducement sufficient to draw
+men away from the circle of their interests into the turmoil of public
+affairs. The federal government confers power and honor on the men who
+conduct it; but these individuals can never be very numerous. The high
+station of the presidency can only be reached at an advanced period of
+life; and the other federal functionaries are generally men who have
+been favored by fortune, or distinguished in some other career. Such
+cannot be the permanent aim of the ambitious. But the township serves
+as a centre for the desire of public esteem, the want of exciting
+interests, and the taste for authority and popularity, in the midst of
+the ordinary relations of life: and the passions which commonly embroil
+society, change their character when they find a vent so near the
+domestic hearth and the family circle.
+
+In the American states power has been disseminated with admirable skill,
+for the purpose of interesting the greatest possible number of persons
+in the common weal. Independently of the electors who are from time to
+time called into action, the body politic is divided into innumerable
+functionaries and officers, who all, in their several spheres, represent
+the same powerful corporation in whose name they act. The local
+administration thus affords an unfailing source of profit and interest
+to a vast number of individuals.
+
+The American system, which divides the local authority among so many
+citizens, does not scruple to multiply the functions of the town
+officers. For in the United States, it is believed, and with truth,
+that patriotism is a kind of devotion, which is strengthened by ritual
+observance. In this manner the activity of the township is continually
+perceptible; it is daily manifested in the fulfilment of a duty, or the
+exercise of a right; and a constant though gentle motion is thus kept up
+in society which animates without disturbing it.
+
+The American attaches himself to his home, as the mountaineer clings to
+his hills, because the characteristic features of his country are there
+more distinctly marked than elsewhere. The existence of the townships
+of New England is in general a happy one. Their government is suited
+to their tastes, and chosen by themselves. In the midst of the profound
+peace and general comfort which reign in America, the commotions of
+municipal discord are infrequent. The conduct of local business is easy.
+The political education of the people has long been complete; say rather
+that it was complete when the people first set foot upon the soil. In
+New England no tradition exists of a distinction of ranks; no portion of
+the community is tempted to oppress the remainder; and the abuses which
+may injure isolated individuals are forgotten in the general contentment
+which prevails. If the government is defective (and it would no doubt
+be easy to point out its deficiencies), the fact that it really emanates
+from those it governs, and that it acts, either ill or well, casts
+the protecting spell of a parental pride over its faults. No term of
+comparison disturbs the satisfaction of the citizen: England formerly
+governed the mass of the colonies, but the people was always sovereign
+in the township, where its rule is not only an ancient, but a primitive
+state.
+
+The native of New England is attached to his township because it is
+independent and free; his co-operation in its affairs ensures his
+attachment to its interest; the well-being it affords him secures his
+affection; and its welfare is the aim of his ambition and of his
+future exertions; he takes a part in every occurrence in the place; he
+practises the art of government in the small sphere within his reach;
+he accustoms himself to those forms which can alone ensure the steady
+progress of liberty; he imbibes their spirit; he acquires a taste for
+order, comprehends the union of the balance of powers, and collects
+clear practical notions on the nature of his duties and the extent of
+his rights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE COUNTIES OF NEW ENGLAND.
+
+The division of the counties in America has considerable analogy with
+that of the arrondissements of France. The limits of the counties are
+arbitrarily laid down, and the various districts which they contain have
+no necessary connexion, no common traditional or natural sympathy; their
+object is simply to facilitate the administration of public affairs.
+
+The extent of the township was too small to contain a system of judicial
+institutions; each county has, however, a court of justice,[69] a
+sheriff to execute its decrees, and a prison for criminals. There are
+certain wants which are felt alike by all the townships of a county;
+it is therefore natural that they should be satisfied by a central
+authority. In the state of Massachusetts this authority is vested in the
+hands of several magistrates who are appointed by the governor of the
+state, with the advice[70] of his council.[71] The officers of the
+county have only a limited and occasional authority, which is applicable
+to certain predetermined cases. The state and the townships possess all
+the power requisite to conduct public business. The budget of the county
+is only drawn up by its officers, and is voted by the legislature.[72]
+There is no assembly which directly or indirectly represents the county;
+it has, therefore, properly speaking, no political existence.
+
+A twofold tendency may be discerned in the American constitutions, which
+impels the legislator to centralize the legislative, and to disperse
+the executive power. The township of New England has in itself an
+indestructible element of independence; but this distinct existence
+could only be fictitiously introduced into the county, where its utility
+had not been felt. All the townships united have but one representation,
+which is the state, the centre of the national authority: beyond the
+action of the township and that of the nation, nothing can be said to
+exist but the influence of individual exertion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ADMINISTRATION IN NEW ENGLAND.
+
+Administration not perceived in America.--Why?--The Europeans believe
+that Liberty is promoted by depriving the social Authority of some of
+its Rights; the Americans, by dividing its Exercise.--Almost all the
+Administration confined to the Township, and divided among the town
+Officers.--No trace of an administrative Hierarchy to be perceived
+either in the Township, or above it.--The Reason of this.--How it
+happens that the Administration of the State is uniform.--Who is
+empowered to enforce the Obedience of the Township and the County to
+the Law.--The introduction of judicial Power into the
+Administration.--Consequence of the Extension of the elective Principle
+to all Functionaries.--The Justice of the Peace in New England.--By
+whom Appointed.--County Officer.--Ensures the Administration of the
+Townships.--Court of Sessions.--Its Action.--Right of Inspection
+and Indictment disseminated like the other administrative
+Functions.--Informers encouraged by the division of Fines.
+
+Nothing is more striking to a European traveller in the United States
+than the absence of what we term government, or the administration.
+Written laws exist in America, and one sees that they are daily
+executed; but although everything is in motion, the hand which gives the
+impulse to the social machine can nowhere be discovered. Nevertheless,
+as all people are obliged to have recourse to certain grammatical forms,
+which are the foundation of human language, in order to express their
+thoughts; so all communities are obliged to secure their existence by
+submitting to a certain portion of authority, without which they fall a
+prey to anarchy. This authority may be distributed in several ways, but
+it must always exist somewhere.
+
+There are two methods of diminishing the force of authority in a nation.
+
+The first is to weaken the supreme power in its very principle, by
+forbidding or preventing society from acting in its own defence under
+certain circumstances. To weaken authority in this manner is what is
+generally termed in Europe to lay the foundations of freedom.
+
+The second manner of diminishing the influence of authority does not
+consist in stripping society of any of its rights, nor in paralysing
+its efforts, but in distributing the exercise of its privileges among
+various hands, and in multiplying functionaries, to each of whom the
+degree of power necessary for him to perform his duty is intrusted.
+There may be nations whom this distribution of social powers might lead
+to anarchy; but in itself it is not anarchical. The action of authority
+is indeed thus rendered less irresistible, and less perilous, but it is
+not totally suppressed.
+
+The revolution of the United States was the result of a mature and
+deliberate taste for freedom, not of a vague or ill-defined craving for
+independence. It contracted no alliance with the turbulent passions of
+anarchy; but its course was marked, on the contrary, by an attachment to
+whatever was lawful and orderly.
+
+It was never assumed in the United States that the citizen of a free
+country has a right to do whatever he pleases: on the contrary, social
+obligations were there imposed upon him more various than anywhere
+else; no idea was ever entertained of attacking the principles, or of
+contesting the rights of society; but the exercise of its authority was
+divided, to the end that the office might be powerful and the officer
+insignificant, and that the community should be at once regulated
+and free. In no country in the world does the law hold so absolute a
+language as in America; and in no country is the right of applying it
+vested in so many hands. The administrative power in the United States
+presents nothing either central or hierarchical in its constitution,
+which accounts for its passing unperceived. The power exists, but its
+representative is not to be discerned.
+
+We have already seen that the independent townships of New England
+protect their own private interests; and the municipal magistrates
+are the persons to whom the execution of the laws of the state is most
+frequently intrusted.[73] Beside the general laws, the state sometimes
+passes general police regulations; but more commonly the townships and
+town officers, conjointly with the justices of the peace, regulate
+the minor details of social life, according to the necessities of the
+different localities, and promulgate such enactments as concern the
+health of the community, and the peace as well as morality of the
+citizens.[74] Lastly, these municipal magistrates provide of their
+own accord and without any delegated powers, for those unforeseen
+emergencies which frequently occur in society.[75]
+
+It results, from what we have said, that in the state of Massachusetts
+the administrative authority is almost entirely restricted to the
+township,[76] but that it is distributed among a great number of
+individuals. In the French commune there is properly but one official
+functionary, namely, the maire; and in New England we have seen that
+there are nineteen. These nineteen functionaries do not in general
+depend upon one another. The law carefully prescribes a circle of action
+to each of these magistrates; and within that circle they have an entire
+right to perform their functions independently of any other authority.
+Above the township scarcely any trace of a series of official dignities
+is to be found. It sometimes happens that the county officers alter a
+decision of the townships, or town magistrates,[77] but in general
+the authorities of the county have no right to interfere with the
+authorities of the township,[78] except in such matters as concern the
+county.
+
+The magistrates of the township, as well as those of the county, are
+bound to communicate their acts to the central government in a very
+small number of predetermined cases.[79] But the central government is
+not represented by an individual whose business it is to publish police
+regulations and ordinances enforcing the execution of the laws; to keep
+up a regular communication with the officers of the township and the
+county; to inspect their conduct, to direct their actions, or reprimand
+their faults. There is no point which serves as a centre to the radii of
+the administration.
+
+What, then, is the uniform plan on which the government is conducted,
+and how is the compliance of the counties and their magistrates, or the
+townships and their officers, enforced? In the states of New England the
+legislative authority embraces more subjects than it does in France; the
+legislator penetrates to the very core of the administration; the law
+descends to the most minute details; the same enactment prescribes
+the principle and the method of its application, and thus imposes a
+multitude of strict and rigorously defined obligations on the secondary
+functionaries of the state. The consequence of this is, that if all
+the secondary functionaries of the administration conform to the law,
+society in all its branches proceeds with the greatest uniformity; the
+difficulty remains of compelling the secondary functionaries of the
+administration to conform to the law. It may be affirmed that, in
+general, society has only two methods of enforcing the execution of
+the laws at its disposal; a discretionary power may be intrusted to a
+superior functionary of directing all the others, and of cashiering them
+in case of disobedience; or the courts of justice may be authorized to
+inflict judicial penalties on the offender: but these two methods are
+not always available.
+
+The right of directing a civil officer pre-supposes that of cashiering
+him if he does not obey orders, and of rewarding him by promotion if he
+fulfils his duties with propriety. But an elected magistrate can neither
+be cashiered nor promoted. All elective functions are inalienable until
+their term is expired. In fact, the elected magistrate has nothing
+either to expect or to fear from his constituents; and when all public
+offices are filled by ballot, there can be no series of official
+dignities, because the double right of commanding and of enforcing
+obedience can never be vested in the same individual, and because the
+power of issuing an order can never be joined to that of inflicting a
+punishment or bestowing a reward.
+
+The communities therefore in which the secondary functionaries of
+the government are elected, are perforce obliged to make great use of
+judicial penalties as a means of administration. This is not evident at
+first sight; for those in power are apt to look upon the institution
+of elective functionaries as one concession, and the subjection of
+the elective magistrate to the judges of the land as another. They
+are equally averse to both these innovations; and as they are more
+pressingly solicited to grant the former than the latter, they accede
+to the election of the magistrate, and leave him independent of the
+judicial power. Nevertheless, the second of these measures is the only
+thing that can possibly counter-balance the first; and it will be found
+that an elective authority which is not subject to judicial power will,
+sooner or later, either elude all control or be destroyed. The courts of
+justice are the only possible medium between the central power and the
+administrative bodies; they alone can compel the elected functionary
+to obey, without violating the rights of the elector. The extension of
+judicial power in the political world ought therefore to be in the exact
+ratio of the extension of elective offices; if these two institutions
+do not go hand in hand, the state must fall into anarchy or into
+subjection.
+
+It has always been remarked that habits of legal business do not render
+men apt to the exercise of administrative authority. The Americans have
+borrowed from the English, their fathers, the idea of an institution
+which is unknown upon the continent of Europe: I allude to that of
+justices of the peace.
+
+The justice of the peace is a sort of _mezzo termine_ between the
+magistrate and the man of the world, between the civil officer and the
+judge. A justice of the peace is a well-informed citizen, though he is
+not necessarily versed in the knowledge of the laws. His office simply
+obliges him to execute the police regulations of society; a task in
+which good sense and integrity are of more avail than legal science.
+The justice introduces into the administration a certain taste for
+established forms and publicity, which renders him a most unserviceable
+instrument of despotism; and, on the other hand, he is not blinded
+by those superstitions which render legal officers unfit members of a
+government. The Americans have adopted the system of English justices
+of the peace, but they have deprived it of that aristocratic
+character which is discernible in the mother-country. The governor of
+Massachusetts[80] appoints a certain number of justices of the peace
+in every county, whose functions last seven years.[81] He farther
+designates three individuals from among the whole body of justices, who
+form in each county what is called the court of sessions. The justices
+take a personal share in public business; they are sometimes intrusted
+with administrative functions in conjunction with elected officers;[82]
+they sometimes constitute a tribunal, before which the magistrates
+summarily prosecute a refractory citizen or the citizens inform against
+the abuses of the magistrate. But it is in the court of sessions that
+they exercise their most important functions. This court meets twice a
+year in the county town; in Massachusetts it is empowered to enforce the
+obedience of the greater number[83] of public officers.[84] It must be
+observed that in the state of Massachusetts the court of sessions is
+at the same time an administrative body, properly so called, and a
+political tribunal. It has been asserted that the county is a purely
+administrative division. The court of sessions presides over that small
+number of affairs which, as they concern several townships, or all the
+townships of the county in common, cannot be intrusted to any of them in
+particular.[85]
+
+In all that concerns county business, the duties of the court
+of sessions are therefore purely administrative; and if in its
+investigations it occasionally borrows the forms of judicial procedure,
+it is only with a view to its own information,[86] or as a guarantee to
+the community over which it presides. But when the administration of the
+township is brought before it, it almost always acts as a judicial body,
+and in some few cases as an administrative assembly.
+
+The first difficulty is to procure the obedience of an authority so
+entirely independent of the general laws of the state as the township
+is. We have stated that assessors are annually named by the town
+meetings, to levy the taxes. If a township attempts to evade the payment
+of the taxes by neglecting to name its assessors, the court of sessions
+condemns it to a heavy penalty.[87] The fine is levied on each of
+the inhabitants; and the sheriff of the county, who is an officer of
+justice, executes the mandate. Thus it is that in the United States the
+authority of the government is mysteriously concealed under the forms of
+a judicial sentence; and the influence is at the same time fortified by
+that irresistible power with which men have invested the formalities of
+law.
+
+These proceedings are easy to follow, and to understand. The demands
+made upon a township are in general plain and accurately defined; they
+consist in a simple fact without any complication, or in a principle
+without its application in detail.[88] But the difficulty increases when
+it is not the obedience of the township, but that of the town officers,
+which is to be enforced. All the reprehensible actions of which a public
+functionary may be guilty are reducible to the following heads:
+
+He may execute the law without energy or zeal;
+
+He may neglect to execute the law;
+
+He may do what the law enjoins him not to do.
+
+The last two violations of duty can alone come under the cognizance of
+a tribunal; a positive and appreciable fact is the indispensable
+foundation of an action at law. Thus, if the selectmen omit to fulfil
+the legal formalities usual to town elections, they may be condemned to
+pay a fine;[89] but when the public officer performs his duty without
+ability, and when he obeys the letter of the law without zeal or energy,
+he is at least beyond the reach of judicial interference. The court of
+sessions, even when it is invested with its administrative powers, is
+in this case unable to compel him to a more satisfactory obedience. The
+fear of removal is the only check to these quasi offences; and as the
+court of sessions does not originate the town authorities, it cannot
+remove functionaries whom it does not appoint. Moreover, a perpetual
+investigation would be necessary to convict the subordinate officer of
+negligence or lukewarmness; and the court of sessions sits but twice
+a year, and then only judges such offences as are brought before its
+notice. The only security for that active and enlightened obedience,
+which a court of justice cannot impose upon public officers, lies in
+the possibility of their arbitrary removal. In France this security is
+sought for in powers exercised by the heads of the administration; in
+America it is sought for in the principle of election.
+
+Thus, to recapitulate in a few words what I have been showing:--
+
+If a public officer in New England commits a crime in the exercise of
+his functions, the ordinary courts of justice are always called upon to
+pass sentence upon him.
+
+If he commits a fault in his official capacity, a purely administrative
+tribunal is empowered to punish him; and, if the affair is important or
+urgent, the judge supplies the omission of the functionary.[90]
+
+Lastly, if the same individual is guilty of one of those intangible
+offences, of which human justice has no cognizance, he annually appears
+before a tribunal from which there is no appeal, which can at once
+reduce him to insignificance, and deprive him of his charge. This system
+undoubtedly possesses great advantages, but its execution is attended
+with a practical difficulty which it is important to point out.
+
+I have already observed, that the administrative tribunal, which is
+called the court of sessions, has no right of inspection over the town
+officers. It can only interfere when the conduct of a magistrate is
+specially brought under its notice; and this is the delicate part of the
+system. The Americans of New England are unacquainted with the office
+of public prosecutor in the court of sessions,[91] and it may readily be
+perceived that it could not have been established without difficulty.
+If an accusing magistrate had merely been appointed in the chief town of
+each county, and if he had been unassisted by agents in the townships,
+he would not have been better acquainted with what was going on in the
+county than the members of the court of sessions. But to appoint agents
+in each township, would have been to centre in his person the most
+formidable of powers, that of a judicial administration. Moreover,
+laws are the children of habit, and nothing of the kind exists in
+the legislation of England. The Americans have therefore divided the
+officers of inspection and of prosecution as well as all the other
+functions of the administration. Grand-jurors are bound by the law to
+apprize the court to which they belong of all the misdemeanors which
+may have been committed in their county.[92] There are certain great
+offences which are officially prosecuted by the state;[93] but more
+frequently the task of punishing delinquents devolves upon the fiscal
+officer, whose province it is to receive the fine; thus the treasurer
+of the township is charged with the prosecution of such administrative
+offences as fall under his notice. But a more especial appeal is made
+by American legislation to the private interest of the citizen,[94] and
+this great principle is constantly to be met with in studying the laws
+of the United States. American legislators are more apt to give men
+credit for intelligence than for honesty; and they rely not a little on
+personal cupidity for the execution of the laws. When an individual is
+really and sensibly injured by an administrative abuse, it is natural
+that his personal interest should induce him to prosecute. But if
+a legal formality be required which, however advantageous to the
+community, is of small importance to individuals, plaintiffs may be less
+easily found; and thus, by a tacit agreement, the laws might fall into
+disuse. Reduced by their system to this extremity, the Americans are
+obliged to encourage informers by bestowing on them a portion of the
+penalty in certain cases;[95] and to ensure the execution of the laws by
+the dangerous expedient of degrading the morals of the people.
+
+The only administrative authority above the county magistrates is,
+properly speaking, that of the government.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GENERAL REMARKS ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Difference of the States of the Union in their Systems of
+Administration.--Activity and Perfection of the local Authorities
+decreases towards the South.--Power of the Magistrates increases; that
+of the Elector diminishes.--Administration passes from the Township
+to the County.--States of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania.--Principles
+of Administration applicable to the whole Union.--Election of public
+Officers, and Inalienability of their Functions.--Absence of Gradation
+of Ranks.--Introduction of judicial Resources into the Administration.
+
+I have already promised that after having examined the constitution of
+the township and the county of New England in detail, I should take
+a general view of the remainder of the Union. Townships and a local
+activity exist in every state; but in no part of the confederation is a
+township to be met with precisely similar to those in New England. The
+more we descend toward the south, the less active does the business of
+the township or parish become; the number of magistrates, of functions,
+and of rights, decreases; the population exercises a less immediate
+influence on affairs; town-meetings are less frequent, and the subjects
+of debates less numerous. The power of the elected magistrate is
+augmented, and that of the elector diminished, while the public spirit
+of the local communities is less awakened and less influential.[96]
+
+These differences may be perceived to a certain extent in the state of
+New York; they are very sensible in Pennsylvania; but they become less
+striking as we advance to the northwest. The majority of the emigrants
+who settle in the northwestern states are natives of New England, and
+they carry the habits of their mother-country with them into that which
+they adopt. A township in Ohio is by no means dissimilar from a township
+in Massachusetts.
+
+We have seen that in Massachusetts the principal part of the public
+administration lies in the township. It forms the common centre of the
+interests and affections of the citizens. But this ceases to be the case
+as we descend to states in which knowledge is less generally diffused,
+and where the township consequently offers fewer guarantees of a wise
+and active administration. As we leave New England, therefore, we find
+that the importance of the town is gradually transferred to the county,
+which becomes the centre of administration, and the intermediate power
+between the government and the citizen. In Massachusetts the business of
+the town is conducted by the court of sessions, which is composed of a
+_quorum_ named by the governor and his council; but the county has
+no representative assembly, and its expenditure is voted by the
+national[97] legislature. In the great state of New York, on the
+contrary, and in those of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the inhabitants of each
+county choose a certain number of representatives, who constitute the
+assembly of the county.[98] The county assembly has the right of taxing
+the inhabitants to a certain extent; and in this respect it enjoys the
+privileges of a real legislative body: at the same time it exercises an
+executive power in the county, frequently directs the administration of
+the townships, and restricts their authority within much narrower bounds
+than in Massachusetts.
+
+Such are the principal differences which the systems of county and town
+administration present in the federal states. Were it my intention to
+examine the provisions of American law minutely, I should have to point
+out still farther differences in the executive details of the several
+communities. But what I have already said may suffice to show the
+general principles on which the administration of the United States
+rests. These principles are differently applied; their consequences
+are more or less numerous in various localities; but they are always
+substantially the same. The laws differ, and their outward features
+change, but their character does not vary. If the township and the
+county are not everywhere constituted in the same manner, it is at least
+true that in the United States the county and the township are always
+based upon the same principle, namely, that every one is the best judge
+of what concerns himself alone, and the person most able to supply his
+private wants. The township and the county are therefore bound to take
+care of their special interests: the state governs, but it does not
+interfere with their administration. Exceptions to this rule may be met
+with, but not a contrary principle.
+
+The first consequence of this doctrine has been to cause all the
+magistrates to be chosen either by, or at least from among the citizens.
+As the officers are everywhere elected or appointed for a certain
+period, it has been impossible to establish the rules of a dependent
+series of authorities; there are almost as many independent
+functionaries as there are functions, and the executive power is
+disseminated in a multitude of hands. Hence arose the indispensable
+necessity of introducing the control of the courts of justice over the
+administration, and the system of pecuniary penalties, by which the
+secondary bodies and their representatives are constrained to obey the
+laws. The system obtains from one end of the Union to the other. The
+power of punishing the misconduct of public officers, or of performing
+the part of the executive, in urgent cases, has not, however, been
+bestowed on the same judges in all the states. The Anglo-Americans
+derived the institution of justices of the peace from a common source;
+but although it exists in all the states, it is not always turned to
+the same use. The justices of the peace everywhere participate in the
+administration of the townships and the counties,[99] either as public
+officers or as the judges of public misdemeanors, but in most of the
+states the more important classes of public offences come under the
+cognisance of the ordinary tribunals.
+
+The election of public officers, or the inalienability of their
+functions, the absence of a gradation of powers, and the introduction
+of a judicial control over the secondary branches of the administration,
+are the universal characteristics of the American system from Maine to
+the Floridas. In some states (and that of New York has advanced most
+in this direction) traces of a centralised administration begin to
+be discernible. In the state of New York the officers of the central
+government exercise, in certain cases, a sort of inspection of control
+over the secondary bodies.[100] At other times they constitute a court
+of appeal for the decision of affairs.[101] In the state of New York
+judicial penalties are less used than in other parts as a means of
+administration; and the right of prosecuting the offences of public
+officers is vested in fewer hands.[102] The same tendency is faintly
+observable in some other states;[103] but in general the prominent
+feature of the administration in the United States is its excessive
+local independence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THE STATE.
+
+I have described the townships and the administration: it now remains
+for me to speak of the state and government. This is ground I may pass
+over rapidly, without fear of being misunderstood; for all I have to say
+is to be found in written forms of the various constitutions, which are
+easily to be procured.[104] These constitutions rest upon a simple and
+rational theory; their forms have been adopted by all constitutional
+nations, and are become familiar to us.
+
+In this place, therefore, it is only necessary for me to give a short
+analysis; I shall endeavor afterward to pass judgment upon what I now
+describe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LEGISLATIVE POWER OF THE STATE.
+
+Division of the Legislative Body into two Houses.--Senate.--House of
+Representatives.--Different functions of these two Bodies.
+
+The legislative power of the state is vested in two assemblies, the
+first of which generally bears the name of the senate.
+
+The senate is commonly a legislative body; but it sometimes becomes an
+executive and judicial one. It takes a part in the government in several
+ways, according to the constitution of the different states;[105] but
+it is in the nomination of public functionaries that it most commonly
+assumes an executive power. It partakes of judicial power in the trial
+of certain political offences, and sometimes also in the decision of
+certain civil cases.[106] The number of its members is always small. The
+other branch of the legislature, which is usually called the house of
+representatives, has no share whatever in the administration, and only
+takes a part in the judicial power inasmuch as it impeaches public
+functionaries before the senate.
+
+The members of the two houses are nearly everywhere subject to the same
+conditions of election. They are chosen in the same manner, and by the
+same citizens.
+
+The only difference which exists between them is, that the term for
+which the senate is chosen, is in general longer than that of the house
+of representatives. The latter seldom remain in office longer than a
+year; the former usually sit two or three years.
+
+By granting to the senators the privilege of being chosen for several
+years, and being renewed seriatim, the law takes care to preserve in the
+legislative body a nucleus of men already accustomed to public business,
+and capable of exercising a salutary influence upon the junior members.
+
+The Americans, plainly, did not desire, by this separation of the
+legislative body into two branches, to make one house hereditary and the
+other elective; one aristocratic and the other democratic. It was not
+their object to create in the one a bulwark to power, while the
+other represented the interests and passions of the people. The only
+advantages which result from the present constitution of the United
+States, are, the division of the legislative power, and the consequent
+check upon political assemblies; with the creation of a tribunal of
+appeal for the revision of the laws.
+
+Time and experience, however, have convinced the Americans that if these
+are its only advantages, the division of the legislative power is still
+a principle of the greatest necessity. Pennsylvania was the only one of
+the United States which at first attempted to establish a single
+house of assembly; and Franklin himself was so far carried away by
+the necessary consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of the
+people, as to have concurred in the measure; but the Pennsylvanians
+were soon obliged to change the law, and to create two houses. Thus
+the principle of the division of the legislative power was finally
+established, and its necessity may henceforward be regarded as a
+demonstrated truth.
+
+This theory, which was nearly unknown to the republics of
+antiquity--which was introduced into the world almost by accident, like
+so many other great truths--and misunderstood by several modern nations,
+is at length become an axiom in the political science of the present
+age.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE EXECUTIVE POWER OF THE STATE.
+
+Office of Governor in an American State.--The Place he occupies in
+relation to the Legislature.--His Rights and his Duties.--His Dependence
+on the People.
+
+The executive power of the state may with truth be said to be
+_represented_ by the governor, although he enjoys but a portion of its
+rights. The supreme magistrate, under the title of governor, is the
+official moderator and counsellor of the legislature. He is armed with
+a suspensive veto, which allows him to stop, or at least to retard,
+its movements at pleasure. He lays the wants of the country before
+the legislative body, and points out the means which he thinks may be
+usefully employed in providing for them; he is the natural executor
+of its decrees in all the undertakings which interest the nation at
+large.[107] In the absence of the legislature, the governor is bound to
+take all necessary steps to guard the state against violent shocks and
+unforeseen dangers.
+
+The whole military power of the state is at the disposal of the
+governor. He is commander of the militia and head of the armed force.
+When the authority, which is by general consent awarded to the laws, is
+disregarded, the governor puts himself at the head of the armed force of
+the state, to quell resistance and to restore order.
+
+Lastly, the governor takes no share in the administration of townships
+and counties, except it be indirectly in the nomination of justices of
+the peace, which nomination he has not the power to revoke.[108]
+
+The governor is an elected magistrate, and is generally chosen for one
+or two years only; so that he always continues to be strictly dependent
+on the majority who returned him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION IN THE UNITED
+STATES.
+
+Necessary Distinction between the general Centralisation of
+Government and the Centralisation of the local Administration.--Local
+Administration not centralized in the United States; great general
+Centralisation of the Government.--Some bad Consequences resulting
+to the United States from the local Administration.--Administrative
+Advantages attending the Order of things.--The Power which conducts the
+Government is less regular, less enlightened, less learned, but
+much greater than in Europe.--Political Advantages of this Order
+of things.--In the United States the Interests of the Country are
+everywhere kept in View.--Support given to the Government by the
+Community.--Provincial Institutions more necessary in Proportion as the
+social Condition becomes more democratic.--Reason of this.
+
+Centralisation is become a word of general and daily use, without any
+precise meaning being attached to it. Nevertheless, there exist two
+distinct kinds of centralisation, which it is necessary to discriminate
+with accuracy.
+
+Certain interests are common to all parts of a nation, such as the
+enactment of its general laws, and the maintenance of its foreign
+relations. Other interests are peculiar to certain parts of the nation;
+such, for instance, as the business of different townships. When the
+power which directs the general interests is centred in one place, or
+in the same persons, it constitutes a central government. The power of
+directing partial or local interests, when brought together, in like
+manner constitutes what may be termed a central administration.
+
+Upon some points these two kinds of centralisation coalesce; but by
+classifying the objects which fall more particularly within the province
+of each of them, they may easily be distinguished.
+
+It is evident that a central government acquires immense power when
+united to administrative centralisation. Thus combined, it accustoms men
+to set their own will habitually and completely aside; to submit, not
+only for once or upon one point, but in every respect, and at all times.
+Not only, therefore, does the union of power subdue them by force, but
+it affects them in the ordinary habits of life, and influences each
+individual, first separately, and then collectively.
+
+These two kinds of centralisation mutually assist and attract each
+other: but they must not be supposed to be inseparable. It is impossible
+to imagine a more completely central government than that which existed
+in France under Louis XIV.; when the same individual was the author and
+the interpreter of the laws, and being the representative of France
+at home and abroad, he was justified in asserting that the state was
+identified with his person. Nevertheless, the administration was much
+less centralized under Louis XIV., than it is at the present day.
+
+In England the centralisation of the government is carried to great
+perfection; the state has the compact vigor of a man, and by the
+sole act of its will it puts immense engines in motion, and wields or
+collects the efforts of its authority. Indeed, I cannot conceive that
+a nation can enjoy a secure or prosperous existence without a powerful
+centralisation of government. But I am of opinion that a central
+administration enervates the nations in which it exists by incessantly
+diminishing their public spirit. If such an administration succeeds
+in condensing at a given moment on a given point all the disposable
+resources of a people, it impairs at least the renewal of those
+resources. It may ensure a victory in the hour of strife, but it
+gradually relaxes the sinews of strength. It may contribute admirably
+to the transient greatness of a man, but it cannot ensure the durable
+prosperity of a people.
+
+If we pay proper attention, we shall find that whenever it is said
+that a state cannot act because it has no central point, it is the
+centralisation of the government in which it is deficient. It is
+frequently asserted, and we are prepared to assent to the proposition,
+that the German empire was never able to bring all its powers into
+action. But the reason was, that the state has never been able to
+enforce obedience to its general laws, because the several members
+of that great body always claimed the right, or found the means,
+of refusing their co-operation to the representatives of the common
+authority, even in the affairs which concerned the mass of the people;
+in other words, because there was no centralisation of government.
+The same remark is applicable to the middle ages; the cause of all the
+confusion of feudal society was that the control, not only of local but
+of general interests, was divided among a thousand hands, and broken
+up in a thousand different ways; the absence of a central government
+prevented the nations of Europe from advancing with energy in any
+straightforward course.
+
+We have shown that in the United States no central administration, and
+no dependent series of public functionaries, exist. Local authority has
+been carried to lengths which no European nation could endure without
+great inconvenience, and which have even produced some disadvantageous
+consequences in America. But in the United States the centralisation
+of the government is complete; and it would be easy to prove that
+the national power is more compact than it has ever been in the old
+monarchies of Europe. Not only is there but one legislative body in each
+state; not only does there exist but one source of political authority;
+but numerous district assemblies and county courts have in general been
+avoided, lest they should be tempted to exceed their administrative
+duties and interfere with the government. In America the legislature
+of each state is supreme; nothing can impede its authority; neither
+privileges, nor local immunities, nor personal influence, nor even the
+empire of reason, since it represents that majority which claims to be
+the sole organ of reason. Its own determination is, therefore, the only
+limit to its action. In juxtaposition to it, and under its immediate
+control, is the representative of the executive power, whose duty it
+is to constrain the refractory to submit by superior force. The only
+symptom of weakness lies in certain details of the action of the
+government. The American republics have no standing armies to intimidate
+a discontented minority; but as no minority has as yet been reduced to
+declare open war, the necessity of an army has not been felt. The state
+usually employs the officers of the township or the county, to deal with
+the citizens. Thus, for instance, in New England the assessor fixes the
+rate of taxes; the collector receives them; the town treasurer transmits
+the amount to the public treasury; and the disputes which may arise are
+brought before the ordinary courts of justice. This method of collecting
+taxes is slow as well as inconvenient, and it would prove a perpetual
+hindrance to a government whose pecuniary demands were large. In general
+it is desirable that in what ever materially affects its existence, the
+government should be served by officers of its own, appointed by itself,
+removable at pleasure, and accustomed to rapid methods of proceeding.
+But it will always be easy for the central government, organized as it
+is in America, to introduce new and more efficacious modes of action
+proportioned to its wants.
+
+The absence of a central government will not, then, as has often been
+asserted, prove the destruction of the republics of the New World;
+far from supposing that the American governments are not sufficiently
+centralized, I shall prove hereafter that they are too much so. The
+legislative bodies daily encroach upon the authority of the government,
+and their tendency, like that of the French convention, is to
+appropriate it entirely to themselves. Under these circumstances the
+social power is constantly changing hands, because it is subordinate to
+the power of the people, which is too apt to forget the maxims of wisdom
+and of foresight in the consciousness of its strength: hence arises its
+danger; and thus its vigor, and not its impotence, will probably be the
+cause of its ultimate destruction.
+
+The system of local administration produces several different effects in
+America. The Americans seem to me to have outstepped the limits of sound
+policy, in isolating the administration of the government; for order,
+even in second-rate affairs, is a matter of national importance.[109] As
+the state has no administrative functionaries of its own, stationed on
+different parts of its territory, to whom it can give a common impulse,
+the consequence is that it rarely attempts to issue any general police
+regulations. The want of these regulations is severely felt, and is
+frequently observed by Europeans. The appearance of disorder which
+prevails on the surface, leads them at first to imagine that society is
+in a state of anarchy; nor do they perceive their mistake till they have
+gone deeper into the subject. Certain undertakings are of importance to
+the whole state; but they cannot be put in execution, because there is
+no national administration to direct them. Abandoned to the exertions
+of the towns or counties, under the care of elected or temporary agents,
+they lead to no result, or at least to no durable benefit.
+
+The partisans of centralisation in Europe maintain that the government
+directs the affairs of each locality better than the citizens could
+do it for themselves: this may be true when the central power is
+enlightened, and when the local districts are ignorant; when it is as
+alert as they are slow; when it is accustomed to act, and they to obey.
+Indeed, it is evident that this double tendency must augment with the
+increase of centralisation, and that the readiness of the one, and the
+incapacity of the others, must become more and more prominent. But I
+deny that such is the case when the people is as enlightened, as awake
+to its interests, and as accustomed to reflect on them, as the Americans
+are. I am persuaded, on the contrary, that in this case the collective
+strength of the citizens will always conduce more efficaciously to the
+public welfare than the authority of the government. It is difficult to
+point out with certainty the means of arousing a sleeping population,
+and of giving it passions and knowledge which it does not possess; it
+is, I am well aware, an arduous task to persuade men to busy themselves
+about their own affairs; and it would frequently be easier to interest
+them in the punctilios of court etiquette than in the repairs of their
+common dwelling. But whenever a central administration affects to
+supersede the persons most interested, I am inclined to suppose that
+it is either misled, or desirous to mislead. However enlightened and
+however skilful a central power may be, it cannot of itself embrace all
+the details of the existence of a great nation. Such vigilance exceeds
+the powers of man. And when it attempts to create and set in motion so
+many complicated springs, it must submit to a very imperfect result, or
+consume itself in bootless efforts.
+
+Centralisation succeeds more easily, indeed, in subjecting the external
+actions of men to a certain uniformity, which at last commands our
+regard, independently of the objects to which it is applied, like those
+devotees who worship the statue and forget the deity it represents.
+Centralisation imparts without difficulty an admirable regularity to
+the routine of business; rules the details of the social police
+with sagacity; represses the smallest disorder and the most petty
+misdemeanors; maintains society in a _status quo_, alike secure from
+improvement and decline; and perpetuates a drowsy precision in the
+conduct of affairs, which is hailed by the heads of the administration
+as a sign of perfect order and public tranquillity;[110] in short, it
+excels more in prevention than in action. Its force deserts it when
+society is to be disturbed or accelerated in its course; and if once the
+co-operation of private citizens is necessary to the furtherance of
+its measures, the secret of its impotence is disclosed. Even while it
+invokes their assistance, it is on the condition that they shall act
+exactly as much as the government chooses, and exactly in the manner it
+appoints. They are to take charge of the details, without aspiring to
+guide the system; they are to work in a dark and subordinate sphere,
+and only to judge the acts in which they have themselves co-operated, by
+their results. These, however, are not conditions on which the alliance
+of the human will is to be obtained; its carriage must be free, and its
+actions responsible, or (such is the constitution of man) the citizen
+had rather remain a passive spectator than a dependent actor in schemes
+with which he is unacquainted.
+
+It is undeniable, that the want of those uniform regulations which
+control the conduct of every inhabitant of France is not unfrequently
+felt in the United States. Gross instances of social indifference and
+neglect are to be met with; and from time to time disgraceful blemishes
+are seen, in complete contrast with the surrounding civilisation. Useful
+undertakings, which cannot succeed without perpetual attention and
+rigorous exactitude, are very frequently abandoned in the end; for in
+America, as well as in other countries, the people is subject to sudden
+impulses and momentary exertions. The European who is accustomed to find
+a functionary always at hand to interfere with all he undertakes, has
+some difficulty in accustoming himself to the complex mechanism of the
+administration of the townships. In general it may be affirmed that the
+lesser details of the police, which render life easy and comfortable,
+are neglected in America; but that the essential guarantees of man in
+society are as strong there as elsewhere. In America the power which
+conducts the government is far less regular, less enlightened, and less
+learned, but a hundredfold more authoritative, than in Europe. In no
+country in the world do the citizens make such exertions for the common
+weal; and I am acquainted with no people which has established schools
+as numerous and as efficacious, places of public worship better suited
+to the wants of the inhabitants, or roads kept in better repair.
+Uniformity or permanence of design, the minute arrangement of
+details,[111] and the perfection of an ingenious administration, must
+not be sought for in the United States; but it will be easy to find,
+on the other hand, the symptoms of a power, which, if it is somewhat
+barbarous, is at least robust; and of an existence, which is checkered
+with accidents indeed, but cheered at the same time by animation and
+effort.
+
+Granting for an instant that the villages and counties of the United
+States would be more usefully governed by a remote authority, which
+they had never seen, than by functionaries taken from the midst of
+them--admitting, for the sake of argument, that the country would be
+more secure, and the resources of society better employed, if the whole
+administration centred in a single arm, still the _political_ advantages
+which the Americans derive from their system would induce me to prefer
+it to the contrary plan. It profits me but little, after all, that
+a vigilant authority protects the tranquillity of my pleasures, and
+constantly averts all danger from my path, without my care or my
+concern, if the same authority is the absolute mistress of my liberty
+and of my life, and if it so monopolises all the energy of existence,
+that when it languishes everything languishes around it, that when it
+sleeps everything must sleep, that when it dies the state itself must
+perish.
+
+In certain countries of Europe the natives consider themselves as a kind
+of settlers, indifferent to the fate of the spot upon which they live.
+The greatest changes are effected without their concurrence and (unless
+chance may have apprised them of the event) without their knowledge; nay
+more, the citizen is unconcerned as to the condition of his village, the
+police of his street, the repairs of the church or the parsonage; for
+he looks upon all these things as unconnected with himself, and as the
+property of a powerful stranger whom he calls the government. He has
+only a life-interest in these possessions, and he entertains no notions
+of ownership or of improvement. This want of interest in his own
+affairs goes so far, that if his own safety or that of his children is
+endangered, instead of trying to avert the peril, he will fold his arms,
+and wait till the nation comes to his assistance. This same individual,
+who has so completely sacrificed his own free will, has no natural
+propensity to obedience; he cowers, it is true, before the pettiest
+officer; but he braves the law with the spirit of a conquered foe
+as soon as its superior force is removed: his oscillations between
+servitude and license are perpetual. When a nation has arrived at this
+state, it must either change its customs and its laws, or perish: the
+source of public virtue is dry; and though it may contain subjects,
+the race of citizens is extinct. Such communities are a natural prey to
+foreign conquest; and if they do not disappear from the scene of life,
+it is because they are surrounded by other nations similar or inferior
+to themselves; it is because the instinctive feeling of their country's
+claims still exists in their hearts; and because an involuntary pride
+in the name it bears, or the vague reminiscence of its by-gone fame,
+suffices to give them the impulse of self-preservation.
+
+Nor can the prodigious exertions made by certain people in the defence
+of a country, in which they may almost be said to have lived as aliens,
+be adduced in favor of such a system; for it will be found that in these
+cases their main incitement was religion. The permanence, the glory, and
+the prosperity of the nation, were become parts of their faith; and in
+defending the country they inhabited, they defended that holy city of
+which they were all citizens. The Turkish tribes have never taken
+an active share in the conduct of the affairs of society, but they
+accomplished stupendous enterprises as long as the victories of the
+sultans were the triumphs of the Mohammedan faith. In the present
+age they are in rapid decay, because their religion is departing, and
+despotism only remains. Montesquieu, who attributed to absolute power an
+authority peculiar to itself, did it, as I conceive, undeserved honor;
+for despotism, taken by itself, can produce no durable results. On close
+inspection we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the
+cause of the long-lived prosperity of absolute governments. Whatever
+exertions may be made, no true power can be founded among men which does
+not depend upon the free union of their inclinations; and patriotism
+and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently
+direct the whole of a body politic to one end.
+
+Laws cannot succeed in rekindling the ardor of an extinguished faith;
+but men may be interested in the fate of their country by the laws. By
+this influence, the vague impulse of patriotism, which never abandons
+the human heart, may be directed and revived: and if it be connected
+with the thoughts, the passions and daily habits of life, it may be
+consolidated into a durable and rational sentiment. Let it not be said
+that the time for the experiment is already past; for the old age of
+nations is not like the old age of men, and every fresh generation is a
+new people ready for the care of the legislator.
+
+It is not the _administrative_, but the _political_ effects of the local
+system that I most admire in America. In the United States the interests
+of the country are everywhere kept in view; they are an object of
+solicitude to the people of the whole Union, and every citizen is as
+warmly attached to them as if they were his own. He takes pride in the
+glory of his nation; he boasts of his success, to which he conceives
+himself to have contributed; and he rejoices in the general prosperity
+by which he profits. The feeling he entertains toward the state is
+analogous to that which unites him to his family, and it is by a kind of
+egotism that he interests himself in the welfare of his country.
+
+The European generally submits to a public officer because he represents
+a superior force; but to an American he represents a right. In America
+it may be said that no one renders obedience to man, but to justice
+and to law. If the opinion which the citizen entertains of himself is
+exaggerated, it is at least salutary; he unhesitatingly confides in his
+own powers, which appear to him to be all-sufficient. When a private
+individual meditates an undertaking, however directly connected it
+may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the
+co-operation of the government: but he publishes his plan, offers to
+execute it himself, courts the assistance of other individuals, and
+struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is less
+successful than the state might have been in his position; but in the
+end, the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the
+government could effect.
+
+As the administrative authority is within the reach of the citizens,
+whom it in some degree represents, it excites neither their jealousy nor
+their hatred: as its resources are limited, every one feels that he must
+not rely solely on its assistance. Thus when the administration thinks
+fit to interfere, it is not abandoned to itself as in Europe; the duties
+of the private citizens are not supposed to have lapsed because the
+state assists in their fulfilment; but every one is ready, on the
+contrary, to guide and to support it. This action of individual
+exertions, joined to that of the public authorities, frequently performs
+what the most energetic central administration would be unable to
+execute. It would be easy to adduce several facts in proof of what I
+advance, but I had rather give only one, with which I am more thoroughly
+acquainted.[112] In America, the means which the authorities have at
+their disposal for the discovery of crimes and the arrest of criminals
+are few. A state police does not exist, and passports are unknown. The
+criminal police of the United States cannot be compared with that of
+France; the magistrates and public prosecutors are not numerous, and the
+examinations of prisoners are rapid and oral. Nevertheless in no country
+does crime more rarely elude punishment. The reason is that every one
+conceives himself to be interested in furnishing evidence of the act
+committed, and in stopping the delinquent. During my stay in the United
+States, I saw the spontaneous formation of committees for the pursuit
+and prosecution of a man who had committed a great crime in a certain
+county. In Europe a criminal is an unhappy being, who is struggling
+for his life against the ministers of justice, while the population is
+merely a spectator of the conflict: in America he is looked upon as an
+enemy of the human race, and the whole of mankind is against him.
+
+I believe that provincial institutions are useful to all nations, but
+nowhere do they appear to me to be more indispensable than among a
+democratic people. In an aristocracy, order can always be maintained in
+the midst of liberty; and as the rulers have a great deal to lose, order
+is to them a first-rate consideration. In like manner an aristocracy
+protects the people from the excesses of despotism, because it always
+possesses an organized power ready to resist a despot. But a democracy
+without provincial institutions has no security against these evils. How
+can a populace, unaccustomed to freedom in small concerns, learn to
+use it temperately in great affairs? What resistance can be offered to
+tyranny in a country where every private individual is impotent, and
+where the citizens are united by no common tie? Those who dread the
+license of the mob, and those who fear the rule of absolute power, ought
+alike to desire the progressive growth of provincial liberties.
+
+On the other hand, I am convinced that democratic nations are most
+exposed to fall beneath the yoke of a central administration, for
+several reasons, among which is the following:--
+
+The constant tendency of these nations is to concentrate all the
+strength of the government in the hands of the only power which directly
+represents the people: because, beyond the people nothing is to be
+perceived but a mass of equal individuals confounded together. But when
+the same power is already in possession of all the attributes of the
+government, it can scarcely refrain from penetrating into the details
+of the administration; and an opportunity of doing so is sure to present
+itself in the end, as was the case in France. In the French revolution
+there were two impulses in opposite directions, which must never be
+confounded; the one was favorable to liberty, the other to despotism.
+Under the ancient monarchy the king was the sole author of the laws;
+and below the power of the sovereign, certain vestiges of provincial
+institutions half-destroyed, were still distinguishable. These
+provincial institutions were incoherent, ill-compacted, and frequently
+absurd; in the hands of the aristocracy they had sometimes been
+converted into instruments of oppression. The revolution declared itself
+the enemy of royalty and of provincial institutions at the same time;
+it confounded all that had preceded it--despotic power and the checks to
+its abuses--in an indiscriminate hatred; and its tendency was at once to
+republicanism and to centralisation. This double character of the French
+revolution is a fact which has been adroitly handled by the friends
+of absolute power. Can they be accused of laboring in the cause of
+despotism, when they are defending of the revolution?[113] In this
+manner popularity may be conciliated with hostility to the rights of the
+people, and the secret slave of tyranny may be the professed admirer of
+freedom.
+
+I have visited the two nations in which the system of provincial liberty
+has been most perfectly established, and I have listened to the opinions
+of different parties in those countries. In America I met with men who
+secretly aspired to destroy the democratic institutions of the Union; in
+England, I found others who attacked aristocracy openly; but I know of
+no one who does not regard provincial independence as a great benefit.
+In both countries I have heard a thousand different causes assigned for
+the evils of the state; but the local system was never mentioned among
+them. I have heard citizens attribute the power and prosperity of their
+country to a multitude of reasons: but they _all_ placed the advantages
+of local institutions in the foremost rank.
+
+Am I to suppose that when men who are naturally so divided on religious
+opinions, and on political theories, agree on one point (and that, one
+of which they have daily experience), they are all in error? The only
+nations which deny the utility of provincial liberties are those which
+have fewest of them; in other words, those who are unacquainted with the
+institution are the only persons who pass a censure upon it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[63] It is by this periphrasis that I attempt to render the French
+expressions "_Commune_" and "_Systeme Communal_." I am not aware that
+any English word precisely corresponds to the general term of the
+original. In France every association of human dwellings forms a
+_commune_, and every commune is governed by a _maire_ and a _conseil
+municipal_. In other words, the _mancipium_ or municipal privilege,
+which belongs in England to chartered corporations alone, is alike
+extended to every commune into which the cantons and departments of
+France were divided at the revolution. Thence the different application
+of the expression, which is general in one country and restricted in the
+other. In America, the counties of the northern states are divided into
+townships, those of the southern into parishes; besides which, municipal
+bodies, bearing the name of corporations, exist in the cities. I shall
+apply these several expressions to render the term _commune_. The term
+"parish," now commonly used in England, belongs exclusively to the
+ecclesiastical division; it denotes the limits over which a
+_parson's_ (_personae ecclesiae_ or perhaps _parochianus_) rights
+extend.--_Translator's Note_.
+
+[64] In 1830, there were 305 townships in the state of Massachusetts and
+610,014 inhabitants; which gives an average of about 2,000 inhabitants
+to each township.
+
+[65] The same rules are not applicable to the great towns, which
+generally have a mayor, and a corporation divided into two bodies; this,
+however, is an exception which requires a sanction of a law. See the
+act of 22d February, 1822, for appointing the authorities of the city
+of Boston. It frequently happens that small towns as well as cities
+are subject to a peculiar administration. In 1832, 104 townships in the
+state of New York were governed in this manner.--_Williams's Register_.
+
+[66] Three selectmen are appointed in the small townships, and nine in
+the large ones. See "The Town Officer," p. 186. See also the principal
+laws of the state of Massachusetts relative to the selectmen:--
+
+Act of the 20th February, 1786, vol. i, p. 219; 24th February, 1796,
+vol. i., p. 488, 7th March, 1801, vol. ii., p. 45; 16th June, 1795, vol.
+i., p. 475; 12th March, 1808, vol. ii., p. 186; 28th February, 1787,
+vol. i., p. 302; 22d June, 1797, vol. i., p. 539.
+
+[67] See laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 150 Act of the 25th March,
+1786.
+
+[68] All these magistrates actually exist; their different functions
+are all detailed in a book called, "The Town Officer," by Isaac
+Goodwin, Worcester, 1827; and in the Collection of the General Laws of
+Massachusetts, 3 vols., Boston, 1823.
+
+[69] See the act of 14th February, 1821. Laws of Massachusetts, vol i.,
+p. 551.
+
+[70] See the act of 20th February, 1819. Laws of Massachusetts, vol ii.,
+p. 494.
+
+[71] The council of the governor is an elective body.
+
+[72] See the act of 2d November, 1791. Laws of Massachusetts, vol i., p.
+61.
+
+[73] See "The Town Officer," especially at the words SELECTMEN,
+ASSESSORS, COLLECTORS, SCHOOLS, SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. I take one
+example in a thousand: the state prohibits travelling on a Sunday; the
+_tything-men_, who are town-officers, are especially charged to keep
+watch and to execute the law. See the laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p.
+410. The selectmen draw up the lists of electors for the election of the
+governor, and transmit the result of the ballot to the secretary of the
+state. See act of 24th February, 1796; _Ib_., vol. i., p. 488.
+
+[74] Thus, for instance, the selectmen authorise the construction of
+drains, point out the proper sites for slaughter-houses and other trades
+which are a nuisance to the neighborhood. See the act of 7th June, 1735;
+Laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 193.
+
+[75] The selectmen take measures for the security of the public in case
+of contagious disease, conjointly with the justices of the peace. See
+the act of 22d June, 1797; vol. i., p. 539.
+
+[76] I say _almost_, for there are various circumstances in the annals
+of a township which are regulated by the justice of the peace in his
+individual capacity, or by the justices of the peace, assembled in the
+chief town of the county; thus licenses are granted by the justices. See
+the act of 28th Feb., 1787; vol. i., p. 297.
+
+[77] Thus licenses are only granted to such persons as can produce a
+certificate of good conduct from the selectmen. If the selectmen refuse
+to give the certificate, the party may appeal to the justices assembled
+in the court of sessions; and they may grant the license. See the act of
+12th March, 1808; vol. ii., p. 186.
+
+The townships have the right to make by-laws, and to enforce them by
+fines which are fixed by law; but these by-laws must be approved by the
+court of sessions. See the act of 23d March, 1786; vol. i., p. 254.
+
+[78] In Massachusetts the county-magistrates are frequently called upon
+to investigate the acts of the town-magistrates; but it will be shown
+farther on that this investigation is a consequence, not of their
+administrative, but of their judicial power.
+
+[79] The town committees of schools are obliged to make an annual report
+to the secretary of the state on the condition of the School. See the
+act of 10th March, 1827; vol. iii., p. 183.
+
+[80] We shall hereafter learn what a governor is; I shall content myself
+with remarking in this place, that he represents the executive power of
+the whole state.
+
+[81] See the constitution of Massachusetts, chap ii., Sec. 1; chap iii., Sec.
+3.
+
+[82] Thus, for example, a stranger arrives in a township from a country
+where a contagious disease prevails, and he falls ill. Two justices of
+the peace can, with the assent of the selectmen, order the sheriff of
+the county to remove and take care of him. Act of 22d June, 1797; vol.
+i., p. 540.
+
+In general the justices interfere in all the important acts of the
+administration, and give them a semi-judicial character.
+
+[83] I say the greater number because certain administrative
+misdemeanors are brought before the ordinary tribunals. If, for
+instance, a township refuses to make the necessary expenditure for its
+schools, or to name a school-committee, it is liable to a heavy fine.
+But this penalty is pronounced by the supreme judicial court or
+the court of common pleas. See the act of 10th March, 1827; laws of
+Massachusetts, vol. iii., p. 190. Or when a township neglects to provide
+the necessary war-stores. Act of 21st February, 1822; Id. vol. ii., p.
+570.
+
+[84] In their individual capacity, the justices of the peace take a part
+in the business of the counties and townships. The more important
+acts of the municipal government are rarely decided upon without the
+co-operation of one of their body.
+
+[85] These affairs may be brought under the following heads: 1. The
+erection of prisons and courts of justice. 2. The county budget, which
+is afterward voted by the state. 3. The assessment of the taxes so
+voted. 4. Grants of certain patents. 5. The laying down and repairs of
+the county roads.
+
+[86] Thus, when a road is under consideration, almost all difficulties
+are disposed of by the aid of the jury.
+
+[87] See the act of the 20th February, 1786; laws of Massachusetts, vol.
+1., p. 217.
+
+[88] There is an indirect method of enforcing the obedience of
+a township. Suppose that the funds which the law demands for the
+maintenance of the roads have not been voted; the town-surveyor is then
+authorized, _ex-officio_, to levy the supplies. As he is personally
+responsible to private individuals for the state of the roads, and
+indictable before the court of sessions, he is sure to employ the
+extraordinary right which the law gives him against the township. Thus
+by threatening the officer, the court of sessions exacts compliance from
+the town. See the act of 5th March, 1787; laws of Massachusetts, vol.
+1., p. 305.
+
+[89] Laws of Massachusetts, vol. 2., p. 45.
+
+[90] If, for instance, a township persists in refusing to name its
+assessors, the court of sessions nominates them; and the magistrates
+thus appointed are invested with the same authority as elected officers
+See the act quoted above, 20th February, 1787.
+
+[91] I say the court of sessions, because in common courts there is a
+magistrate who exercises some of the functions of a public prosecutor.
+
+[92] The grand-jurors are, for instance, bound to inform the court of
+the bad state of the roads. Laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 308.
+
+[93] If, for instance, the treasurer of the county holds back his
+account. Laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 406.
+
+[94] Thus, if a private individual breaks down or is wounded in
+consequence of the badness of a road, he can sue the township or the
+county for damages at the sessions. Laws of Massachusetts, vol. i., p.
+309.
+
+[95] In cases of invasion or insurrection, if the town officers neglect
+to furnish the necessary stores and ammunition for the militia, the
+township may be condemned to a fine of from two to five hundred dollars.
+It may readily be imagined that in such a case it might happen that no
+one cared to prosecute: hence the law adds that all the citizens may
+indict offences of this kind, and that half the fine shall belong to the
+plaintiff. See the act of 6th March, 1810; vol. ii., p. 236. The same
+clause is frequently to be met with in the laws of Massachusetts. Not
+only are private individuals thus incited to prosecute public officers,
+but the public officers are encouraged in the same manner to bring the
+disobedience of private individuals to justice. If a citizen refuses
+to perform the work which has been assigned to him upon a road, the
+road-surveyor may prosecute him, and he receives half the penalty for
+himself. See the laws above quoted, vol. i., p. 308.
+
+[96] For details, see Revised Statutes of the state of New York, part I,
+chap, xi., vol. i., pp. 336-364, entitled, "Of the Powers, Duties, and
+Privileges of Towns."
+
+See in the digest of the laws of Pennsylvania, the words, ASSESSORS,
+COLLECTOR, CONSTABLES, OVERSEER OF THE POOR, SUPERVISORS OF HIGHWAYS:
+and in the acts of a general nature of the state of Ohio, the act of
+25th February, 1834, relating to townships, p. 412; beside the peculiar
+dispositions relating to divers town officers, such as township's
+clerks, trustees, overseers of the poor, fence-viewers, appraisers of
+property, township's treasurer, constables, supervisors of highways.
+
+[97] The author means the state legislature. The congress has no control
+over the expenditure of the counties or of the states.
+
+[98] See the Revised Statutes of the state of New York, part i., chap.
+xi., vol. i., p. 410. _Idem_, chap, xii., p. 366: also in the acts
+of the state of Ohio, an act relating to county commissioners, 26th
+February, 1824, p. 263. See the Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, at
+the words, COUNTY-RATES AND LEVIES, p. 170.
+
+In the state of New York, each township elects a representative, who has
+a share in the administration of the county as well as in that of the
+township.
+
+[99] In some of the southern states the county-courts are charged with
+all the details of the administration. See the Statutes of the State of
+Tennessee, _arts._ JUDICIARY, TAXES, &c.
+
+[100] For instance, the direction of public instruction centres in
+the hands of the government. The legislature names the members of
+the university, who are denominated regents; the governor and
+lieutenant-governor of the state are necessarily of the number. Revised
+Statutes, vol. i., p. 455. The regents of the university annually visit
+the colleges and academies, and make their report to the legislature.
+Their superintendence is not inefficient, for several reasons: the
+colleges in order to become corporations stand in need of a charter,
+which is only granted on the recommendation of the regents: every year
+funds are distributed by the state for the encouragement of learning,
+and the regents are the distributors of this money. See chap. xv.,
+"Public Instruction," Revised Statutes, vol i., p. 455.
+
+The school commissioners are obliged to send an annual report to the
+superintendent of the state. _Idem_, p. 448.
+
+A similar report is annually made to the same person on the number and
+condition of the poor. _Idem_, p. 631.
+
+[101] If any one conceives himself to be wronged by the school
+commissioners (who are town-officers), he can appeal to the
+superintendent of the primary schools, whose decision is final. Revised
+Statutes, vol. i., p. 487.
+
+Provisions similar to those above cited are to be met with from time to
+time in the laws of the state of New York: but in general these attempts
+at centralisation are weak and unproductive. The great authorities of
+the state have the right of watching and controlling the subordinate
+agents, without that of rewarding or punishing them. The same individual
+is never empowered to give an order and to punish disobedience; he
+has therefore the right of commanding, without the means of exacting
+compliance. In 1830 the superintendent of schools complained in
+his annual report addressed to the legislature, that several school
+commissioners had neglected, notwithstanding his application, to furnish
+him with the accounts which were due. He added, that if this omission
+continued, he should be obliged to prosecute them, as the law directs,
+before the proper tribunals.
+
+[102] Thus the district-attorney is directed to recover all fines,
+unless such a right has been specially awarded to another magistrate.
+Revised Statutes, vol. i., p. 383.
+
+[103] Several traces of centralisation may be discovered in
+Massachusetts, for instance, the committees of the town-schools are
+directed to make an annual report to the secretary of state. See Laws of
+Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 367.
+
+[104] See the constitution of New York.
+
+[105] In Massachusetts the Senate is not invested with any
+administrative functions.
+
+[106] As in the state of New York.
+
+[107] Practically speaking, it is not always the governor who executes
+the plans of the legislature; it often happens that the latter, in
+voting a measure, names special agents to superintend the execution of
+it.
+
+[108] In some of the states the Justices of the peace are not nominated
+by the governor.
+
+[109] The authority which represents the state ought not, I think, to
+waive the right of inspecting the local administration, even when it
+does not interfere more actively. Suppose, for instance, that an agent
+of the government was stationed at some appointed spot, in the county,
+to prosecute the misdemeanors of the town and county officers, would not
+a more uniform order be the result, without in any way compromising the
+independence of the township? Nothing of the kind, however, exists in
+America; there is nothing above the county courts, which have, as it
+were, only an accidental cognizance of the offences they are meant to
+repress.
+
+[This note seems to have been written without reference to the provision
+existing, it is believed in every state of the Union, by which a local
+officer is appointed in each county, to conduct all public prosecutions
+at the expense of the state. And in each county, a grand-jury is
+assembled three or four times at least in every year, to which all who
+are aggrieved have free access, and where every complaint, particularly
+those against public officers, which has the least color of truth, is
+sure to be heard and investigated.
+
+Such an agent as the author suggests would soon come to be considered a
+public informer, the most odious of all characters in the United States;
+and he would lose all efficiency and strength. With the provision above
+mentioned, there is little danger that a citizen, oppressed by a public
+officer, would find any difficulty in becoming his own informer,
+and inducing a rigid inquiry into the alleged misconduct.--_American
+Editor_.]
+
+[110] China appears to me to present the most perfect instance of that
+species of well-being which a completely central administration may
+furnish to the nations among which it exists. Travellers assure us that
+the Chinese have peace without happiness, industry without improvement,
+stability without strength, and public order without public morality.
+The condition of society is always tolerable, never excellent. I am
+convinced that, when China is opened to European observation, it will
+be found to contain the most perfect model of a central administration
+which exists in the universe.
+
+[111] A writer of talent, who, in the comparison which he has drawn
+between the finances of France and those of the United States, has
+proved that ingenuity cannot always supply the place of a knowledge of
+facts, very justly reproaches the Americans for the sort of confusion
+which exists in the accounts of the expenditure in the townships; and
+after giving the model of a departmental budget in France, he adds: "We
+are indebted to centralisation, that admirable invention of a great
+man, for the uniform order and method which prevail alike in all the
+municipal budgets, from the largest town to the humblest commune."
+Whatever may be my admiration of this result, when I see the communes of
+France, with their excellent system of accounts, plunged in the grossest
+ignorance of their true interests, and abandoned to so incorrigible
+an apathy that they seem to vegetate rather than to live; when, on the
+other hand, I observe the activity, the information, and the spirit of
+enterprise which keeps society in perpetual labor, in those American
+townships whose budgets are drawn up with small method and with still
+less uniformity, I am struck by the spectacle; for to my mind the end
+of a good government is to ensure the welfare of a people, and not
+to establish order and regularity in the midst of its misery and its
+distress. I am therefore led to suppose that the prosperity of the
+American townships and the apparent confusion of their accounts, the
+distress of the French communes and the perfection of their budget,
+may be attributable to the same cause. At any rate I am suspicious of a
+benefit which is united to so many evils, and I am not averse to an evil
+which is compensated by so many benefits.
+
+[112] See Appendix I.
+
+[113] See Appendix K.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+JUDICIAL POWER IN THE UNITED STATES, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POLITICAL
+SOCIETY.
+
+
+The Anglo-Americans have retained the Characteristics of judicial Power
+which are common to all Nations.--They have, however, made it a
+powerful political Organ.--How.--In what the judicial System of the
+Anglo-Americans differs from that of all other Nations.--Why
+the American Judges have the right of declaring the Laws to be
+Unconstitutional.--How they use this Right.--Precautions taken by the
+Legislator to prevent its abuse.
+
+I have thought it essential to devote a separate chapter to the judicial
+authorities of the United States, lest their great political importance
+should be lessened in the reader's eyes by a merely incidental mention
+of them. Confederations have existed in other countries beside America;
+and republics have not been established on the shores of the New World
+alone: the representative system of government has been adopted in
+several states of Europe; but I am not aware that any nation of the
+globe has hitherto organized a judicial power on the principle adopted
+by the Americans. The judicial organization of the United States is
+the institution which the stranger has the greatest difficulty in
+understanding. He hears the authority of a judge invoked in the
+political occurrences of every day, and he naturally concludes that
+in the United States the judges are important political functionaries:
+nevertheless, when he examines the nature of the tribunals, they offer
+nothing which is contrary to the usual habits and privileges of those
+bodies; and the magistrates seem to him to interfere in public affairs
+by chance, but by a chance which recurs every day.
+
+When the Parliament of Paris remonstrated, or refused to enregister an
+edict, or when it summoned a functionary accused of malversation to its
+bar, its political influence as a judicial body was clearly visible; but
+nothing of the kind is to be seen in the United States. The Americans
+have retained all the ordinary characteristics of judicial authority,
+and have carefully restricted its action to the ordinary circle of its
+functions.
+
+The first characteristic of judicial power in all nations is the duty
+of arbitration. But rights must be contested in order to warrant the
+interference of a tribunal; and an action must be brought to obtain the
+decision of a judge. As long, therefore, as a law is uncontested, the
+judicial authority is not called upon to discuss it, and it may exist
+without being perceived. When a judge in a given case attacks a law
+relating to that case, he extends the circle of his customary duties,
+without, however, stepping beyond it; since he is in some measure
+obliged to decide upon the law, in order to decide the case. But if
+he pronounces upon a law without resting upon a case, he clearly steps
+beyond his sphere, and invades that of the legislative authority.
+
+The second characteristic of judicial power is, that it pronounces on
+special cases, and not upon general principles. If a judge, in deciding
+a particular point, destroys a general principle, by passing a judgment
+which tends to reject all the inferences from that principle, and
+consequently to annul it, he remains within the ordinary limits of his
+functions. But if he directly attacks a general principle without having
+a particular case in view, he leaves the circle in which all nations
+have agreed to confine his authority; he assumes a more important, and
+perhaps a more useful influence than that of the magistrate, but he
+ceases to represent the judicial power.
+
+The third characteristic of the judicial power is its inability to act
+unless it is appealed to, or until it has taken cognizance of an
+affair. This characteristic is less general than the other two; but
+notwithstanding the exceptions, I think it may be regarded as essential.
+The judicial power is by its nature devoid of action; it must be put in
+motion in order to produce a result. When it is called upon to repress a
+crime, it punishes the criminal; when a wrong is to be redressed, it is
+ready to redress it; when an act requires interpretation, it is prepared
+to interpret it; but it does not pursue criminals, hunt out wrongs,
+or examine into evidence of its own accord. A judicial functionary who
+should open proceedings, and usurp the censorship of the laws, would in
+some measure do violence to the passive nature of his authority.
+
+The Americans have retained these three distinguishing characteristics
+of the judicial power; an American judge can only pronounce a decision
+when litigation has arisen, he is only conversant with special cases,
+and he cannot act until the cause has been duly brought before the
+court. His position is therefore perfectly similar to that of the
+magistrate of other nations; and he is nevertheless invested with
+immense political power. If the sphere of his authority and his means of
+action are the same as those of other judges, it may be asked whence he
+derives a power which they do not possess. The cause of this difference
+lies in the simple fact that the Americans have acknowledged the right
+of the judges to found their decisions on the constitution, rather than
+on the laws. In other words, they have left them at liberty not to apply
+such laws as may appear to them to be unconstitutional.
+
+I am aware that a similar right has been claimed--but claimed in
+vain--by courts of justice in other countries; but in America it is
+recognized by all the authorities; and not a party, nor so much as an
+individual, is found to contest it. This fact can only be explained by
+the principles of the American constitution. In France the constitution
+is (or at least is supposed to be) immutable; and the received theory is
+that no power has the right of changing any part of it. In England, the
+parliament has an acknowledged right to modify the constitution: as,
+therefore, the constitution may undergo perpetual changes, it does
+not in reality exist; the parliament is at once a legislative and a
+constituent assembly. The political theories of America are more simple
+and more rational. An American constitution is not supposed to be
+immutable as in France; nor is it susceptible of modification by the
+ordinary powers of society as in England. It constitutes a detached
+whole, which, as it represents the determination of the whole people, is
+no less binding on the legislator than on the private citizen, but
+which may be altered by the will of the people in predetermined cases,
+according to established rules. In America the constitution may,
+therefore, vary, but as long as it exists it is the origin of all
+authority, and the sole vehicle of the predominating force.[114]
+
+It is easy to perceive in what manner these differences must act
+upon the position and the rights of the judicial bodies in the three
+countries I have cited. If in France the tribunals were authorized
+to disobey the laws on the ground of their being opposed to the
+constitution, the supreme power would in fact be placed in their hands,
+since they alone would have the right of interpreting a constitution,
+the clauses of which can be modified by no authority. They would,
+therefore, take the place of the nation, and exercise as absolute a sway
+over society as the inherent weakness of judicial power would allow them
+to do. Undoubtedly, as the French judges are incompetent to declare a
+law to be unconstitutional, the power of changing the constitution is
+indirectly given to the legislative body, since no legal barrier would
+oppose the alterations which it might prescribe. But it is better to
+grant the power of changing the constitution of the people to men who
+represent (however imperfectly) the will of the people, than to men who
+represent no one but themselves.
+
+It would be still more unreasonable to invest the English judges with
+the right of resisting the decisions of the legislative body, since
+the parliament which makes the laws also makes the constitution; and
+consequently a law emanating from the three powers of the state can in
+no case be unconstitutional. But neither of these remarks is applicable
+to America.[115]
+
+In the United States the constitution governs the legislator as much as
+the private citizen: as it is the first of laws, it cannot be modified
+by a law; and it is therefore just that the tribunals should obey the
+constitution in preference to any law. This condition is essential to
+the power of the judicature; for to select that legal obligation
+by which he is most strictly bound, is the natural right of every
+magistrate.
+
+In France the constitution is also the first of laws, and the judges
+have the same right to take it as the ground of their decisions; but
+were they to exercise this right, they must perforce encroach on rights
+more sacred than their own, namely, on those of society, in whose name
+they are acting. In this case the state motive clearly prevails over the
+motives of an individual. In America, where the nation can always reduce
+its magistrates to obedience by changing its constitution, no danger of
+this kind is to be feared. Upon this point therefore the political and
+the logical reason agree, and the people as well as the judges preserve
+their privileges.
+
+Whenever a law which the judge holds to be unconstitutional is argued
+in a tribunal of the United States, he may refuse to admit it as a rule;
+this power is the only one which is peculiar to the American magistrate,
+but it gives rise to immense political influence. Few laws can escape
+the searching analysis; for there are few which are not prejudicial to
+some private interest or other, and none which may not be brought before
+a court of justice by the choice of parties, or by the necessity of the
+case. But from the time that a judge has refused to apply any given law
+in a case, that law loses a portion of its moral sanction. The persons
+to whose interest it is prejudicial, learn that means exist of evading
+its authority; and similar suits are multiplied, until it becomes
+powerless. One of two alternatives must then be resorted to: the people
+must alter the constitution, or the legislature must repeal the law.
+
+The political power which the Americans have intrusted to their courts
+of justice is therefore immense; but the evils of this power are
+considerably diminished, by the obligation which has been imposed of
+attacking the laws through the courts of justice alone. If the judge
+had been empowered to contest the laws on the ground of theoretical
+generalities; if he had been enabled to open an attack or to pass a
+censure on the legislator, he would have played a prominent part in the
+political sphere; and as the champion or the antagonist of a party, he
+would have arrayed the hostile passions of the nation in the conflict.
+But when a judge contests a law, applied to some particular case in an
+obscure proceeding, the importance of his attack is concealed from the
+public gaze; his decision bears upon the interest of an individual, and
+if the law is slighted, it is only collaterally. Moreover, although it
+be censured, it is not abolished; its moral force may be diminished, but
+its cogency is by no means suspended; and its final destruction can only
+be accomplished by the reiterated attacks of judicial functionaries. It
+will readily be understood that by connecting the censorship of the
+laws with the private interests of members of the community, and by
+intimately uniting the prosecution of the law with the prosecution of
+an individual, the legislation is protected from wanton assailants, and
+from the daily aggressions of party spirit. The errors of the legislator
+are exposed whenever their evil consequences are most felt; and it is
+always a positive and appreciable fact which serves as the basis of a
+prosecution.
+
+I am inclined to believe this practice of the American courts to be at
+once the most favorable to liberty as well as to public order. If the
+judge could only attack the legislator openly and directly, he would
+sometimes be afraid to oppose any resistance to his will; and at other
+moments party spirit might encourage him to brave it every day. The laws
+would consequently be attacked when the power from which they emanate
+is weak, and obeyed when it is strong. That is to say, when it would be
+useful to respect them, they would be contested; and when it would be
+easy to convert them into an instrument of oppression, they would be
+respected. But the American judge is brought into the political arena
+independently of his own will. He only judges the law because he is
+obliged to judge a case. The political question which he is called upon
+to resolve is connected with the interest of the parties, and he cannot
+refuse to decide it without abdicating the duties of his post. He
+performs his functions as a citizen by fulfilling the strict duties
+which belong to his profession as a magistrate. It is true that upon
+this system the judicial censorship which is exercised by the courts of
+justice over the legislation cannot extend to all laws indiscriminately,
+inasmuch as some of them can never give rise to that precise species
+of contestation which is termed a lawsuit; and even when such a
+contestation is possible, it may happen that no one cares to bring
+it before a court of justice. The Americans have often felt this
+disadvantage, but they have left the remedy incomplete, lest they should
+give it efficacy which in some cases might prove dangerous. Within
+these limits, the power vested in the American courts of justice of
+pronouncing a statute to be unconstitutional, forms one of the most
+powerful barriers which have ever been devised against the tyranny of
+political assemblies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OTHER POWERS GRANTED TO THE AMERICAN JUDGES.
+
+In the United States all the Citizens have the Right of indicting the
+public Functionaries before the ordinary Tribunals.--How they use this
+Right.--Art. 75 of the An VIII.--The Americans and the English cannot
+understand the Purport of this Clause.
+
+It is perfectly natural that in a free country like America all the
+citizens should have the right of indicting public functionaries before
+the ordinary tribunals, and that all the judges should have the power of
+punishing public offences. The right granted to the courts of justice,
+of judging the agents of the executive government, when they have
+violated the laws, is so natural a one that it cannot be looked upon as
+an extraordinary privilege. Nor do the springs of government appear to
+me to be weakened in the United States by the custom which renders all
+public officers responsible to the judges of the land. The Americans
+seem, on the contrary, to have increased by this means that respect
+which is due to the authorities, and at the same time to have rendered
+those who are in power more scrupulous of offending public opinion. I
+was struck by the small number of political trials which occur in
+the United States; but I have no difficulty in accounting for this
+circumstance. A lawsuit, of whatever nature it may be, is always a
+difficult and expensive undertaking. It is easy to attack a public man
+in a journal, but the motives which can warrant an action at law must be
+serious. A solid ground of complaint must therefore exist, to induce an
+individual to prosecute a public officer, and public officers careful
+not to furnish these grounds of complaint, when they are afraid of being
+prosecuted.
+
+This does not depend upon the republican form of the American
+institutions, for the same facts present themselves in England. These
+two nations do not regard the impeachment of the principal officers of
+state as a sufficient guarantee of their independence. But they hold
+that the right of minor prosecutions, which are within the reach of the
+whole community, is a better pledge of freedom than those great judicial
+actions which are rarely employed until it is too late.
+
+In the middle ages, when it was very difficult to overtake offenders,
+the judges inflicted the most dreadful tortures on the few who were
+arrested, which by no means diminished the number of crimes. It has
+since been discovered that when justice is more certain and more mild,
+it is at the same time more efficacious. The English and the Americans
+hold that tyranny and oppression are to be treated like any other crime,
+by lessening the penalty and facilitating conviction.
+
+In the year VIII. of the French republic, a constitution was drawn up in
+which the following clause was introduced: "Art. 75. All the agents of
+the government below the rank of ministers can only be prosecuted for
+offences relating to their several functions by virtue of a decree of
+the conseil d'etat; in which case the prosecution takes place before
+the ordinary tribunals." This clause survived the "Constitution de l'an
+VIII.," and it is still maintained in spite of the just complaints of
+the nation. I have always found the utmost difficulty in explaining its
+meaning to Englishmen or Americans. They were at once led to conclude
+that the conseil d'etat in France was a great tribunal, established in
+the centre of the kingdom, which exercised a preliminary and somewhat
+tyrannical jurisdiction in all political causes. But when I told them
+that the conseil d'etat was not a judicial body, in the common sense of
+the term, but an administrative council composed of men dependent on
+the crown--so that the king, after having ordered one of his servants,
+called a prefect, to commit an injustice, has the power of commanding
+another of his servants, called a councillor of state, to prevent the
+former from being punished--when I demonstrated to them that the citizen
+who had been injured by the order of the sovereign is obliged to solicit
+from the sovereign permission to obtain redress, they refused to credit
+so flagrant an abuse, and were tempted to accuse me of falsehood or
+of ignorance. It frequently happened before the revolution that a
+parliament issued a warrant against a public officer who had committed
+an offence; and sometimes the proceedings were annulled by the authority
+of the crown. Despotism then displayed itself openly, and obedience was
+extorted by force. We have then retrograded from the point which our
+forefathers had reached, since we allow things to pass under the color
+of justice and the sanction of the law, which violence alone could
+impose upon them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[114] See Appendix L.
+
+[115] See Appendix M.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+POLITICAL JURISDICTION IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Definition of political Jurisdiction.--What is understood by political
+Jurisdiction in France, in England, and in the United States.--In
+America the political Judge can only pass Sentence on public
+Officers.--He more frequently passes a Sentence of Removal from Office
+than a Penalty.--Political Jurisdiction, as it Exists in the United
+States, is, notwithstanding its Mildness, and perhaps in Consequence of
+that Mildness, a most powerful Instrument in the Hands of the Majority.
+
+I understand, by political jurisdiction, that temporary right of
+pronouncing a legal decision with which a political body may be
+invested.
+
+In absolute governments no utility can accrue from the introduction of
+extraordinary forms of procedure; the prince, in whose name an offender
+is prosecuted, is as much the sovereign of the courts of justice as of
+everything else, and the idea which is entertained of his power is of
+itself a sufficient security. The only thing he has to fear is, that the
+external formalities of justice may be neglected, and that his authority
+may be dishonored, from a wish to render it more absolute. But in
+most free countries, in which the majority can never exercise the same
+influence upon the tribunals as an absolute monarch, the judicial
+power has occasionally been vested for a time in the representatives of
+society. It has been thought better to introduce a temporary confusion
+between the functions of the different authorities, than to violate the
+necessary principle of the unity of government.
+
+England, France, and the United States, have established this political
+jurisdiction in their laws; and it is curious to examine the different
+use which these three great nations have made of the principle. In
+England and in France the house of lords and the chambre des pairs
+constitute the highest criminal court of their respective nations; and
+although they do not habitually try all political offences, they are
+competent to try them all. Another political body enjoys the right of
+impeachment before the house of lords: the only difference which exists
+between the two countries in this respect is, that in England the
+commons may impeach whomsoever they please before the lords, while in
+France the deputies can only employ this mode of prosecution against the
+ministers of the crown.
+
+In both countries the upper house make use of all the existing penal
+laws of the nation to punish the delinquents.
+
+In the United States, as well as in Europe, one branch of the
+legislature is authorized to impeach, and another to judge: the house
+of representatives arraigns the offender, and the senate awards his
+sentence. But the senate can only try such persons as are brought before
+it by the house of representatives, and those persons must belong to the
+class of public functionaries. Thus the jurisdiction of the senate is
+less extensive than that of the peers of France, while the right of
+impeachment by the representatives is more general than that of the
+deputies. But the great difference which exists between Europe and
+America is, that in Europe political tribunals are empowered to inflict
+all the dispositions of the penal code, while in America, when they
+have deprived the offender of his official rank, and have declared
+him incapable of filling any political office for the future, their
+jurisdiction terminates and that of the ordinary tribunals begins.
+
+Suppose, for instance, that the president of the United States has
+committed the crime of high treason; the house of representatives
+impeaches him, and the senate degrades him; he must then be tried by
+a jury, which alone can deprive him of his liberty or his life. This
+accurately illustrates the subject we are treating. The political
+jurisdiction which is established by the laws of Europe is intended to
+try great offenders, whatever may be their birth, their rank, or their
+powers in the state; and to this end all the privileges of the courts
+of justice are temporarily extended to a great political assembly. The
+legislator is then transformed into a magistrate: he is called upon to
+admit, to distinguish, and to punish the offence; and as he exercises
+all the authority of a judge, the law restricts him to the observance
+of all the duties of that high office, and of all the formalities of
+justice. When a public functionary is impeached before an English or a
+French political tribunal, and is found guilty, the sentence deprives
+him _ipso facto_ of his functions, and it may pronounce him to be
+incapable of resuming them or any others for the future. But in this
+case the political interdict is a consequence of the sentence, and not
+the sentence itself. In Europe the sentence of a political tribunal
+is therefore to be regarded as a judicial verdict, rather than as an
+administrative measure. In the United States the contrary takes place;
+and although the decision of the senate is judicial in its form, since
+the senators are obliged to comply with the practices and formalities of
+a court of justice; although it is judicial in respect to the motives on
+which it is founded, since the senate is in general obliged to take an
+offence at common law as the basis of its sentence; nevertheless the
+object of the proceeding is purely administrative.
+
+If it had been the intention of the American legislator to invest a
+political body with great judicial authority, its action would not
+have been limited to the circle of public functionaries, since the most
+dangerous enemies of the state may be in the possession of no functions
+at all; and this is especially true in republics, where party favor is
+the first of authorities, and where the strength of many a leader is
+increased by his exercising no legal power. If it had been the intention
+of the American legislator to give society the means of repressing state
+offences by exemplary punishment, according to the practice of ordinary
+judgment, the resources of the penal code would all have been placed at
+the disposal of the political tribunals. But the weapon with which
+they are intrusted is an imperfect one, and it can never reach the most
+dangerous offenders; since men who aim at the entire subversion of the
+laws are not likely to murmur at a political interdict.
+
+The main object of the political jurisdiction which obtains in the
+United States is, therefore, to deprive the citizen of an authority
+which he has used amiss, and to prevent him from ever acquiring it
+again. This is evidently an administrative measure sanctioned by the
+formalities of judicial investigation. In this matter the Americans have
+created a mixed system: they have surrounded the act which removes a
+public functionary with the securities of a political trial; and they
+have deprived all political condemnations of their severest penalties.
+Every link of the system may easily be traced from this point; we at
+once perceive why the American constitutions subject all the civil
+functionaries to the jurisdiction of the senate, while the military,
+whose crimes are nevertheless more formidable, are exempt from that
+tribunal. In the civil service none of the American functionaries can
+be said to be removeable; the places which some of them occupy are
+inalienable, and the others derive their rights from a power which
+cannot be abrogated. It is therefore necessary to try them all in order
+to deprive them of their authority. But military officers are
+dependent on the chief magistrate of the state, who is himself a civil
+functionary; and the decision which condemns him is a blow upon them
+all.
+
+If we now compare the American and European systems, we shall meet with
+differences no less striking in the different effects which each of them
+produces or may produce. In France and in England the jurisdiction of
+political bodies is looked upon as an extraordinary resource, which is
+only to be employed in order to rescue society from unwonted dangers.
+It is not to be denied that these tribunals, as they are constituted in
+Europe, are apt to violate the conservative principle of the balance of
+power in the state, and to threaten incessantly the lives and liberties
+of the subject. The same political jurisdiction in the United States is
+only indirectly hostile to the balance of power; it cannot menace the
+lives of the citizens, and it does not hover, as in Europe, over the
+heads of the community, since those only who have before-hand submitted
+to its authority upon accepting office are exposed to its severity. It
+is at the same time less formidable and less efficacious; indeed, it has
+not been considered by the legislators of the United States as a remedy
+for the more violent evils of society, but as an ordinary means of
+conducting the government. In this respect it probably exercises more
+real influence on the social body in America than in Europe. We must not
+be misled by the apparent mildness of the American Legislation in all
+that relates to political jurisdiction. It is to be observed, in
+the first place, that in the United States the tribunal which passes
+sentence is composed of the same elements, and subject to the same
+influences, as the body which impeaches the offender, and that this
+uniformity gives an almost irresistible impulse to the vindictive
+passions of parties. If political judges in the United States cannot
+inflict such heavy penalties as those of Europe, there is the less
+chance of their acquitting a prisoner; and the conviction, if it is
+less formidable, is more certain. The principal object of the political
+tribunals of Europe is to punish the offender; the purpose of those in
+America is to deprive him of his authority. A political condemnation
+in the United States may, therefore, be looked upon as a preventive
+measure; and there is no reason for restricting the judges to the exact
+definitions of criminal law. Nothing can be more alarming than the
+excessive latitude with which political offences are described in the
+laws of America. Article II., section iv., of the constitution of the
+United States runs thus: "The president, vice-president, and all the
+civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on
+impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, _or other high
+crimes and misdemeanors_." Many of the constitutions of the states
+are even less explicit. "Public officers," says the constitution
+of Massachusetts,[116] "shall be impeached for misconduct or
+mal-administration." The constitution of Virginia declares that all
+the civil officers who shall have offended against the state by
+mal-administration, corruption, or other high crimes, may be impeached
+by the house of delegates: in some constitutions no offences are
+specified, in order to subject the public functionaries to an unlimited
+responsibility.[117] But I will venture to affirm, that it is precisely
+their mildness which renders the American laws most formidable in this
+respect. We have shown that in Europe the removal of a functionary and
+his political interdiction are consequences of the penalty he is to
+undergo, and that in America they constitute the penalty itself. The
+result is, that in Europe political tribunals are invested with rights
+which they are afraid to use, and that the fear of punishing too much
+hinders them from punishing at all. But in America no one hesitates
+to inflict a penalty from which humanity does not recoil. To condemn a
+political opponent to death, in order to deprive him of his power, is
+to commit what all the world would execrate as a horrible assassination;
+but to declare that opponent unworthy to exercise that authority, to
+deprive him of it, and to leave him uninjured in life and liberty, may
+appear to be the fair issue of the struggle. But this sentence, which is
+so easy to pronounce, is not the less fatally severe to the majority of
+those upon whom it is inflicted. Great criminals may undoubtedly
+brave its intangible rigor, but ordinary offenders will dread it as a
+condemnation which destroys their position in the world, casts a blight
+upon their honor, and condemns them to a shameful inactivity worse than
+death. The influence exercised in the United States upon the progress
+of society by the jurisdiction of political bodies may not appear to be
+formidable, but it is only the more immense. It does not act directly
+upon the governed, but it renders the majority more absolute over those
+who govern; it does not confer an unbounded authority on the legislator
+which can only be exerted at some momentous crisis, but it establishes a
+temperate and regular influence, which is at all times available. If
+the power is decreased, it can, on the other hand, be more conveniently
+employed, and more easily abused. By preventing political tribunals from
+inflicting judicial punishments, the Americans seem to have eluded the
+worst consequences of legislative tyranny, rather than tyranny itself;
+and I am not sure that political jurisdiction, as it is constituted in
+the United States, is not the most formidable which has ever been placed
+in the rude grasp of a popular majority. When the American republics
+begin to degenerate, it will be easy to verify the truth of this
+observation, by remarking whether the number of political impeachments
+augments.[118]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[116] Chapter I., sect. ii., Sec. 8.
+
+[117] See the constitutions of Illinois, Maine, Connecticut, and
+Georgia.
+
+[118] See Appendix N.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
+
+
+I have hitherto considered each state as a separate whole, and I have
+explained the different springs which the people sets in motion, and the
+different means of action which it employs. But all the states which I
+have considered as independent are forced to submit, in certain cases,
+to the supreme authority of the Union. The time is now come for me to
+examine the partial sovereignty which has been conceded to the Union,
+and to cast a rapid glance over the federal constitution.[119]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
+
+Origin of the first Union.--Its Weakness.--Congress appeals to the
+constituent Authority.--Interval of two Years between the Appeal and the
+Promulgation of the new Constitution.
+
+The thirteen colonies which simultaneously threw off the yoke of
+England toward the end of the last century, possessed, as I have already
+observed, the same religion, the same language, the same customs, and
+almost the same laws; they were struggling against a common enemy; and
+these reasons were sufficiently strong to unite them one to another, and
+to consolidate them into one nation. But as each of them had enjoyed
+a separate existence, and a government within its own control, the
+peculiar interests and customs which resulted from this system, were
+opposed to a compact and intimate union, which would have absorbed the
+individual importance of each in the general importance of all. Hence
+arose two opposite tendencies, the one prompting the Anglo-Americans to
+unite, the other to divide their strength. As long as the war with
+the mother-country lasted, the principle of union was kept alive by
+necessity; and although the laws which constituted it were defective,
+the common tie subsisted in spite of their imperfections.[120] But no
+sooner was peace concluded than the faults of the legislation became
+manifest, and the state seemed to be suddenly dissolved. Each colony
+became an independent republic, and assumed an absolute sovereignty. The
+federal government, condemned to impotence by its constitution, and no
+longer sustained by the presence of a common danger, saw the outrages
+offered to its flag by the great nations of Europe, while it was
+scarcely able to maintain its ground against the Indian tribes, and to
+pay the interest of the debt which had been contracted during the war
+of independence. It was already on the verge of destruction, when it
+officially proclaimed its inability to conduct the government, and
+appealed to the constituent authority of the nation.[121]
+
+If America ever approached (for however brief a time) that lofty
+pinnacle of glory to which the proud fancy of its inhabitants is wont
+to point, it was at the solemn moment at which the power of the nation
+abdicated, as it were, the empire of the land. All ages have
+furnished the spectacle of a people struggling with energy to win its
+independence; and the efforts of the Americans in throwing off the
+English yoke have been considerably exaggerated. Separated from their
+enemies by three thousand miles of ocean, and backed by a powerful ally,
+the success of the United States may be more justly attributed to
+their geographical position, than to the valor of their armies or the
+patriotism of their citizens. It would be ridiculous to compare the
+American war to the wars of the French revolution, or the efforts of the
+Americans to those of the French, who, when they were attacked by the
+whole of Europe, without credit and without allies, were still capable
+of opposing a twentieth part of their population to their foes, and
+of bearing the torch of revolution beyond their frontiers while they
+stifled its devouring flame within the bosom of their country. But it
+is a novelty in the history of society to see a great people turn a calm
+and scrutinizing eye upon itself when apprised by the legislature that
+the wheels of government had stopped; to see it carefully examine the
+extent of the evil, and patiently wait for two whole years until a
+remedy was discovered, which it voluntarily adopted without having wrung
+a tear or a drop of blood from mankind. At the time when the inadequacy
+of the first constitution was discovered, America possessed the double
+advantage of that calm which had succeeded the effervescence of the
+revolution, and of those great men who had led the revolution to a
+successful issue. The assembly which accepted the task of composing
+the second constitution was small;[122] but George Washington was its
+president, and it contained the choicest talents and the noblest hearts
+which had ever appeared in the New World. This national commission,
+after long and mature deliberation, offered to the acceptance of the
+people the body of general laws which still rules the Union. All
+the states adopted it successively.[123] The new federal government
+commenced its functions in 1789, after an interregnum of two years. The
+revolution of America terminated when that of France began.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SUMMARY OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
+
+Division of Authority between the Federal Government and the
+States.--The Government of the States is the Rule: the Federal
+Government the Exception.
+
+The first question which awaited the Americans was intricate, and by no
+means easy of solution; the object was so to divide the authority of
+the different states which composed the Union, that each of them should
+continue to govern itself in all that concerned its internal prosperity,
+while the entire nation, represented by the Union, should continue to
+form a compact body, and to provide for the exigencies of the people. It
+was as impossible to determine beforehand, with any degree of accuracy,
+the share of authority which each of the two governments was to enjoy,
+as to foresee all the incidents in the existence of a nation.
+
+The obligations and the claims of the federal government were simple
+and easily definable, because the Union had been formed with the express
+purpose of meeting the general exigencies of the people; but the claims
+and obligations of the states were, on the other hand, complicated and
+various, because those governments penetrated into all the details of
+social life. The attributes of the federal government were, therefore,
+carefully enumerated, and all that was not included among them
+was declared to constitute a part of the privileges of the several
+governments of the states. Thus the government of the states remained
+the rule, and that of the confederation became the exception.[124]
+
+But as it was foreseen, that, in practice, questions might arise as to
+the exact limits of this exceptional authority, and that it would be
+dangerous to submit these questions to the decision of the ordinary
+courts of justice, established in the states by the states themselves,
+a high federal court was created,[125] which was destined, among other
+functions, to maintain the balance of power which had been established
+by the constitution between the two rival governments.[126]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PREROGATIVE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
+
+Power of declaring War, making Peace, and levying general Taxes vested
+in the Federal Government.--What Part of the internal Policy of the
+Country it may direct.--The Government of the Union in some respects
+more central than the King's Government in the old French monarchy.
+
+The external relations of a people may be compared to those of private
+individuals, and they cannot be advantageously maintained without the
+agency of the single head of a government. The exclusive right of making
+peace and war, of concluding treaties of commerce, of raising armies,
+and equipping fleets, was therefore granted to the Union.[127] The
+necessity of a national government was less imperiously felt in the
+conduct of the internal affairs of society; but there are certain
+general interests which can only be attended to with advantage by a
+general authority. The Union was invested with the power of controlling
+the monetary system, of directing the post-office, and of opening the
+great roads which were to establish communication between the different
+parts of the country.[128] The independence of the government of each
+state was formally recognized in its sphere; nevertheless the federal
+government was authorized to interfere in the internal affairs of the
+states[129] in a few predetermined cases, in which an indiscreet abuse
+of their independence might compromise the security of the Union at
+large. Thus, while the power of modifying and changing their legislation
+at pleasure was preserved in all the republics, they were forbidden
+to enact _ex post facto_ laws, or to create a class of nobles in their
+community.[130] Lastly, as it was necessary that the federal government
+should be able to fulfil its engagements, it was endowed with an
+unlimited power of levying taxes.[131]
+
+In examining the balance of power as established by the federal
+constitution; in remarking on the one hand the portion of sovereignty
+which has been reserved to the several states, and on the other the
+share of power which the Union has assumed, it is evident that the
+federal legislators entertained the clearest and most accurate notions
+on the nature of the centralisation of government. The United States
+form not only a republic, but a confederation; nevertheless the
+authority of the nation is more central than it was in several of the
+monarchies of Europe when the American constitution was formed. Take,
+for instance, the two following examples:--
+
+Thirteen supreme courts of justice existed in France, which, generally
+speaking, had the right of interpreting the law without appeal; and
+those provinces, styled _pays d'etats_, were authorized to refuse
+their assent to an impost which had been levied by the sovereign who
+represented the nation.
+
+In the Union there is but one tribunal to interpret, as there is one
+legislature to make the laws; and an impost voted by the representatives
+of the nation is binding upon all the citizens.
+
+In these two essential points, therefore, the Union exercises more
+central authority than the French monarchy possessed, although the Union
+is only an assemblage of confederate republics.
+
+In Spain certain provinces had the right of establishing a system of
+customhouse duties peculiar to themselves, although that privilege
+belongs, by its very nature, to the national sovereignty. In America the
+congress alone has the right of regulating the commercial relations
+of the states. The government of the confederation is therefore more
+centralized in this respect than the kingdom of Spain. It is true that
+the power of the crown in France or in Spain was always able to obtain
+by force whatever the constitution of the country denied, and that the
+ultimate result was consequently the same; and I am here discussing the
+theory of the constitution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FEDERAL POWERS.
+
+After having settled the limits within which the federal government
+was to act, the next point was to determine the powers which it was to
+exert.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LEGISLATIVE POWERS.
+
+Division of the legislative Body into two Branches.--Difference in the
+Manner of forming the two Houses.--The Principle of the Independence of
+the States predominates in the Formation of the Senate.--The Principle
+of the Sovereignty of the Nation in the Composition of the House of
+Representatives.--Singular Effects of the Fact that a Constitution can
+only be Logical in the early Stages of a Nation.
+
+The plan which had been laid down beforehand for the constitution of the
+several states was followed, in many points, in the organization of the
+powers of the Union. The federal legislature of the Union was composed
+of a senate and a house of Representatives. A spirit of conciliation
+prescribed the observance of distinct principles in the formation of
+each of these two assemblies. I have already shown that two contrary
+interests were opposed to each other in the establishment of the federal
+constitution. These two interests had given rise to two opinions. It was
+the wish of one party to convert the Union into a league of independent
+states, or a sort of congress, at which the representatives of the
+several peoples would meet to discuss certain points of their common
+interests. The other party desired to unite the inhabitants of the
+American colonies into one sole nation, and to establish a government,
+which should act as the sole representative of the nation, as far as the
+limited sphere of its authority would permit. The practical consequences
+of these two theories were exceedingly different.
+
+The question was, whether a league was to be established instead of a
+national government; whether the majority of the states, instead of a
+majority of the inhabitants of the Union, was to give the law; for every
+state, the small as well as the great, then retained the character of
+an independent power, and entered the Union upon a footing of perfect
+equality. If, on the contrary, the inhabitants of the United States were
+to be considered as belonging to one and the same nation, it was natural
+that the majority of the citizens of the Union should prescribe the law.
+Of course the lesser states could not subscribe to the application of
+this doctrine without, in fact, abdicating their existence in relation
+to the sovereignty of the confederation; since they would have passed
+from the condition of a co-equal and co-legislative authority, to that
+of an insignificant fraction of a great people. The former system would
+have invested them with an excessive authority, the latter would have
+annulled their influence altogether. Under these circumstances, the
+result was, that the strict rules of logic were evaded, as is usually
+the case when interests are opposed to arguments. A middle course was
+hit upon by the legislators, which brought together by force two systems
+theoretically irreconcilable.
+
+The principle of the independence of the states prevailed in the
+formation of the senate, and that of the sovereignty of the nation
+predominated in the composition of the house of representatives. It
+was decided that each state should send two senators to congress, and
+a number of representatives proportioned to its population.[132] It
+results from this arrangement that the state of New York has at the
+present day forty representatives, and only two senators; the state of
+Delaware has two senators, and only one representative; the state of
+Delaware is therefore equal to the state of New York in the senate,
+while the latter has forty times the influence of the former in
+the house of representatives. Thus, if the minority of the nation
+preponderates in the senate, it may paralyze the decisions of the
+majority represented in the other house, which is contrary to the spirit
+of constitutional government.
+
+The facts show how rare and how difficult it is rationally and logically
+to combine all the several parts of legislation. In the course of time
+different interests arise, and different principles are sanctioned by
+the same people; and when a general constitution is to be established,
+these interests and principles are so many natural obstacles to the
+rigorous application of any political system, with all its consequences.
+The early stages of national existence are the only periods at which it
+is possible to maintain the complete logic of legislation; and when we
+perceive a nation in the enjoyment of this advantage, before we hasten
+to conclude that it is wise, we should do well to remember that it
+is young. When the federal constitution was formed, the interest of
+independence for the separate states, and the interest of union for
+the whole people, were the only two conflicting interests which existed
+among the Anglo-Americans; and a compromise was necessarily made between
+them.
+
+It is, however, just to acknowledge that this part of the constitution
+has not hitherto produced those evils which might have been feared. All
+the states are young and contiguous; their customs, their ideas, and
+their wants, are not dissimilar; and the differences which result from
+their size or inferiority do not suffice to set their interests at
+variance. The small states have consequently never been induced to
+league themselves together in the senate to oppose the designs of the
+larger ones; and indeed there is so irresistible an authority in the
+legitimate expression of the will of a people, that the senate could
+offer but a feeble opposition to the vote of the majority of the house
+of representatives.
+
+It must not be forgotten, on the other hand, that it was not in the
+power of the American legislators to reduce to a single nation the
+people for whom they were making laws. The object of the federal
+constitution was not to destroy the independence of the states, but
+to restrain it. By acknowledging the real authority of these secondary
+communities (and it was impossible to deprive them of it), they
+disavowed beforehand the habitual use of constraint in enforcing the
+decisions of the majority. Upon this principle the introduction of the
+influence of the states into the mechanism of the federal government was
+by no means to be wondered at; since it only attested the existence
+of an acknowledged power, which was to be humored, and not forcibly
+checked.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A FARTHER DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF
+REPRESENTATIVES.
+
+The Senate named by the provincial Legislature--the Representatives,
+by the People.--Double Election of the Former--Single Election of the
+Latter.--Term of the different Offices.--Peculiar Functions of each
+House.
+
+The senate not only differs from the other house in the principle which
+it represents, but also in the mode of its election, in the term for
+which it is chosen, and in the nature of its functions. The house of
+representatives is named by the people, the senate by the legislators of
+each state; the former is directly elected; the latter is elected by an
+elected body; the term for which the representatives are chosen is only
+two years, that of the senators is six. The functions of the house of
+representatives are purely legislative, and the only share it takes in
+the judicial power is in the impeachment of public officers. The senate
+co-operates in the work of legislation, and tries those political
+offences which the house of representatives submits to its decision.
+It also acts as the great executive council of the nation; the treaties
+which are concluded by the president must be ratified by the senate; and
+the appointments he may make must be definitively approved by the same
+body.[133]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE EXECUTIVE POWER.[134]
+
+Dependence of the President--He is Elective and Responsible.--He is
+Free to act in his own Sphere under the Inspection, but not under
+the Direction, of the Senate.--His Salary fixed at his Entry into
+Office.--Suspensive Veto.
+
+The American legislators undertook a difficult task in attempting to
+create an executive power dependent on the majority of the people and
+nevertheless sufficiently strong to act without restraint in its own
+sphere. It was indispensable to the maintenance of the republican form
+of government that the representatives of the executive power should be
+subject to the will of the nation.
+
+The president is an elective magistrate. His honor, his property, his
+liberty, and his life, are the securities which the people has for the
+temperate use of his power. But in the exercise of his authority he
+cannot be said to be perfectly independent; the senate takes cognizance
+of his relations with foreign powers, and of the distribution of public
+appointments, so that he can neither be bribed, nor can he employ the
+means of corruption. The legislators of the Union acknowledged that the
+executive power would be incompetent to fulfill its task with dignity
+and utility, unless it enjoyed a greater degree of stability and of
+strength than had been granted to it in the separate states.
+
+The president is chosen for four years, and he may be re-elected; so
+that the chances of a prolonged administration may inspire him with
+hopeful undertakings for the public good, and with the means of carrying
+them into execution. The president was made the sole representative of
+the executive power of the Union; and care was taken not to render his
+decisions subordinate to the vote of a council--a dangerous measure,
+which tends at the same time to clog the action of the government and
+to diminish its responsibility. The senate has the right of annulling
+certain acts of the president; but it cannot compel him to take any
+steps, nor does it participate in the exercise of the executive power.
+
+The action of the legislature on the executive power may be direct; and
+we have just shown that the Americans carefully obviated this influence;
+but it may, on the other hand, be indirect. Public assemblies which have
+the power of depriving an officer of state of his salary, encroach upon
+his independence; and as they are free to make the laws, it is to be
+feared lest they should gradually appropriate to themselves a portion
+of that authority which the constitution had vested in his hands. This
+dependence of the executive power is one of the defects inherent in
+republican constitutions. The Americans have not been able to counteract
+the tendency which legislative assemblies have to get possession of the
+government, but they have rendered this propensity less irresistible.
+The salary of the president is fixed, at the time of his entering
+upon office, for the whole period of his magistracy. The president is,
+moreover, provided with a suspensive veto, which allows him to oppose
+the passing of such laws as might destroy the portion of independence
+which the constitution awards him. The struggle between the president
+and the legislature must always be an unequal one, since the latter is
+certain of bearing down all resistance by persevering in its plans; but
+the suspensive veto forces it at least to reconsider the matter, and,
+if the motion be persisted in, it must then be backed by a majority of
+two-thirds of the whole house. The veto is, in fact, a sort of appeal
+to the people. The executive power, which, without this security, might
+have been secretly oppressed, adopts this means of pleading its
+cause and stating its motives. But if the legislature is certain of
+overpowering all resistance by persevering in its plans, I reply, that
+in the constitutions of all nations, of whatever kind they may be, a
+certain point exists at which the legislator is obliged to have recourse
+to the good sense and the virtue of his fellow-citizens. This point
+is more prominent and more discoverable in republics, while it is more
+remote and more carefully concealed in monarchies, but it always exists
+somewhere. There is no country in the world in which everything can be
+provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a
+substitute for common sense and public morality.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
+AND THAT OF A CONSTITUTIONAL KING OF FRANCE.
+
+Executive Power in the United States as Limited and as Partial as the
+Supremacy which it Represents.--Executive Power in France as
+Universal as the Supremacy it Represents.--The King a Branch of the
+Legislature.--The President the mere Executor of the Law.--Other
+Differences resulting from the Duration of the two Powers.--The
+President checked in the Exercise of the executive Authority.--The
+King Independent in its Exercise.--Notwithstanding these
+Discrepancies, France is more akin to a Republic than the Union to a
+Monarchy.--Comparison of the Number of public Officers depending upon
+the executive Power in the two countries.
+
+The executive power has so important an influence on the destinies of
+nations that I am inclined to pause for an instant at this portion of
+my subject, in order more clearly to explain the part it sustains
+in America. In order to form an accurate idea of the position of the
+president of the United States, it may not be irrelevant to compare it
+to that of one of the constitutional kings of Europe. In this comparison
+I shall pay but little attention to the external signs of power, which
+are more apt to deceive the eye of the observer than to guide his
+researches. When a monarchy is being gradually transformed into a
+republic, the executive power retains the titles, the honors, the
+etiquette, and even the funds of royalty, long after its authority has
+disappeared. The English, after having cut off the head of one king,
+and expelled another from his throne, were accustomed to accost the
+successors of those princes upon their knees. On the other hand, when
+a republic falls under the sway of a single individual, the demeanor of
+the sovereign is simple and unpretending, as if his authority was not
+yet paramount. When the emperors exercised an unlimited control over
+the fortunes and the lives of their fellow-citizens, it was customary to
+call them Caesar in conversation, and they were in the habit of supping
+without formality at their friends' houses. It is therefore necessary to
+look below the surface.
+
+The sovereignty of the United States is shared between the Union and the
+states, while in France it is undivided and compact: hence arises the
+first and the most notable difference which exists between the president
+of the United States and the king of France. In the United States the
+executive power is as limited and partial as the sovereignty of the
+Union in whose name it acts; in France it is as universal as the
+authority of the state. The Americans have a federal, and the French a
+national government.
+
+The first cause of inferiority results from the nature of things, but it
+is not the only one; the second in importance is as follows: sovereignty
+may be defined to be the right of making laws: in France, the king
+really exercises a portion of the sovereign power, since the laws have
+no weight till he has given his assent to them; he is moreover the
+executor of all they ordain. The president is also the executor of the
+laws, but he does not really co-operate in their formation, since the
+refusal of his assent does not annul them. He is therefore merely to be
+considered as the agent of the sovereign power. But not only does
+the king of France exercise a portion of the sovereign power, he also
+contributes to the nomination of the legislature, which exercises the
+other portion. He has the privilege of appointing the members of one
+chamber, and of dissolving the other at his pleasure; whereas the
+president of the United States has no share in the formation of the
+legislative body, and cannot dissolve any part of it. The king has the
+same right of bringing forward measures as the chambers; a right which
+the president does not possess. The king is represented in each assembly
+by his ministers, who explain his intentions, support his opinions,
+and maintain the principles of the government. The president and his
+ministers are alike excluded from congress; so that his influence and
+his opinions can only penetrate indirectly into that great body. The
+king of France is therefore on an equal footing with the legislature,
+which can no more act without him, than he can without it. The president
+exercises an authority inferior to, and depending upon, that of the
+legislature.
+
+Even in the exercise of the executive power, properly so called, the
+point upon which his position seems to be almost analogous to that
+of the king of France--the president labors under several causes of
+inferiority. The authority of the king, in France, has, in the first
+place, the advantage of duration over that of the president: and
+durability is one of the chief elements of strength; nothing is either
+loved or feared but what is likely to endure. The president of the
+United States is a magistrate elected for four years. The king, in
+France, is an hereditary sovereign.
+
+In the exercise of the executive power the president of the United
+States is constantly subject to jealous scrutiny. He may make, but he
+cannot conclude a treaty; he may designate, but he cannot appoint, a
+public officer.[135] The king of France is absolute in the sphere of the
+executive power.
+
+The president of the United States is responsible for his actions; but
+the person of the king is declared inviolable by the French charter.
+
+Nevertheless, the supremacy of public opinion is no less above the head
+of one than of the other. This power is less definite, less evident,
+and less sanctioned by the laws in France than in America, but in
+fact exists. In America it acts by elections and decrees; in France it
+proceeds by revolutions; but notwithstanding the different constitutions
+of these two countries, public opinion is the predominant authority
+in both of them. The fundamental principle of legislation--a principle
+essentially republican--is the same in both countries, although its
+consequences may be different, and its results more or less extensive.
+Whence I am led to conclude, that France with its king is nearer akin to
+a republic, than the Union with its president is to a monarchy.
+
+In what I have been saying I have only touched upon the main points
+of distinction; and if I could have entered into details, the contrast
+would have been rendered still more striking.
+
+I have remarked that the authority of the president in the United States
+is only exercised within the limits of a partial sovereignty, while that
+of the king, in France, is undivided. I might have gone on to show that
+the power of the king's government in France exceeds its natural limits,
+however extensive they may be, and penetrates in a thousand different
+ways into the administration of private interests. Among the examples of
+this influence may be quoted that which results from the great number
+of public functionaries, who all derive their appointments from the
+government. This number now exceeds all previous limits; it amounts to
+138,000[136] nominations, each of which may be considered as an element
+of power. The president of the United States has not the exclusive
+right of making any public appointments, and their whole number scarcely
+exceeds 12,000.[137]
+
+[Those who are desirous of tracing the question respecting the power
+of the president to remove every executive officer of the government
+without the sanction of the senate, will find some light upon it by
+referring to 5th Marshall's Life of Washington, p. 196: 5 Sergeant and
+Rawle's Reports (Pennsylvania), 451: Elliot's Debates on the Federal
+Constitution, vol iv., p. 355, contains the debate in the House of
+Representatives, June 16, 1799, when the question was first mooted:
+Report of a committee of the senate in 1822, in Niles's Register of 29th
+August in that year. It is certainly very extraordinary that such a vast
+power, and one so extensively affecting the whole administration of the
+government, should rest on such slight foundations, as an _inference_
+from an act of congress, providing that when the secretary of the
+treasury should be removed by the president, his assistant should
+discharge the duties of the office. How congress could confer the
+power, even by a direct act, is not perceived. It must be a necessary
+implication from the words of the constitution, or it does not exist.
+It has been repeatedly denied in and out of congress, and must be
+considered, as yet, an unsettled question.--_American Editor_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ACCIDENTAL CAUSES WHICH MAY INCREASE THE INFLUENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE.
+
+External security of the Union.--Army of six thousand Men.--Few
+Ships.--The President has no Opportunity of exercising his great
+Prerogatives.--In the Prerogatives he exercises he is weak.
+
+If the executive power is feebler in America than in France, the cause
+is more attributable to the circumstances than to the laws of the
+country.
+
+It is chiefly in its foreign relations that the executive power of a
+nation is called upon to exert its skill and vigor. If the existence of
+the Union were perpetually threatened, and its chief interest were in
+daily connexion with those of other powerful nations, the executive
+government would assume an increased importance in proportion to the
+measures expected of it, and those which it would carry into effect. The
+president of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the army,
+but of an army composed of only six thousand men; he commands the fleet,
+but the fleet reckons but few sail; he conducts the foreign relations
+of the Union, but the United States are a nation without neighbors.
+Separated from the rest of the world by the ocean, and too weak as yet
+to aim at the dominion of the seas, they have no enemies, and their
+interests rarely come into contact with those of any other nation of the
+globe.
+
+The practical part of a government must not be judged by the theory
+of its constitution. The president of the United States is in the
+possession of almost royal prerogatives, which he has no opportunity of
+exercising; and those privileges which he can at present use are very
+circumscribed: the laws allow him to possess a degree of influence which
+circumstances do not permit him to employ.
+
+On the other hand, the great strength of the royal prerogative in
+France arises from circumstances far more than from the laws. There
+the executive government is constantly struggling against prodigious
+obstacles, and exerting all its energies to repress them; so that it
+increases by the extent of its achievements, and by the importance
+of the events it controls, without, for that reason, modifying its
+constitution. If the laws had made it as feeble and as circumscribed as
+it is in the Union, its influence would very soon become much greater.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT REQUIRE THE MAJORITY OF
+THE TWO HOUSES IN ORDER TO CARRY ON THE GOVERNMENT.
+
+It is an established axiom in Europe that a constitutional king cannot
+persevere in a system of government which is opposed by the two other
+branches of the legislature. But several presidents of the United States
+have been known to lose the majority in the legislative body, without
+being obliged to abandon the supreme power, and without inflicting a
+serious evil upon society. I have heard this fact quoted as an instance
+of the independence and power of executive government in America: a
+moment's reflection will convince us, on the contrary, that it is a
+proof of its extreme weakness.
+
+A king in Europe requires the support of the legislature to enable him
+to perform the duties imposed upon him by the constitution, because
+those duties are enormous. A constitutional king in Europe is not merely
+the executor of the law, but the execution of its provisions devolves so
+completely upon him, that he has the power of paralyzing its influence
+if it opposes his designs. He requires the assistance of the legislative
+assemblies to make the law, but those assemblies stand in need of his
+aid to execute it: these two authorities cannot subsist without each
+other, and the mechanism of government is stopped as soon as they are at
+variance.
+
+In America the president cannot prevent any law from being passed, nor
+can he evade the obligation of enforcing it. His sincere and zealous
+co-operation is no doubt useful, but it is not indispensable in the
+carrying on of public affairs. All his important acts are directly or
+indirectly submitted to the legislature; and where he is independent
+of it he can do but little. It is therefore his weakness, and not his
+power, which enables him to remain in opposition to congress. In Europe,
+harmony must reign between the crown and the other branches of the
+legislature, because a collision between them may prove serious; in
+America, this harmony is not indispensable, because such a collision is
+impossible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Dangers of the elective System increase in Proportion to the Extent of
+the Prerogative.--This System possible in America because no powerful
+executive Authority is required.--What Circumstances are favorable to
+the elective System.--Why the Election of the President does not cause
+a Deviation from the Principles of the Government.--Influence of the
+Election of the President on secondary Functionaries.
+
+The dangers of the system of election applied to the head of the
+executive government of a great people, have been sufficiently
+exemplified by experience and by history; and the remarks I am about
+to make refer to America alone. These dangers may be more or less
+formidable in proportion to the place which the executive power
+occupies, and to the importance it possesses in the state; and they may
+vary according to the mode of election, and the circumstances in which
+the electors are placed. The most weighty argument against the election
+of a chief-magistrate is, that it offers so splendid a lure to private
+ambition, and is so apt to inflame men in the pursuit of power, that
+when legitimate means are wanting, force may not unfrequently seize what
+right denies.
+
+It is clear that the greater the privileges of the executive authority
+are, the greater is the temptation; the more the ambition of the
+candidates is excited, the more warmly are their interests espoused by
+a throng of partisans who hope to share the power when their patron has
+won the prize. The dangers of the elective system increase, therefore,
+in the exact ratio of the influence exercised by the executive power
+in the affairs of state. The revolutions of Poland are not solely
+attributable to the elective system in general, but to the fact that the
+elected magistrate was the head of a powerful monarchy. Before we can
+discuss the absolute advantages of the elective system, we must make
+preliminary inquiries as to whether the geographical position, the laws,
+the habits, the manners, and the opinions of the people among whom it
+is to be introduced, will admit of the establishment of a weak
+and dependent executive government; for to attempt to render the
+representative of the state a powerful sovereign, and at the same time
+elective, is, in my opinion, to entertain two incompatible designs. To
+reduce hereditary royalty to the condition of an elective authority, the
+only means that I am acquainted with are to circumscribe its sphere
+of action beforehand, gradually to diminish its prerogatives, and to
+accustom the people to live without its protection. Nothing, however, is
+farther from the designs of the republicans of Europe than this course:
+as many of them only owe their hatred of tyranny to the sufferings which
+they have personally undergone, the extent of the executive power does
+not excite their hostility, and they only attack its origin without
+perceiving how nearly the two things are connected.
+
+Hitherto no citizen has shown any disposition to expose his honor and
+his life, in order to become the president of the United States; because
+the power of that office is temporary, limited, and subordinate. The
+prize of fortune must be great to encourage adventurers in so desperate
+a game. No candidate has as yet been able to arouse the dangerous
+enthusiasm or the passionate sympathies of the people in his favor, for
+the very simple reason, that when he is at the head of the government he
+has but little power, but little wealth, and but little glory to share
+among his friends; and his influence in the state is too small for the
+success or the ruin of a faction to depend upon the elevation of an
+individual to power.
+
+The great advantage of hereditary monarchies is, that as the private
+interest of a family is always intimately connected with the interests
+of the state, the executive government is never suspended for a single
+instant; and if the affairs of a monarchy are not better conducted than
+those of a republic, at least there is always some one to conduct them,
+well or ill, according to his capacity. In elective states, on the
+contrary, the wheels of government cease to act, as it were of their own
+accord, at the approach of an election, and even for some time previous
+to that event. The laws may indeed accelerate the operation of the
+election, which may be conducted with such simplicity and rapidity that
+the seat of power will never be left vacant; but, notwithstanding these
+precautions, a break necessarily occurs in the minds of the people.
+
+At the approach of an election the head of the executive government is
+wholly occupied by the coming struggle; his future plans are doubtful;
+he can undertake nothing new, and he will only prosecute with
+indifference those designs which another will perhaps terminate. "I am
+so near the time of my retirement from office," said President Jefferson
+on the 21st of January, 1809 (six weeks before the election), "that I
+feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment. It appears
+to me just to leave to my successor the commencement of those measures
+which he will have to prosecute, and for which he will be responsible."
+
+On the other hand, the eyes of the nation are centred on a single point;
+all are watching the gradual birth of so important an event. The wider
+the influence of the executive power extends, the greater and the
+more necessary is its constant action, the more fatal is the term of
+suspense; and a nation which is accustomed to the government, or, still
+more, one used to the administrative protection of a powerful executive
+authority, would be infallibly convulsed by an election of this kind.
+In the United States the action of the government may be slackened with
+impunity, because it is always weak and circumscribed.
+
+One of the principal vices of the elective system is, that it always
+introduces a certain degree of instability into the internal and
+external policy of the state. But this disadvantage is less sensibly
+felt if the share of power vested in the elected magistrate is small. In
+Rome the principles of the government underwent no variation, although
+the consuls were changed every year, because the senate, which was an
+hereditary assembly, possessed the directing authority. If the elective
+system were adopted in Europe, the condition of most of the monarchical
+states would be changed at every new election. In America the president
+exercises a certain influence on state affairs, but he does not conduct
+them; the preponderating power is vested in the representatives of the
+whole nation. The political maxims of the country depend therefore on
+the mass of the people, not on the president alone; and consequently
+in America the elective system has no very prejudicial influence on the
+fixed principles of the government. But the want of fixed principles is
+an evil so inherent in the elective system, that it is still extremely
+perceptible in the narrow sphere to which the authority of the president
+extends.
+
+The Americans have admitted that the head of the executive power, who
+has to bear the whole responsibility of the duties he is called upon to
+fulfil, ought to be empowered to choose his own agents, and to remove
+them at pleasure: the legislative bodies watch the conduct of the
+president more than they direct it. The consequence of this arrangement
+is, that at every new election the fate of all the federal public
+officers is in suspense. Mr. Quincy Adams, on his entry into office,
+discharged the majority of the individuals who had been appointed by his
+predecessor; and I am not aware that General Jackson allowed a single
+removeable functionary employed in the federal service to retain
+his place beyond the first year which succeeded his election. It is
+sometimes made a subject of complaint, that in the constitutional
+monarchies of Europe the fate of the humbler servants of an
+administration depends upon that of the ministers. But in elective
+governments this evil is far greater. In a constitutional monarchy
+successive ministers are rapidly formed; but as the principal
+representative of the executive power does not change, the spirit of
+innovation is kept within bounds; the changes which take place are in
+the details rather than in the principles of the administrative system;
+but to substitute one system for another, as is done in America
+every four years by law, is to cause a sort of revolution. As to the
+misfortunes which may fall upon individuals in consequence of this state
+of things, it must be allowed that the uncertain situation of the
+public officers is less fraught with evil consequences in America than
+elsewhere. It is so easy to acquire an independent position in the
+United States, that the public officer who loses his place may be
+deprived of the comforts of life, but not of the means of subsistence.
+
+I remarked at the beginning of this chapter that the dangers of the
+elective system applied to the head of the state, are augmented or
+decreased by the peculiar circumstances of the people which adopts it.
+However the functions of the executive power may be restricted, it
+must always exercise a great influence upon the foreign policy of the
+country, for a negotiation cannot be opened or successfully carried
+on otherwise than by a single agent. The more precarious and the more
+perilous the position of a people becomes, the more absolute is the want
+of a fixed and consistent external policy, and the more dangerous does
+the elective system of the chief magistrate become. The policy of the
+Americans in relation to the whole world is exceedingly simple; and it
+may almost be said that no country stands in need of them, nor do they
+require the co-operation of any other people. Their independence is
+never threatened. In their present condition, therefore, the functions
+of the executive power are no less limited by circumstances, than by the
+laws; and the president may frequently change his line of policy without
+involving the state in difficulty or destruction.
+
+Whatever the prerogatives of the executive power may be, the period
+which immediately precedes an election, and the moment of its duration,
+must always be considered as a national crisis, which is perilous in
+proportion to the internal embarrassments and the external dangers of
+the country. Few of the nations of Europe could escape the calamities
+of anarchy or of conquest, every time they might have to elect a new
+sovereign. In America society is so constituted that it can stand
+without assistance upon its own basis; nothing is to be feared from the
+pressure of external dangers; and the election of the president is a
+cause of agitation, but not of ruin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MODE OF ELECTION.
+
+Skill of the American Legislators shown in the Mode of Election adopted
+by them.--Creation of a special electoral Body.--Separate Votes of these
+Electors.--Case in which the House of Representatives is called upon to
+choose the President.--Results of the twelve Elections which have taken
+Place since the Constitution has been established.
+
+Beside the dangers which are inherent in the system, many other
+difficulties may arise from the mode of election, which may be obviated
+by the precaution of the legislator. When a people met in arms on some
+public spot to choose its head, it was exposed to all the chances of
+civil war resulting from so martial a mode of proceeding, beside
+the dangers of the elective system in itself. The Polish laws, which
+subjected the election of the sovereign to the veto of a single
+individual, suggested the murder of that individual, or prepared the way
+to anarchy.
+
+In the examination of the institutions, and the political as well as the
+social condition of the United States, we are struck by the admirable
+harmony of the gifts of fortune and the efforts of man. That nation
+possessed two of the main causes of internal peace; it was a new
+country, but it was inhabited by a people grown old in the exercise of
+freedom. America had no hostile neighbors to dread; and the American
+legislators, profiting by these favorable circumstances, created a weak
+and subordinate executive power, which could without danger be made
+elective.
+
+It then only remained for them to choose the least dangerous of the
+various modes of election; and the rules which they laid down upon this
+point admirably complete the securities which the physical and political
+constitution of the country already afforded. Their object was to find
+the mode of election which would best express the choice of the people
+with the least possible excitement and suspense. It was admitted in
+the first place that the _simple_ majority should be decisive; but the
+difficulty was to obtain this majority without an interval of delay
+which it was most important to avoid. It rarely happens that an
+individual can at once collect the majority of the suffrages of a great
+people; and this difficulty is enhanced in a republic of confederate
+states, where local influences are apt to preponderate. The means by
+which it was proposed to obviate this second obstacle was to delegate
+the electoral powers of the nation to a body of representatives. The
+mode of election rendered a majority more probable; for the fewer the
+electors are, the greater is the chance of their coming to a final
+decision. It also offered an additional probability of a judicious
+choice. It then remained to be decided whether this right of election
+was to be intrusted to the legislative body, the habitual representative
+assembly of the nation, or whether an electoral assembly should be
+formed for the express purpose of proceeding to the nomination of a
+president. The Americans chose the latter alternative, from a belief
+that the individuals who were returned to make the laws were incompetent
+to represent the wishes of the nation in the election of its chief
+magistrate; and that as they are chosen for more than a year, the
+constituency they represented might have changed its opinion in that
+time. It was thought that if the legislature was empowered to elect the
+head of the executive power, its members would, for some time before the
+election, be exposed to the manoeuvres of corruption, and the tricks of
+intrigue; whereas, the special electors would, like a jury, remain mixed
+up with the crowd till the day of action, when they would appear for the
+sole purpose of giving their votes.
+
+It was therefore established that every state should name a certain
+number of electors,[138] who in their turn should elect the president;
+and as it had been observed that the assemblies to which the choice of
+a chief magistrate had been intrusted in elective countries, inevitably
+became the centres of passion and of cabal; that they sometimes usurped
+an authority which did not belong to them: and that their proceedings,
+or the uncertainty which resulted from them, were sometimes prolonged so
+much as to endanger the welfare of the state, it was determined that the
+electors should all vote upon the same day, without being convoked to
+the same place.[139] This double election rendered a majority probable,
+though not certain; for it was possible that as many differences might
+exist between the electors as between their constituents. In this case
+it was necessary to have recourse to one of three measures; either
+to appoint new electors, or to consult a second time those already
+appointed, or to defer the election to another authority. The first
+two of these alternatives, independently of the uncertainty of their
+results, were likely to delay the final decision, and to perpetuate
+an agitation which must always be accompanied with danger. The third
+expedient was therefore adopted, and it was agreed that the votes should
+be transmitted sealed to the president of the senate, and that they
+should be opened and counted in the presence of the senate and the house
+of representatives. If none of the candidates has a majority, the house
+of representatives then proceeds immediately to elect the president; but
+with the condition that it must fix upon one of the three candidates who
+have the highest numbers.[140]
+
+Thus it is only in case of an event which cannot often happen, and which
+can never be foreseen, that the election is intrusted to the ordinary
+representatives of the nation; and even then they are obliged to choose
+a citizen who has already been designated by a powerful minority of the
+special electors. It is by this happy expedient that the respect due to
+the popular voice is combined with the utmost celerity of execution
+and those precautions which the peace of the country demands. But
+the decision of the question by the house of representatives does not
+necessarily offer an immediate solution of the difficulty, for the
+majority of that assembly may still be doubtful, and in this case the
+constitution prescribes no remedy. Nevertheless, by restricting the
+number of candidates to three, and by referring the matter to the
+judgment of an enlightened public body, it has smoothed all the
+obstacles[141] which are not inherent in the elective system.
+
+In the forty years which have elapsed since the promulgation of the
+federal constitution, the United States have twelve times chosen a
+president. Ten of these elections took place simultaneously by the
+votes of the special electors in the different states. The house of
+representatives has only twice exercised its conditional privilege of
+deciding in cases of uncertainty: the first time was at the election
+of Mr. Jefferson in 1801; the second was in 1825, when Mr. John Quincy
+Adams was chosen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CRISIS OF THE ELECTION.
+
+The election may be considered as a national Crisis.--Why?--Passions
+of the People.--Anxiety of the President.--Calm which succeeds the
+Agitation of the Election.
+
+I have shown what the circumstances are which favored the adoption of
+the elective system in the United States, and what precautions were
+taken by the legislators to obviate its dangers. The Americans are
+accustomed to all kinds of elections; and they know by experience the
+utmost degree of excitement which is compatible with security. The vast
+extent of the country, and the dissemination of the inhabitants, render
+a collision between parties less probable and less dangerous there than
+elsewhere. The political circumstances under which the elections have
+hitherto been carried on, have presented no real embarrassments to the
+nation.
+
+Nevertheless, the epoch of the election of a president of the United
+States may be considered as a crisis in the affairs of the nation. The
+influence which he exercises on public business is no doubt feeble and
+indirect; but the choice of the president, which is of small importance
+to each individual citizen, concerns the citizens collectively; and
+however trifling an interest may be, it assumes a great degree of
+importance as soon as it becomes general. The president possesses but
+few means of rewarding his supporters in comparison to the kings of
+Europe; but the places which are at his disposal are sufficiently
+numerous to interest, directly or indirectly, several thousand electors
+in his success. Moreover, political parties in the United States, as
+well as elsewhere, are led to rally around an individual, in order to
+acquire a more tangible shape in the eyes of the crowd, and the name
+of the candidate for the presidency is put forth as the symbol and
+personification of their theories. For these reasons parties are
+strongly interested in gaining the election, not so much with a view
+to the triumph of their principles under the auspices of the president
+elected, as to show, by the majority which returned him, the strength of
+the supporters of those principles.
+
+For a long while before the appointed time is at hand, the election
+becomes the most important and the all-engrossing topic of discussion.
+The ardor of faction is redoubled; and all the artificial passions which
+the imagination can create in the bosom of a happy and peaceful land
+are agitated and brought to light. The president, on the other hand,
+is absorbed by the cares of self-defence. He no longer governs for the
+interest of the state, but for that of his re-election; he does homage
+to the majority, and instead of checking its passions, as his duty
+commands him to do, he frequently courts its worst caprices. As the
+election draws near, the activity of intrigue and the agitation of the
+populace increase; the citizens are divided into several camps, each of
+which assumes the name of its favorite candidate; the whole nation glows
+with feverish excitement; the election is the daily theme of the public
+papers, the subject of private conversation, the end of every thought
+and every action, the sole interest of the present. As soon as the
+choice is determined, this ardor is dispelled; and as a calmer season
+returns, the current of the state, which has nearly broken its banks,
+sinks to its usual level; but who can refrain from astonishment at the
+causes of the storm?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RE-ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT.
+
+When the Head of the executive Power is re-eligible, it is the State
+which is the Source of Intrigue and Corruption.--The desire of
+being re-elected, the chief Aim of a President of the United
+States.--Disadvantage of the System peculiar to America.--The natural
+Evil of Democracy is that it subordinates all Authority to the slightest
+Desires of the Majority.--The Re-election of the President encourages
+this Evil.
+
+It may be asked whether the legislators of the United States did right
+or wrong in allowing the re-election of the president. It seems at first
+sight contrary to all reason to prevent the head of the executive power
+from being elected a second time. The influence which the talents and
+the character of a single individual may exercise upon the fate of a
+whole people, especially in critical circumstances or arduous times,
+is well known: a law preventing the re-election of the chief magistrate
+would deprive the citizens of the surest pledge of the prosperity and
+the security of the commonwealth; and, by a singular inconsistency, a
+man would be excluded from the government at the very time when he had
+shown his ability in conducting its affairs.
+
+But if these arguments are strong, perhaps still more powerful reasons
+may be advanced against them. Intrigue and corruption are the natural
+defects of elective government; but when the head of the state can be
+re-elected, these evils rise to a great height, and compromise the
+very existence of the country. When a simple candidate seeks to rise by
+intrigue, his manoeuvres must necessarily be limited to a narrow sphere;
+but when the chief magistrate enters the lists, he borrows the strength
+of the government for his own purposes. In the former case the feeble
+resources of an individual are in action; in the latter, the state
+itself, with all its immense influence, is busied in the work of
+corruption and cabal. The private citizen, who employs the most
+immoral practices to acquire power, can only act in a manner indirectly
+prejudicial to the public prosperity. But if the representative of the
+executive descends into the lists, the cares of government dwindle into
+second-rate importance, and the success of his election is his first
+concern. All laws and negotiations are then to him nothing more than
+electioneering schemes; places become the reward of services rendered,
+not to the nation, but to its chief; and the influence of the
+government, if not injurious to the country, is at least no longer
+beneficial to the community for which it was created.
+
+It is impossible to consider the ordinary course of affairs in the
+United States without perceiving that the desire of being re-elected is
+the chief aim of the president; that his whole administration, and even
+his most indifferent measures, tend to this object; and that, as the
+crisis approaches, his personal interest takes the place of his interest
+in the public good. The principle of re-eligibility renders the corrupt
+influence of elective governments still more extensive and pernicious.
+It tends to degrade the political morality of the people, and to
+substitute adroitness for patriotism.
+
+In America it exercises a still more fatal influence on the sources of
+national existence. Every government seems to be afflicted by some evil
+inherent in its nature, and the genius of the legislator is shown in
+eluding its attacks. A state may survive the influence of a host of bad
+laws, and the mischief they cause is frequently exaggerated; but a law
+which encourages the growth of the canker within must prove fatal in the
+end, although its bad consequences may not be immediately perceived.
+
+The principle of destruction in absolute monarchies lies in the
+excessive and unreasonable extension of the prerogative of the crown;
+and a measure tending to remove the constitutional provisions which
+counterbalance this influence would be radically bad, even if its
+consequences should long appear to be imperceptible. By a parity of
+reasoning, in countries governed by a democracy, where the people is
+perpetually drawing all authority to itself, the laws which increase or
+accelerate its action are the direct assailants of the very principle of
+the government.
+
+The greatest proof of the ability of the American legislators is, that
+they clearly discerned this truth, and that they had the courage to act
+up to it. They conceived that a certain authority above the body of
+the people was necessary, which should enjoy a degree of independence,
+without however being entirely beyond the popular control; an authority
+which would be forced to comply with the _permanent_ determinations of
+the majority, but which would be able to resist its caprices, and to
+refuse its most dangerous demands. To this end they centred the whole
+executive power of the nation in a single arm; they granted extensive
+prerogatives to the president, and they armed him with the veto to
+resist the encroachments of the legislature.
+
+But by introducing the principle of re-election, they partly destroyed
+their work; and they rendered the president but little inclined to exert
+the great power they had invested in his hands. If ineligible a second
+time, the president would be far from independent of the people, for his
+responsibility would not be lessened; but the favor of the people would
+not be so necessary to him as to induce him to court it by humoring its
+desires. If re-eligible (and this is more especially true at the present
+day, when political morality is relaxed, and when great men are rare),
+the president of the United States becomes an easy tool in the hands of
+the majority. He adopts its likings and its animosities, he hastens to
+anticipate its wishes, he forestalls its complaints, he yields to its
+idlest cravings, and instead of guiding it, as the legislature intended
+that he should do, he is ever ready to follow its bidding. Thus, in
+order not to deprive the state of the talents of an individual, those
+talents have been rendered almost useless, and to reserve an expedient
+for extraordinary perils the country has been exposed to daily dangers.
+
+[The question of the propriety of leaving the president re-eligible,
+is one of that class which probably must for ever remain undecided. The
+author himself, at page 125, gives a strong reason for re-eligibility,
+"so that the chance of a prolonged administration may inspire him with
+hopeful undertakings for the public good, and with the means of carrying
+them into execution,"--considerations of great weight. There is an
+important fact bearing upon this question, which should be stated in
+connexion with it. President Washington established the practice of
+declining a third election, and every one of his successors, either from
+a sense of its propriety or from apprehensions of the force of public
+opinion, has followed the example. So that it has become as much a
+part of the constitution, that no citizen can be a third time elected
+president, as if it were expressed in that instrument in words. This may
+perhaps be considered a fair adjustment of objections on either side.
+Those against a continued and perpetual re-eligibility are certainly
+met: while the arguments in favor of an opportunity to prolong an
+administration under circumstances that may justify it, are allowed
+their due weight. One effect of this practical interpolation of the
+constitution unquestionably is, to increase the chances of a president's
+being once re-elected; as men will be more disposed to acquiesce in a
+measure that thus practically excludes the individual from ever again
+entering the field of competition.--_American Editor_]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FEDERAL COURTS.[142]
+
+Political Importance of the Judiciary in the United States.--Difficulty
+of treating this Subject.--Utility of judicial Power in
+Confederations--What Tribunals could be introduced into
+the Union.--Necessity of establishing federal Courts of
+Justice.--Organization of the national Judiciary.--The Supreme
+Court.--In what it differs from all known Tribunals.
+
+I have inquired into the legislative and executive power of the Union,
+and the judicial power now remains to be examined; but in this place I
+cannot conceal my fears from the reader. Judicial institutions exercise
+a great influence on the condition of the Anglo-Americans, and they
+occupy a prominent place among what are properly called political
+institutions: in this respect they are peculiarly deserving of our
+attention. But I am at a loss to explain the political action of the
+American tribunals without entering into some technical details on
+their constitution and their forms of proceeding; and I know not how to
+descend to these minutiae without wearying the curiosity of the reader
+by the natural aridity of the subject, or without risking to fall into
+obscurity through a desire to be succinct. I can scarcely hope to escape
+these various evils; for if I appear too prolix to a man of the world,
+a lawyer may on the other hand complain of my brevity. But these are the
+natural disadvantages of my subject, and more especially of the point
+which I am about to discuss.
+
+The great difficulty was, not to devise the constitution of the federal
+government, but to find out a method of enforcing its laws. Governments
+have in general but two means of overcoming the opposition of the people
+they govern, viz., the physical force which is at their own disposal,
+and the moral force which they derive from the decisions of the courts
+of justice.
+
+A government which should have no other means of exacting obedience than
+open war, must be very near its ruin; for one of two alternatives would
+then probably occur: if its authority was small, and its character
+temperate, it would not resort to violence till the last extremity,
+and it would connive at a number of partial acts of insubordination,
+in which case the state would gradually fall into anarchy; if it was
+enterprising and powerful, it would perpetually have recourse to
+its physical strength, and would speedily degenerate into a military
+despotism. So that its activity would not be less prejudicial to the
+community than its inaction.
+
+The great end of justice is to substitute the notion of right for that
+of violence; and to place a legal barrier between the power of the
+government and the use of physical force. The authority which is awarded
+to the intervention of a court of justice by the general opinion of
+mankind is so surprisingly great, that it clings to the mere formalities
+of justice, and gives a bodily influence to the shadow of the law. The
+moral force which courts of justice possess renders the introduction of
+physical force exceedingly rare, and it is very frequently substituted
+for it; but if the latter proves to be indispensable, its power is
+doubled by the association of the idea of law.
+
+A federal government stands in greater need of the support of judicial
+institutions than any other, because it is naturally weak, and opposed
+to formidable opposition.[143] If it were always obliged to resort to
+violence in the first instance, it could not fulfil its task. The Union,
+therefore, required a national judiciary to enforce the obedience of the
+citizens to the laws, and to repel the attacks which might be directed
+against them. The question then remained what tribunals were to exercise
+these privileges; were they to be intrusted to the courts of justice
+which were already organized in every state? or was it necessary to
+create federal courts? It may easily be proved that the Union could not
+adapt the judicial power of the state to its wants. The separation
+of the judiciary from the administrative power of the state, no doubt
+affects the security of every citizen, and the liberty of all. But it
+is no less important to the existence of the nation that these several
+powers should have the same origin, should follow the same principles,
+and act in the same sphere; in a word, that they should be correlative
+and homogeneous. No one, I presume, ever suggested the advantage of
+trying offences committed in France, by a foreign court of justice, in
+order to ensure the impartiality of the judges. The Americans form one
+people in relation to their federal government; but in the bosom of this
+people divers political bodies have been allowed to subsist, which are
+dependent on the national government in a few points, and independent
+in all the rest--which have all a distinct origin, maxims peculiar to
+themselves, and special means of carrying on their affairs. To intrust
+the execution of the laws of the Union to tribunals instituted by these
+political bodies, would be to allow foreign judges to preside over the
+nation. Nay more, not only is each state foreign to the Union at
+large, but it is in perpetual opposition to the common interests, since
+whatever authority the Union loses turns to the advantage of the states.
+Thus to enforce the laws of the Union by means of the tribunals of
+the states, would be to allow not only foreign, but partial judges to
+preside over the nation.
+
+But the number, still more than the mere character, of the tribunals of
+the states rendered them unfit for the service of the nation. When the
+federal constitution was formed, there were already thirteen courts of
+justice in the United States which decided causes without appeal. That
+number is now increased to twenty-four. To suppose that a state can
+subsist, when its fundamental laws may be subjected to four-and-twenty
+different interpretations at the same time, is to advance a proposition
+alike contrary to reason and to experience.
+
+The American legislators therefore agreed to create a federal judiciary
+power to apply the laws of the Union, and to determine certain questions
+affecting general interests, which were carefully determined beforehand.
+The entire judicial power of the Union was centred in one tribunal,
+which was denominated the supreme court of the United States. But, to
+facilitate the expedition of business, inferior courts were appended to
+it, which were empowered to decide causes of small importance without
+appeal, and with appeal causes of more magnitude. The members of the
+supreme court are named neither by the people nor the legislature, but
+by the president of the United States, acting with the advice of the
+senate. In order to render them independent of the other authorities,
+their office was made inalienable; and it was determined that their
+salary, when once fixed, should not be altered by the legislature.[144]
+It was easy to proclaim the principle of a federal judiciary, but
+difficulties multiplied when the extent of its jurisdiction was to be
+determined.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEANS OF DETERMINING THE JURISDICTION OF THE FEDERAL COURTS.
+
+Difficulty of determining the Jurisdiction of separate courts of Justice
+in Confederation.--The Courts of the Union obtained the Right of fixing
+their own Jurisdiction.--In what Respect this Rule attacks the Portion
+of Sovereignty reserved to the several States.--The Sovereignty of
+these States restricted by the Laws, and the Interpretation of the
+Laws.--Consequently, the Danger of the several States is more apparent
+than real.
+
+As the constitution of the United States recognized two distinct powers,
+in presence of each other, represented in a judicial point of view by
+two distinct classes of courts of justice, the utmost care which could
+be taken in defining their separate jurisdictions would have been
+insufficient to prevent frequent collisions between those tribunals.
+The question then arose, to whom the right of deciding the competency of
+each court was to be referred.
+
+In nations which constitute a single body politic, when a question is
+debated between two courts relating to their mutual jurisdiction, a
+third tribunal is generally within reach to decide the difference;
+and this is effected without difficulty, because in these nations the
+questions of judicial competency have no connexion with the privileges
+of the national supremacy. But it was impossible to create an arbiter
+between a superior court of the Union and the superior court of a
+separate state, which would not belong to one of these two classes. It
+was therefore necessary to allow one of these courts to judge its
+own cause, and to take or to retain cognizance of the point which
+was contested. To grant this privilege to the different courts of the
+states, would have been to destroy the sovereignty of the Union _de
+facto_, after having established it _de jure_; for the interpretation of
+the constitution would soon have restored that portion of independence
+to the states of which the terms of that act deprived them. The object
+of the creation of a federal tribunal was to prevent the courts of the
+states from deciding questions affecting the national interests in their
+own department, and so to form a uniform body of jurisprudence for the
+interpretation of the laws of the Union. This end would not have been
+accomplished if the courts of the several states had been competent to
+decide upon cases in their separate capacities, from which they were
+obliged to abstain as federal tribunals. The supreme court of the
+United States was therefore invested with the right of determining all
+questions of jurisdiction.[145]
+
+This was a severe blow upon the independence of the states, which was
+thus restricted not only by the laws, but by the interpretation of them;
+by one limit which was known, and by another which was dubious; by a
+rule which was certain, and a rule which was arbitrary. It is true the
+constitution had laid down the precise limits of the federal supremacy,
+but whenever this supremacy is contested by one of the states, a federal
+tribunal decides the question. Nevertheless, the dangers with which the
+independence of the states was threatened by this mode of proceeding
+are less serious than they appear to be. We shall see hereafter that in
+America the real strength of the country is vested in the provincial far
+more than in the federal government. The federal judges are conscious of
+the relative weakness of the power in whose name they act, and they are
+more inclined to abandon a right of jurisdiction in cases where it is
+justly their own, than to assert a privilege to which they have no legal
+claim.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIFFERENT CASES OF JURISDICTION.
+
+The Matter and the Party are the first Conditions of the federal
+Jurisdiction.--Suits in which Ambassadors are engaged.--Suits of the
+Union.--Of a separate State.--By whom tried.--Causes resulting from the
+Laws of the Union.--Why judged by the federal Tribunal.--Causes
+relating to the Non-performance of Contracts tried by the federal
+Courts.--Consequences of this Arrangement.
+
+After having appointed the means of fixing the competency of the federal
+courts, the legislators of the Union defined the cases which should come
+within their jurisdiction. It was established, on the one hand, that
+certain parties must always be brought before the federal courts,
+without any regard to the special nature of the cause; and, on the
+other, that certain causes must always be brought before the same
+courts, without any regard to the quality of the parties in the suit.
+These distinctions were therefore admitted to be the bases of the
+federal jurisdiction.
+
+Ambassadors are the representatives of nations in a state of amity
+with the Union, and whatever concerns these personages concerns in some
+degree the whole Union. When I an ambassador is a party in a suit,
+that suit affects the welfare of the nation, and a federal tribunal is
+naturally called upon to decide it.
+
+The Union itself may be involved in legal proceedings, and in this case
+it would be alike contrary to the customs of all nations, and to common
+sense, to appeal to a tribunal representing any other sovereignty
+than its own; the federal courts, therefore, take cognizance of these
+affairs.
+
+When two parties belonging to two different states are engaged in a
+suit, the case cannot with propriety be brought before a court of either
+state. The surest expedient is to select a tribunal like that of the
+Union, which can excite the suspicions of neither party, and which
+offers the most natural as well as the most certain remedy.
+
+When the two parties are not private individuals, but states, an
+important political consideration is added to the same motive of equity.
+The quality of the parties, in this case, gives a national importance to
+all their disputes; and the most trifling litigation of the states may
+be said to involve the peace of the whole Union.[146]
+
+The nature of the cause frequently prescribes the rule of competency.
+Thus all the questions which concern maritime commerce evidently fall
+under the cognizance of the federal tribunals.[147] Almost all these
+questions are connected with the interpretation of the law of nations;
+and in this respect they essentially interest the Union in relation to
+foreign powers. Moreover, as the sea is not included within the limits
+of any peculiar jurisdiction, the national courts can only hear causes
+which originate in maritime affairs.
+
+The constitution comprises under one head almost all the cases which by
+their very nature come within the limits of the federal courts. The
+rule which it lays down is simple, but pregnant with an entire system of
+ideas, and with a vast multitude of facts. It declares that the judicial
+power of the supreme court shall extend to all cases in law and equity
+_arising under the laws of the United States_.
+
+Two examples will put the intentions of the legislator in the clearest
+light:--
+
+The constitution prohibits the states from making laws on the value
+and circulation of money: if, notwithstanding this prohibition, a state
+passes a law of this kind, with which the interested parties refuse to
+comply because it is contrary to the constitution, the case must come
+before a federal court, because it arises under the laws of the United
+States. Again, if difficulties arise in the levying of import duties
+which have been voted by congress, the federal court must decide the
+case, because it arises under the interpretation of a law of the United
+States.
+
+This rule is in perfect accordance with the fundamental principles
+of the federal constitution. The Union as it was established in 1789,
+possesses, it is true, a limited supremacy; but it was intended that
+within its limits it should form one and the same people.[148] Within
+those limits the Union is sovereign. When this point is established
+and admitted, the inference is easy; for if it be acknowledged that
+the United States constitute one and the same people within the bounds
+prescribed by their constitution, it is impossible to refuse them the
+rights which belong to other nations. But it has been allowed, from the
+origin of society, that every nation has the right of deciding by its
+own courts those questions which concern the execution of its own laws.
+To this it is answered, that the Union is in so singular a position,
+that in relation to some matters it constitutes a people, and that in
+relation to all the rest it is a nonentity. But the inference to be
+drawn is, that in the laws relating to these matters the Union possesses
+all the rights of absolute sovereignty. The difficulty is to know what
+these matters are; and when once it is resolved (and we have shown
+how it was resolved, in speaking of the means of determining the
+jurisdiction of the federal courts), no farther doubt can arise; for as
+soon as it is established that a suit is federal, that is to say, that
+it belongs to the share of sovereignty reserved by the constitution to
+the Union, the natural consequence is that it should come within the
+jurisdiction of a federal court.
+
+Whenever the laws of the United States are attacked, or whenever they
+are resorted to in self-defence, the federal courts must be appealed to.
+Thus the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the Union extends and narrows
+its limits exactly in the same ratio as the sovereignty of the Union
+augments or decreases. We have shown that the principal aim of the
+legislators of 1789 was to divide the sovereign authority into two
+parts. In the one they placed the control of all the general interests
+of the Union, in the other the control of the special interest of
+its component states. Their chief solicitude was to arm the federal
+government with sufficient power to enable it to resist, within
+its sphere, the encroachments of the several states. As for these
+communities, the principle of independence within certain limits of
+their own was adopted in their behalf; and they were concealed from the
+inspection, and protected from the control, of the central government.
+In speaking of the division of the authority, I observed that this
+latter principle had not always been held sacred, since the states are
+prevented from passing certain laws, which apparently belong to their
+own particular sphere of interest. When a state of the Union passes
+a law of this kind, the citizens who are injured by its execution can
+appeal to the federal courts.
+
+[The remark of the author, that whenever the laws of the United States
+are attacked, or whenever they are resorted to in self-defence, the
+federal courts _must be_ appealed to, which is more strongly expressed
+in the original, is erroneous and calculated to mislead on a point
+of some importance. By the grant of power to the courts of the United
+States to decide certain cases, the powers of the state courts are not
+suspended, but are exercised concurrently, subject to an appeal to the
+courts of the United States. But if the decision of the state court
+is _in favor_ of the right, title, or privilege claimed under the
+constitution, a treaty, or under a law of congress, no appeal lies
+to the federal courts. The appeal is given only when the decision _is
+against_ the claimant under the treaty or law. See 3d Cranch, 268. 1
+Wheaton, 304.--_American Editor._]
+
+Thus the jurisdiction of the general courts extends not only to all the
+cases which arise under the laws of the Union, but also to those
+which arise under laws made by the several states in opposition to the
+constitution. The states are prohibited from making _ex-post-facto_ laws
+in criminal cases; and any person condemned by virtue of a law of this
+kind can appeal to the judicial power of the Union. The states are
+likewise prohibited from making laws which may have a tendency to
+impair the obligations of contracts.[149] If a citizen thinks that an
+obligation of this kind is impaired by a law passed in his state, he may
+refuse to obey it, and may appeal to the federal courts.[150]
+
+This provision appears to me to be the most serious attack upon the
+independence of the states. The rights awarded to the federal government
+for purposes of obvious national importance are definite and easily
+comprehensible; but those with which this last clause invests it are
+not either clearly appreciable or accurately defined. For there are vast
+numbers of political laws which influence the obligations of contracts,
+which may thus furnish an easy pretext for the aggressions of the
+central authority.
+
+[The fears of the author respecting the danger to the independence of
+the states of that provision of the constitution, which gives to the
+federal courts the authority of deciding when a state law impairs the
+obligation of a contract, are deemed quite unfounded. The citizens of
+every state have a deep interest in preserving the obligation of the
+contracts entered into by them in other states: indeed without such a
+controlling power, "commerce among several states" could not exist.
+The existence of this common arbiter is of the last importance to the
+continuance of the Union itself, for if there were no peaceable means
+of enforcing the obligations of contracts, independent of all state
+authority, the states themselves would inevitably come in collision in
+their efforts to protect their respective citizens from the consequences
+of the legislation of another state.
+
+M. De Tocqueville's observation, that the rights with which the clause
+in question invests the federal government "are not clearly appreciable
+or accurately defined," proceeds upon a mistaken view of the clause
+itself. It relates to the _obligation_ of a contract, and forbids any
+act by which that obligation is impaired. To American lawyers, this
+seems to be as precise and definite as any rule can be made by human
+language. The distinction between the _right_ to the fruits of a
+contract, and the time, tribunal, and manner, in which that right is to
+be enforced, seems very palpable. At all events, since the decision
+of the supreme court of the United States in those cases in which this
+clause has been discussed, no difficulty is found, practically, in
+understanding the exact limits of the prohibition.
+
+The next observation of the author, that "there are vast numbers of
+political laws which influence the obligations of contracts, which
+may thus furnish an easy pretext for the aggressions of the central
+authority," is rather obscure. Is it intended that political laws may
+be passed by the central authority, influencing the obligation of a
+contract, and thus the contracts themselves be destroyed? The answer
+to this would be, that the question would not arise under the clause
+forbidding laws impairing the obligation of contracts, for that clause
+applies only to the states and not to the federal government.
+
+If it be intended, that the states may find it necessary to pass
+political laws, which affect contracts, and that under the pretence of
+vindicating the obligation of contracts, the central authority may make
+aggressions on the states and annul their political laws:--the answer
+is, that the motive to the adoption of the clause was to reach laws of
+every description, political as well as all others, and that it was the
+abuse by the states of what may be called political laws, viz.: acts
+confiscating demands of foreign creditors, that gave rise to the
+prohibition. The settled doctrine now is, that states may pass laws in
+respect to the making of contracts, may prescribe what contracts shall
+be made, and how, but that they cannot impair any that are already made.
+
+The writer of this note is unwilling to dismiss the subject, without
+remarking upon what he must think a fundamental error of the author,
+which is exhibited in the passage commented on, as well as in other
+passages:--and that is, in supposing the judiciary of the United States,
+and particularly the supreme court, to be a part of the _political_
+federal government, and as the ready instrument to execute its designs
+upon the state authorities. Although the judges are in form commissioned
+by the United States, yet, in fact, they are appointed by the delegates
+of the state, in the senate of the United States, concurrently with, and
+acting upon, the nomination of the president. If the legislature of each
+state in the Union were to elect a judge of the supreme court, he would
+not be less a political officer of the United States than he now is.
+In truth, the judiciary have no political duties to perform; they are
+arbiters chosen by the federal and state governments, jointly, and when
+appointed, as independent of the one as of the other. They cannot be
+removed without the consent of the states represented in the senate, and
+they can be removed without the consent of the president, and against
+his wishes. Such is the theory of the constitution. And it has been
+felt practically, in the rejection by the senate of persons nominated
+as judges, by a president of the same political party with a majority
+of the senators. Two instances of this kind occurred during the
+administration of Mr. Jefferson.
+
+If it be alleged that they are exposed to the influence of the executive
+of the United States, by the expectation of offices in his gift, the
+answer is, that judges of state courts are equally exposed to the same
+influence--that all state officers, from the highest to the lowest, are
+in the same predicament; and that this circumstance does not, therefore,
+deprive them of the character of impartial and independent arbiters.
+
+These observations receive confirmation from every recent decision
+of the supreme court of the United States, in which certain laws of
+individual states have been sustained, in cases where, to say the least,
+it was very questionable whether they did not infringe the provisions of
+the constitution, and where a disposition to construe those previsions
+broadly and extensively, would have found very plausible grounds to
+indulge itself in annulling the state laws referred to. See the cases of
+_City of New York vs. Miln_, 11th _Peters_, 103; _Briscoe vs. the Bank
+of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_, ib., 257; _Charles River Bridge vs.
+Warren Bridge_, ib., 420.--_American Ed._]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PROCEDURE OF THE FEDERAL COURTS.
+
+Natural Weakness of the judiciary Power in Confederations.--Legislators
+ought to strive as much as possible to bring private Individuals, and
+not States, before the federal Courts.--How the Americans have succeeded
+in this.--Direct Prosecutions of private Individuals in the federal
+Courts.--Indirect Prosecution in the States which violate the Laws of
+the Union.--The Decrees of the Supreme Court enervate but do not destroy
+the provincial Laws.
+
+I have shown what the privileges of the federal courts are, and it is no
+less important to point out the manner in which they are exercised. The
+irresistible authority of justice in countries in which the sovereignty
+is undivided, is derived from the fact that the tribunals of those
+countries represent the entire nation at issue with the individual
+against whom their decree is directed; and the idea of power is thus
+introduced to corroborate the idea of right. But this is not always
+the case in countries in which the sovereignty is divided: in them the
+judicial power is more frequently opposed to a fraction of the nation
+than to an isolated individual, and its moral authority and physical
+strength are consequently diminished. In federal states the power of
+the judge is naturally decreased, and that of the justiciable parties
+is augmented. The aim of the legislator in confederate states ought
+therefore to be, to render the position of the courts of justice
+analogous to that which they occupy in countries where the sovereignty
+is undivided; in other words, his efforts ought constantly to tend to
+maintain the judicial power of the confederation as the representative
+of the nation, and the justiciable party as the representative of an
+individual interest.
+
+Every government, whatever may be its constitution, requires the means
+of constraining its subjects to discharge their obligations, and of
+protecting its privileges from their assaults. As far as the direct
+action of the government on the community is concerned, the constitution
+of the United States contrived, by a master-stroke of policy, that
+the federal courts, acting in the name of the laws, should only take
+cognizance of parties in an individual capacity. For, as it had been
+declared that the Union consisted of one and the same people within
+the limits laid down by the constitution, the inference was that the
+government created by this constitution, and acting within these limits,
+was invested with all the privileges of a national government, one of
+the principal of which is the right of transmitting its injunctions
+directly to the private citizen. When, for instance, the Union votes an
+impost, it does not apply to the states for the levying of it, but to
+every American citizen, in proportion to his assessment. The supreme
+court, which is empowered to enforce the execution of this law of the
+Union, exerts its influence not upon a refractory state, but upon the
+private taxpayer; and, like the judicial power of other nations, it is
+opposed to the person of an individual. It is to be observed that the
+Union chose its own antagonist; and as that antagonist is feeble, he is
+naturally worsted.
+
+But the difficulty increases when the proceedings are not brought
+forward _by_ but _against_ the Union. The constitution recognizes the
+legislative power of the state; and a law so enacted may impair the
+privileges of the Union, in which case a collision is unavoidable
+between that body and the state which had passed the law; and it only
+remains to select the least dangerous remedy, which is very clearly
+deducible from the general principles I have before established.[151]
+
+It may be conceived that, in the case under consideration, the Union
+might have sued the state before a federal court, which would have
+annulled the act; and by this means it would have adopted a natural
+course of proceeding: but the judicial power would have been placed
+in open hostility to the state, and it was desirable to avoid this
+predicament as much as possible. The Americans hold that it is nearly
+impossible that a new law should not impair the interests of some
+private individuals by its provisions: these private interests are
+assumed by the American legislators as the ground of attack against such
+measures as may be prejudicial to the Union, and it is to these cases
+that the protection of the supreme court is extended.
+
+Suppose a state vends a certain portion of its territory to a company,
+and that a year afterwards it passes a law by which the territory
+is otherwise disposed of, and that clause of the constitution, which
+prohibits laws impairing the obligation of contracts, is violated.
+When the purchaser under the second act appears to take possession, the
+possessor under the first act brings his action before the tribunals of
+the Union, and causes the title of the claimant to be pronounced null
+and void.[152] This, in point of fact, the judicial power of the Union
+is contesting the claims of the sovereignty of a state; but it only acts
+indirectly and upon a special application of detail: it attacks the law
+in its consequences, not in its principle, and it rather weakens than
+destroys it.
+
+The last hypothesis that remained was that each state formed a
+corporation enjoying a separate existence and distinct civil rights, and
+that it could therefore sue or be sued before a tribunal. Thus a state
+could bring an action against another state. In this instance, the Union
+was not called upon to contest a provincial law, but to try a suit in
+which a state was a party. This suit was perfectly similar to any other
+cause, except that the quality of the parties was different; and here
+the danger pointed out at the beginning of this chapter exists with less
+chance of being avoided. The inherent disadvantage of the very essence
+of federal constitutions is, that they engender parties in the bosom
+of the nation which present powerful obstacles to the free course of
+justice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIGH RANK OF THE SUPREME COURTS AMONG THE GREAT POWERS OF STATE.
+
+No Nation ever constituted so great a judicial Power as the Americans.
+Extent of its Prerogative.--Its political Influence.--The Tranquillity
+and the very Existence of the Union depend on the Discretion of the
+seven federal Judges.
+
+When we have successfully examined in detail the organization of the
+supreme court, and the entire prerogatives which it exercises, we shall
+readily admit that a more imposing judicial power was never constituted
+by any people. The supreme court is placed at the head of all known
+tribunals, both by the nature of its rights and the class of justiciable
+parties which it controls.
+
+In all the civilized countries of Europe, the government has always
+shown the greatest repugnance to allow the cases to which it was itself
+a party to be decided by the ordinary course of justice. This repugnance
+naturally attains its utmost height in an absolute government; and, on
+the other hand, the privileges of the courts of justice are extended
+with the increasing liberties of the people; but no European nation has
+at present held that all judicial controversies, without regard to their
+origin, can be decided by the judges of common law.
+
+In America this theory has been actually put in practice; and the
+supreme court of the United States is the sole tribunal of the nation.
+Its power extends to all the cases arising under laws and treaties made
+by the executive and legislative authorities, to all cases of admiralty
+and maritime jurisdiction, and in general to all points which affect the
+law of nations. It may even be affirmed that, although its constitution
+is essentially judicial, its prerogatives are almost entirely political.
+Its sole object is to enforce the execution of the laws of the Union;
+and the Union only regulates the relations of the government with
+the citizens, and of the nation with foreign powers: the relations
+of citizens among themselves are almost exclusively regulated by the
+sovereignty of the states.
+
+A second and still greater cause of the preponderance of this court
+may be adduced. In the nations of Europe the courts of justice are only
+called upon to try the controversies of private individuals; but the
+supreme court of the United States summons sovereign powers to its bar.
+When the clerk of the court advances on the steps of the tribunal, and
+simply says, "The state of New York _versus_ the state of Ohio," it is
+impossible not to feel that the court which he addresses is no ordinary
+body; and when it is recollected that one of these parties represents
+one million, and the other two millions of men, one is struck by the
+responsibility of the seven judges whose decision is about to satisfy or
+to disappoint so large a number of their fellow-citizens.
+
+The peace, the prosperity, and the very existence of the Union,
+are invested in the hands of the seven judges. Without their active
+co-operation the constitution would be a dead letter: the executive
+appeals to them for assistance against the encroachments of the
+legislative powers; the legislature demands their protection from the
+designs of the executive; they defend the Union from the disobedience
+of the states, the states from the exaggerated claims of the Union,
+the public interest against the interests of private citizens, and
+the conservative spirit of order against the fleeting innovations of
+democracy. Their power is enormous, but it is clothed in the authority
+of public opinion. They are the all-powerful guardians of a people which
+respects law; but they would be impotent against popular neglect or
+popular contempt. The force of public opinion is the most intractable of
+agents, because its exact limits cannot be defined; and it is not less
+dangerous to exceed, than to remain below the boundary prescribed.
+
+The federal judges must not only be good citizens, and men possessed of
+that information and integrity which are indispensable to magistrates,
+but they must be statesmen--politicians, not unread in the signs of the
+times, not afraid to brave the obstacles which can be subdued, nor slow
+to turn aside such encroaching elements as may threaten the supremacy of
+the Union and the obedience which is due to the laws.
+
+The president, who exercises a limited power, may err without causing
+great mischief in the state. Congress may decide amiss without
+destroying the Union, because the electoral body in which congress
+originates may cause it to retract its decision by changing its members.
+But if the supreme court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad
+citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.
+
+The real cause of this danger, however, does not lie in the constitution
+of the tribunal, but in the very nature of federal governments. We
+have observed that in confederate peoples it is especially necessary to
+consolidate the judicial authority, because in no other nations do those
+independent persons who are able to cope with the social body, exist, in
+greater power or in a better condition to resist the physical strength
+of the government. But the more a power requires to be strengthened, the
+more extensive and independent it must be made; and the dangers
+which its abuse may create are heightened by its independence and its
+strength. The source of the evil is not, therefore, in the constitution
+of the power, but in the constitution of those states which renders its
+existence necessary.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IN WHAT RESPECTS THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION IS SUPERIOR TO THAT OF THE
+STATES.
+
+In what respects the Constitution of the Union can be compared to
+that of the States.--Superiority of the Constitution of the Union
+attributable to the Wisdom of the federal Legislators.--Legislature
+of the Union less dependent on the People than that of the
+States.--Executive Power more independent in its Sphere.--Judicial
+Power less subjected to the Inclinations of the Majority.--Practical
+Consequences of these Facts.--The Dangers inherent in a democratic
+Government eluded by the federal Legislators, and increased by the
+Legislators of the States.
+
+The federal constitution differs essentially from that of the states in
+the ends which it is intended to accomplish; but in the means by which
+these ends are promoted, a greater analogy exists between them. The
+objects of the governments are different, but their forms are the same;
+and in this special point of view there is some advantage in comparing
+them together.
+
+I am of opinion that the federal constitution is superior to all the
+constitutions of the states, for several reasons.
+
+The present constitution of the Union was formed at a later period
+than those of the majority of the states, and it may have derived some
+melioration from past experience. But we shall be led to acknowledge
+that this is only a secondary cause of its superiority, when we
+recollect that eleven new states have been added to the American
+confederation since the promulgation of the federal constitution, and
+that these new republics have always rather exaggerated than avoided the
+defects which existed in the former constitutions.
+
+The chief cause of the superiority of the federal constitution lay in
+the character of the legislators who composed it. At the time when it
+was formed the dangers of the confederation were imminent, and its ruin
+seemed inevitable. In this extremity the people chose the men who most
+deserved the esteem, rather than those who had gained the affections of
+the country. I have already observed, that distinguished as almost all
+the legislators of the Union were for their intelligence, they were
+still more so for their patriotism. They had all been nurtured at a time
+when the spirit of liberty was braced by a continual struggle against
+a powerful and predominant authority. When the contest was terminated,
+while the excited passions of the populace persisted in warring with
+dangers which had ceased to threaten them, these men stopped short in
+their career; they cast a calmer and more penetrating look upon
+the country which was now their own; they perceived that the war of
+independence was definitely ended, and that the only dangers which
+America had to fear were those which might result from the abuse of the
+freedom she had won. They had the courage to say what they believed
+to be true, because they were animated by a warm and sincere love of
+liberty; and they ventured to propose restrictions, because they were
+resolutely opposed to destruction.[153]
+
+The greater number of the constitutions of the states assign one year
+for the duration of the house of representatives, and two years for that
+of the senate; so that members of the legislative body are constantly
+and narrowly tied down by the slightest desires of their constituents.
+The legislators of the Union were of opinion that this excessive
+dependence of the legislature tended to alter the nature of the main
+consequences of the representative system, since it vested the source
+not only of authority, but of government, in the people. They increased
+the length of the time for which the representatives were returned, in
+order to give them freer scope for the exercise of their own judgment.
+
+The federal constitution, as well as the constitutions of the different
+states, divided the legislative body into two branches. But in the
+states these two branches were composed of the same elements and
+elected in the same manner. The consequence was that the passions
+and inclinations of the populace were as rapidly and as energetically
+represented in one chamber as in the other, and that laws were made with
+all the characteristics of violence and precipitation. By the federal
+constitution the two houses originate in like manner in the choice of
+the people; but the conditions of eligibility and the mode of election
+were changed, to the end that if, as is the case in certain nations, one
+branch of the legislature represents the same interests as the other, it
+may at least represent a superior degree of intelligence and discretion.
+A mature age was made one of the conditions of the senatorial dignity,
+and the upper house was chosen by an elected assembly of a limited
+number of members.
+
+To concentrate the whole social force in the hands of the legislative
+body is the natural tendency of democracies; for as this is the
+power which emanates the most directly from the people, it is made to
+participate most fully in the preponderating authority of the multitude,
+and it is naturally led to monopolise every species of influence. This
+concentration is at once prejudicial to a well-conducted administration,
+and favorable to the despotism of the majority. The legislators of the
+states frequently yielded to these democratic propensities, which were
+invariably and courageously resisted by the founders of the Union.
+
+In the states the executive power is vested in the hands of a
+magistrate, who is apparently placed upon a level with the legislature,
+but who is in reality nothing more than the blind agent and the passive
+instrument of its decisions. He can derive no influence from the
+duration of his functions, which terminate with the revolving year, or
+from the exercise of prerogatives which can scarcely be said to exist.
+The legislature can condemn him to inaction by intrusting the execution
+of the laws to special committees of its own members, and can annul
+his temporary dignity by depriving him of his salary. The federal
+constitution vests all the privileges and all the responsibility of the
+executive power in a single individual. The duration of the presidency
+is fixed at four years; the salary of the individual who fills that
+office cannot be altered during the term of his functions; he is
+protected by a body of official dependents, and armed with a suspensive
+veto. In short, every effort was made to confer a strong and independent
+position upon the executive authority, within the limits which had been
+prescribed to it.
+
+In the constitution of all the states the judicial power is that which
+remains the most independent of the legislative authority: nevertheless,
+in all the states the legislature has reserved to itself the right of
+regulating the emoluments of the judges, a practice which necessarily
+subjects these magistrates to its immediate influence. In some states
+the judges are only temporarily appointed, which deprives them of
+a great portion of their power and their freedom. In others the
+legislative and judicial powers are entirely confounded: thus the senate
+of New York, for instance, constitutes in certain cases the superior
+court of the state. The federal constitution, on the other hand,
+carefully separates the judicial authority from all external influences:
+and it provides for the independence of the judges, by declaring that
+their salary shall not be altered, and that their functions shall be
+inalienable.
+
+[It is not universally correct, as supposed by the author, that the
+state legislatures can deprive their governor of his salary at pleasure.
+In the constitution of New York it is provided, that the governor "shall
+receive for his services a compensation which shall neither be increased
+nor diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected;"
+and similar provisions are believed to exist in other states. Nor is the
+remark strictly correct, that the federal constitution "provides for the
+independence of the judges, by declaring that their salary shall not be
+_altered_." The provision of the constitution is, that they shall, "at
+stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not
+be diminished during their continuance in office."--_American Editor_.]
+
+The practical consequences of these different systems may easily be
+perceived. An attentive observer will soon remark that the business of
+the Union is incomparably better conducted than that of any individual
+state. The conduct of the federal government is more fair and more
+temperate than that of the states; its designs are more fraught with
+wisdom, its projects are more durable and more skilfully combined, its
+measures are put into execution with more vigor and consistency.
+
+I recapitulate the substance of this chapter in a few words:--
+
+The existence of democracies is threatened by two dangers, viz.: the
+complete subjection of the legislative body to the caprices of
+the electoral body; and the concentration of all the powers of the
+government in the legislative authority.
+
+The growth of these evils has been encouraged by the policy of the
+legislators of the states; but it has been resisted by the legislators
+of the Union by every means which lay within their control.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARACTERISTICS WHICH DISTINGUISH THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
+STATES OF AMERICA FROM ALL OTHER FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS.
+
+American Union appears to resemble all other
+Confederations.--Nevertheless its Effects are different.--Reason of
+this.--Distinctions between the Union and all other Confederations.--The
+American Government not a Federal, but an imperfect National Government.
+
+The United States of America do not afford either the first or the only
+instance of confederate states, several of which have existed in modern
+Europe, without adverting to those of antiquity. Switzerland, the
+Germanic empire, and the republic of the United Provinces, either have
+been or still are confederations. In studying the constitutions of these
+different countries, the politician is surprised to observe that the
+powers with which they invested the federal government are nearly
+identical with the privileges awarded by the American constitution to
+the government of the United States. They confer upon the central power
+the same rights of making peace and war, of raising money and troops,
+and of providing for the general exigencies and the common interests
+of the nation. Nevertheless the federal government of these different
+people has always been as remarkable for its weakness and inefficiency
+as that of the Union is for its vigorous and enterprising spirit. Again,
+the first American confederation perished through the excessive weakness
+of its government; and this weak government was, notwithstanding, in
+possession of rights even more extensive than those of the federal
+government of the present day. But the more recent constitution of
+the United States contains certain principles which exercise a most
+important influence, although they do not at once strike the observer.
+
+This constitution, which may at first sight be confounded with the
+federal constitutions which preceded it, rests upon a novel theory,
+which may be considered as a great invention in modern political
+science. In all the confederations which had been formed before the
+American constitution of 1789, the allied states agreed to obey the
+injunctions of a federal government: but they reserved to themselves the
+right of ordaining and enforcing the execution of the laws of the Union.
+The American states which combined in 1789 agreed that the federal
+government should not only dictate the laws, but it should execute its
+own enactments. In both cases the right is the same, but the exercise of
+the right is different; and this alteration produced the most momentous
+consequences.
+
+In all the confederations which have been formed before the American
+Union, the federal government demanded its supplies at the hands of the
+separate governments; and if the measure it prescribed was onerous to
+any one of those bodies, means were found to evade its claims: if the
+state was powerful, it had recourse to arms; if it was weak, it connived
+at the resistance which the law of the Union, its sovereign, met with,
+and resorted to inaction under the plea of inability. Under these
+circumstances one of two alternatives has invariably occurred: either
+the most preponderant of the allied peoples has assumed the privileges
+of the federal authority, and ruled all the other states in its
+name,[154] or the federal government has been abandoned by its natural
+supporters, anarchy has arisen between the confederates, and the Union
+has lost all power of action.[155]
+
+In America the subjects of the Union are not states, but private
+citizens: the national government levies a tax, not upon the state of
+Massachusetts, but upon each inhabitant of Massachusetts. All former
+confederate governments presided over communities, but that of the Union
+rules individuals; its force is not borrowed, but self-derived; and it
+is served by its own civil and military officers, by its own army, and
+its own courts of justice. It cannot be doubted that the spirit of the
+nation, the passions of the multitude, and the provincial prejudices
+of each state, tend singularly to diminish the authority of a federal
+authority thus constituted, and to facilitate the means of resistance to
+its mandates; but the comparative weakness of a restricted sovereignty
+is an evil inherent in the federal system. In America, each state
+has fewer opportunities of resistance, and fewer temptations to
+non-compliance; nor can such a design be put in execution (if indeed it
+be entertained), without an open violation of the laws of the Union,
+a direct interruption of the ordinary course of justice, and a bold
+declaration of revolt; in a word, without a decisive step, which men
+hesitate to adopt.
+
+In all former confederations, the privileges of the Union furnished more
+elements of discord than of power, since they multiplied the claims
+of the nation without augmenting the means of enforcing them: and in
+accordance with this fact it may be remarked, that the real weakness of
+federal governments has almost always been in the exact ratio of their
+nominal power. Such is not the case with the American Union, in which,
+as in ordinary governments, the federal government has the means of
+enforcing all it is empowered to demand.
+
+The human understanding more easily invents new things than new words,
+and we are thence constrained to employ a multitude of improper and
+inadequate expressions. When several nations form a permanent league,
+and establish a supreme authority, which, although it has not the same
+influence over the members of the community as a national government,
+acts upon each of the confederate states in a body, this government,
+which is so essentially different from all others, is denominated a
+federal one. Another form of society is afterward discovered, in which
+several peoples are fused into one and the same nation with regard to
+certain common interests, although they remain distinct, or at least
+only confederate, with regard to all their other concerns. In this case
+the central power acts directly upon those whom it governs, whom it
+rules, and whom it judges, in the same manner as, but in a more limited
+circle than, a national government. Here the term of federal government
+is clearly no longer applicable to a state of things which must be
+styled an incomplete national government: a form of government has been
+found out which is neither exactly national nor federal; but no farther
+progress has been made, and the new word which will one day designate
+this novel invention does not yet exist.
+
+The absence of this new species of confederation has been the cause
+which has brought all unions to civil war, to subjection, or to a
+stagnant apathy; and the peoples which formed these leagues have been
+either too dull to discern, or too pusillanimous to apply this great
+remedy. The American confederation perished by the same defects.
+
+But the confederate states of America had been long accustomed to form
+a portion of one empire before they had won their independence: they
+had not contracted the habit of governing themselves, and their national
+prejudices had not taken deep root in their minds. Superior to the rest
+of the world in political knowledge, and sharing that knowledge equally
+among themselves, they were little agitated by the passions which
+generally oppose the extension of federal authority in a nation, and
+those passions were checked by the wisdom of the chief citizens.
+
+The Americans applied the remedy with prudent firmness as soon as they
+were conscious of the evil; they amended their laws, and they saved
+their country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ADVANTAGES OF THE FEDERAL SYSTEM IN GENERAL, AND ITS SPECIAL UTILITY IN
+AMERICA.
+
+Happiness and Freedom of small Nations.--Power of Great Nations.--Great
+Empires favorable to the Growth of Civilisation.--Strength often the
+first Element of national Prosperity.--Aim of the federal System to
+unite the twofold Advantages resulting from a small and from a
+large Territory.--Advantages derived by the United States from this
+System.--The Law adapts itself to the Exigencies of the Population;
+Population does not conform to the Exigencies of the Law.--Activity,
+Melioration, Love, and Enjoyment of Freedom in the American
+Communities.--Public Spirit of the Union the abstract of provincial
+Patriotism.--Principles and Things circulate freely over the Territory
+of the United States.--The Union is happy and free as a little Nation,
+and respected as a great Empire.
+
+In small nations the scrutiny of society penetrates into every part, and
+the spirit of improvement enters into the most trifling details; as the
+ambition of the people is necessarily checked by its weakness, all the
+efforts and resources of the citizens are turned to the internal benefit
+of the community, and are not likely to evaporate in the fleeting
+breath of glory. The desires of every individual are limited, because
+extraordinary faculties are rarely to be met with. The gifts of an equal
+fortune render the various conditions of life uniform; and the manners
+of the inhabitants are orderly and simple. Thus, if we estimate the
+gradations of popular morality and enlightenment, we shall generally
+find that in small nations there are more persons in easy circumstances,
+a more numerous population, and a more tranquil state of society than in
+great empires.
+
+When tyranny is established in the bosom of a small nation, it is more
+galling than elsewhere, because, as it acts within a narrow circle,
+every point of that circle is subject to its direct influence. It
+supplies the place of those great designs which it cannot entertain,
+by a violent or an exasperating interference in a multitude of minute
+details; and it leaves the political world to which it properly belongs,
+to meddle with the arrangements of domestic life. Tastes as well as
+actions are to be regulated at its pleasure; and the families of the
+citizens as well as the affairs of the state are to be governed by its
+decisions. This invasion of rights occurs, however, but seldom,
+and freedom is in truth the natural state of small communities. The
+temptations which the government offers to ambition are too weak, and
+the resources of private individuals are too slender, for the sovereign
+power easily to fall within the grasp of a single citizen: and should
+such an event have occurred, the subjects of the state can without
+difficulty overthrow the tyrant and his oppression by a simultaneous
+effort.
+
+Small nations have therefore ever been the cradles of political liberty:
+and the fact that many of them have lost their immunities by extending
+their dominion, shows that the freedom they enjoyed was more a
+consequence of their inferior size than of the character of the people.
+
+The history of the world affords no instance of a great nation retaining
+the form of a republican government for a long series of years,[156]
+and this had led to the conclusion that such a state of things is
+impracticable. For my own part, I cannot but censure the imprudence of
+attempting to limit the possible, and to judge the future, on the part
+of a being who is hourly deceived by the most palpable realities of
+life, and who is constantly taken by surprise in the circumstances with
+which he is most familiar. But it may be advanced with confidence that
+the existence of a great republic will always be exposed to far greater
+perils than that of a small one.
+
+All the passions which are most fatal to republican institutions spread
+with an increasing territory, while the virtues which maintain their
+dignity do not augment in the same proportion. The ambition of the
+citizens increases with the power of the state; the strength of parties,
+with the importance of the ends they have in view; but that devotion to
+the common weal, which is the surest check on destructive passions, is
+not stronger in a large than in a small republic. It might, indeed, be
+proved without difficulty that it is less powerful and less sincere. The
+arrogance of wealth and the dejection of wretchedness, capital cities of
+unwonted extent, a lax morality, a vulgar egotism, and a great confusion
+of interests, are the dangers which almost invariably arise from the
+magnitude of states. But several of these evils are scarcely prejudicial
+to a monarchy, and some of them contribute to maintain its existence.
+In monarchical states the strength of the government is its own; it may
+use, but it does not depend on, the community: and the authority of the
+prince is proportioned to the prosperity of the nation: but the only
+security which a republican government possesses against these evils
+lies in the support of the majority. This support is not, however,
+proportionably greater in a large republic than it is in a small one;
+and thus while the means of attack perpetually increase both in number
+and in influence, the power of resistance remains the same; or it may
+rather be said to diminish, since the propensities and interests of
+the people are diversified by the increase of the population, and the
+difficulty of forming a compact majority is constantly augmented. It
+has been observed, moreover, that the intensity of human passions is
+heightened, not only by the importance of the end which they propose to
+attain, but by the multitude of individuals who are animated by them at
+the same time. Every one has had occasion to remark that his emotions
+in the midst of a sympathizing crowd are far greater than those which he
+would have felt in solitude. In great republics the impetus of political
+passion is irresistible, not only because it aims at gigantic purposes,
+but because it is felt and shared by millions of men at the same time.
+
+It may therefore be asserted as a general proposition, that nothing is
+more opposed to the well-being and the freedom of man than vast empires.
+Nevertheless it is important to acknowledge the peculiar advantages of
+great states. For the very reason which renders the desire of power more
+intense in these communities than among ordinary men, the love of glory
+is also more prominent in the hearts of a class of citizens, who regard
+the applause of a great people as a reward worthy of their exertions,
+and an elevating encouragement to man. If we would learn why it is
+that great nations contribute more powerfully to the spread of human
+improvement than small states, we shall discover an adequate cause in
+the rapid and energetic circulation of ideas, and in those great cities
+which are the intellectual centres where all the rays of human genius
+are reflected and combined. To this it may be added that most important
+discoveries demand a display of national power which the government of
+a small state is unable to make; in great nations the government
+entertains a greater number of general notions, and is more completely
+disengaged from the routine of precedent and the egotism of local
+prejudice; its designs are conceived with more talent, and executed with
+more boldness.
+
+In time of peace the well-being of small nations is undoubtedly more
+general and more complete; but they are apt to suffer more acutely from
+the calamities of war than those great empires whose distant frontiers
+may for ages avert the presence of the danger from the mass of the
+people, which is more frequently afflicted than ruined by the evil.
+
+But in this matter, as in many others, the argument derived from the
+necessity of the case predominates over all others. If none but small
+nations existed, I do not doubt that mankind would be more happy and
+more free; but the existence of great nations is unavoidable.
+
+This consideration introduces the element of physical strength as a
+condition of national prosperity.
+
+It profits a people but little to be affluent and free, if it is
+perpetually exposed to be pillaged or subjugated; the number of its
+manufactures and the extent of its commerce are of small advantage, if
+another nation has the empire of the seas and gives the law in all the
+markets of the globe. Small nations are often impoverished, not because
+they are small, but because they are weak; and great empires prosper
+less because they are great than because they are strong. Physical
+strength is therefore one of the first conditions of the happiness and
+even of the existence of nations. Hence it occurs, that unless very
+peculiar circumstances intervene, small nations are always united to
+large empires in the end, either by force or by their own consent; yet
+I am unacquainted with a more deplorable spectacle than that of a people
+unable either to defend or to maintain its independence.
+
+The federal system was created with the intention of combining the
+different advantages which result from the greater and the lesser
+extent of nations; and a single glance over the United States of America
+suffices to discover the advantages which they have derived from its
+adoption.
+
+In great centralized nations the legislator is obliged to impart a
+character of uniformity to the laws, which does not always suit the
+diversity of customs and of districts; as he takes no cognizance of
+special cases, he can only proceed upon general principles; and the
+population is obliged to conform to the exigencies of the legislation,
+since the legislation cannot adapt itself to the exigencies and customs
+of the population; which is the cause of endless trouble and misery.
+This disadvantage does not exist in confederations; congress regulates
+the principal measures of the national government, and all the details
+of the administration are reserved to the provincial legislatures. It is
+impossible to imaging how much this division of sovereignty contributes
+to the well-being of each of the states which compose the Union. In
+these small communities, which are never agitated by the desire of
+aggrandizement or the cares of self-defence, all public authority
+and private energy is employed in internal melioration. The central
+government of each state, which is in immediate juxtaposition to the
+citizens, is daily apprised of the wants which arise in society; and
+new projects are proposed every year, which are discussed either
+at town-meetings or by the legislature of the state, and which are
+transmitted by the press to stimulate the zeal and to excite the
+interest of the citizens. This spirit of melioration is constantly alive
+in the American republics, without compromising their tranquillity; the
+ambition of power yields to the less refined and less dangerous love of
+comfort. It is generally believed in America that the existence and the
+permanence of the republican form of government in the New World depend
+upon the existence and the permanence of the federal system; and it is
+not unusual to attribute a large share of the misfortunes which have
+befallen the new states of South America to the injudicious erection of
+great republics, instead of a divided and confederate sovereignty.
+
+It is incontestably true that the love and the habits of republican
+government in the United States were engendered in the townships and in
+the provincial assemblies. In a small state, like that of Connecticut
+for instance, where cutting a canal or laying down a road is a momentous
+political question, where the state has no army to pay and no wars to
+carry on, and where much wealth and much honor cannot be bestowed upon
+the chief citizens, no form of government can be more natural or more
+appropriate than that of a republic. But it is this same republican
+spirit, it is these manners and customs of a free people, which are
+engendered and nurtured in the different states, to be afterward applied
+to the country at large. The public spirit of the Union is, so to speak,
+nothing more than an abstract of the patriotic zeal of the provinces.
+Every citizen of the United States transfuses his attachment to his
+little republic into the common store of American patriotism. In
+defending the Union, he defends the increasing prosperity of his own
+district, the right of conducting its affairs, and the hope of causing
+measures of improvement to be adopted which may be favorable to his own
+interests; and these are motives which are wont to stir men more readily
+than the general interests of the country and the glory of the nation.
+
+On the other hand, if the temper and the manners of the inhabitants
+especially fitted them to promote the welfare of a great republic, the
+federal system smoothed the obstacles which they might have encountered.
+The confederation of all the American states presents none of the
+ordinary disadvantages resulting from great agglomerations of men. The
+Union is a great republic in extent, but the paucity of objects for
+which its government provides assimilates it to a small state. Its acts
+are important, but they are rare. As the sovereignty of the Union is
+limited and incomplete, its exercise is not incompatible with liberty;
+for it does not excite those insatiable desires of fame and power which
+have proved so fatal to great republics. As there is no common centre to
+the country, vast capital cities, colossal wealth, abject poverty, and
+sudden revolutions are alike unknown; and political passion, instead
+of spreading over the land like a torrent of desolation, spends its
+strength against the interests and the individual passions of every
+state.
+
+Nevertheless, all commodities and ideas circulate throughout the Union
+as freely as in a country inhabited by one people. Nothing checks the
+spirit of enterprise. The government avails itself of the assistance of
+all who have talents or knowledge to serve it. Within the frontiers of
+the Union the profoundest peace prevails, as within the heart of some
+great empire; abroad, it ranks with the most powerful nations of the
+earth: two thousand miles of coast are open to the commerce of the
+world; and as it possesses the keys of the globe, its flag is respected
+in the most remote seas. The Union is as happy and as free as a small
+people, and as glorious and as strong as a great nation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHY THE FEDERAL SYSTEM IS NOT ADAPTED TO ALL PEOPLES, AND HOW THE
+ANGLO-AMERICANS WERE ENABLED TO ADOPT IT.
+
+Every federal System contains defects which baffle the efforts of the
+Legislator.--The federal System is complex.--It demands a daily Exercise
+of Discretion on the Part of the Citizens.--Practical knowledge of
+the Government common among the Americans.--Relative weakness of
+the Government of the Union another defect inherent in the federal
+System.--The Americans have diminished without remedying it.--The
+Sovereignty of the separate States apparently weaker, but really
+stronger, than that of the Union.--Why.--Natural causes of Union must
+exist between confederate Peoples beside the Laws.--What these Causes
+are among the Anglo-Americans.--Maine and Georgia, separated by a
+Distance of a thousand Miles, more naturally united than Normandy and
+Britany.--War, the main Peril of Confederations.--This proved even
+by the Example of the United States.--The Union has no great Wars to
+fear.--Why.--Dangers to which Europeans would be exposed if they adopted
+the federal System of the Americans.
+
+When a legislator succeeds, after persevering efforts, in exercising an
+indirect influence upon the destiny of nations, his genius is lauded
+by mankind, while in point of fact, the geographical position of the
+country which he is unable to change, a social condition which arose
+without his co-operation, manners and opinions which he cannot trace to
+their source, and an origin with which he is unacquainted, exercise
+so irresistible an influence over the courses of society, that he is
+himself borne away by the current, after an ineffectual resistance. Like
+the navigator, he may direct the vessel which bears him along, but he
+can neither change its structure, nor raise the winds, nor lull the
+waters which swell beneath him.
+
+I have shown the advantages which the Americans derive from their
+federal system; it remains for me to point out the circumstances which
+render that system practicable, as its benefits are not to be enjoyed
+by all nations. The incidental defects of the federal system which
+originate in the laws may be corrected by the skill of the legislator,
+but there are farther evils inherent in the system which cannot be
+counteracted by the peoples which adopt it. These nations must therefore
+find the strength necessary to support the natural imperfections of the
+government.
+
+The most prominent evil of all federal systems is the very complex
+nature of the means they employ. Two sovereignties are necessarily in
+the presence of each other. The legislator may simplify and equalize the
+action of these two sovereignties, by limiting each of them to a sphere
+of authority accurately defined; but he cannot combine them into one, or
+prevent them from running into collision at certain points. The federal
+system therefore rests upon a theory which is necessarily complicated,
+and which demands the daily exercise of a considerable share of
+discretion on the part of those it governs.
+
+A proposition must be plain to be adopted by the understanding of a
+people. A false notion, which is clear and precise, will always meet
+with a greater number of adherents in the world than a true principle
+which is obscure or involved. Hence it arises that parties, which are
+like small communities in the heart of the nation, invariably adopt some
+principle or some name as a symbol, which very inadequately represents
+the end they have in view, and the means which are at their disposal,
+but without which they could neither act nor subsist. The governments
+which are founded upon a single principle or a single feeling which is
+easily defined, are perhaps not the best, but they are unquestionably
+the strongest and the most durable in the world.
+
+In examining the constitution of the United States, which is the most
+perfect federal constitution that ever existed, one is startled, on
+the other hand, at the variety of information and the excellence of
+discretion which it presupposes in the people whom it is meant to
+govern. The government of the Union depends entirely upon legal
+fictions; the Union is an ideal notion which only exists in the mind,
+and whose limits and extent can only be discerned by the understanding.
+
+When once the general theory is comprehended, numerous difficulties
+remain to be solved in its application; for the sovereignty of the
+Union is so involved in that of the states, that it is impossible to
+distinguish its boundaries at the first glance. The whole structure
+of the government is artificial and conventional; and it would be
+ill-adapted to a people which has not long been accustomed to conduct
+its own affairs, or to one in which the science of politics has not
+descended to the humblest classes of society. I have never been more
+struck by the good sense and the practical judgment of the Americans
+than in the ingenious devices by which they elude the numberless
+difficulties resulting from their federal constitution. I scarcely
+ever met with a plain American citizen who could not distinguish, with
+surprising facility, the obligations created by the laws of congress
+from those created by the laws of his own state; and who, after having
+discriminated between the matters which come under the cognizance of the
+Union, and those which the local legislature is competent to regulate,
+could not point out the exact limit of the several jurisdictions of the
+federal courts and the tribunals of the state.
+
+The constitution of the United States is like those exquisite
+productions of human industry which ensure wealth and renown to their
+inventors, but which are profitless in any other hands. This truth is
+exemplified by the condition of Mexico at the present time. The Mexicans
+were desirous of establishing a federal system, and they took the
+federal constitution of their neighbors the Anglo-Americans as their
+model, and copied it with considerable accuracy.[157] But although they
+had borrowed the letter of the law, they were unable to create or
+to introduce the spirit and the sense which gave it life. They were
+involved in ceaseless embarrassments between the mechanism of their
+double government; the sovereignty of the states and that of the Union
+perpetually exceeded their respective privileges, and entered into
+collision; and to the present day Mexico is alternately the victim of
+anarchy and the slave of military despotism.
+
+The second and the most fatal of all the defects I have alluded to,
+and that which I believe to be inherent in the federal system, is the
+relative weakness of the government of the Union. The principle upon
+which all confederations rest is that of a divided sovereignty. The
+legislator may render this partition less perceptible, he may even
+conceal it for a time from the public eye, but he cannot prevent it from
+existing; and a divided sovereignty must always be less powerful than an
+entire supremacy. The reader has seen in the remarks I have made on the
+constitution of the United States, that the Americans have displayed
+singular ingenuity in combining the restriction of the power of the
+Union within the narrow limits of the federal government, with the
+semblance, and to a certain extent with the force of a national
+government. By this means the legislators of the Union have succeeded
+in diminishing, though not in counteracting, the natural danger of
+confederations.
+
+It has been remarked that the American government does not apply itself
+to the states, but that it immediately transmits its injunctions to the
+citizens, and compels them as isolated individuals to comply with its
+demands. But if the federal law were to clash with the interests and
+prejudices of a state, it might be feared that all the citizens of
+that state would conceive themselves to be interested in the cause of a
+single individual who should refuse to obey. If all the citizens of
+the state were aggrieved at the same time and in the same manner by the
+authority of the Union, the federal government would vainly attempt to
+subdue them individually; they would instinctively unite in the common
+defence, and they would derive a ready-prepared organization from the
+share of sovereignty which the institution of their state allows them
+to enjoy. Fiction would give way to reality, and an organized portion of
+the territory might then contest the central authority.
+
+The same observation holds good with regard to the federal jurisdiction.
+If the courts of the Union violated an important law of a state in a
+private case, the real, if not the apparent contest would arise
+between the aggrieved state, represented by a citizen, and the Union,
+represented by its courts of justice.[158]
+
+He would have but a partial knowledge of the world who should imagine
+that it is possible, by the aid of legal fictions, to prevent men from
+finding out and employing those means of gratifying their passions which
+have been left open to them; and it may be doubted whether the
+American legislators, when they rendered a collision between the two
+sovereignties less probable, destroyed the causes of such a misfortune.
+But it may even be affirmed that they were unable to ensure the
+preponderance of the federal element in a case of this kind. The
+Union is possessed of money and of troops, but the affections and the
+prejudices of the people are in the bosom of the states. The sovereignty
+of the Union is an abstract being, which is connected with but few
+external objects; the sovereignty of the states is hourly perceptible,
+easily understood, constantly active; and if the former is of recent
+creation, the latter is coeval with the people itself. The sovereignty
+of the Union is factitious, that of the states is natural, and derives
+its existence from its own simple influence, like the authority of a
+parent. The supreme power of the nation affects only a few of the chief
+interests of society; it represents an immense but remote country, and
+claims a feeling of patriotism which is vague and ill-defined; but the
+authority of the states controls every individual citizen at every hour
+and in all circumstances; it protects his property, his freedom, and his
+life; and when we recollect the traditions, the customs, the prejudices
+of local and familiar attachment with which it is connected, we
+cannot doubt the superiority of a power which is interwoven with every
+circumstance that renders the love of one's native country instinctive
+to the human heart.
+
+Since legislators are unable to obviate such dangerous collisions
+as occur between the two sovereignties which co-exist in the federal
+system, their first object must be, not only to dissuade the confederate
+states from warfare, but to encourage such institutions as may promote
+the maintenance of peace. Hence it results that the federal compact
+cannot be lasting unless there exists in the communities which are
+leagued together, a certain number of inducements to union which render
+their common dependance agreeable, and the task of the government
+light; and that system cannot succeed without the presence of favorable
+circumstances added to the influence of good laws. All the people which
+have ever formed a confederation have been held together by a certain
+number of common interests, which served as the intellectual ties of
+association.
+
+But the sentiments and the principles of man must be taken into
+consideration as well as his immediate interest. A certain uniformity of
+civilisation is not less necessary to the durability of a confederation,
+than a uniformity of interests in the states which compose it. In
+Switzerland the difference which exists between the canton of Uri and
+the canton of Vaud is equal to that between the fifteenth and nineteenth
+centuries; and, properly speaking, Switzerland has never possessed a
+federal government. The Union between these two cantons only subsists
+upon the map; and their discrepancies would soon be perceived if an
+attempt were made by a central authority to prescribe the same laws to
+the whole territory.
+
+One of the circumstances which most powerfully contribute to support the
+federal government in America, is that the states have not only similar
+interests, a common origin, and a common tongue, but that they are also
+arrived at the same stage of civilisation; which almost always renders
+a union feasible. I do not know of any European nation, how small soever
+it may be, which does not present less uniformity in its different
+provinces than the American people, which occupies a territory as
+extensive as one half of Europe. The distance from the state of Maine
+to that of Georgia is reckoned at about one thousand miles; but the
+difference between the civilisation of Maine and that of Georgia is
+slighter than the difference between the habits of Normandy and those of
+Britany. Maine and Georgia, which are placed at the opposite extremities
+of a great empire, are consequently in the natural possession of more
+real inducements to form a confederation than Normandy and Britany,
+which are only separated by a bridge.
+
+The geographical position of the country contributed to increase the
+facilities which the American legislators derived from the manners and
+customs of the inhabitants; and it is to this circumstance that
+the adoption and the maintenance of the federal system are mainly
+attributable.
+
+The most important occurrence which can mark the annals of a people is
+the breaking out of a war. In war a people struggle with the energy of
+a single man against foreign nations, in the defence of its very
+existence. The skill of a government, the good sense of the community,
+and the natural fondness which men entertain for their country, may
+suffice to maintain peace in the interior of a district, and to favor
+its internal prosperity; but a nation can only carry on a great war at
+the cost of more numerous and more painful sacrifices; and to suppose
+that a great number of men will of their own accord comply with the
+exigencies of the state, is to betray an ignorance of mankind. All the
+peoples which have been obliged to sustain a long and serious warfare
+have consequently been led to augment the power of their government.
+Those which have not succeeded in this attempt have been subjugated.
+A long war almost always places nations in the wretched alternative
+of being abandoned to ruin by defeat, or to despotism by success. War
+therefore renders the symptoms of the weakness of a government most
+palpable and most alarming; and I have shown that the inherent defect of
+federal governments is that of being weak.
+
+The federal system is not only deficient in every kind of centralized
+administration, but the central government itself is imperfectly
+organized, which is invariably an influential cause of inferiority when
+the nation is opposed to other countries which are themselves governed
+by a single authority. In the federal constitution of the United States,
+by which the central government possesses more real force, this evil
+is still extremely sensible. An example will illustrate the case to the
+reader.
+
+The constitution confers upon congress the right of "calling forth
+militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and
+repel invasions;" and another article declares that the president of the
+United States is the commander-in-chief of the militia. In the war of
+1812, the president ordered the militia of the northern states to march
+to the frontiers; but Connecticut and Massachusetts, whose interests
+were impaired by the war, refused to obey the command. They argued that
+the constitution authorizes the federal government to call forth the
+militia in cases of insurrection or invasion, but that, in the present
+instance, there was neither invasion nor insurrection. They added,
+that the same constitution which conferred upon the Union the right of
+calling forth the militia, reserved to the states that of naming the
+officers; and that consequently (as they understood the clause) no
+officer of the Union had any right to command the militia, even during
+war, except the president in person: and in this case they were ordered
+to join an army commanded by another individual. These absurd and
+pernicious doctrines received the sanction not only of the governors and
+legislative bodies, but also of the courts of justice in both states;
+and the federal government was constrained to raise elsewhere the troops
+which it required.[159]
+
+The only safeguard which the American Union, with all the relative
+perfection of its laws, possesses against the dissolution which would
+be produced by a great war, lies in its probable exemption from that
+calamity. Placed in the centre of an immense continent, which offers
+a boundless field for human industry, the Union is almost as much
+insulated from the world as if its frontiers were girt by the ocean.
+Canada contains only a million of inhabitants, and its population is
+divided into two inimical nations. The rigor of the climate limits the
+extension of its territory, and shuts up its ports during the six months
+of winter. From Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a few savage tribes are
+to be met with, which retire, perishing in their retreat, before six
+thousand soldiers. To the south, the Union has a point of contact with
+the empire of Mexico; and it is thence that serious hostilities may one
+day be expected to arise. But for a long while to come, the uncivilized
+state of the Mexican community, the depravity of its morals, and its
+extreme poverty, will prevent that country from ranking high among
+nations. As for the powers of Europe, they are too distant to be
+formidable.[160]
+
+The great advantage of the United States does not, then, consist in a
+federal constitution which allows them to carry on great wars, but in a
+geographical position, which renders such enterprises improbable.
+
+No one can be more inclined than I am myself to appreciate the
+advantages of the federal system, which I hold to be one of the
+combinations most favorable to the prosperity and freedom of man. I
+envy the lot of those nations which have been enabled to adopt it; but I
+cannot believe that any confederate peoples could maintain a long or an
+equal contest with a nation of similar strength in which the government
+should be centralised. A people which should divide its sovereignty into
+fractional powers, in the presence of the great military monarchies of
+Europe, would, in my opinion, by that very act, abdicate its power, and
+perhaps its existence and its name. But such is the admirable position
+of the New World, that man has no other enemy than himself; and that
+in order to be happy and to be free, it suffices to seek the gifts of
+prosperity and the knowledge of freedom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[119] See the constitution of the United States.
+
+[120] See the articles of the first confederation formed in 1778. This
+constitution was not adopted by all the states until 1781. See also the
+analysis given of this constitution in the Federalist, from No. 15 to
+No. 22 inclusive, and Story's "Commentary on the Constitution of the
+United States," pp. 85-115.
+
+[121] Congress made this declaration on the 21st of February, 1787.
+
+[122] It consisted of fifty-five members: Washington, Madison, Hamilton,
+and the two Morrises, were among the number.
+
+[123] It was not adopted by the legislative bodies, but representatives
+were elected by the people for this sole purpose; and the new
+constitution was discussed at length in each of these assemblies.
+
+[124] See the amendment to the federal constitution; Federalist, No. 32.
+Story, p. 711. Kent's Commentaries, Vol. i., p. 364.
+
+It is to be observed, that whenever the _exclusive_ right of regulating
+certain matters is not reserved to congress by the constitution, the
+states may take up the affair, until it is brought before the national
+assembly. For instance, congress has the right of making a general law
+of bankruptcy, which, however, it neglects to do. Each state is then
+at liberty to make a law for itself. This point, however, has been
+established by discussion in the law-courts, and may be said to belong
+more properly to jurisprudence.
+
+[125] The action of this court is indirect, as we shall hereafter show.
+
+[126] It is thus that the Federalist, No. 45, explains the division of
+supremacy between the union and the states: "The powers delegated by the
+constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which
+are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The
+former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace,
+negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several
+states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of
+affairs, concern the internal order and prosperity of the state."
+
+I shall often have occasion to quote the Federalist in this work. When
+the bill which has since become the constitution of the United States
+was submitted to the approval of the people, and the discussions were
+still pending, three men who had already acquired a portion of that
+celebrity which they have since enjoyed, John Jay, Hamilton, and
+Madison, formed an association with the intention of explaining to the
+nation the advantages of the measure which was proposed. With this view
+they published a series of articles in the shape of a journal, which now
+form a complete treatise. They entitled their journal, "The Federalist,"
+a name which has been retained in the work. The Federalist is an
+excellent book, which ought to be familiar to the statesmen of all
+countries, although it especially concerns America.
+
+[127] See constitution, sect. 8. Federalist, Nos. 41 and 42. Kent's
+Commentaries, vol. i., p. 207. Story, pp. 358-382; 409-426.
+
+[128] Several other privileges of the same kind exist, such as that
+which empowers the Union to legislate on bankruptcy, to grant patents,
+and other matters in which its intervention is clearly necessary.
+
+[129] Even in these cases its interference is indirect. The Union
+interferes by means of the tribunals, as will be hereafter shown.
+
+[130] Federal Constitution, sect. 10, art. 1.
+
+[131] Constitution, sect. 8, 9, and 10. Federalist, Nos. 30-36
+inclusive, and 41-44. Kent's Commentaries, vol. i., pp. 207 and 381.
+Story pp. 329 and 514.
+
+[132] Every ten years congress fixes anew the number of representatives
+which each state is to furnish. The total number was 69 in 1789, and 240
+in 1833. (See American Almanac, 1834, p. 194.)
+
+The constitution decided that there should not be more than one
+representative for every 30,000 persons; but no minimum was fixed
+upon. The congress has not thought fit to augment the number of
+representatives in proportion to the increase of population. The first
+act which was passed on the subject (14th April, 1792: see Laws of the
+United States, by Story, vol. i., p. 235) decided that there should be
+one representative for every 33,000 inhabitants. The last act, which was
+passed in 1822, fixes the proportion at one for 48,000. The population
+represented is composed of all the freemen and of three-fifths of the
+slaves.
+
+[133] See the Federalist, Nos. 52-66, inclusive. Story, pp. 199-314
+Constitution of the United States, sections 2 and 3.
+
+[134] See the Federalist, Nos. 67-77. Constitution of the United States,
+a. t. 2. Story, pp. 115; 515-780. Kent's Commentaries, p. 255.
+
+[135] The constitution had left it doubtful whether the president
+was obliged to consult the senate in the removal as well as in the
+appointment of federal officers. The Federalist (No. 77) seemed to
+establish the affirmative; but in 1789, congress formally decided that
+as the president was responsible for his actions, he ought not to
+be forced to employ agents who had forfeited his esteem. See Kent's
+Commentaries, vol. i., p. 289.
+
+[136] The sums annually paid by the state to these officers amount to
+200,000,000 francs (eight millions sterling).
+
+[137] This number is extracted from the "National Calendar," for 1833.
+The National Calendar is an American almanac which contains the names of
+all the federal officers.
+
+It results from this comparison that the king of France has eleven times
+as many places at his disposal as the president, although the population
+of France is not much more than double that of the Union.
+
+[138] As many as it sends members to congress. The number of electors at
+the election of 1833 was 288. (See the National Calendar, 1833.)
+
+[139] The electors of the same state assemble, but they transmit to the
+central government the list of their individual votes, and not the mere
+result of the vote of the majority.
+
+[140] In this case it is the majority of the states, and not the
+majority of the members, which decides the question; so that New
+York has not more influence in the debate than Rhode Island. Thus the
+citizens of the Union are first consulted as members of one and the same
+community; and, if they cannot agree, recourse is had to the division of
+the states, each of which has a separate and independent vote. This is
+one of the singularities of the federal constitution which can only be
+explained by the jar of conflicting interests.
+
+[141] Jefferson, in 1801, was not elected until the thirty-sixth time of
+balloting.
+
+[142] See chapter vi., entitled, "Judicial Power in the United States."
+This chapter explains the general principles of the American theory of
+judicial institutions. See also the federal constitution, art. 3.
+See the Federalist, Nos. 78-83, inclusive: and a work entitled,
+"Constitutional Law, being a View of the Practice and Jurisdiction of
+the Courts of the United States," by Thomas Sergeant. See Story, pp.
+134, 162, 489, 511, 581, 668; and the organic law of the 24th September,
+1789, in the collection of the laws of the United States, by Story, vol.
+i., p. 53.
+
+[143] Federal laws are those which most require courts of justice, and
+those at the same time which have most rarely established them. The
+reason is that confederations have usually been formed by independent
+states, which entertained no real intention of obeying the central
+government, and which very readily ceded the right of commanding to
+the federal executive, and very prudently reserved the right of
+non-compliance to themselves.
+
+[144] The Union was divided into districts, in each of which a resident
+federal judge was appointed, and the court in which he presided was
+termed a "district court." Each of the judges of the supreme court
+annually visits a certain portion of the Republic, in order to try the
+most important causes upon the spot; the court presided over by this
+magistrate is styled a "circuit court." Lastly, all the most serious
+cases of litigation are brought before the supreme court, which holds
+a solemn session once a year, at which all the judges of the circuit
+courts must attend. The jury was introduced into the federal courts in
+the same manner, and in the same cases as into the courts of the states.
+
+It will be observed that no analogy exists between the supreme court
+of the United States and the French cour de cassation, since the latter
+only hears appeals. The supreme court decides upon the evidence of the
+fact, as well as upon the law of the case, whereas the cour de cassation
+does not pronounce a decision of its own, but refers the cause to the
+arbitration of another tribunal. See the law of 24th September, 1789,
+laws of the United States, by Story, vol. i., p. 53.
+
+[145] In order to diminish the number of these suits, it was decided
+that in a great many federal causes, the courts of the states should be
+empowered to decide conjointly with those of the Union, the losing party
+having then a right of appeal to the supreme court of the United States.
+The supreme court of Virginia contested the right of the supreme
+court of the United States to judge an appeal from its decisions, but
+unsuccessfully. See Kent's Commentaries, vol. i., pp. 350, 370, _et
+seq._; Story's Commentaries, p. 646; and "The Organic Law of the United
+States," vol. i., p. 35
+
+[146] The constitution also says that the federal courts shall decide
+"controversies between a state and the citizens of another state." And
+here a most important question of a constitutional nature arose, which
+was, whether the jurisdiction given by the constitution in cases in
+which a state is a party, extended to suits brought _against_ a state
+as well as _by_ it, or was exclusively confined to the latter. This
+question was most elaborately considered in the case of _Chisholme_ v.
+_Georgia_, and was decided by the majority of the supreme court in the
+affirmative. The decision created general alarm among the states, and
+an amendment was proposed and ratified by which the power was entirely
+taken away so far as it regards suits brought against a state. See
+Story's Commentaries, p. 624, or in the large edition, Sec. 1677.
+
+[147] As, for instance, all cases of piracy.
+
+[148] This principle was in some measure restricted by the introduction
+of the several states as independent powers into the senate, and by
+allowing them to vote separately in the house of representatives when
+the president is elected by that body; but these are exceptions, and the
+contrary principle is the rule.
+
+[149] It is perfectly clear, says Mr. Story (Commentaries, p. 503, or in
+the large edition, Sec. 1379), that any law which enlarges, abridges, or
+in any manner changes the intention of the parties, resulting from the
+stipulations in the contract, necessarily impairs it. He gives in the
+same place a very long and careful definition of what is understood by
+a contract in federal jurisprudence. A grant made by the state to a
+private individual, and accepted by him, is a contract, and cannot be
+revoked by any future law. A charter granted by the state to a company
+is a contract, and equally binding to the state as to the grantee. The
+clause of the constitution here referred to ensures, therefore, the
+existence of a great part of acquired rights, but not of all. Property
+may legally be held, though it may not have passed into the possessor's
+hands by means of a contract; and its possession is an acquired right,
+not guaranteed by the federal constitution.
+
+[150] A remarkable instance of this is given by Mr. Story (p. 508, or in
+the large edition, Sec. 1388). "Dartmouth college in New Hampshire had been
+founded by a charter granted to certain individuals before the American
+revolution, and its trustees formed a corporation under this charter.
+The legislature of New Hampshire had, without the consent of this
+corporation, passed an act changing the organization of the original
+provincial charter of the college, and transferring all the rights,
+privileges, and franchises, from the old charter trustees to new
+trustees appointed under the act. The constitutionality of the act was
+contested, and after solemn arguments, it was deliberately held by the
+supreme court that the provincial charter was a contract within the
+meaning of the constitution (art. i, sect. 10), and that the amendatory
+act was utterly void, as impairing the obligation of that charter. The
+college was deemed, like other colleges of private foundation, to be a
+private eleemosynary institution, endowed by its charter with a capacity
+to take property unconnected with the government. Its funds were
+bestowed upon the faith of the charter, and those funds consisted
+entirely of private donations. It is true that the uses were in some
+sense public, that is, for the general benefit, and not for the mere
+benefit of the corporators; but this did not make the corporation a
+public corporation. It was a private institution for general charity. It
+was not distinguishable in principle from a private donation, vested in
+private trustees, for a public charity, or for a particular purpose
+of beneficence. And the state itself, if it had bestowed funds upon a
+charity of the same nature, could not resume those funds."
+
+[151] See chapter vi., on judicial power in America.
+
+[152] See Kent's Commentaries, vol. i., p. 387.
+
+[153] At this time Alexander Hamilton, who was one of the principal
+founders of the constitution, ventured to express the following
+sentiments in the Federalist, No. 71: "There are some who would be
+inclined to regard the servile pliancy of the executive to a prevailing
+current, either in the community or in the legislature, as its best
+recommendation. But such men entertain very crude notions, as well of
+the purpose for which government was instituted, as of the true means
+by which the public happiness may be promoted. The republican principle
+demands that the deliberative sense of the community should govern the
+conduct of those to whom they intrust the managements of their affairs;
+but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden
+breeze of passion, or to every transient impulse which the people may
+receive from the arts of men who flatter their prejudices to betray
+their interests. It is a just observation that the people commonly
+_intend_ the _public good_. This often applies to their very errors. But
+their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend that they
+would always _reason right_, about the _means_ of promoting it. They
+know from experience that they sometimes err; and the wonder is that
+they so seldom err as they do, beset, as they continually are, by the
+wiles of parasites and sycophants; by the snares of the ambitious, the
+avaricious, the desperate; by the artifices of men who possess their
+confidence more than they deserve it; and of those who seek to possess
+rather than to deserve it. When occasions present themselves in which
+the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it
+is the duty of persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of
+those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give
+them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. Instances
+might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved the people from
+very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured lasting
+monuments of their gratitude to the men who had courage and magnanimity
+enough to serve at the peril of their displeasure."
+
+[154] This was the case in Greece, when Philip undertook to execute the
+decree of the Amphictyons; in the Low Countries, where the province
+of Holland always gave the law; and in our time in the Germanic
+confederation, in which Austria and Prussia assume a great degree of
+influence over the whole country, in the name of the Diet.
+
+[155] Such has always been the situation of the Swiss confederation,
+which would have perished ages ago but for the mutual jealousies of its
+neighbors.
+
+[156] I do not speak of a confederation of small republics, but of a
+great consolidated republic.
+
+[157] See the Mexican constitution of 1824.
+
+[158] For instance, the Union possesses by the constitution the right of
+selling unoccupied lands for its own profit. Supposing that the state of
+Ohio should claim the same right in behalf of certain territories lying
+within its boundaries, upon the plea that the constitution refers
+to those lands alone which do not belong to the jurisdiction of any
+particular state, and consequently should choose to dispose of them
+itself, the litigation would be carried on in the name of the purchasers
+from the state of Ohio, and the purchasers from the Union, and not in
+the names of Ohio and the Union. But what would become of this legal
+fiction if the federal purchaser was confirmed in his right by the
+courts of the Union, while the other competitor was ordered to retain
+possession by the tribunals of the state of Ohio?
+
+[The difficulty supposed by the author in this note is imaginary. The
+question of title to the lands in the case put, must depend upon the
+constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States; and a decision in
+the state court adverse to the claim or title set up under those laws,
+must, by the very words of the constitution and of the judiciary act,
+be subject to review by the supreme court of the United States, whose
+decision is final.
+
+The remarks in the text of this page upon the relative weakness of
+the government of the Union, are equally applicable to any form of
+republican or democratic government, and are not peculiar to a federal
+system. Under the circumstances supposed by the author, of all the
+citizens of a state, or a large majority of them, aggrieved at the
+same time and in the same manner, by the operation of any law, the same
+difficulty would arise in executing the laws of the state as those of
+the Union. Indeed, such instances of the total inefficacy of state
+laws are not wanting. The fact is, that all republics depend on the
+willingness of the people to execute the laws. If they will not enforce
+them, there is, so far, an end to the government, for it possesses no
+power adequate to the control of the physical power of the people.
+
+Not only in theory, but in fact, a republican government must be
+administered by the people themselves. They, and they alone, must
+execute the laws. And hence, the first principles in such governments,
+that on which all others depend, and without which no other can exist,
+is and must be, obedience to the existing laws at all times and under
+all circumstances. It is the vital condition of the social compact.
+He who claims a dispensing power for himself, by which he suspends the
+operation of the law in his own case, is worse than a usurper, for
+he not only tramples under foot the constitution of his country,
+but violates the reciprocal pledge which he has given to his
+fellow-citizens, and has received from them, that he will abide by the
+laws constitutionally enacted; upon the strength of which pledge, his
+own personal rights and acquisitions are protected by the rest of the
+community.--_American Editor_.]
+
+[159] Kent's Commentaries, vol. i., p. 244. I have selected an example
+which relates to a time posterior to the promulgation of the present
+constitution. If I had gone back to the days of the confederation, I
+might have given still more striking instances. The whole nation was
+at that time in a state of enthusiastic excitement; the revolution was
+represented by a man who was the idol of the people; but at that very
+period congress had, to say the truth, no resources at all at its
+disposal. Troops and supplies were perpetually wanting. The best devised
+projects failed in the execution, and the Union, which was constantly on
+the verge of destruction, was saved by the weakness of its enemies far
+more than by its own strength.
+
+[160] Appendix O.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHY THE PEOPLE MAY STRICTLY BE SAID TO GOVERN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+I have hitherto examined the institutions of the United States; I have
+passed their legislation in review, and I have depicted the present
+characteristics of political society in that country. But a sovereign
+power exists above these institutions and beyond these characteristic
+features, which may destroy or modify them at its pleasure; I mean that
+of the people. It remains to be shown in what manner this power, which
+regulates the laws, acts: its propensities and its passions remain to be
+pointed out, as well as the secret springs which retard, accelerate,
+or direct its irresistible course; and the effects of its unbounded
+authority, with the destiny which is probably reserved for it.
+
+In America the people appoints the legislative and the executive power,
+and furnishes the jurors who punish all offences against the laws. The
+American institutions are democratic, not only in their principle but
+in all their consequences; and the people elects its representatives
+_directly_, and for the most part _annually_, in order to ensure their
+dependence. The people is therefore the real directing power; and
+although the form of government is representative, it is evident that
+the opinions, the prejudices, the interests, and even the passions of
+the community are hindered by no durable obstacles from exercising
+a perpetual influence on society. In the United States the majority
+governs in the name of the people, as is the case in all the countries
+in which the people is supreme. This majority is principally composed
+of peaceable citizens, who, either by inclination or by interest,
+are sincerely desirous of the welfare of their country. But they are
+surrounded by the incessant agitation of parties, which attempt to gain
+their co-operation and to avail themselves of their support.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Great Division to be made between Parties.--Parties which are to each
+other as rival Nations.--Parties properly so called.--Difference
+between great and small Parties.--Epochs which produce them.--Their
+Characteristics.--America has had great Parties.--They
+are extinct.--Federalists.--Republicans.--Defeat of the
+Federalists.--Difficulty of creating Parties in the United States.--What
+is done with this Intention.--Aristocratic and democratic Character to
+be met with in all Parties.--Struggle of General Jackson against the
+Bank.
+
+A great division must be made between parties. Some countries are
+so large that the different populations which inhabit them have
+contradictory interests, although they are the subjects of the same
+government; and they may thence be in a perpetual state of opposition.
+In this case the different fractions of the people may more properly be
+considered as distinct nations than as mere parties; and if a civil war
+breaks out, the struggle is carried off by rival peoples rather than by
+factions in the state.
+
+But when the citizens entertain different opinions upon subjects which
+affect the whole country alike, such, for instance, as the principles
+upon which the government is to be conducted, then distinctions arise
+which may correctly be styled parties. Parties are a necessary evil in
+free governments; but they have not at all times the same character and
+the same propensities.
+
+At certain periods a nation may be oppressed by such insupportable evils
+as to conceive the design of effecting a total change in its political
+constitution; at other times the mischief lies still deeper, and the
+existence of society itself is endangered. Such are the times of great
+revolutions and of great parties. But between these epochs of misery and
+of confusion there are periods during which human society seems to rest,
+and mankind to make a pause. This pause is, indeed, only apparent; for
+time does not stop its course for nations any more than for men; they
+are all advancing toward a goal with which they are unacquainted; and
+we only imagine them to be stationary when their progress escapes our
+observation; as men who are going at a foot pace seem to be standing
+still to those who run.
+
+But however this may be, there are certain epochs at which the changes
+that take place in the social and political constitution of nations are
+so slow and so insensible, that men imagine their present condition
+to be a final state; and the human mind, believing itself to be firmly
+based upon certain foundations, does not extend its researches beyond
+the horizon which it descries. These are the times of small parties and
+of intrigue.
+
+The political parties which I style great are those which cling to
+principles more than to consequences; to general, and not to especial
+cases; to ideas, and not to men. These parties are usually distinguished
+by a nobler character, by more generous passions, more genuine
+convictions, and a more bold and open conduct than the others. In
+them, private interest, which always plays the chief part in political
+passions, is more studiously veiled under the pretext of the public
+good; and it may even be sometimes concealed from the eyes of the very
+person whom it excites and impels.
+
+Minor parties are, on the other hand, generally deficient in political
+faith. As they are not sustained or dignified by a lofty purpose, they
+ostensibly display the egotism of their character in their actions.
+They glow with a factitious zeal; their language is vehement, but their
+conduct is timid and irresolute. The means they employ are as wretched
+as the end at which they aim. Hence it arises that when a calm state
+of things succeeds a violent revolution, the leaders of society
+seem suddenly to disappear, and the powers of the human mind to lie
+concealed. Society is convulsed by great parties, by minor ones it is
+agitated; it is torn by the former, by the latter it is degraded; and
+if these sometimes save it by a salutary perturbation, those invariably
+disturb it to no good end.
+
+America has already lost the great parties which once divided the
+nation; and if her happiness is considerably increased, her morality
+has suffered by their extinction. When the war of independence was
+terminated, and the foundations of the new government were to be laid
+down, the nation was divided between two opinions--two opinions which
+are as old as the world, and which are perpetually to be met with
+under all the forms and all the names which have ever obtained in free
+communities--the one tending to limit, the other to extend indefinitely,
+the power of the people. The conflict of these two opinions never
+assumed that degree of violence in America which it has frequently
+displayed elsewhere. Both parties of the Americans were in fact agreed
+upon the most essential points; and neither of them had to destroy a
+traditionary constitution, or to overthrow the structure of society, in
+order to insure its own triumph. In neither of them, consequently, were
+a great number of private interests affected by success or by defeat;
+but moral principles of a high order, such as the love of equality and
+of independence, were concerned in the struggle, and they sufficed to
+kindle violent passions.
+
+The party which desired to limit the power of the people, endeavored to
+apply its doctrines more especially to the constitution of the Union,
+whence it derived its name of _federal_. The other party, which affected
+to be more exclusively attached to the cause of liberty, took that of
+_republican_. America is the land of democracy, and the federalists were
+always in a minority; but they reckoned on their side almost all the
+great men who had been called forth by the war of independence, and
+their moral influence was very considerable. Their cause was, moreover,
+favored by circumstances. The ruin of the confederation had impressed
+the people with a dread of anarchy, and the federalists did not fail to
+profit by this transient disposition of the multitude. For ten or twelve
+years they were at the head of affairs, and they were able to apply
+some, though not all, of their principles; for the hostile current was
+becoming from day to day too violent to be checked or stemmed. In 1801
+the republicans got possession of the government: Thomas Jefferson was
+named president; and he increased the influence of their party by the
+weight of his celebrity, the greatness of his talents, and the immense
+extent of his popularity.
+
+The means by which the federalists had maintained their position were
+artificial, and their resources were temporary: it was by the virtues
+or the talents of their leaders that they had risen to power. When
+the republicans attained to that lofty station, their opponents were
+overwhelmed by utter defeat. An immense majority declared itself against
+the retiring party, and the federalists found themselves in so small a
+minority, that they at once despaired of their future success. From that
+moment the republican or democratic party has proceeded from conquest to
+conquest, until it has acquired absolute supremacy in the country. The
+federalists, perceiving that they were vanquished without resource, and
+isolated in the midst of the nation, fell into two divisions, of which
+one joined the victorious republicans, and the other abandoned its
+rallying point and its name. Many years have already elapsed since they
+ceased to exist as a party.
+
+The accession of the federalists to power was, in my opinion, one of the
+most fortunate incidents which accompanied the formation of the great
+American Union: they resisted the inevitable propensities of their age
+and of their country. But whether their theories were good or bad, they
+had the defect of being inapplicable, as a system, to the society which
+they professed to govern; and that which occurred under the auspices
+of Jefferson must therefore have taken place sooner or later. But their
+government gave the new republic time to acquire a certain stability,
+and afterward to support the rapid growth of the very doctrines which
+they had combated. A considerable number of their principles were in
+point of fact embodied in the political creed of their opponents;
+and the federal constitution, which subsists at the present day, is a
+lasting monument of their patriotism and their wisdom.
+
+Great political parties are not, then, to be met with in the United
+States at the present time. Parties, indeed, may be found which threaten
+the future tranquillity of the Union; but there are none which seem
+to contest the present form of government, or the present course of
+society. The parties by which the Union is menaced do not rest upon
+abstract principles, but upon temporal interests. These interests,
+disseminated in the provinces of so vast an empire, may be said to
+constitute rival nations rather than parties. Thus, upon a recent
+occasion, the north contended for the system of commercial prohibition,
+and the south took up arms in favor of free trade, simply because the
+north is a manufacturing, and the south an agricultural district;
+and that the restrictive system which was profitable to the one, was
+prejudicial to the other.
+
+In the absence of great parties, the United States abound with lesser
+controversies; and public opinion is divided into a thousand minute
+shades of difference upon questions of very little moment. The pains
+which are taken to create parties are inconceivable, and at the present
+day it is no easy task. In the United States there is no religious
+animosity, because all religion is respected, and no sect is
+predominant; there is no jealousy of rank, because the people is
+everything, and none can contest its authority; lastly, there is no
+public misery to serve as a means of agitation, because the physical
+position of the country opens so wide a field to industry, that man is
+able to accomplish the most surprising undertakings with his own native
+resources. Nevertheless, ambitious men are interested in the creation of
+parties, since it is difficult to eject a person from authority upon the
+mere ground that his place is coveted by others. The skill of the actors
+in the political world lies, therefore, in the art of creating parties.
+A political aspirant in the United States begins by discriminating
+his own interest, and by calculating upon those interests which may be
+collected around, and amalgamated with it; he then contrives to discover
+some doctrine or some principle which may suit the purposes of this new
+association, and which he adopts in order to bring forward his party
+and to secure its popularity: just as the _imprimatur_ of a king was
+in former days incorporated with the volume which it authorized, but to
+which it nowise belonged. When these preliminaries are terminated, the
+new party is ushered into the political world.
+
+All the domestic controversies of the Americans at first appear to a
+stranger to be so incomprehensible and so puerile, that he is at a
+loss whether to pity a people which takes such arrant trifles in good
+earnest, or to envy that happiness which enables it to discuss them. But
+when he comes to study the secret propensities which govern the factions
+of America, he easily perceives that the greater part of them are more
+or less connected with one or the other of these two divisions which
+have always existed in free communities. The deeper we penetrate into
+the workings of these parties, the more do we perceive that the object
+of the one is to limit, and that of the other to extend, the popular
+authority. I do not assert that the ostensible end, or even that the
+secret aim, of American parties is to promote the rule of aristocracy or
+democracy in the country, but I affirm that aristocratic or democratic
+passions may easily be detected at the bottom of all parties, and that,
+although they escape a superficial observation, they are the main point
+and the very soul of every faction in the United States.
+
+To quote a recent example: when the president attacked the bank, the
+country was excited and parties were formed; the well-informed classes
+rallied round the bank, the common people round the president. But it
+must not be imagined that the people had formed a rational opinion upon
+a question which offers so many difficulties to the most experienced
+statesmen. The bank is a great establishment which enjoys an independent
+existence, and the people, accustomed to make and unmake whatsoever it
+pleases, is startled to meet with this obstacle to its authority. In
+the midst of the perpetual fluctuation of society, the community is
+irritated by so permanent an institution, and is led to attack it, in
+order to see whether it can be shaken and controlled, like all the other
+institutions of the country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+REMAINS OF THE ARISTOCRATIC PARTY IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Secret Opposition of wealthy Individuals to Democracy.--Their
+retirement.--Their tastes for exclusive Pleasures and for Luxury at
+Home.--Their Simplicity Abroad.--Their affected Condescension toward the
+People.
+
+It sometimes happens in a people among which various opinions prevail,
+that the balance of the several parties is lost, and one of them obtains
+an irresistible preponderance, overpowers all obstacles, harasses its
+opponents, and appropriates all the resources of society to its own
+purposes. The vanquished citizens despair of success, and they conceal
+their dissatisfaction in silence and in a general apathy. The nation
+seems to be governed by a single principle, and the prevailing party
+assumes the credit of having restored peace and unanimity to the
+country. But this apparent unanimity is merely a cloak to alarming
+dissensions and perpetual opposition.
+
+This is precisely what occurred in America; when the democratic party
+got the upper hand, it took exclusive possession of the conduct of
+affairs, and from that time the laws and customs of society have been
+adapted to its caprices. At the present day the more affluent classes of
+society are so entirely removed from the direction of political affairs
+in the United States, that wealth, far from conferring a right to the
+exercise of power, is rather an obstacle than a means of attaining to
+it. The wealthy members of the community abandon the lists, through
+unwillingness to contend, and frequently to contend in vain, against
+the poorest classes of their fellow-citizens. They concentrate all their
+enjoyments in the privacy of their homes, where they occupy a rank which
+cannot be assumed in public; and they constitute a private society in
+the state, which has its own tastes and its own pleasures. They submit
+to this state of things as an irremediable evil, but they are careful
+not to show that they are galled by its continuance; it is even not
+uncommon to hear them laud the delights of a republican government, and
+the advantages of democratic institutions when they are in public. Next
+to hating their enemies, men are most inclined to flatter them.
+
+Mark, for instance, that opulent citizen, who is as anxious as a Jew of
+the middle ages to conceal his wealth. His dress is plain, his demeanor
+unassuming; but the interior of his dwelling glitters with luxury, and
+none but a few chosen guests whom he haughtily styles his equals, are
+allowed to penetrate into this sanctuary. No European noble is more
+exclusive in his pleasures, or more jealous of the smallest advantages
+which his privileged station confers upon him. But the very same
+individual crosses the city to reach a dark counting-house in the centre
+of traffic, where every one may accost him who pleases. If he meets his
+cobbler upon the way, they stop and converse; the two citizens discuss
+the affairs of the state in which they have an equal interest, and they
+shake hands before they part.
+
+But beneath this artificial enthusiasm, and these obsequious attentions
+to the preponderating power, it is easy to perceive that the wealthy
+members of the community entertain a hearty distaste to the democratic
+institutions of their country. The populace is at once the object
+of their scorn and of their fears. If the mal-administration of the
+democracy ever brings about a revolutionary crisis, and if monarchical
+institutions ever become practicable in the United States, the truth of
+what I advance will become obvious.
+
+The two chief weapons which parties use in order to ensure success, are
+the _public press_, and the formation of _associations_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Difficulty of restraining the Liberty of the Press.--Particular reasons
+which some Nations have to cherish this Liberty.--The Liberty of the
+Press a necessary Consequence of the Sovereignty of the people as it is
+understood in America.--Violent Language of the periodical Press in the
+United States.--Propensities of the periodical Press.--Illustrated by
+the United States.--Opinion of the Americans upon the Repression of the
+Abuse of the Liberty of the Press by judicial Prosecutions.--Reasons for
+which the Press is less powerful in America than in France.
+
+The influence of the liberty of the press does not affect political
+opinions alone, but it extends to all the opinions of men, and it
+modifies customs as well as laws. In another part of this work I shall
+attempt to determine the degree of influence which the liberty of the
+press has exercised upon civil society in the United States, and to
+point out the direction which it has given to the ideas, as well as
+the tone which it has imparted to the character and the feelings of the
+Anglo-Americans, but at present I purpose simply to examine the effects
+produced by the liberty of the press in the political world.
+
+I confess that I do not entertain that firm and complete attachment to
+the liberty of the press, which things that are supremely good in their
+very nature are wont to excite in the mind; and I approve of it more
+from a recollection of the evils it prevents, than from a consideration
+of the advantages it ensures.
+
+If any one can point out an intermediate, and yet a tenable position,
+between the complete independence and the entire subjection of the
+public expression of opinion, I should perhaps be inclined to adopt it;
+but the difficulty is to discover this position. If it is your intention
+to correct the abuses of unlicensed printing, and to restore the use of
+orderly language, you may in the first instance try the offender by
+a jury; but if the jury acquits him, the opinion which was that of a
+single individual becomes the opinion of the country at large. Too much
+and too little has therefore hitherto been done; if you proceed, you
+must bring the delinquent before permanent magistrates; but even
+here the cause must be heard before it can be decided; and the very
+principles which no book would have ventured to avow are blazoned
+forth in the pleadings, and what was obscurely hinted at in a single
+composition is then repeated in a multitude of other publications.
+The language in which a thought is embodied is the mere carcase of the
+thought, and not the idea itself; tribunals may condemn the form, but
+the sense and spirit of the work is too subtle for their authority: too
+much has still been done to recede, too little to attain your end: you
+must therefore proceed. If you establish a censorship of the press, the
+tongue of the public speaker will still make itself heard, and you have
+only increased the mischief. The powers of thought do not rely, like the
+powers of physical strength, upon the number of their mechanical agents,
+nor can a host of authors be reckoned like the troops which compose an
+army; on the contrary, the authority of a principle is often increased
+by the smallness of the number of men by whom it is expressed. The words
+of a strong-minded man, which penetrate amid the passions of a listening
+assembly, have more weight than the vociferations of a thousand
+orators; and if it be allowed to speak freely in any public place,
+the consequence is the same as if free speaking was allowed in every
+village. The liberty of discourse must therefore be destroyed as well
+as the liberty of the press; this is the necessary term of your efforts;
+but if your object was to repress the abuses of liberty, they have
+brought you to the feet of a despot. You have been led from the extreme
+of independence to the extreme of subjection, without meeting with a
+single tenable position for shelter or repose.
+
+There are certain nations which have peculiar reasons for cherishing the
+press, independently of the general motives which I have just pointed
+out. For in certain countries which profess to enjoy the privileges of
+freedom, every individual agent of the government may violate the laws
+with impunity, since those whom he oppresses cannot prosecute him before
+the courts of justice. In this case the liberty of the press is not
+merely a guarantee, but it is the only guarantee of their liberty
+and their security which the citizens possess. If the rulers of these
+nations proposed to abolish the independence of the press, the people
+would be justified in saying: "Give us the right of prosecuting your
+offences before the ordinary tribunals, and perhaps we may then waive
+our right of appeal to the tribunal of public opinion."
+
+But in the countries in which the doctrine of the sovereignty of the
+people ostensibly prevails, the censorship of the press is not only
+dangerous, but it is absurd. When the right of every citizen to
+co-operate in the government of society is acknowledged, every citizen
+must be presumed to possess the power of discriminating between the
+different opinions of his contemporaries, and of appreciating the
+different facts from which inferences may be drawn. The sovereignty of
+the people and the liberty of the press may therefore be looked upon
+as correlative institutions; just as the censorship of the press and
+universal suffrage are two things which are irreconcileably opposed, and
+which cannot long be retained among the institutions of the same people.
+Not a single individual of the twelve millions who inhabit the territory
+of the United States has as yet dared to propose any restrictions to
+the liberty of the press. The first newspaper over which I cast my eyes,
+after my arrival in America, contained the following article:
+
+"In all this affair, the language of Jackson has been that of a
+heartless despot, solely occupied with the preservation of his own
+authority. Ambition is his crime, and it will be his punishment too:
+intrigue is his native element, and intrigue will confound his tricks,
+and will deprive him of his power; he governs by means of corruption,
+and his immoral practices will redound to his shame and confusion. His
+conduct in the political arena has been that of a shameless and
+lawless gamester. He succeeded at the time, but the hour of retribution
+approaches, and he will be obliged to disgorge his winnings, to throw
+aside his false dice, and to end his days in some retirement where he
+may curse his madness at his leisure; for repentance is a virtue with
+which his heart is likely to remain for ever unacquainted."
+
+It is not uncommonly imagined in France, that the virulence of the
+press originates in the uncertain social condition, in the political
+excitement, and the general sense of consequent evil which prevail in
+that country; and it is therefore supposed that as soon as society
+has resumed a certain degree of composure, the press will abandon its
+present vehemence. I am inclined to think that the above causes explain
+the reason of the extraordinary ascendency it has acquired over the
+nation, but that they do not exercise much influence upon the tone
+of its language. The periodical press appears to me to be actuated by
+passions and propensities independent of the circumstances in which
+it is placed; and the present position of America corroborates this
+opinion.
+
+America is, perhaps, at this moment, the country of the whole world
+which contains the fewest germs of revolution; but the press is not less
+destructive in its principles than in France, and it displays the same
+violence without the same reasons for indignation. In America, as
+in France, it constitutes a singular power, so strangely composed of
+mingled good and evil, that it is at the same time indispensable to the
+existence of freedom, and nearly incompatible with the maintenance of
+public order. Its power is certainly much greater in France than in the
+United States; though nothing is more rare in the latter country than to
+hear of a prosecution having been instituted against it. The reason
+of this is perfectly simple; the Americans having once admitted
+the doctrine of sovereignty of the people, apply it with perfect
+consistency. It was never their intention to found a permanent state
+of things with elements which undergo daily modifications; and there
+is consequently nothing criminal in an attack upon the existing laws,
+provided it be not attended with a violent infraction of them. They
+are moreover of opinion that courts of justice are unable to check
+the abuses of the press; and that as the subtlety of human language
+perpetually eludes the severity of judicial analysis, offences of this
+nature are apt to escape the hand which attempts to apprehend them. They
+hold that to act with efficacy upon the press, it would be necessary to
+find a tribunal, not only devoted to the existing order of things, but
+capable of surmounting the influence of public opinion; a tribunal which
+should conduct its proceedings without publicity, which should pronounce
+its decrees without assigning its motives, and punish the intentions
+even more than the language of an author. Whosoever should have the
+power of creating and maintaining a tribunal of this kind, would waste
+his time in prosecuting the liberty of the press; for he would be the
+supreme master of the whole community, and he would be as free to
+rid himself of the authors as of their writings. In this question,
+therefore, there is no medium between servitude and extreme license; in
+order to enjoy the inestimable benefits which the liberty of the press
+ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils which it
+engenders. To expect to acquire the former, and to escape the latter,
+is to cherish one of those illusions which commonly mislead nations
+in their times of sickness, when, tired with faction and exhausted by
+effort, they attempt to combine hostile opinions and contrary principles
+upon the same soil.
+
+The small influence of the American journals is attributable to several
+reasons, among which are the following:--
+
+The liberty of writing, like all other liberty, is most formidable
+when it is a novelty; for a people which has never been accustomed to
+co-operate in the conduct of state affairs, places implicit confidence
+in the first tribune who arouses its attention. The Anglo-Americans
+have enjoyed this liberty ever since the foundation of the settlements;
+moreover, the press cannot create human passions by its own power,
+however skilfully it may kindle them where they exist. In America
+politics are discussed with animation and a varied activity, but they
+rarely touch those deep passions which are excited whenever the positive
+interest of a part of the community is impaired: but in the United
+States the interests of the community are in a most prosperous
+condition. A single glance upon a French and an American newspaper is
+sufficient to show the difference which exists between the two nations
+on this head. In France the space allotted to commercial advertisements
+is very limited, and the intelligence is not considerable, but the most
+essential part of the journal is that which contains the discussion of
+the politics of the day. In America three quarters of the enormous sheet
+which is set before the reader are filled with advertisements, and the
+remainder is frequently occupied by political intelligence or trivial
+anecdotes: it is only from time to time that one finds a corner devoted
+to passionate discussions like those with which the journalists of
+France are wont to indulge their readers.
+
+It has been demonstrated by observation, and discovered by the innate
+sagacity of the pettiest as well as the greatest of despots, that the
+influence of a power is increased in proportion as its direction
+is rendered more central. In France the press combines a twofold
+centralisation: almost all its power is centred in the same spot, and
+vested in the same hands, for its organs are far from numerous. The
+influence of a public press thus constituted, upon a sceptical nation,
+must be unbounded. It is an enemy with which a government may sign an
+occasional truce, but which it is difficult to resist for any length of
+time.
+
+Neither of these kinds of centralisation exists in America. The United
+States have no metropolis; the intelligence as well as the power of the
+country is dispersed abroad, and instead of radiating from a point, they
+cross each other in every direction; the Americans have established no
+central control over the expression of opinion, any more than over the
+conduct of business. These are circumstances which do not depend on
+human foresight; but it is owing to the laws of the Union that there are
+no licenses to be granted to the printers, no securities demanded from
+editors, as in France, and no stamp duty as in France and England.
+The consequence of this is that nothing is easier than to set up a
+newspaper, and a small number of readers suffices to defray the expenses
+of the editor.
+
+The number of periodical and occasional publications which appear in the
+United States actually surpasses belief. The most enlightened Americans
+attribute the subordinate influence of the press to this excessive
+dissemination; and it is adopted as an axiom of political science in
+that country, that the only way to neutralise the effect of public
+journals is to multiply them indefinitely. I cannot conceive why a truth
+which is so self-evident has not already been more generally admitted
+in Europe; it is comprehensible that the persons who hope to bring about
+revolutions, by means of the press, should be desirous of confining its
+action to a few powerful organs; but it is perfectly incredible that the
+partisans of the existing state of things, and the natural supporters
+of the laws, should attempt to diminish the influence of the press by
+concentrating its authority. The governments of Europe seem to treat
+the press with the courtesy of the knights of old; they are anxious to
+furnish it with the same central power which they have found to be so
+trusty a weapon, in order to enhance the glory of their resistance to
+its attacks.
+
+In America there is scarcely a hamlet which has not its own newspaper.
+It may readily be imagined that neither discipline nor unity of
+design can be communicated to so multifarious a host, and each one
+is constantly led to fight under his own standard. All the political
+journals of the United States are indeed arrayed on the side of the
+administration or against it; but they attack and defend it in a
+thousand different ways. They cannot succeed in forming those great
+currents of opinion which overwhelm the most solid obstacles. This
+division of the influence of the press produces a variety of other
+consequences which are scarcely less remarkable. The facility with which
+journals can be established induces a multitude of individuals to take a
+part in them; but as the extent of competition precludes the possibility
+of considerable profit, the most distinguished classes of society are
+rarely led to engage in these undertakings. But such is the number of
+the public prints, that even if they were a source of wealth, writers
+of ability could not be found to direct them all. The journalists of
+the United States are usually placed in a very humble position, with a
+scanty education, and a vulgar turn of mind. The will of the majority is
+the most general of laws, and it establishes certain habits which form
+the characteristics of each peculiar class of society; thus it dictates
+the etiquette practised at courts and the etiquette of the bar. The
+characteristics of the French journalist consist in a violent, but
+frequently an eloquent and lofty manner of discussing the politics
+of the day; and the exceptions to this habitual practice are only
+occasional. The characteristics of the American journalist consist in
+an open and coarse appeal to the passions of the populace; and he
+habitually abandons the principles of political science to assail the
+characters of individuals, to track them into private life, and disclose
+all their weaknesses and errors.
+
+Nothing can be more deplorable than this abuse of the powers of thought;
+I shall have occasion to point out hereafter the influence of the
+newspapers upon the taste and the morality of the American people, but
+my present subject exclusively concerns the political world. It cannot
+be denied that the effects of this extreme license of the press tend
+indirectly to the maintenance of public order. The individuals who are
+already in possession of a high station in the esteem of their fellow
+citizens, are afraid to write in the newspapers, and they are thus
+deprived of the most powerful instrument which they can use to excite
+the passions of the multitude to their own advantage.[161]
+
+The personal opinions of the editors have no kind of weight in the
+eyes of the public: the only use of a journal is, that it imparts the
+knowledge of certain facts, and it is only by altering or distorting
+those facts, that a journalist can contribute to the support of his own
+views.
+
+But although the press is limited to these resources, its influence
+in America is immense. It is the power which impels the circulation of
+political life through all the districts of that vast territory. Its eye
+is constantly open to detect the secret springs of political designs,
+and to summon the leaders of all parties to the bar of public opinion.
+It rallies the interests of the community round certain principles, and
+it draws up the creed which factions adopt; for it affords a means of
+intercourse between parties which hear, and which address each other,
+without ever having been in immediate contact. When a great number of
+the organs of the press adopt the same line of conduct, their influence
+becomes irresistible; and public opinion, when it is perpetually
+assailed from the same side, eventually yields to the attack. In the
+United States each separate journal exercises but little authority:
+but the power of the periodical press is only second to that of the
+people.[162]
+
+In the United States the democracy perpetually raises fresh individuals
+to the conduct of public affairs; and the measures of the administration
+are consequently seldom regulated by the strict rules of consistency or
+of order. But the general principles of the government are more stable,
+and the opinions most prevalent in society are generally more durable
+than in many other countries. When once the Americans have taken up an
+idea, whether it be well or ill-founded, nothing is more difficult than
+to eradicate it from their minds. The same tenacity of opinion has been
+observed in England, where, for the last century, greater freedom of
+conscience, and more invincible prejudices have existed, than in all the
+other countries of Europe. I attribute this consequence to a cause which
+may at first sight appear to have a very opposite tendency, namely, to
+the liberty of the press. The nations among which this liberty exists
+are as apt to cling to their opinions from pride as from conviction.
+They cherish them because they hold them to be just, and because they
+exercised their own free will in choosing them; and they maintain them,
+not only because they are true, but because they are their own. Several
+other reasons conduce to the same end.
+
+It was remarked by a man of genius, that "ignorance lies at the two
+ends of knowledge." Perhaps it would have been more correct to say that
+absolute convictions are to be met with at the two extremities, and that
+doubt lies in the middle; for the human intellect may be considered in
+three distinct states, which frequently succeed one another.
+
+A man believes implicitly, because he adopts a proposition without
+inquiry. He doubts as soon as he is assailed by the objections which
+his inquiries may have aroused. But he frequently succeeds in satisfying
+these doubts, and then he begins to believe afresh: he no longer lays
+hold on a truth in its most shadowy and uncertain form, but he sees
+it clearly before him, and he advances onward by the light it gives
+him.[163]
+
+When the liberty of the press acts upon men who are in the first of
+these three states, it does not immediately disturb their habit of
+believing implicitly without investigation, but it constantly modifies
+the objects of their intuitive convictions. The human mind continues
+to discern but one point upon the whole intellectual horizon, and
+that point is in continual motion. Such are the symptoms of sudden
+revolutions, and of the misfortunes that are sure to befall those
+generations which abruptly adopt the unconditional freedom of the press.
+
+The circle of novel ideas is, however, soon terminated; the torch
+of experience is upon them, and the doubt and mistrust which their
+uncertainty produces, become universal. We may rest assured that the
+majority of mankind will either believe they know not wherefore, or will
+not know what to believe. Few are the beings who can ever hope to attain
+that state of rational and independent conviction which true knowledge
+can beget, in defiance of the attacks of doubt.
+
+It has been remarked that in times of great religious fervor, men
+sometimes change their religious opinions; whereas, in times of general
+scepticism, every one clings to his own persuasion. The same thing takes
+place in politics under the liberty of the press. In countries where all
+the theories of social science have been contested in their turn, the
+citizens who have adopted one of them, stick to it, not so much because
+they are assured of its excellence, as because they are not convinced of
+the superiority of any other. In the present age men are not very ready
+to die in defence of their opinions, but they are rarely inclined to
+change them; and there are fewer martyrs as well as fewer apostates.
+
+Another still more valid reason may yet be adduced: when no abstract
+opinions are looked upon as certain, men cling to the mere propensities
+and external interest of their position, which are naturally more
+tangible and more permanent than any opinions in the world.
+
+It is not a question of easy solution whether the aristocracy or the
+democracy is most fit to govern a country. But it is certain that
+democracy annoys one part of the community, and that aristocracy
+oppresses another part. When the question is reduced to the simple
+expression of the struggle between poverty and wealth, the tendency
+of each side of the dispute becomes perfectly evident without farther
+controversy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[161] They only write in the papers when they choose to address the
+people in their own name; as, for instance, when they are called upon to
+repel calumnious imputations, and to correct a mis-statement of facts.
+
+[162] See Appendix P.
+
+[163] It may, however, be doubted whether this rational and self-guiding
+conviction arouses as much fervor or enthusiastic devotedness in men as
+their first dogmatical belief.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Daily use which the Anglo-Americans make of the Right of
+Association.--Three kinds of political Association.--In what Manner
+the Americans apply the representative System to Associations.--Dangers
+resulting to the State.--Great Convention of 1831 relative to the
+Tariff. Legislative character of this Convention.--Why the unlimited
+Exercise of the Right of Association is less dangerous in the United
+States than elsewhere.--Why it may be looked upon as necessary.--Utility
+of Associations in a democratic People.
+
+In no country in the world has the principle of association been
+more successfully used, or more unsparingly applied to a multitude of
+different objects, than in America. Beside the permanent associations
+which are established by law under the names of townships, cities,
+and counties, a vast number of others are formed and maintained by the
+agency of private individuals.
+
+The citizen of the United States is taught from his earliest infancy
+to rely upon his own exertions, in order to resist the evils and the
+difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority with an eye of
+mistrust and anxiety, and he only claims its assistance when he is quite
+unable to shift without it. This habit may even be traced in the schools
+of the rising generation, where the children in their games are wont to
+submit to rules which they have themselves established, and to punish
+misdemeanors which they have themselves defined. The same spirit
+pervades every act of social life. If a stoppage occurs in a
+thoroughfare, and the circulation of the public is hindered, the
+neighbors immediately constitute a deliberative body; and this
+extemporaneous assembly gives rise to an executive power, which remedies
+the inconvenience, before anybody has thought of recurring to an
+authority superior to that of the persons immediately concerned. If the
+public pleasures are concerned, an association is formed to provide
+for the splendor and the regularity of the entertainment. Societies are
+formed to resist enemies which are exclusively of a moral nature, and to
+diminish the vice of intemperance: in the United States associations are
+established to promote public order, commerce, industry, morality, and
+religion; for there is no end which the human will, seconded by the
+collective exertions of individuals, despairs of attaining.
+
+I shall hereafter have occasion to show the effects of association upon
+the course of society, and I must confine myself for the present to the
+political world. When once the right of association is recognized, the
+citizens may employ it in several different ways.
+
+An association consists simply in the public assent which a number of
+individuals give to certain doctrines; and in the engagement which they
+contract to promote the spread of those doctrines by their exertions.
+The right of associating with these views is very analogous to the
+liberty of unlicensed writing; but societies thus formed possess more
+authority than the press. When an opinion is represented by a society,
+it necessarily assumes a more exact and explicit form. It numbers its
+partisans, and compromises their welfare in its cause; they, on the
+other hand, become acquainted with each other, and their zeal is
+increased by their number. An association unites the efforts of minds
+which have a tendency to diverge, in one single channel, and urges them
+vigorously toward one single end which it points out.
+
+The second degree in the right of association is the power of meeting.
+When an association is allowed to establish centres of action at certain
+important points in the country, its activity is increased, and its
+influence extended. Men have the opportunity of seeing each other; means
+of execution are more readily combined; and opinions are maintained with
+a degree of warmth and energy which written language cannot approach.
+
+Lastly, in the exercise of the right of political association, there
+is a third degree: the partisans of an opinion may unite in electoral
+bodies, and choose delegates to represent them in a central assembly.
+This is, properly speaking, the application of the representative system
+to a party.
+
+Thus, in the first instance, a society is formed between individuals
+professing the same opinion, and the tie which keeps it together is of
+a purely intellectual nature: in the second case, small assemblies are
+formed which only represent a fraction of the party. Lastly, in the
+third case, they constitute a separate nation in the midst of the
+nation, a government within the government. Their delegates, like the
+real delegates of the majority, represent the entire collective force
+of their party; and they enjoy a certain degree of that national dignity
+and great influence which belong to the chosen representatives of the
+people. It is true that they have not the right of making the laws;
+but they have the power of attacking those which are in being, and
+of drawing up beforehand those which they may afterward cause to be
+adopted.
+
+If, in a people which is imperfectly accustomed to the exercise
+of freedom, or which is exposed to violent political passions, a
+deliberating minority, which confines itself to the contemplation of
+future laws, be placed in juxtaposition to the legislative majority, I
+cannot but believe that public tranquillity incurs very great risks in
+that nation. There is doubtless a very wide difference between proving
+that one law is in itself better than another, and proving that the
+former ought to be substituted for the latter. But the imagination
+of the populace is very apt to overlook this difference, which is so
+apparent in the minds of thinking men. It sometimes happens that a
+nation is divided into two nearly equal parties, each of which affects
+to represent the majority. If, in immediate contiguity to the directing
+power, another power be established, which exercises almost as much
+moral authority as the former, it is not to be believed that it will
+long be content to speak without acting; or that it will always be
+restrained by the abstract consideration of the nature of associations,
+which are meant to direct, but not to enforce opinions, to suggest but
+not to make the laws.
+
+The more we consider the independence of the press in its principal
+consequences, the more are we convinced that it is the chief, and, so to
+speak, the constitutive element of freedom in the modern world. A nation
+which is determined to remain free, is therefore right in demanding
+the unrestrained exercise of this independence. But the _unrestrained_
+liberty of political association cannot be entirely assimilated to the
+liberty of the press. The one is at the same time less necessary and
+more dangerous than the other. A nation may confine it within certain
+limits without forfeiting any part of its self-control; and it may
+sometimes be obliged to do so in order to maintain its own authority.
+
+In America the liberty of association for political purposes is
+unbounded. An example will show in the clearest light to what an extent
+this privilege is tolerated.
+
+The question of the Tariff, or of free trade, produced a great
+manifestation of party feeling in America; the tariff was not only a
+subject of debate as a matter of opinion, but it exercised a favorable
+or a prejudicial influence upon several very powerful interests of the
+states. The north attributed a great portion of its prosperity, and the
+south all its sufferings, to this system. Insomuch, that for a long
+time the tariff was the sole source of the political animosities which
+agitated the Union.
+
+In 1831, when the dispute was raging with the utmost virulence, a
+private citizen of Massachusetts proposed to all the enemies of the
+tariff, by means of the public prints, to send delegates to Philadelphia
+in order to consult together upon the means which were most fitted to
+promote the freedom of trade. This proposal circulated in a few days
+from Maine to New Orleans by the power of the printing press: the
+opponents of the tariff adopted it with enthusiasm; meetings were
+formed on all sides, and delegates were named. The majority of these
+individuals were well known, and some of them had earned a considerable
+degree of celebrity. South Carolina alone, which afterward took up arms
+in the same cause, sent sixty-three delegates. On the 1st October, 1831,
+this assembly, which, according to the American custom, had taken the
+name of a convention, met at Philadelphia; it consisted of more than
+two hundred members. Its debates were public, and they at once assumed
+a legislative character; the extent of the powers of congress, the
+theories of free trade, and the different clauses of the tariff, were
+discussed in turn. At the end of ten days' deliberation, the convention
+broke up, after having published an address to the American people, in
+which it is declared:
+
+I. The congress had not the right of making a tariff, and that the
+existing tariff was unconstitutional.
+
+II. That the prohibition of free trade was prejudicial to the interests
+of all nations, and to that of the American people in particular.
+
+It must be acknowledged that the unrestrained liberty of political
+association has not hitherto produced, in the United States, those fatal
+consequences which might perhaps be expected from it elsewhere. The
+right of association was imported from England, and it has always
+existed in America. So that the exercise of this privilege is now
+amalgamated with the manners and customs of the people. At the present
+time, the liberty of association is become a necessary guarantee against
+the tyranny of the majority. In the United States, as soon as a party
+has become preponderant, all the public authority passes under its
+control; its private supporters occupy all the places, and have all the
+force of the administration at their disposal. As the most distinguished
+partisans of the other side of the question are unable to surmount the
+obstacles which exclude them from power, they require some means of
+establishing themselves upon their own basis, and of opposing the moral
+authority of the minority to the physical power which domineers over it.
+Thus, a dangerous expedient is used to obviate a still more formidable
+danger.
+
+The omnipotence of the majority appears to me to present such extreme
+perils to the American republics, that the dangerous measure which is
+used to repress it, seems to be more advantageous than prejudicial. And
+here I am about to advance a proposition which may remind the reader
+of what I said before in speaking of municipal freedom. There are
+no countries in which associations are more needed, to prevent the
+despotism of faction, or the arbitrary power of a prince, than those
+which are democratically constituted. In aristocratic nations, the
+body of the nobles and the more opulent part of the community are in
+themselves natural associations, which act as checks upon the abuses of
+power. In countries in which those associations do not exist, if
+private individuals are unable to create an artificial and a temporary
+substitute for them, I can imagine no permanent protection against the
+most galling tyranny; and a great people may be oppressed by a small
+faction, or by a single individual, with impunity.
+
+The meeting of a great political convention (for there are conventions
+of all kinds), which may frequently become a necessary measure, is
+always a serious occurrence, even in America, and one which is never
+looked forward to by the judicious friends of the country, without
+alarm. This was very perceptible in the convention of 1831, at which the
+exertions of all the most distinguished members of the assembly tended
+to moderate its language, and to restrain the subjects which it treated
+within certain limits. It is probable, in fact, that the convention of
+1831 exercised a very great influence upon the minds of the malcontents,
+and prepared them for the open revolt against the commercial laws of the
+Union, which took place in 1832.
+
+It cannot be denied that the unrestrained liberty of association for
+political purposes, is the privilege which a people is longest in
+learning how to exercise. If it does not throw the nation into anarchy,
+it perpetually augments the chances of that calamity. On one point,
+however, this perilous liberty offers a security against dangers of
+another kind; in countries where associations are free, secret
+societies are unknown. In America there are numerous factions, but no
+conspiracies.
+
+The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting
+for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his
+fellow-creatures, and of acting in common with them. I am therefore led
+to conclude, that the right of association is almost as inalienable
+as the right of personal liberty. No legislator can attack it without
+impairing the very foundations of society. Nevertheless, if the liberty
+of association is a fruitful source of advantages and prosperity to some
+nations, it may be perverted or carried to excess by others, and
+the element of life may be changed into an element of destruction. A
+comparison of the different methods which associations pursue, in those
+countries in which they are managed with discretion, as well as in those
+where liberty degenerates into license, may perhaps be thought useful
+both to governments and to parties. The greater part of Europeans look
+upon an association as a weapon which is to be hastily fashioned,
+and immediately tried in the conflict. A society is to be formed for
+discussion, but the idea of impending action prevails in the minds of
+those who constitute it: it is, in fact, an army; and the time given to
+parley, serves to reckon up the strength and to animate the courage of
+the host, after which they direct the march against the enemy. Resources
+which lie within the bounds of the law may suggest themselves to the
+persons who compose it, as means, but never as the only means, of
+success.
+
+Such, however, is not the manner in which the right of association is
+understood in the United States. In America, the citizens who form
+the minority associate, in order, in the first place, to show their
+numerical strength, and so to diminish the moral authority of the
+majority; and, in the second place, to stimulate competition, and to
+discover those arguments which are most fitted to act upon the majority;
+for they always entertain hopes of drawing over their opponents to their
+own side, and of afterward disposing of the supreme power in their name.
+Political associations in the United States are therefore peaceable in
+their intentions, and strictly legal in the means which they employ; and
+they assert with perfect truth, that they only aim at success by lawful
+expedients.
+
+The difference which exists between the Americans and ourselves depends
+on several causes. In Europe there are numerous parties so diametrically
+opposed to the majority, that they can never hope to acquire its
+support, and at the same time they think that they are sufficiently
+strong in themselves to struggle and to defend their cause. When a party
+of this kind forms an association, its object is, not to conquer, but to
+fight. In America, the individuals who hold opinions very much opposed
+to those of the majority, are no sort of impediment to its power; and
+all other parties hope to win it over to their own principles in the
+end. The exercise of the right of association becomes dangerous in
+proportion to the impossibility which excludes great parties from
+acquiring the majority. In a country like the United States, in which
+the differences of opinion are mere differences of hue, the right of
+association may remain unrestrained without evil consequences. The
+inexperience of many of the European nations in the enjoyment of
+liberty, leads them only to look upon the liberty of association as
+a right of attacking the government. The first notion which presents
+itself to a party, as well as to an individual, when it has acquired a
+consciousness of its own strength, is that of violence: the notion
+of persuasion arises at a later period, and is only derived from
+experience. The English, who are divided into parties which differ most
+essentially from each other, rarely abuse the right of association,
+because they have long been accustomed to exercise it. In France, the
+passion for war is so intense that there is no undertaking so mad, or
+so injurious to the welfare of the state, that a man does not consider
+himself honored in defending it, at the risk of his life.
+
+But perhaps the most powerful of the causes which tend to mitigate the
+excesses of political association in the United States is universal
+suffrage. In countries in which universal suffrage exists, the majority
+is never doubtful, because neither party can pretend to represent that
+portion of the community which has not voted. The associations which
+are formed are aware, as well as the nation at large, that they do not
+represent the majority; this is, indeed, a condition inseparable from
+their existence; for if they did represent the preponderating power,
+they would change the law instead of soliciting its reform. The
+consequence of this is, that the moral influence of the government which
+they attack is very much increased, and their own power is very much
+enfeebled.
+
+In Europe there are few associations which do not affect to represent
+the majority, or which do not believe that they represent it. This
+conviction or this pretension tends to augment their force amazingly,
+and contributes no less to legalize their measures. Violence may seem to
+be excusable in defence of the cause of oppressed right. Thus it is,
+in the vast labyrinth of human laws, that extreme liberty sometimes
+corrects abuses of license, and that extreme democracy obviates the
+dangers of democratic government. In Europe, associations consider
+themselves, in some degree, as the legislative and executive councils of
+the people, which is unable to speak for itself. In America, where they
+only represent a minority of the nation, they argue and they petition.
+
+The means which the associations of Europe employ, are in accordance
+with the end which they propose to obtain. As the principal aim of these
+bodies is to act, and not to debate, to fight rather than to persuade,
+they are naturally led to adopt a form of organization which differs
+from the ordinary customs of civil bodies, and which assumes the habits
+and the maxims of military life. They centralize the direction of their
+resources as much as possible, and they intrust the power of the whole
+party to a very small number of leaders.
+
+The members of these associations reply to a watchword, like soldiers on
+duty: they profess the doctrine of passive obedience; say rather,
+that in uniting together they at once abjure the exercise of their
+own judgment and free will; and the tyrannical control, which these
+societies exercise, is often far more insupportable than the authority
+possessed over society by the government which they attack. Their moral
+force is much diminished by these excesses, and they lose the powerful
+interest which is always excited by a struggle between oppressors and
+the oppressed. The man who in given cases consents to obey his fellows
+with servility, and who submits his activity, and even his opinions, to
+their control, can have no claim to rank as a free citizen.
+
+The Americans have also established certain forms of government which
+are applied to their associations, but these are invariably borrowed
+from the forms of the civil administration. The independence of each
+individual is formally recognized; the tendency of the members of the
+association points, as it does in the body of the community, toward
+the same end, but they are not obliged to follow the same track. No
+one abjures the exercise of his reason and his free will; but every
+one exerts that reason and that will for the benefit of a common
+undertaking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GOVERNMENT OF THE DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.
+
+
+I am well aware of the difficulties which attend this part of my
+subject, but although every expression which I am about to make use
+of may clash, upon some one point, with the feelings of the different
+parties which divide my country, I shall speak my opinion with the most
+perfect openness.
+
+In Europe we are at a loss how to judge the true character and the more
+permanent propensities of democracy, because in Europe two conflicting
+principles exist, and we do not know what to attribute to the principles
+themselves, and what to refer to the passions which they bring into
+collision. Such, however, is not the case in America; there the people
+reigns without any obstacle, and it has no perils to dread, and no
+injuries to avenge. In America, democracy is swayed by its own free
+propensities; its course is natural, and its activity is unrestrained:
+the United States consequently afford the most favorable opportunity of
+studying its real character. And to no people can this inquiry be more
+vitally interesting than to the French nation, which is blindly driven
+onward by a daily and irresistible impulse, toward a state of things
+which may prove either despotic or republican, but which will assuredly
+be democratic.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
+
+I have already observed that universal suffrage has been adopted in
+all the states of the Union: it consequently occurs among different
+populations which occupy very different positions in the scale of
+society. I have had opportunities of observing its effects in different
+localities, and among races of men who are nearly strangers to each
+other by their language, their religion, and their manner of life; in
+Louisiana as well as in New England, in Georgia and in Canada. I have
+remarked that universal suffrage is far from producing in America either
+all the good or all the evil consequences which are assigned to it in
+Europe, and that its effects differ very widely from those which are
+usually attributed to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHOICE OF THE PEOPLE, AND INSTINCTIVE PREFERENCES OF THE AMERICAN
+DEMOCRACY.
+
+In the United States the most talented Individuals are rarely placed
+at the Head of Affairs.--Reasons of this Peculiarity.--The Envy which
+prevails in the lower Orders of France against the higher Classes, is
+not a French, but a purely democratic Sentiment.--For what Reason the
+most distinguished Men in America frequently seclude themselves from
+public affairs.
+
+Many people in Europe are apt to believe without saying it, or to say
+without believing it, that one of the great advantages of universal
+suffrage is, that it intrusts the direction of public affairs to men
+who are worthy of the public confidence. They admit that the people is
+unable to govern for itself, but they aver that it is always sincerely
+disposed to promote the welfare of the state, and that it instinctively
+designates those persons who are animated by the same good wishes, and
+who are the most fit to wield the supreme authority. I confess that the
+observations I made in America by no means coincide with these opinions.
+On my arrival in the United States I was surprised to find so much
+distinguished talent among the subjects, and so little among the heads
+of the government. It is a well-authenticated fact, that at the present
+day the most talented men in the United States are very rarely placed at
+the head of affairs; and it must be acknowledged that such has been the
+result, in proportion as democracy has outstepped all its former limits.
+The race of American statesmen has evidently dwindled most remarkably in
+the course of the last fifty years.
+
+Several causes may be assigned to this phenomenon. It is impossible,
+notwithstanding the most strenuous exertions, to raise the intelligence
+of the people above a certain level. Whatever may be the facilities of
+acquiring information, whatever may be the profusion of easy methods and
+of cheap science, the human mind can never be instructed and educated
+without devoting a considerable space of time to those objects.
+
+The greater or the lesser possibility of subsisting without labor is
+therefore the necessary boundary of intellectual improvement. This
+boundary is more remote in some countries, and more restricted in
+others; but it must exist somewhere as long as the people is constrained
+to work in order to procure the means of physical subsistence, that is
+to say, as long as it retains its popular character. It is therefore
+quite as difficult to imagine a state in which all the citizens should
+be very well-informed, as a state in which they should all be wealthy;
+these two difficulties may be looked upon as correlative. It may very
+readily be admitted that the mass of the citizens are sincerely disposed
+to promote the welfare of their country; nay more, it may even
+be allowed that the lower classes are less apt to be swayed by
+considerations of personal interest than the higher orders; but it is
+always more or less impossible for them to discern the best means of
+attaining the end, which they desire with sincerity. Long and patient
+observation, joined to a multitude of different notions, is required to
+form a just estimate of the character of a single individual; and can it
+be supposed that the vulgar have the power of succeeding in an inquiry
+which misleads the penetration of genius itself? The people has neither
+the time nor the means which are essential to the prosecution of an
+investigation of this kind; its conclusions are hastily formed from a
+superficial inspection of the more prominent features of a question.
+Hence it often assents to the clamor of a mountebank, who knows the
+secret of stimulating its tastes; while its truest friends frequently
+fail in their exertions.
+
+Moreover, the democracy is not only deficient in that soundness of
+judgment which is necessary to select men really deserving of its
+confidence, but it has neither the desire nor the inclination to find
+them out. It cannot be denied that democratic institutions have a very
+strong tendency to promote the feeling of envy in the human heart; not
+so much because they afford to every one the means of rising to the
+level of any of his fellow-citizens, as because those means perpetually
+disappoint the persons who employ them. Democratic institutions awaken
+and foster a passion for equality which they can never entirely satisfy.
+This complete equality eludes the grasp of the people at the very moment
+when it thinks to hold it fast, and "flies," as Pascal says, "with
+eternal flight;" the people is excited in the pursuit of an advantage,
+which is the more precious because it is not sufficiently remote to
+be unknown, or sufficiently near to be enjoyed. The lower orders
+are agitated by the chance of success, they are irritated by its
+uncertainty; and they pass from the enthusiasm of pursuit to the
+exhaustion of ill-success, and lastly to the acrimony of disappointment.
+Whatever transcends their own limits appears to be an obstacle to their
+desires, and there is no kind of superiority, however legitimate it may
+be, which is not irksome in their sight.
+
+It has been supposed that the secret instinct, which leads the lower
+orders to remove their superiors as much as possible from the direction
+of public affairs, is peculiar to France. This, however, is an error;
+the propensity to which I allude is not inherent in any particular
+nation, but in democratic institutions in general; and although it may
+have been heightened by peculiar political circumstances, it owes its
+origin to a higher cause.
+
+In the United States, the people is not disposed to hate the superior
+class of society; but it is not very favorably inclined toward them, and
+it carefully excludes them from the exercise of authority. It does
+not entertain any dread of distinguished talents, but it is rarely
+captivated by them; and it awards its approbation very sparingly to such
+as have risen without the popular support.
+
+While the natural propensities of democracy induce the people to reject
+the most distinguished citizens as its rulers, these individuals are
+no less apt to retire from a political career, in which it is almost
+impossible to retain their independence, or to advance without degrading
+themselves. This opinion has been very candidly set forth by Chancellor
+Kent, who says, in speaking with great eulogium of that part of the
+constitution which empowers the executive to nominate the judges: "It is
+indeed probable that the men who are best fitted to discharge the duties
+of this high office would have too much reserve in their manners, and
+too much austerity in their principles, for them to be returned by the
+majority at an election where universal suffrage is adopted." Such were
+the opinions which were printed without contradiction in America in the
+year 1830.
+
+I hold it to be sufficiently demonstrated, that universal suffrage is
+by no means a guarantee of the wisdom of the popular choice; and that
+whatever its advantages may be, this is not one of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CAUSES WHICH MAY PARTLY CORRECT THESE TENDENCIES OF THE DEMOCRACY.
+
+Contrary Effects produced on Peoples as well as on individuals by great
+Dangers.--Why so many distinguished Men stood at the Head of Affairs
+in America fifty Years ago.--Influence which the intelligence and
+the Manners of the People exercise upon its choice.--Example of New
+England.--States of the Southwest--Influence of certain Laws upon the
+Choice of the People.--Election by an elected Body.--Its Effects upon
+the Composition of the Senate.
+
+When a state is threatened by serious dangers, the people frequently
+succeed in selecting the citizens who are the most able to save it.
+It has been observed that man rarely retains his customary level in
+presence of very critical circumstances; he rises above, or he sinks
+below, his usual condition, and the same thing occurs in nations at
+large. Extreme perils sometimes quench the energy of a people instead of
+stimulating it; they excite without directing its passions; and instead
+of clearing, they confuse its powers of perception. The Jews deluged the
+smoking ruins of their temples with the carnage of the remnant of their
+host. But it is more common, both in the case of nations and in that
+of individuals, to find extraordinary virtues arising from the very
+imminence of the danger. Great characters are then thrown into
+relief, as the edifices which are concealed by the gloom of night, are
+illuminated by the glare of a conflagration. At those dangerous times
+genius no longer abstains from presenting itself in the arena; and
+the people, alarmed by the perils of its situation, buries its envious
+passions in a short oblivion. Great names may then be drawn from the urn
+of an election.
+
+I have already observed that the American statesmen of the present day
+are very inferior to those who stood at the head of affairs fifty years
+ago. This is as much a consequence of the circumstances, as of the
+laws of the country. When America was struggling in the high cause of
+independence to throw off the yoke of another country, and when it
+was about to usher a new nation into the world, the spirits of its
+inhabitants were roused to the height which their great efforts
+required. In this general excitement, the most distinguished men were
+ready to forestall the wants of the community, and the people clung
+to them for support, and placed them at its head. But events of this
+magnitude are rare; and it is from an inspection of the ordinary course
+of affairs that our judgment must be formed.
+
+If passing occurrences sometimes act as checks upon the passions of
+democracy, the intelligence and the manners of the community exercise
+an influence which is not less powerful, and far more permanent. This is
+extremely perceptible in the United States.
+
+In New England the education and the liberties of the communities were
+engendered by the moral and religious principles of their founders.
+Where society has acquired a sufficient degree of stability to enable it
+to hold certain maxims and to retain fixed habits, the lower orders
+are accustomed to respect intellectual superiority, and to submit to
+it without complaint, although they set at naught all those privileges
+which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind. The democracy
+in New England consequently makes a more judicious choice than it does
+elsewhere.
+
+But as we descend toward the south, to those states in which the
+constitution of society is more modern and less strong, where
+instruction is less general, and where the principles of morality, of
+religion, and of liberty, are less happily combined, we perceive that
+the talents and the virtues of those who are in authority become more
+and more rare.
+
+Lastly, when we arrive at the new southwestern states, in which the
+constitution of society dates but from yesterday, and presents an
+agglomeration of adventurers and speculators, we are amazed at the
+persons who are invested with public authority, and we are led to ask by
+what force, independent of the legislation and of the men who direct it,
+the state can be protected, and society be made to flourish.
+
+There are certain laws of a democratic nature which contribute,
+nevertheless, to correct, in some measure, the dangerous tendencies of
+democracy. On entering the house of representatives at Washington,
+one is struck by the vulgar demeanor of that great assembly. The eye
+frequently does not discover a man of celebrity within its walls. Its
+members are almost all obscure individuals, whose names present no
+associations to the mind: they are mostly village-lawyers, men in trade,
+or even persons belonging to the lower classes of society. In a country
+in which education is very general, it is said that the representatives
+of the people do not always know how to write correctly.
+
+At a few yards distance from this spot is the door of the senate, which
+contains within a small space a large proportion of the celebrated men
+of America. Scarcely an individual is to be perceived in it who does
+not recall the idea of an active and illustrious career: the senate
+is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguished generals, wise
+magistrates, and statesmen of note, whose language would at all times do
+honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe.
+
+What then is the cause of this strange contrast, and why are the most
+able citizens to be found in one assembly rather than in the other?
+Why is the former body remarkable for its vulgarity and its poverty of
+talent, while the latter seems to enjoy a monopoly of intelligence and
+of sound judgment? Both of these assemblies emanate from the people;
+both of them are chosen by universal suffrage; and no voice has hitherto
+been heard to assert, in America, that the senate is hostile to the
+interests of the people. From what cause, then, does so startling a
+difference arise? The only reason which appears to me adequately to
+account for it is, that the house of representatives is elected by the
+populace directly, and that of the senate is elected by elected bodies.
+The whole body of the citizens names the legislature of each state,
+and the federal constitution converts these legislatures into so many
+electoral bodies, which return the members of the senate. The senators
+are elected by an indirect application of universal suffrage; for the
+legislatures which name them are not aristocratic or privileged bodies
+which exercise the electoral franchise in their own right; but they are
+chosen by the totality of the citizens; they are generally elected every
+year, and new members may constantly be chosen, who will employ their
+electoral rights in conformity with the wishes of the public. But this
+transmission of the popular authority through an assembly of chosen
+men, operates an important change in it, by refining its discretion and
+improving the forms which it adopts. Men who are chosen in this manner,
+accurately represent the majority of the nation which governs them; but
+they represent the elevated thoughts which are current in the community,
+the generous propensities which prompt its nobler actions, rather than
+the petty passions which disturb, or the vices which disgrace it.
+
+The time may be already anticipated at which the American republics will
+be obliged to introduce the plan of election by an elected body more
+frequently into their system of representation, or they will incur no
+small risk of perishing miserably among the shoals of democracy.
+
+And here I have no scruple in confessing that I look upon this peculiar
+system of election as the only means of bringing the exercise of
+political power to the level of all classes of the people. Those
+thinkers who regard this institution as the exclusive weapon of a party,
+and those who fear, on the other hand, to make use of it, seem to me to
+fall into as great an error in the one case as in the other.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INFLUENCE WHICH THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HAS EXERCISED ON THE LAWS
+RELATING TO ELECTIONS.
+
+When Elections are rare, they expose the State to a violent
+Crisis.--When they are frequent, they keep up a degree of feverish
+Excitement.--The Americans have preferred the second of these two
+Evils.--Mutability of the Laws.--Opinions of Hamilton and Jefferson on
+this Subject.
+
+When elections recur at long intervals, the state is exposed to violent
+agitation every time they take place. Parties exert themselves to the
+utmost in order to gain a prize which is so rarely within their reach;
+and as the evil is almost irremediable for the candidates who fail, the
+consequence of their disappointed ambition may prove most disastrous:
+if, on the other hand, the legal struggle can be repeated within a short
+space of time, the defeated parties take patience.
+
+When elections occur frequently, this recurrence keeps society in
+a perpetual state of feverish excitement, and imparts a continual
+instability to public affairs.
+
+Thus, on the one hand, the state is exposed to the perils of a
+revolution, on the other, to perpetual mutability; the former system
+threatens the very existence of the government, the latter is an
+obstacle to all steady and consistent policy. The Americans have
+preferred the second of these evils to the first; but they were led to
+this conclusion by their instinct much more than by their reason; for a
+taste for variety is one of the characteristic passions of democracy. An
+extraordinary mutability has, by this means, been introduced into their
+legislation.
+
+Many of the Americans consider the instability of their laws as a
+necessary consequence of a system whose general results are beneficial.
+But no one in the United States affects to deny the fact of this
+instability, or to contend that it is not a great evil.
+
+Hamilton, after having demonstrated the utility of a power which might
+prevent, or which might at least impede, the promulgation of bad laws,
+adds: "It may perhaps be said that the power of preventing bad laws
+includes that of preventing good ones, and may be used to the one
+purpose as well as to the other. But this objection will have but
+little weight with those who can properly estimate the mischiefs of that
+inconstancy and mutability in the laws which form the greatest blemish
+in the character and genius of our government."--(Federalist, No. 73.)
+
+And again, in No. 62 of the same work, he observes: "The facility and
+excess of law-making seem to be the diseases to which our governments
+are most liable.... The mischievous effects of the mutability in the
+public councils arising from a rapid succession of new members, would
+fill a volume; every new election in the states is found to change one
+half of the representatives. From this change of men must proceed
+a change of opinions and of measures which forfeits the respect and
+confidence of nations, poisons the blessings of liberty itself, and
+diminishes the attachment and reverence of the people toward a political
+system which betrays so many marks of infirmity."
+
+Jefferson himself, the greatest democrat whom the democracy of America
+has as yet produced, pointed out the same evils.
+
+"The instability of our laws," he said in a letter to Madison, "is
+really a very serious inconvenience. I think we ought to have obviated
+it by deciding that a whole year should always be allowed to elapse
+between the bringing in of a bill and the final passing of it. It should
+afterward be discussed and put to the vote without the possibility
+of making any alteration in it; and if the circumstances of the case
+required a more speedy decision, the question should not be decided by
+a simple majority, but by a majority of at least two thirds of both
+houses."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLIC OFFICERS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE DEMOCRACY OF AMERICA.
+
+Simple Exterior of the American public Officers.--No official
+Costume.--All public Officers are remunerated.--Political Consequences
+of this System.--No public Career exists in America.--Result of this.
+
+Public officers in the United States are commingled with the crowd
+of citizens; they have neither palaces, nor guards, nor ceremonial
+costumes. This simple exterior of the persons in authority is connected,
+not only with the peculiarities of the American character, but with
+the fundamental principles of that society. In the estimation of the
+democracy, a government is not a benefit, but a necessary evil. A
+certain degree of power must be granted to public officers, for they
+would be of no use without it. But the ostensible semblance of authority
+is by no means indispensable to the conduct of affairs; and it is
+needlessly offensive to the susceptibility of the public. The public
+officers themselves are well aware that they only enjoy the superiority
+over their fellow citizens, which they derive from their authority, upon
+condition of putting themselves on a level with the whole community by
+their manners. A public officer in the United States is uniformly civil,
+accessible to all the world, attentive to all requests, and obliging in
+all his replies. I was pleased by these characteristics of a democratic
+government; and I was struck by the manly independence of the citizens,
+who respect the office more than the officer, and who are less attached
+to the emblems of authority than to the man who bears them.
+
+I am inclined to believe that the influence which costumes really
+exercise, in an age like that in which we live, has been a good deal
+exaggerated. I never perceived that a public officer in America was the
+less respected while he was in the discharge of his duties because his
+own merit was set off by no adventitious signs. On the other hand, it is
+very doubtful whether a peculiar dress contributes to the respect which
+public characters ought to have for their own position, at least when
+they are not otherwise inclined to respect it. When a magistrate (and
+in France such instances are not rare), indulges his trivial wit at the
+expense of a prisoner, or derides a predicament in which a culprit is
+placed, it would be well to deprive him of his robes of office, to see
+whether he would recall some portion of the natural dignity of mankind
+when he is reduced to the apparel of a private citizen.
+
+A democracy may, however, allow a certain show of magisterial pomp, and
+clothe its officers in silks and gold, without seriously compromising
+its principles. Privileges of this kind are transitory; they belong to
+the place, and are distinct from the individual: but if public officers
+are not uniformly remunerated by the state, the public charges must be
+intrusted to men of opulence and independence, who constitute the
+basis of an aristocracy; and if the people still retains its right
+of election, that election can only be made from a certain class of
+citizens.
+
+When a democratic republic renders offices which had formerly been
+remunerated, gratuitous, it may safely be believed that that state is
+advancing to monarchical institutions; and when a monarchy begins to
+remunerate such officers as had hitherto been unpaid, it is a sure
+sign that it is approaching toward a despotic or a republican form of
+government. The substitution of paid for unpaid functionaries is of
+itself, in my opinion, sufficient to constitute a serious revolution.
+
+I look upon the entire absence of gratuitous functionaries in America as
+one of the most prominent signs of the absolute dominion which democracy
+exercises in that country. All public services, of whatsoever nature
+they may be, are paid; so that every one has not merely a right, but
+also the means of performing them. Although, in democratic states, all
+the citizens are qualified to occupy stations in the government, all
+are not tempted to try for them. The number and the capacities of the
+candidates are more apt to restrict the choice of electors than the
+conditions of the candidateship.
+
+In nations in which the principle of election extends to every place in
+the state, no political career can, properly speaking, be said to exist.
+Men are promoted as if by chance to the rank which they enjoy, and
+they are by no means sure of retaining it. The consequence is that in
+tranquil times public functions offer but few lures to ambition. In the
+United States the persons who engage in the perplexities of political
+life are individuals of very moderate pretensions. The pursuit of wealth
+generally diverts men of great talents and of great passions from the
+pursuit of power; and it very frequently happens that a man does not
+undertake to direct the fortune of the state until he has discovered
+his incompetence to conduct his own affairs. The vast number of very
+ordinary men who occupy public stations is quite as attributable to
+these causes as to the bad choice of the democracy. In the United
+States, I am not sure that the people would return the men of superior
+abilities who might solicit its support, but it is certain that men of
+this description do not come forward.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ARBITRARY POWER OF MAGISTRATES[164] UNDER THE RULE OF AMERICAN
+DEMOCRACY.
+
+For what Reason the arbitrary Power of Magistrates is greater in
+absolute Monarchies and in democratic Republics that it is in limited
+Monarchies.--Arbitrary Power of the Magistrates in New England.
+
+In two different kinds of government the magistrates exercise a
+considerable degree of arbitrary power; namely, under the absolute
+government of a single individual, and under that of a democracy.
+
+This identical result proceeds from causes which are nearly analogous.
+
+In despotic states the fortune of no citizen is secure; and public
+officers are not more safe than private individuals. The sovereign, who
+has under his control the lives, the property, and sometimes the honor
+of the men whom he employs, does not scruple to allow them a great
+latitude of action, because he is convinced that they will not use it
+to his prejudice. In despotic states the sovereign is so attached to the
+exercise of his power, that he dislikes the constraint even of his own
+regulations; and he is well pleased that his agents should follow a
+somewhat fortuitous line of conduct, provided he be certain that their
+actions will never counteract his desires.
+
+In democracies, as the majority has every year the right of depriving
+the officers whom it has appointed of their power, it has no reason to
+fear abuse of their authority. As the people is always able to signify
+its wishes to those who conduct the government, it prefers leaving
+them to make their own exertions, to prescribing an invariable rule
+of conduct which would at once fetter their activity and the popular
+authority.
+
+It may even be observed, on attentive consideration, that under the
+rule of a democracy the arbitrary power of the magistrate must be still
+greater than in despotic states. In the latter, the sovereign has the
+power of punishing all the faults with which he becomes acquainted, but
+it would be vain for him to hope to become acquainted with all those
+which are committed. In the former the sovereign power is not only
+supreme, but it is universally present. The American functionaries are,
+in point of fact, much more independent in the sphere of action which
+the law traces out for them, than any public officer in Europe. Very
+frequently the object which they are to accomplish is simply pointed out
+to them, and the choice of the means is left to their own discretion.
+
+In New England, for instance, the selectmen of each township are bound
+to draw up the list of persons who are to serve on the jury; the only
+rule which is laid down to guide them in their choice is that they are
+to select citizens possessing the elective franchise and enjoying a fair
+reputation.[165] In France the lives and liberties of the subjects
+would be thought to be in danger, if a public officer of any kind
+was intrusted with so formidable a right. In New England, the same
+magistrates are empowered to post the names of habitual drunkards in
+public houses, and to prohibit the inhabitants of a town from supplying
+them with liquor.[166] A censorial power of this excessive kind would
+be revolting to the population of the most absolute monarchies; here,
+however, it is submitted to without difficulty.
+
+Nowhere has so much been left by the law to the arbitrary determination
+of the magistrates as in democratic republics, because this arbitrary
+power is unattended by any alarming consequences. It may even be
+asserted that the freedom of the magistrate increases as the elective
+franchise is extended, and as the duration of the time of office
+is shortened. Hence arises the great difficulty which attends the
+conversion of a democratic republic into a monarchy. The magistrate
+ceases to be elective, but he retains the rights and the habits of an
+elected officer, which lead directly to despotism.
+
+It is only in limited monarchies that the law which prescribes the
+sphere in which public officers are to act, superintends all their
+measures. The cause of this may be easily detected. In limited
+monarchies the power is divided between the king and the people, both
+of whom are interested in the stability of the magistrate. The king
+does not venture to place the public officers under the control of the
+people, lest they should be tempted to betray his interests; on the
+other hand, the people fears lest the magistrates should serve to
+oppress the liberties of the country, if they were entirely dependent
+upon the crown: they cannot therefore be said to depend on either the
+one or the other. The same cause which induces the king and the people
+to render public officers independent, suggests the necessity of such
+securities as may prevent their independence from encroaching upon
+the authority of the former and the liberties of the latter. They
+consequently agree as to the necessity of restricting the functionary
+to a line of conduct laid down beforehand, and they are interested in
+confining him by certain regulations which he cannot evade.
+
+[The observations respecting the arbitrary powers of magistrates are
+practically among the most erroneous in the work. The author seems to
+have confounded the idea of magistrates being _independent_ with their
+being arbitrary. Yet he had just before spoken of their dependance on
+popular election as a reason why there was no apprehension of the abuse
+of their authority. The independence, then, to which he alludes must
+be an immunity from responsibility to any other department. But it is
+a fundamental principle of our system, that all officers are liable to
+criminal prosecution "whenever they act partially or oppressively from
+a malicious or corrupt motive." See 15 Wendell's Reports, 278. That
+our magistrates are independent when they do not act partially or
+oppressively is very true, and, it is to be hoped, is equally true in
+every form of government. There would seem, therefore, not to be such
+a degree of independence as necessarily to produce arbitrariness. The
+author supposes that magistrates are more arbitrary in a despotism
+and in a democracy than in a limited monarchy. And yet, the limits of
+independence and of responsibility existing in the United States are
+borrowed from and identical with those established in England--the most
+prominent instance of a limited monarchy. See the authorities referred
+to in the case in Wendell's Reports, before quoted. Discretion in
+the execution of various ministerial duties, and in the awarding of
+punishment by judicial officers, is indispensable in every system of
+government, from the utter impossibility of "laying down beforehand a
+line of conduct" (as the author expresses it) in such cases. The very
+instances of discretionary power to which he refers, and which he
+considers _arbitrary_, exist in England. There, the persons from whom
+juries are to be formed for the trial of causes, civil and criminal,
+are selected by the sheriffs, who are appointed by the crown--a
+power, certainly more liable to abuse in their hands, than in those of
+selectmen or other town-officers, chosen annually by the people.
+The other power referred to, that of posting the names of habitual
+drunkards, and forbidding their being supplied with liquor, is but a
+reiteration of the principles contained in the English statute of 32
+Geo. III., ch. 45, respecting idle and disorderly persons. Indeed it
+may be said with great confidence, that there is not an instance of
+discretionary power being vested in American magistrates which does not
+find its prototype in the English laws. The whole argument of the author
+on this point, therefore, would seem to fail.--_American Editor_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INSTABILITY OF THE ADMINISTRATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+In America the public Acts of a Community frequently leave fewer Traces
+than the Occurrences of a Family.--Newspapers the only historical
+Remains.--Instability of the Administration prejudicial to the Art of
+Government.
+
+The authority which public men possess in America is so brief, and they
+are so soon commingled with the ever-changing population of the country,
+that the acts of a community frequently leave fewer traces than the
+occurrences of a private family. The public administration is, so to
+speak, oral and traditionary. But little is committed to writing, and
+that little is wafted away for ever, like the leaves of the sibyl, by
+the smallest breeze.
+
+The only historical remains in the United States are the newspapers; but
+if a number be wanting, the chain of time is broken, and the present
+is severed from the past. I am convinced that in fifty years it will
+be more difficult to collect authentic documents concerning the social
+condition of the Americans at the present day, than it is to find
+remains of the administration of France during the middle ages; and if
+the United States were ever invaded by barbarians, it would be necessary
+to have recourse to the history of other nations, in order to learn
+anything of the people which now inhabits them.
+
+The instability of the administration has penetrated into the habits of
+the people: it even appears to suit the general taste, and no one cares
+for what occurred before his time. No methodical system is pursued; no
+archives are formed; and no documents are brought together when it would
+be very easy to do so. Where they exist little store is set upon them;
+and I have among my papers several original public documents which were
+given to me in answer to some of my inquiries. In America society seems
+to live from hand to mouth, like an army in the field. Nevertheless,
+the art of administration may undoubtedly be ranked as a science, and
+no sciences can be improved, if the discoveries and observations of
+successive generations are not connected together in the order in which
+they occur. One man, in the short space of his life, remarks a fact;
+another conceives an idea; the former invents a means of execution, the
+latter reduces a truth to a fixed proposition; and mankind gathers the
+fruits of individual experience upon its way, and gradually forms the
+sciences. But the persons who conduct the administration in America can
+seldom afford any instruction to each other; and when they assume the
+direction of society, they simply possess those attainments which are
+most widely disseminated in the community, and no experience peculiar
+to themselves. Democracy, carried to its farthest limits, is therefore
+prejudicial to the art of government; and for this reason it is better
+adapted to a people already versed in the conduct of an administration,
+than to a nation which is uninitiated in public affairs.
+
+This remark, indeed, is not exclusively applicable to the science of
+administration. Although a democratic government is founded upon a very
+simple and natural principle, it always presupposes the existence of a
+high degree of culture and enlightenment in society.[167] At the first
+glance it may be imagined to belong to the earliest ages of the world;
+but maturer observation will convince us that it could only come last in
+the succession of human history.
+
+[These remarks upon the "instability of administration" in America,
+are partly correct, but partly erroneous. It is certainly true that
+our public men are not educated to the business of government; even our
+diplomatists are selected with very little reference to their experience
+in that department. But the universal attention that is paid by the
+intelligent, to the measures of government and to the discussions
+to which they give rise, is in itself no slight preparation for
+the ordinary duties of legislation. And, indeed, this the author
+subsequently seems to admit. As to there being "no archives formed"
+of public documents, the author is certainly mistaken. The journals
+of congress, the journals of state legislatures, the public documents
+transmitted to and originating in those bodies, are carefully preserved
+and disseminated through the nation: and they furnish in themselves the
+materials of a full and accurate history. Our great defect, doubtless,
+is in the want of statistical information. Excepting the annual reports
+of the state of our commerce, made by the secretary of the treasury,
+under law, and excepting the census which is taken every ten years under
+the authority of congress, and those taken by the states, we have no
+official statistics. It is supposed that the author had this species of
+information in his mind when he alluded to the general deficiency of our
+archives.--_American Editor_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARGES LEVIED BY THE STATE UNDER THE RULE OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
+
+In all Communities Citizens divisible into three Classes.--Habits of
+each of these Classes in the Direction of public Finances.--Why public
+Expenditures must tend to increase when the People governs.--What
+renders the Extravagance of a Democracy less to be feared in
+America.--Public Expenditure under a Democracy.
+
+Before we can affirm whether a democratic form of government is
+economical or not, we must establish a suitable standard of comparison.
+The question would be one of easy solution if we were to attempt to draw
+a parallel between a democratic republic and an absolute monarchy. The
+public expenditure would be found to be more considerable under the
+former than under the latter; such is the case with all free states
+compared to those which are not so. It is certain that despotism ruins
+individuals by preventing them from producing wealth, much more than by
+depriving them of the wealth they have produced: it dries up the source
+of riches, while it usually respects acquired property. Freedom, on the
+contrary, engenders far more benefits than it destroys; and the nations
+which are favored by free institutions, invariably find that their
+resources increase even more rapidly than their taxes.
+
+My present object is to compare free nations to each other; and to point
+out the influence of democracy upon the finances of a state.
+
+Communities, as well as organic bodies, are subject to certain fixed
+rules in their formation which they cannot evade. They are composed of
+certain elements which are common to them at all times and under all
+circumstances. The people may always be mentally divided into three
+distinct classes. The first of these classes consists of the wealthy;
+the second, of those who are in easy circumstances; and the third is
+composed of those who have little or no property, and who subsist more
+especially by the work which they perform for the two superior orders.
+The proportion of the individuals who are included in these three
+divisions may vary according to the condition of society; but the
+divisions themselves can never be obliterated.
+
+It is evident that each of these classes will exercise an influence,
+peculiar to its own propensities, upon the administration of the
+finances of the state. If the first of the three exclusively possess
+the legislative power, it is probable that it will not be sparing of the
+public funds, because the taxes which are levied on a large fortune only
+tend to diminish the sum of superfluous enjoyment, and are, in point of
+fact, but little felt. If the second class has the power of making the
+laws, it will certainly not be lavish of taxes, because nothing is
+so onerous as a large impost which is levied upon a small income.
+The government of the middle classes appears to me to be the most
+economical, though perhaps not the most enlightened, and certainly not
+the most generous, of free governments.
+
+But let us now suppose that the legislative authority is vested in
+the lowest orders: there are two striking reasons which show that the
+tendency of the expenditure will be to increase, not to diminish.
+
+As the great majority of those who create the laws are possessed of no
+property upon which taxes can be imposed, all the money which is spent
+for the community appears to be spent to their advantage, at no cost of
+their own; and those who are possessed of some little property readily
+find means of regulating the taxes so that they are burthensome to the
+wealthy and profitable to the poor, although the rich are unable to take
+the same advantage when they are in possession of the government.
+
+In countries in which the poor[168] should be exclusively invested with
+the power of making the laws, no great economy of public expenditure
+ought to be expected; that expenditure will always be considerable;
+either because the taxes do not weigh upon those who levy them, or
+because they are levied in such a manner as not to weigh upon those
+classes. In other words, the government of the democracy is the only one
+under which the power which lays on taxes escapes the payment of them.
+
+It may be objected (but the argument has no real weight) that the
+true interest of the people is indissolubly connected with that of the
+wealthier portion of the community, since it cannot but suffer by the
+severe measures to which it resorts. But is it not the true interest of
+kings to render their subjects happy; and the true interest of nobles
+to admit recruits into their order on suitable grounds? If remote
+advantages had power to prevail over the passions and the exigencies
+of the moment, no such thing as a tyrannical sovereign or an exclusive
+aristocracy could ever exist.
+
+Again, it may be objected that the poor are never invested with the sole
+power of making the laws; but I reply, that wherever universal suffrage
+has been established, the majority of the community unquestionably
+exercises the legislative authority, and if it be proved that the poor
+always constitute the majority, it may be added, with perfect truth,
+that in the countries in which they possess the elective franchise, they
+possess the sole power of making laws. But it is certain that in all the
+nations of the world the greater number has always consisted of those
+persons who hold no property, or of those whose property is insufficient
+to exempt them from the necessity of working in order to procure an easy
+subsistence. Universal suffrage does therefore in point of fact invest
+the poor with the government of society.
+
+The disastrous influence which popular authority may sometimes exercise
+upon the finances of a state, was very clearly seen in some of the
+democratic republics of antiquity, in which the public treasure was
+exhausted in order to relieve indigent citizens, or to supply the
+games and theatrical amusements of the populace. It is true that the
+representative system was then very imperfectly known, and that, at
+the present time, the influence of popular passions is less felt in the
+conduct of public affairs; but it may be believed that the delegate
+will in the end conform to the principles of his constituents, and favor
+their propensities as much as their interests.
+
+The extravagance of democracy is, however, less to be dreaded in
+proportion as the people acquires a share of property, because on the
+one hand the contributions of the rich are then less needed, and on
+the other, it is more difficult to lay on taxes which do not affect the
+interests of the lower classes. On this account universal suffrage
+would be less dangerous in France than in England, because in the latter
+country the property on which taxes may be levied is vested in fewer
+hands. America, where the great majority of the citizens is possessed of
+some fortune, is in a still more favorable position than France.
+
+There are still farther causes which may increase the sum of public
+expenditures in democratic countries. When the aristocracy governs, the
+individuals who conduct the affairs of state are exempted, by their own
+station in society, from every kind of privation: they are contented
+with their position; power and renown are the objects for which they
+strive; and, as they are placed far above the obscurer throng of
+citizens, they do not always distinctly perceive how the wellbeing of
+the mass of the people ought to redound to their own honor. They are
+not indeed, callous to the sufferings of the poor, but they cannot feel
+those miseries as acutely as if they were themselves partakers of them.
+Provided that the people appear to submit to its lot, the rulers are
+satisfied and they demand nothing farther from the government. An
+aristocracy is more intent upon the means of maintaining its influence,
+than upon the means of improving its condition.
+
+When, on the contrary, the people is invested with the supreme
+authority, the perpetual sense of their own miseries impels the rulers
+of society to seek for perpetual meliorations. A thousand different
+objects are subjected to improvement; the most trivial details are
+sought out as susceptible of amendment; and those changes which are
+accompanied with considerable expense, are more especially advocated,
+since the object is to render the condition of the poor more tolerable,
+who cannot pay for themselves.
+
+Moreover, all democratic communities are agitated by an ill-defined
+excitement, and by a kind of feverish impatience, that engenders a
+multitude of innovations, almost all of which are attended with expense.
+
+In monarchies and aristocracies, the natural taste which the rulers have
+for power and for renown, is stimulated by the promptings of ambition,
+and they are frequently incited by these temptations to very costly
+undertakings. In democracies, where the rulers labor under privations,
+they can only be courted by such means as improve their wellbeing, and
+these improvements cannot take place without a sacrifice of money. When
+a people begins to reflect upon its situation, it discovers a multitude
+of wants, to which it had not before been subject, and to satisfy these
+exigencies, recourse must be had to the coffers of the state. Hence it
+arises, that the public charges increase in proportion as civilisation
+spreads, and that the imposts are augmented as knowledge pervades the
+community.
+
+The last cause which frequently renders a democratic government
+dearer than any other is, that a democracy does not always succeed in
+moderating its expenditure, because it does not understand the art of
+being economical. As the designs which it entertains are frequently
+changed, and the agents of those designs are more frequently removed,
+its undertakings are often ill-conducted or left unfinished; in the
+former case the state spends sums out of all proportion to the end
+which it proposes to accomplish; in the second, the expense itself is
+unprofitable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY AS REGARDS THE SALARIES OF PUBLIC
+OFFICERS.
+
+In Democracies those who establish high Salaries have no Chance of
+profiting by them.--Tendency of the American Democracy to increase
+the Salaries of subordinate Officers, and to lower those of the more
+important functionaries.--Reason of this.--Comparative Statement of the
+Salaries of public Officers in the United States and in France.
+
+There is a powerful reason which usually induces democracies to
+economise upon the salaries of public officers. As the number of
+citizens who dispense the remuneration is extremely large in democratic
+countries, so the number of persons who can hope to be benefited by the
+receipt of it is comparatively small. In aristocratic countries, on the
+contrary, the individuals who appoint high salaries, have almost always
+a vague hope of profiting by them. These appointments may be looked
+upon as a capital which they create for their own use, or at least, as a
+resource for their children.
+
+It must, however, be allowed that a democratic state is most
+parsimonious toward its principal agents. In America the secondary
+officers are much better paid, and the dignitaries of the administration
+much worse than they are elsewhere.
+
+These opposite effects result from the same cause: the people fixes
+the salaries of the public officers in both cases; and the scale of
+remuneration is determined by the consideration of its own wants. It is
+held to be fair that the servants of the public should be placed in the
+same easy circumstances as the public itself;[169] but when the question
+turns upon the salaries of the great officers of state, this rule
+fails, and chance alone can guide the popular decision. The poor have
+no adequate conceptions of the wants which the higher classes of society
+may feel. The sum which is scanty to the rich, appears enormous to the
+poor man, whose wants do not extend beyond the necessaries of life: and
+in his estimation the governor of a state, with his two or three hundred
+a year, is a very fortunate and enviable being.[170] If you undertake to
+convince him that the representative of a great people ought to be able
+to maintain some show of splendor in the eyes of foreign nations, he
+will perhaps assent to your meaning; but when he reflects on his own
+humble dwelling, and on the hard-earned produce of his wearisome
+toil, he remembers all that he could do with a salary which you say is
+insufficient, and he is startled or almost frightened at the sight of
+such uncommon wealth. Besides, the secondary public officer is almost
+on a level with the people, while the others are raised above it. The
+former may therefore excite his interest, but the latter begins to
+arouse his envy.
+
+This is very clearly seen in the United States, where the salaries seem
+to decrease as the authority of those who receive them augments.[171]
+
+Under the rule of an aristocracy it frequently happens, on the contrary,
+that while the high officers are receiving munificent salaries, the
+inferior ones have not more than enough to procure the necessaries of
+life. The reason of this fact is easily discoverable from causes very
+analogous to those to which I have just alluded. If a democracy is
+unable to conceive the pleasures of the rich, or to see them without
+envy, an aristocracy is slow to understand, or, to speak more correctly,
+is unacquainted with the privations of the poor. The poor man is not (if
+we use the term aright) the fellow of the rich one; but he is the being
+of another species. An aristocracy is therefore apt to care but little
+for the fate of its subordinate agents: and their salaries are only
+raised when they refuse to perform their service for too scanty a
+remuneration.
+
+It is the parsimonious conduct of democracy toward its principal
+officers, which has countenanced a supposition of far more economical
+propensities than any which it really possesses. It is true that it
+scarcely allows the means of honorable subsistence to the individuals
+who conduct its affairs; but enormous sums are lavished to meet the
+exigencies or to facilitate the enjoyments of the people.[172] The
+money raised by taxation may be better employed, but it is not saved. In
+general, democracy gives largely to the community, and very sparingly
+to those who govern it. The reverse is the case in the aristocratic
+countries, where the money of the state is expended to the profit of the
+persons who are at the head of affairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIFFICULTY OF DISTINGUISHING THE CAUSES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO THE ECONOMY
+OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.
+
+We are liable to frequent errors in the research of those facts which
+exercise a serious influence upon the fate of mankind, since nothing
+is more difficult than to appreciate their real value. One people
+is naturally inconsistent and enthusiastic; another is sober and
+calculating; and these characteristics originate in their physical
+constitution, or in remote causes with which we are unacquainted.
+
+There are nations which are fond of parade and the bustle of festivity,
+and which do not regret the costly gaieties of an hour. Others, on
+the contrary, are attached to more retiring pleasures, and seem almost
+ashamed of appearing to be pleased. In some countries the highest value
+is set upon the beauty of public edifices; in others the productions of
+art are treated with indifference, and everything which is unproductive
+is looked down upon with contempt. In some renown, in others money, is
+the ruling passion.
+
+Independently of the laws, all these causes concur to exercise a very
+powerful influence upon the conduct of the finances of the state. If the
+Americans never spend the money of the people in galas, it is not only
+because the imposition of taxes is under the control of the people,
+but because the people takes no delight in public rejoicings. If they
+repudiate all ornament from their architecture, and set no store on any
+but the more practical and homely advantages, it is not only because
+they live under democratic institutions, but because they are a
+commercial nation. The habits of private life are continued in public;
+and we ought carefully to distinguish that economy which depends upon
+their institutions, from that which is the natural result of their
+manners and customs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHETHER THE EXPENDITURE OF THE UNITED STATES CAN BE COMPARED TO THAT OF
+FRANCE.
+
+Two Points to be established in order to estimate the Extent of
+the public Charges, viz.: the national Wealth, and the Rate of
+Taxation.--The Wealth and the Charges of France not accurately
+known.--Why the Wealth and Charges of the Union cannot be accurately
+known.--Researches of the Author with a View to discover the Amount of
+Taxation in Pennsylvania.--General Symptoms which may serve to indicate
+the Amount of the public Charges in a given Nation.--Result of this
+Investigation for the Union.
+
+Many attempts have recently been made in France to compare the public
+expenditure of that country with the expenditure of the United States;
+all these attempts have, however, been unattended by success; and a few
+words will suffice to show that they could not have had a satisfactory
+result.
+
+In order to estimate the amount of the public charges of a people, two
+preliminaries are indispensable; it is necessary, in the first place, to
+know the wealth of that people; and in the second, to learn what portion
+of that wealth is devoted to the expenditure of the state. To show the
+amount of taxation without showing the resources which are destined
+to meet the demand, is to undertake a futile labor; for it is not the
+expenditure, but the relation of the expenditure to the revenue, which
+it is desirable to know.
+
+The same rate of taxation which may easily be supported by a wealthy
+contributor, will reduce a poor one to extreme misery. The wealth of
+nations is composed of several distinct elements, of which population
+is the first, real property the second, and personal property the third.
+The first of these three elements may be discovered without difficulty.
+
+Among civilized nations it is easy to obtain an accurate census of
+the inhabitants; but the two others cannot be determined with so much
+facility. It is difficult to take an exact account of all the lands in
+a country which are under cultivation, with their natural or their
+acquired value; and it is still more impossible to estimate the entire
+personal property which is at the disposal of the nation, and which
+eludes the strictest analysis by the diversity and number of shapes
+under which it may occur. And, indeed, we find that the most ancient
+civilized nations of Europe, including even those in which the
+administration is most central, have not succeeded, as yet, in
+determining the exact condition of their wealth.
+
+In America the attempt has never been made; for how would such an
+investigation be possible in a country where society has not yet
+settled into habits of regularity and tranquillity; where the national
+government is not assisted by a multitude of agents whose exertions it
+can command, and direct to one sole end; and where statistics are not
+studied, because no one is able to collect the necessary documents,
+or can find time to peruse them? Thus the primary elements of the
+calculations which have been made in France, cannot be obtained in the
+Union; the relative wealth of the two countries is unknown: the property
+of the former is not accurately determined, and no means exist of
+computing that of the latter.
+
+I consent, therefore, for the sake of the discussion, to abandon this
+necessary term of the comparison, and I confine myself to a computation
+of the actual amount of taxation, without investigating the relation
+which subsists between the taxation and the revenue. But the reader will
+perceive that my task has not been facilitated by the limits which I
+here lay down for my researches.
+
+It cannot be doubted that the central administration of France, assisted
+by all the public officers who are at its disposal, might determine with
+exactitude the amount of the direct and indirect taxes levied upon
+the citizens. But this investigation, which no private individual can
+undertake, has not hitherto been completed by the French government, or,
+at least, its results have not been made public. We are acquainted
+with the sum total of the state; we know the amount of the departmental
+expenditure; but the expenses of the communal divisions have not been
+computed, and the amount of the public expenses of France is unknown.
+
+If we now turn to America, we shall perceive that the difficulties are
+multiplied and enhanced. The Union publishes an exact return of the
+amount of its expenditure; the budgets of the four-and-twenty states
+furnish similar returns of their revenues; but the expenses incident to
+the affairs of the counties and the townships are unknown.[173]
+
+The authority of the federal government cannot oblige the provincial
+governments to throw any light upon this point; and even if these
+governments were inclined to afford their simultaneous co-operation,
+it may be doubted whether they possess the means of procuring a
+satisfactory answer. Independently of the natural difficulties of the
+task, the political organization of the country would act as a hindrance
+to the success of their efforts. The county and town magistrates are not
+appointed by the authorities of the state, and they are not subjected
+to their control. It is therefore very allowable to suppose, that if
+the state was desirous of obtaining the returns which we require,
+its designs would be counteracted by the neglect of those subordinate
+officers whom it would be obliged to employ.[174] It is, in point of
+fact, useless to inquire what the Americans might do to forward this
+inquiry, since it is certain that they have hitherto done nothing at
+all. There does not exist a single individual at the present day, in
+America or in Europe, who can inform us what each citizen of the Union
+annually contributes to the public charges of the nation.[175]
+
+If I attempt to compare the French budget with the budget of the Union,
+it must be remembered that the latter embraces much fewer objects than
+the central government of the former country, and that the expenditure
+must consequently be much smaller. If I contrast the budgets of the
+departments to those of the states which constitute the Union, it must
+be observed, that as the power and control exercised by the states is
+much greater than that which is exercised by the departments, their
+expenditure is also more considerable. As for the budgets of the
+counties, nothing of the kind occurs in the French system of finance;
+and it is, again, doubtful whether the corresponding expenses should
+be referred to the budget of the state or to those of the municipal
+divisions.
+
+Municipal expenses exist in both countries, but they are not always
+analogous. In America the townships discharge a variety of offices
+which are reserved in France to the departments or the state. It may,
+moreover, be asked, what is to be understood by the municipal expenses
+of America. The organization of the municipal bodies or townships
+differs in the several states: Are we to be guided by what occurs in New
+England or in Georgia, in Pennsylvania or the state of Illinois?
+
+A kind of analogy may very readily be perceived between certain budgets
+in the two countries: but as the elements of which they are composed
+always differ more or less, no fair comparison can be instituted between
+them.
+
+Hence we must conclude, that it is no less difficult to compare the
+social expenditure, than it is to estimate the relative wealth of France
+and of America. I will even add, that it would be dangerous to attempt
+this comparison; for when statistics are not founded upon computations
+which are strictly accurate, they mislead instead of guiding aright. The
+mind is easily imposed upon by the false affectation of exactitude which
+prevails even in the mis-statements of the science, and adopts with
+confidence the errors which are apparelled in the forms of mathematical
+truth.
+
+We abandon, therefore, our numerical investigation, with the hope of
+meeting with data of another kind. In the absence of positive documents,
+we may form an opinion as to the proportion which the taxation of a
+people bears to its real prosperity, by observing whether its external
+appearance is flourishing; whether, after having discharged the calls of
+the state, the poor man retains the means of subsistence, and the rich
+the means of enjoyment; and whether both classes are contented with
+their position, seeking however to meliorate it by perpetual exertions,
+so that industry is never in want of capital, nor capital unemployed by
+industry. The observer who draws his inferences from these signs will,
+undoubtedly, be led to the conclusion, that the American of the United
+States contributes a much smaller portion of his income to the state
+than the citizen of France. Nor, indeed, can the result be otherwise.
+
+A portion of the French debt is the consequence of two successive
+invasions; and the Union has no similar calamity to fear. A nation
+placed upon the continent of Europe is obliged to maintain a large
+standing army; the isolated position of the Union enables it to have
+only 6,000 soldiers. The French have a fleet of 300 sail; the Americans
+have 52 vessels.[176] How, then, can the inhabitant of the Union be
+called upon to contribute as largely as the inhabitant of France?
+No parallel can be drawn between the finances of two countries so
+differently situated.
+
+It is by examining what actually takes place in the Union, and not
+by comparing the Union with France, that we may discover whether the
+American government is really economical. On casting my eyes over the
+different republics which form the confederation, I perceive that their
+governments lack perseverance in their undertakings, and that they
+exercise no steady control over the men whom they employ. Whence I
+naturally infer, that they must often spend the money of the people
+to no purpose, or consume more of it than is really necessary to their
+undertakings. Great efforts are made, in accordance with the democratic
+origin of society, to satisfy the exigencies of the lower orders, to
+open the career of power to their endeavors, and to diffuse knowledge
+and comfort among them. The poor are maintained, immense sums are
+annually devoted to public instruction, all services whatsoever are
+remunerated, and the most subordinate agents are liberally paid. If
+this kind of government appears to me to be useful and rational, I am
+nevertheless constrained to admit that it is expensive.
+
+Wherever the poor direct public affairs and dispose of the national
+resources, it appears certain, that as they profit by the expenditure of
+the state, they are apt to augment that expenditure.
+
+I conclude therefore, without having recourse to inaccurate
+computations, and without hazarding a comparison which might prove
+incorrect, that the democratic government of the Americans is not a
+cheap government, as is sometimes asserted; and I have no hesitation in
+predicting, that if the people of the United States is ever involved
+in serious difficulties, its taxation will speedily be increased to the
+rate of that which prevails in the greater part of the aristocracies and
+the monarchies of Europe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CORRUPTION AND VICES OF THE RULERS IN A DEMOCRACY, AND CONSEQUENT
+EFFECTS UPON PUBLIC MORALITY.
+
+In Aristocracies Rulers sometimes endeavor to corrupt the People.--In
+Democracies Rulers frequently show themselves to be corrupt.--In the
+former their Vices are directly prejudicial to the Morality of
+the People.--In the latter their indirect Influence is still more
+pernicious.
+
+A distinction must be made, when the aristocratic and the democratic
+principles mutually inveigh against each other, as tending to facilitate
+corruption. In aristocratic governments the individuals who are placed
+at the head of affairs are rich men, who are solely desirous of power.
+In democracies statesmen are poor, and they have their fortunes to make.
+The consequence is, that in aristocratic states the rulers are rarely
+accessible to corruption, and have very little craving for money; while
+the reverse is the case in democratic nations.
+
+But in aristocracies, as those who are desirous of arriving at the head
+of affairs are possessed of considerable wealth, and as the number of
+persons by whose assistance they may rise is comparatively small, the
+government is, if I may use the expression, put up to a sort of auction.
+In democracies, on the contrary, those who are covetous of power are
+very seldom wealthy, and the number of citizens who confer that power is
+extremely great. Perhaps in democracies the number of men who might be
+bought is by no means smaller, but buyers are rarely to be met with;
+and, besides, it would be necessary to buy so many persons at once, that
+the attempt is rendered nugatory.
+
+Many of the men who have been in the administration in France during
+the last forty years, have been accused of making their fortunes at
+the expense of the state or of its allies; a reproach which was rarely
+addressed to the public characters of the ancient monarchy. But in
+France the practice of bribing electors is almost unknown, while it is
+notoriously and publicly carried on in England. In the United States
+I never heard a man accused of spending his wealth in corrupting
+the populace; but I have often heard the probity of public officers
+questioned; still more frequently have I heard their success attributed
+to low intrigues and immoral practices.
+
+If, then, the men who conduct the government of an aristocracy sometimes
+endeavor to corrupt the people, the heads of a democracy are themselves
+corrupt. In the former case the morality of the people is directly
+assailed; in the latter, an indirect influence is exercised upon the
+people, which is still more to be dreaded.
+
+As the rulers of democratic nations are almost always exposed to
+the suspicion of dishonorable conduct, they in some measure lend the
+authority of the government to the base practices of which they are
+accused. They thus afford an example which must prove discouraging
+to the struggles of virtuous independence, and must foster the secret
+calculations of a vicious ambition. If it be asserted that evil passions
+are displayed in all ranks of society; that they ascend the throne by
+hereditary right; and that despicable characters are to be met with
+at the head of aristocratic nations as well as in the sphere of a
+democracy; this objection has but little weight in my estimation. The
+corruption of men who have casually risen to power has a coarse and
+vulgar infection in it, which renders it contagious to the multitude. On
+the contrary, there is a kind of aristocratic refinement, and an air of
+grandeur, in the depravity of the great, which frequently prevents it
+from spreading abroad.
+
+The people can never penetrate the perplexing labyrinth of court
+intrigue, and it will always have difficulty in detecting the turpitude
+which lurks under elegant manners, refined tastes, and graceful
+language. But to pillage the public purse, and to vend the favors of the
+state, are arts which the meanest villain may comprehend, and hope to
+practise in his turn.
+
+In reality it is far less prejudicial to be a witness to the immorality
+of the great, than to that immorality which leads to greatness. In a
+democracy, private citizens see a man of their own rank in life, who
+rises from that obscure position, and who becomes possessed of riches
+and of power in a few years: the spectacle excites their surprise and
+their envy: and they are led to inquire how the person who was yesterday
+their equal, is to-day their ruler. To attribute his rise to his talents
+or his virtues is unpleasant; for it is tacitly to acknowledge that they
+are themselves less virtuous and less talented than he was. They are
+therefore led (and not unfrequently their conjecture is a correct one)
+to impute his success mainly to some of his defects; and an odious
+mixture is thus formed of the ideas of turpitude and power, unworthiness
+and success, utility and dishonor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+EFFORTS OF WHICH A DEMOCRACY IS CAPABLE.
+
+The Union has only had one struggle hitherto for its
+Existence.--Enthusiasm at the Commencement of the War.--Indifference
+toward its Close.--Difficulty of establishing a military Conscription
+or impressment of Seamen in America.--Why a democratic People is less
+capable of sustained Effort than another.
+
+I here warn the reader that I speak of a government which implicitly
+follows the real desires of the people, and not of a government which
+simply commands in its name. Nothing is so irresistible as a tyrannical
+power commanding in the name of the people, because, while it exercises
+that moral influence which belongs to the decisions of the majority, it
+acts at the same time with the promptitude and the tenacity of a single
+man.
+
+It is difficult to say what degree of exertion a democratic government
+may be capable of making, at a crisis in the history of the nation. But
+no great democratic republic has hitherto existed in the world. To style
+the oligarchy which ruled over France in 1793, by that name, would be to
+offer an insult to the republican form of government. The United States
+afford the first example of the kind.
+
+The American Union has now subsisted for half a century, in the course
+of which time its existence has only once been attacked, namely, during
+the war of independence. At the commencement of that long war, various
+occurrences took place which betokened an extraordinary zeal for the
+service of the country.[177] But as the contest was prolonged, symptoms
+of private egotism began to show themselves. No money was poured into
+the public treasury; few recruits could be raised to join the army;
+the people wished to acquire independence, but was very ill disposed to
+undergo the privations by which alone it could be obtained. "Tax laws,"
+says Hamilton in the Federalist (No. 12), "have in vain been multiplied;
+new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been tried; the
+public expectation has been uniformly disappointed; and the treasuries
+of the states have remained empty. The popular system of administration
+inherent in the nature of popular government, coinciding with the real
+scarcity of money incident to a languid and mutilated state of trade,
+has hitherto defeated every experiment for extensive collections, and
+has at length taught the different legislatures the folly of attempting
+them."
+
+The United States have not had any serious war to carry on since
+that period. In order, therefore, to appreciate the sacrifices which
+democratic nations may impose upon themselves, we must wait until the
+American people is obliged to put half its entire income at the disposal
+of the government, as was done by the English; or until it sends forth a
+twentieth part of its population to the field of battle, as was done by
+France.
+
+In America the use of conscription is unknown, and men are induced to
+enlist by bounties. The notions and habits of the people of the United
+States are so opposed to compulsory enlistments, that I do not
+imagine that it can ever be sanctioned by the laws. What is termed the
+conscription in France is assuredly the heaviest tax upon the population
+of that country; yet how could a great continental war be carried on
+without it? The Americans have not adopted the British impressment of
+seamen, and they have nothing which corresponds to the French system
+of maritime conscription; the navy, as well as the merchant service, is
+supplied by voluntary engagement. But it is not easy to conceive how a
+people can sustain a great maritime war, without having recourse to one
+or the other of these two systems. Indeed, the Union, which has fought
+with some honor upon the seas, has never possessed a very numerous
+fleet, and the equipment of the small number of American vessels has
+always been excessively expensive.
+
+[The remark that "in America the use of conscription is unknown, and men
+are induced to enlist by bounties," is not exactly correct. During the
+last war with Great Britain, the state of New York, in October, 1814
+(see the laws of that session, p. 15), passed an act to raise troops for
+the defence of the state, in which the whole body of the militia were
+directed to be classed, and each class to furnish one soldier, so as to
+make up the whole number of 12,000 directed to be raised. In case of the
+refusal of a class to furnish a man, one was to be detached from them by
+ballot, and was compelled to procure a substitute or serve personally.
+The intervention of peace rendered proceedings under the act
+unnecessary, and we have not, therefore, the light of experience to
+form an opinion whether such a plan of raising a military force is
+practicable. Other states passed similar laws. The system of classing
+was borrowed from the practice of the revolution.--_American Editor_.]
+
+I have heard American statesmen confess that the Union will have great
+difficulty in maintaining its rank on the seas, without adopting the
+system of impressment or of maritime conscription; but the difficulty is
+to induce the people, which exercises the supreme authority, to submit
+to impressment or any compulsory system.
+
+It is incontestable, that in times of danger a free people displays far
+more energy than one which is not so. But I incline to believe, that
+this is more especially the case in those free nations in which the
+democratic element preponderates. Democracy appears to me to be much
+better adapted for the peaceful conduct of society, or for an occasional
+effort of remarkable vigor, than for the hardy and prolonged endurance
+of the storms which beset the political existence of nations. The reason
+is very evident; it is enthusiasm which prompts men to expose themselves
+to dangers and privations; but they will not support them long without
+reflection. There is more calculation, even in the impulses of bravery,
+than is generally attributed to them; and although the first efforts are
+suggested by passion, perseverance is maintained by a distinct regard of
+the purpose in view. A portion of what we value is exposed, in order to
+save the remainder.
+
+But it is this distinct perception of the future, founded upon a sound
+judgment and an enlightened experience, which is most frequently wanting
+in democracies. The populace is more apt to feel than to reason; and
+if its present sufferings are great, it is to be feared that the still
+greater sufferings attendant upon defeat will be forgotten.
+
+Another cause tends to render the efforts of a democratic government
+less persevering than those of an aristocracy. Not only are the lower
+classes less awakened than the higher orders to the good or evil chances
+of the future, but they are liable to suffer far more acutely from
+present privations. The noble exposes his life, indeed, but the chance
+of glory is equal to the chance of harm. If he sacrifices a large
+portion of his income to the state, he deprives himself for a time of
+the pleasure of affluence; but to the poor man death is embellished by
+no pomp or renown; and the imposts which are irksome to the rich are
+fatal to him.
+
+This relative impotence of democratic republics is, perhaps, the
+greatest obstacle to the foundation of a republic of this kind in
+Europe. In order that such a state should subsist in one country of the
+Old World, it would be necessary that similar institutions should be
+introduced into all the other nations.
+
+I am of opinion that a democratic government tends in the end to
+increase the real strength of society; but it can never combine, upon a
+single point and at a given time, so much power as an aristocracy or
+a monarchy. If a democratic country remained during a whole century
+subject to a republican government, it would probably at the end of
+that period be more populous and more prosperous than the neighboring
+despotic states. But it would have incurred the risk of being conquered
+much oftener than they would in that lapse of years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SELF-CONTROL OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
+
+The American People acquiesces slowly, or frequently does not acquiesce
+in what is beneficial to its Interests.--The faults of the American
+Democracy are for the most part reparable.
+
+The difficulty which a democracy has in conquering the passions, and
+in subduing the exigencies of the moment, with a view to the future, is
+conspicuous in the most trivial occurrences in the United States.
+The people which is surrounded by flatterers, has great difficulty in
+surmounting its inclinations; and whenever it is solicited to undergo a
+privation or any kind of inconvenience, even to attain an end which is
+sanctioned by its own rational conviction, it almost always refuses to
+comply at first. The deference of the Americans to the laws has been
+very justly applauded; but it must be added, that in America the
+legislation is made by the people and for the people. Consequently,
+in the United States, the law favors those classes which are most
+interested in evading it elsewhere. It may therefore be supposed that an
+offensive law, which should not be acknowledged to be one of immediate
+utility, would either not be enacted or would not be obeyed.
+
+In America there is no law against fraudulent bankruptcies; not because
+they are few, but because there are a great number of bankruptcies. The
+dread of being prosecuted as a bankrupt acts with more intensity upon
+the mind of the majority of the people, than the fear of being involved
+in losses or ruin by the failure of other parties; and a sort of guilty
+tolerance is extended by the public conscience, to an offence which
+every one condemns in his individual capacity. In the new states of the
+southwest, the citizens generally take justice into their own hands,
+and murders are of very frequent occurrence. This arises from the rude
+manners and the ignorance of the inhabitants of those deserts, who do
+not perceive the utility of investing the law with adequate force, and
+who prefer duels to prosecutions.
+
+Some one observed to me one day, in Philadelphia, that almost all crimes
+in America are caused by the abuse of intoxicating liquors, which
+the lower classes can procure in great abundance from their excessive
+cheapness.--"How comes it," said I, "that you do not put a duty upon
+brandy?"--"Our legislators," rejoined my informant, "have frequently
+thought of this expedient; but the task of putting it in operation is a
+difficult one: a revolt might be apprehended; and the members who
+should vote for a law of this kind would be sure of losing their
+seats."--"Whence I am to infer," I replied, "that the drinking
+population constitutes the majority in your country and that temperance
+is somewhat unpopular."
+
+When these things are pointed out to the American statesmen, they
+content themselves with assuring you that time will operate the
+necessary change, and that the experience of evil will teach the people
+its true interests. This is frequently true; although a democracy is
+more liable to error than a monarch or a body of nobles, the chances of
+its regaining the right path, when once it has acknowledged its
+mistake, are greater also; because it is rarely embarrassed by internal
+interests, which conflict with those of the majority, and resist the
+authority of reason. But a democracy can only obtain truth as the result
+of experience; and many nations may forfeit their existence, while they
+are awaiting the consequences of their errors.
+
+The great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist in their
+being more enlightened than other nations, but in their being able to
+repair the faults they may commit. To which it must be added, that a
+democracy cannot derive substantial benefit from past experience, unless
+it be arrived at a certain pitch of knowledge and civilisation. There
+are tribes and peoples whose education has been so vicious, and whose
+character presents so strange a mixture of passion, of ignorance, and of
+erroneous notions upon all subjects, that they are unable to discern the
+cause of their own wretchedness, and they fall a sacrifice to ills with
+which they are unacquainted.
+
+I have crossed vast tracts of country that were formerly inhabited by
+powerful Indian nations which are now extinct; I have myself passed some
+time in the midst of mutilated tribes, which see the daily decline of
+their numerical strength, and of the glory of their independence; and
+I have heard these Indians themselves anticipate the impending doom of
+their race. Every European can perceive means which would rescue
+these unfortunate beings from inevitable destruction. They alone are
+insensible to the expedient; they feel the woe which year after year
+heaps upon their heads, but they will perish to a man without accepting
+the remedy. It would be necessary to employ force to induce them to
+submit to the protection and the constraint of civilisation.
+
+The incessant revolutions which have convulsed the South American
+provinces for the last quarter of a century have frequently been
+adverted to with astonishment, and expectations have been expressed that
+those nations would speedily return to their natural state. But can
+it be affirmed that the turmoil of revolution is not actually the most
+natural state of the South American Spaniards at the present time? In
+that country society is plunged into difficulties from which all its
+efforts are insufficient to rescue it. The inhabitants of that fair
+portion of the western hemisphere seem obstinately bent on pursuing
+the work of inward havoc. If they fall into a momentary repose from the
+effects of exhaustion, that repose prepares them for a fresh state
+of phrensy. When I consider their condition, which alternates between
+misery and crime, I should be inclined to believe that despotism itself
+would be a benefit to them, if it were possible that the words despotism
+and benefit could ever be united in my mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONDUCT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BY THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
+
+Direction given to the foreign Policy of the United States by
+Washington and Jefferson.--Almost all the defects inherent in
+democratic Institutions are brought to light in the Conduct of foreign
+Affairs.--Their advantages are less perceptible.
+
+We have seen that the federal constitution intrusts the permanent
+direction of the external interests of the nation to the president
+and the senate;[178] which tends in some degree to detach the general
+foreign policy of the Union from the control of the people. It cannot
+therefore be asserted, with truth, that the external affairs of state
+are conducted by the democracy. The policy of America owes its rise to
+Washington, and after him to Jefferson, who established those principles
+which it observes at the present day. Washington said, in the admirable
+letter which he addressed to his fellow-citizens, and which may be
+looked upon as his political bequest to the country:--
+
+"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is,
+extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
+_political_ connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed
+engagements, let them lie fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us
+stop.
+
+"Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very
+remote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies,
+the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence,
+therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial
+ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary
+combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
+
+"Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue
+a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient
+government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury
+from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will
+cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously
+respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making
+acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation;
+when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice,
+shall counsel.
+
+"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own
+to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that
+of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
+European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
+
+"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any
+portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty
+to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronising
+infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable
+to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best
+policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in
+their genuine sense; but in my opinion it is unnecessary, and would be
+unwise, to extend them.
+
+"Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, in
+a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
+alliances for extraordinary emergencies."
+
+In a previous part of the same letter, Washington makes the following
+admirable and just remark: "The nation which indulges toward another an
+habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some degree, a slave.
+It is a slave to its animosity or its affection, either of which is
+sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest."
+
+The political conduct of Washington was always guided by these maxims.
+He succeeded in maintaining his country in a state of peace, while all
+the other nations of the globe were at war; and he laid it down as a
+fundamental doctrine, that the true interest of the Americans consisted
+in a perfect neutrality with regard to the internal dissensions of the
+European powers.
+
+Jefferson went still farther, and introduced a maxim into the policy of
+the Union, which affirms, that "the Americans ought never to solicit
+any privileges from foreign nations, in order not to be obliged to grant
+similar privileges themselves."
+
+These two principles, which were so plain and so just as to be adapted
+to the capacity of the populace, have greatly simplified the foreign
+policy of the United States. As the Union takes no part in the affairs
+of Europe, it has, properly speaking, no foreign interests to discuss,
+since it has at present no powerful neighbors on the American continent.
+The country is as much removed from the passions of the Old World by
+its position, as by the line of policy which it has chosen; and it
+is neither called upon to repudiate nor to espouse the conflicting
+interests of Europe; while the dissensions of the New World are still
+concealed within the bosom of the future.
+
+The Union is free from all pre-existing obligations; and it is
+consequently enabled to profit by the experience of the old nations
+of Europe, without being obliged, as they are, to make the best of the
+past, and to adapt it to their present circumstances; or to accept
+that immense inheritance which they derive from their forefathers--an
+inheritance of glory mingled with calamities, and of alliances
+conflicting with national antipathies. The foreign policy of the United
+States is reduced by its very nature to await the chances of the
+future history of the nation; and for the present it consists more in
+abstaining from interference than in exerting its activity.
+
+It is therefore very difficult to ascertain, at present, what degree
+of sagacity the American democracy will display in the conduct of the
+foreign policy of the country; and upon this point its adversaries, as
+well as its advocates, must suspend their judgment. As for myself, I
+have no hesitation in avowing my conviction, that it is most especially
+in the conduct of foreign relations, that democratic governments appear
+to me to be decidedly inferior to governments carried on upon different
+principles. Experience, instruction, and habit, may almost always
+succeed in creating a species of practical discretion in democracies,
+and that science of the daily occurrences of life which is called good
+sense. Good sense may suffice to direct the ordinary course of society;
+and among a people whose education has been provided for, the advantages
+of democratic liberty in the internal affairs of the country may more
+than compensate for the evils inherent in a democratic government. But
+such is not always the case in the mutual relations of foreign nations.
+
+Foreign politics demand scarcely any of those qualities which a
+democracy possesses; and they require, on the contrary, the perfect use
+of almost all those faculties in which it is deficient. Democracy is
+favorable to the increase of the internal resources of a state; it tends
+to diffuse a moderate independence; it promotes the growth of public
+spirit, and fortifies the respect which is entertained for law in all
+classes of society: and these are advantages which only exercise an
+indirect influence over the relations which one people bears to another.
+But a democracy is unable to regulate the details of an important
+undertaking, to persevere in a design, and to work out its execution in
+the presence of serious obstacles. It cannot combine its measures with
+secrecy, and will not await their consequences with patience. These
+are qualities which more especially belong to an individual or to an
+aristocracy; and they are precisely the means by which an individual
+people attains a predominant position.
+
+If, on the contrary, we observe the natural defects of aristocracy,
+we shall find that their influence is comparatively innoxious in the
+direction of the external affairs of a state. The capital fault of
+which aristocratic bodies may be accused, is that they are more apt to
+contrive their own advantage than that of the mass of the people. In
+foreign politics it is rare for the interest of the aristocracy to be in
+any way distinct from that of the people.
+
+The propensity which democracies have to obey the impulse of passion
+rather than the suggestions of prudence, and to abandon a mature design
+for the gratification of a momentary caprice, was very clearly seen in
+America on the breaking out of the French revolution. It was then as
+evident to the simplest capacity as it is at the present time, that the
+interests of the Americans forbade them to take any part in the contest
+which was about to deluge Europe with blood, but which could by no means
+injure the welfare of their own country. Nevertheless the sympathies
+of the people declared themselves with so much violence in behalf of
+France, that nothing but the inflexible character of Washington, and the
+immense popularity which he enjoyed, could have prevented the Americans
+from declaring war against England. And even then, the exertions, which
+the austere reason of that great man made to repress the generous but
+imprudent passions of his fellow-citizens, very nearly deprived him of
+the sole recompense which he had ever claimed--that of his country's
+love. The majority then reprobated the line of policy which he adopted
+and which has since been unanimously approved by the nation.[179]
+
+If the constitution and the favor of the public had not intrusted the
+direction of the foreign affairs of the country to Washington, it is
+certain that the American nation would at that time have taken the very
+measures which it now condemns.
+
+Almost all the nations which have exercised a powerful influence upon
+the destinies of the world, by conceiving, following up, and executing
+vast designs--from the Romans to the English--have been governed by
+aristocratic institutions. Nor will this be a subject of wonder when we
+recollect that nothing in the world has so absolute a fixity of purpose
+as an aristocracy. The mass of the people may be led astray by ignorance
+or passion; the mind of a king may be biased, and his perseverance in
+his designs may be shaken--beside which a king is not immortal; but an
+aristocratic body is too numerous to be led astray by the blandishments
+of intrigue, and yet not numerous enough to yield readily to the
+intoxicating influence of unreflecting passion: it has the energy of
+a firm and enlightened individual, added to the power which it derives
+from its perpetuity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[164] I here use the word _magistrates_ in the widest sense in which it
+can be taken; I apply it to all the officers to whom the execution of
+the laws is intrusted.
+
+[165] See the act 27th February, 1813, General Collection of the Laws of
+Massachusetts, vol. ii., p. 331. It should be added that the Jurors are
+afterward drawn from these lists by lot.
+
+[166] See the act of 28th February, 1787, General Collection of the Laws
+of Massachusetts, vol. i., p. 302.
+
+[167] It is needless to observe, that I speak here of the democratic
+form of government as applied to a people, not merely to a tribe.
+
+[168] The word _poor_ is used here, and throughout the remainder of this
+chapter, in a relative and not in an absolute sense. Poor men in America
+would often appear rich in comparison with the poor of Europe but they
+may with propriety be styled poor in comparison with their more affluent
+countrymen.
+
+[169] The easy circumstances in which secondary functionaries are
+placed in the United States, result also from another cause, which
+is independent of the general tendencies of democracy: every kind of
+private business is very lucrative, and the state would not be served at
+all if it did not pay its servants. The country is in the position of
+a commercial undertaking, which is obliged to sustain an expensive
+competition, notwithstanding its taste for economy.
+
+[170] The state of Ohio, which contains a million of inhabitants, gives
+its governor a salary of only $1,200 (260_l_.) a year.
+
+[171] To render this assertion perfectly evident, it will suffice to
+examine the scale of salaries of the agents of the federal government.
+I have added the salaries attached to the corresponding officers in
+France, to complete the comparison:--
+
+
+      UNITED  STATES.                        FRANCE.
+      _Treasury Department_.              _Ministere des Finances_
+  Messenger .  .   .  $   700   150l. Huissier, 3,500 fr.   .   .   60l.
+  Clerk with lowest salary            Clerk with lowest salary,
+     .     .     .      1,000   217     1,000 to 1,300 fr.  .   40 to 72
+  Clerk with highest                  Clerk with highest salary
+     salary.     .      1,600   347     3,200 to 3,600 fr.  . 128 to 144
+  Chief clerk    .      2,000   434   Secretaire-general, 20,000 fr. 800
+  Secretary of state .  6,000 1,300   The minister, 80,000 fr.  .  3,200
+  The President  .   . 25,000 5,400   The king, 12,000,000 fr.   480,000
+
+I have perhaps done wrong in selecting France as my standard of
+comparison. In France the democratic tendencies of the nation exercise
+an ever-increasing influence upon the government, and the chambers show
+a disposition to raise the lowest salaries and to lower the principal
+ones. Thus the minister of finance, who received 160,000 fr. under
+the empire, receives 80,000 fr., in 1835; the directeurs-generaux of
+finance, who then received 50,000 fr., now receive only 20,000 fr.
+
+[172] See the American budgets for the cost of indigent citizens and
+gratuitous instruction. In 1831, 50,000_l_. were spent in the state of
+New York for the maintenance of the poor; and at least 200,000_l_. were
+devoted to gratuitous instruction. (Williams's New York Annual Register,
+1832, pp. 205, 243.) The state of New York contained only 1,900,000
+inhabitants in the year 1830; which is not more than double the amount
+of population in the department du Nord in France.
+
+[173] The Americans, as we have seen, have four separate budgets;
+the Union, the states, the counties, and the townships, having each
+severally their own. During my stay in America I made every endeavor
+to discover the amount of the public expenditure in the townships and
+counties of the principal states of the Union, and I readily obtained
+the budget of the larger townships, but I found it quite impossible to
+procure that of the smaller ones. I possess, however, some documents
+relating to county expenses, which, although incomplete, are still
+curious. I have to thank Mr. Richards, mayor of Philadelphia, for the
+budgets of thirteen of the counties of Pennsylvania, viz.: Lebanon,
+Centre, Franklin, Fayette, Montgomery, Luzerne, Dauphin, Butler,
+Allegany, Columbia, Northampton, Northumberland, and Philadelphia,
+for the year 1830. Their population at that time consisted of 495,207
+inhabitants. On looking at the map of Pennsylvania, it will be seen
+that these thirteen counties are scattered in every direction, and so
+generally affected by the causes which usually influence the condition
+of a country, that they may easily be supposed to furnish a correct
+average of the financial state of the counties of Pennsylvania in
+general; and thus, upon reckoning that the expenses of these counties
+amounted in the year 1830 to about 72,330_l_., or nearly 3_s_. for each
+inhabitant, and calculating that each of them contributed in the same
+year about 10_s_. 2_d_. toward the Union, and about 3_s_. to the state
+of Pennsylvania, it appears that they each contributed as their share
+of all the public expenses (except those of the townships), the sum of
+16_s_. 2_d_. This calculation is doubly incomplete, as it applies only
+to a single year and to one part of the public charges; but it has at
+least the merit of not being conjectural.
+
+[174] Those who have attempted to draw a comparison between the expenses
+of France and America, have at once perceived that no such comparison
+could be drawn between the total expenditures of the two countries; but
+they have endeavored to contrast detached portions of this expenditure.
+It may readily be shown that this second system is not at all less
+defective than the first.
+
+[175] Even if we knew the exact pecuniary contributions of every French
+and American citizen to the coffers of the state, we should only come at
+a portion of the truth. Governments not only demand supplies of money,
+but they call for personal services, which may be looked upon as
+equivalent to a given sum. When a state raises an army, beside the pay
+of the troops which is furnished by the entire nation, each soldier must
+give up his time, the value of which depends on the use he might make
+of it if he were not in the service. The same remark applies to the
+militia: the citizen who is in the militia devotes a certain portion
+of valuable time to the maintenance of the public peace, and he does in
+reality surrender to the state those earnings which he is prevented from
+gaining. Many other instances might be cited in addition to these. The
+governments of France and America both levy taxes of this kind, which
+weigh upon the citizens; but who can estimate with accuracy their
+relative amount in the two countries?
+
+This, however, is not the last of the difficulties which prevent us from
+comparing the expenditure of the Union with that of France. The French
+government contracts certain obligations which do not exist in America,
+and _vice versa_. The French government pays the clergy; in America, the
+voluntary principle prevails. In America, there is a legal provision for
+the poor; in France they are abandoned to the charity of the public. The
+French public officers are paid by a fixed salary: in America they are
+allowed certain perquisites. In France, contributions in kind take place
+on very few roads; in America upon almost all the thoroughfares: in
+the former country the roads are free to all travellers: in the latter
+turnpikes abound. All these differences in manner in which contributions
+are levied in the two countries, enhance the difficulty of comparing
+their expenditure; for there are certain expenses which the citizens
+would not be subjected to, or which would at any rate be much less
+considerable, if the state did not take upon itself to act in the name
+of the public.
+
+[176] See the details in the budget of the French minister of marine,
+and for America, the National Calendar of 1833, p. 228.
+
+[177] One of the most singular of these occurrences was the resolution
+which the Americans took of temporarily abandoning the use of tea. Those
+who know that men usually cling more to their habits than to their life,
+will doubtless admire this great and obscure sacrifice which was made by
+a whole people.
+
+[178] "The president," says the constitution, art. ii., sect. 2, Sec. 2,
+"shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to
+make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur."
+The reader is reminded that the senators are returned for a term of six
+years, and that they are chosen by the legislature of each state.
+
+[179] See the fifth volume of Marshall's Life of Washington. "In a
+government constituted like that of the United States," he says, "it is
+impossible for the chief magistrate, however firm he may be, to
+oppose for any length of time the torrents of popular opinion; and the
+prevalent opinion of that day seemed to incline to war. In fact, in
+the session of congress held at the time, it was frequently seen that
+Washington had lost the majority in the house of representatives." The
+violence of the language used against him in public was extreme, and in
+a political meeting they did not scruple to compare him indirectly to
+the treacherous Arnold. "By the opposition," says Marshall, "the friends
+of the administration were declared to be an aristocratic and corrupt
+faction, who, from a desire to introduce monarchy, were hostile to
+France, and under the influence of Britain; that they were a paper
+nobility, whose extreme sensibility at every measure which threatened
+the funds, induced a tame submission to injuries and insults, which the
+interests and honor of the nation required them to resist."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+WHAT THE REAL ADVANTAGES ARE WHICH AMERICAN SOCIETY DERIVES FROM THE
+GOVERNMENT OF THE DEMOCRACY.
+
+
+Before I enter upon the subject of the present chapter, I am induced
+to remind the reader of what I have more than once adverted to in the
+course of this book. The political institutions of the United States
+appear to me to be one of the forms of government which a democracy may
+adopt but I do not regard the American constitution as the best, or as
+the only one which a democratic people may establish. In showing the
+advantages which the Americans derive from the government of democracy,
+I am therefore very far from meaning, or from believing, that similar
+advantages can be obtained only from the same laws.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GENERAL TENDENCY OF THE LAWS UNDER THE RULE OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY,
+AND HABITS OF THOSE WHO APPLY THEM.
+
+Defects of a democratic Government easy to be discovered.--Its
+advantages only to be discerned by long Observation.--Democracy
+in America often inexpert, but the general Tendency of the Laws
+advantageous.--In the American Democracy public Officers have no
+permanent Interests distinct from those of the Majority.--Result of this
+State of Things.
+
+The defects and the weaknesses of a democratic government may very
+readily be discovered; they are demonstrated by the most flagrant
+instances, while its beneficial influence is less perceptibly exercised.
+A single glance suffices to detect its evil consequences, but its good
+qualities can only be discerned by long observation. The laws of
+the American democracy are frequently defective or incomplete; they
+sometimes attack vested rights, or give a sanction to others which are
+dangerous to the community; but even if they were good, the frequent
+changes which they undergo would be an evil. How comes it, then, that
+the American republics prosper, and maintain their position?
+
+In the consideration of laws, a distinction must be carefully observed
+between the end at which they aim, and the means by which they are
+directed to that end; between their absolute and their relative
+excellence. If it be the intention of the legislator to favor the
+interests of the minority at the expense of the majority, and if the
+measures he takes are so combined as to accomplish the object he has in
+view with the least possible expense of time and exertion, the law may
+be well drawn up, although its purpose be bad; and the more efficacious
+it is, the greater is the mischief which it causes.
+
+Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest
+possible number; for they emanate from a majority of the citizens, who
+are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed to their
+own advantage. The laws of an aristocracy tend, on the contrary, to
+concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the minority, because
+an aristocracy, by its very nature, constitutes a minority. It may
+therefore be asserted, as a general proposition, that the purpose of
+a democracy, in the conduct of its legislation, is useful to a greater
+number of citizens than that of an aristocracy. This is, however, the
+sum total of its advantages.
+
+Aristocracies are infinitely more expert in the science of legislation
+than democracies ever can be. They are possessed of a self-control which
+protects them from the errors of a temporary excitement; and they form
+lasting designs which they mature with the assistance of favorable
+opportunities. Aristocratic government proceeds with the dexterity of
+art; it understands how to make the collective force of all its laws
+converge at the same time to a given point. Such is not the case with
+democracies, whose laws are almost always ineffective, or inopportune.
+The means of democracy are therefore more imperfect than those of
+aristocracy, and the measures which it unwittingly adopts are frequently
+opposed to its own cause; but the object it has in view is more useful.
+
+Let us now imagine a community so organized by nature, or by its
+constitution, that it can support the transitory action of bad laws,
+and it can await, without destruction, the general tendency of the
+legislation: we shall then be able to conceive that a democratic
+government, notwithstanding its defects, will be most fitted to conduce
+to the prosperity of this community. This is precisely what has occurred
+in the United States; and I repeat, what I have before remarked, that
+the great advantage of the Americans consists in their being able to
+commit faults which they may afterward repair.
+
+An analogous observation may be made respecting officers. It is easy to
+perceive that the American democracy frequently errs in the choice of
+the individuals to whom it intrusts the power of the administration; but
+it is more difficult to say why the state prospers under their rule. In
+the first place it is to be remarked, that if in a democratic state
+the governors have less honesty and less capacity than elsewhere, the
+governed on the other hand are more enlightened and more attentive
+to their interests. As the people in democracies is more incessantly
+vigilant in its affairs, and more jealous of its rights, it prevents its
+representatives from abandoning that general line of conduct which its
+own interest prescribes. In the second place, it must be remembered
+that if the democratic magistrate is more apt to misuse his power, he
+possesses it for a shorter period of time. But there is yet another
+reason which is still more general and conclusive. It is no doubt of
+importance to the welfare of nations that they should be governed by men
+of talents and virtue; but it is perhaps still more important that
+the interests of those men should not differ from the interests of the
+community at large; for if such were the case, virtues of a high order
+might become useless, and talents might be turned to a bad account.
+
+I say that it is important that the interests of the persons in
+authority should not conflict with or oppose the interests of the
+community at large; but I do not insist upon their having the same
+interests as the _whole_ population, because I am not aware that such a
+state of things ever existed in any country.
+
+No political form has hitherto been discovered, which is equally
+favorable to the prosperity and the development of all the classes into
+which society is divided. These classes continue to form, as it were,
+a certain number of distinct nations in the same nation; and experience
+has shown that it is no less dangerous to place the fate of these
+classes exclusively in the hands of any one of them, than it is to make
+one people the arbiter of the destiny of another. When the rich alone
+govern, the interest of the poor is always endangered; and when the poor
+make the laws, that of the rich incurs very serious risks. The advantage
+of democracy does not consist, therefore, as has been sometimes
+asserted, in favoring the prosperity of all, but simply in contributing
+to the well-being of the greatest possible number.
+
+The men who are entrusted with the direction of public affairs in
+the United States, are frequently inferior, both in capacity and of
+morality, to those whom aristocratic institutions would raise to
+power. But their interest is identified and confounded with that of the
+majority of their fellow-citizens. They may frequently be faithless, and
+frequently mistake; but they will never systematically adopt a line of
+conduct opposed to the will of the majority; and it is impossible that
+they should give a dangerous or an exclusive tendency to the government.
+
+The mal-administration of a democratic magistrate is a mere isolated
+fact, which only occurs during the short period for which he is elected.
+Corruption and incapacity do not act as common interests, which may
+connect men permanently with one another. A corrupt or an incapable
+magistrate will concert his measures with another magistrate, simply
+because that individual is as corrupt and as incapable as himself; and
+these two men will never unite their endeavors to promote the corruption
+and inaptitude of their remote posterity. The ambition and manoeuvres of
+the one will serve, on the contrary, to unmask the other. The vices of
+a magistrate, in democratic states, are usually peculiar to his own
+person.
+
+But under aristocratic governments public men are swayed by the
+interests of their order, which, if it is sometimes confounded with the
+interests of the majority, is very frequently distinct from them. This
+interest is the common and lasting bond which unites them together;
+it induces them to coalesce, and to combine their efforts in order to
+attain an end which does not always ensure the greatest happiness of
+the greatest number; and it serves not only to connect the persons in
+authority, but to unite them to a considerable portion of the community,
+since a numerous body of citizens belongs to the aristocracy, without
+being invested with official functions. The aristocratic magistrate is
+therefore constantly supported by a portion of the community, as well as
+by the government of which he is a member.
+
+The common purpose which connects the interest of the magistrates
+in aristocracies, with that of a portion of their contemporaries,
+identifies it with that of future generations; their influence belongs
+to the future as much as to the present. The aristocratic magistrate
+is urged at the same time toward the same point, by the passions of the
+community, by his own, and I may almost add, by those of his posterity.
+Is it, then, wonderful that he does not resist such repeated impulses?
+And, indeed, aristocracies are often carried away by the spirit of their
+order without being corrupted by it; and they unconsciously fashion
+society to their own ends, and prepare it for their own descendants.
+
+The English aristocracy is perhaps the most liberal which ever existed,
+and no body of men has ever, uninterruptedly, furnished so many
+honorable and enlightened individuals to the government of a country. It
+cannot, however, escape observation, that in the legislation of England
+the good of the poor has been sacrificed to the advantage of the
+rich, and the rights of the majority to the privileges of the few. The
+consequence is that England, at the present day, combines the extremes
+of fortune in the bosom of her society; and her perils and calamities
+are almost equal to her power and her renown.
+
+In the United States, where the public officers have no interests to
+promote connected with their caste, the general and constant influence
+of the government is beneficial, although the individuals who conduct it
+are frequently unskilful and sometimes contemptible. There is, indeed,
+a secret tendency in democratic institutions to render the exertions
+of the citizens subservient to the prosperity of the community,
+notwithstanding their private vices and mistakes; while in aristocratic
+institutions there is a secret propensity, which, notwithstanding the
+talents and the virtues of those who conduct the government, leads them
+to contribute to the evils which oppress their fellow creatures. In
+aristocratic governments public men may frequently do injuries which
+they do not intend; and in democratic states they produce advantages
+which they never thought of.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUBLIC SPIRIT IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Patriotism of Instinct.--Patriotism of Reflection.--Their different
+Characteristics.--Nations ought to strive to acquire the second when
+the first has disappeared.--Efforts of the Americans to acquire
+it.--Interest of the Individual intimately connected with that of the
+Country.
+
+There is one sort of patriotic attachment which principally arises from
+that instinctive, disinterested, and undefinable feeling which connects
+the affections of man with his birthplace. This natural fondness is
+united to a taste for ancient customs, and to a reverence for ancestral
+traditions of the past; those who cherish it love their country as they
+love the mansion of their fathers. They enjoy the tranquillity which
+it affords them; they cling to the peaceful habits which they have
+contracted within its bosom; they are attached to the reminiscences
+which it awakens, and they are even pleased by the state of obedience
+in which they are placed. This patriotism is sometimes stimulated
+by religious enthusiasm, and then it is capable of making the most
+prodigious efforts. It is in itself a kind of religion; it does not
+reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and of sentiment. By
+some nations the monarch has been regarded as a personification of the
+country; and the fervor of patriotism being converted into the fervor of
+loyalty, they took a sympathetic pride in his conquests, and gloried in
+his power. At one time, under the ancient monarchy, the French felt a
+sort of satisfaction in the sense of their dependence upon the arbitrary
+pleasure of their king, and they were wont to say with pride: "We are
+the subjects of the most powerful king in the world."
+
+But, like all instinctive passions, this kind of patriotism is more apt
+to prompt transient exertion than to supply the motives of continuous
+endeavor. It may save the state in critical circumstances, but it will
+not unfrequently allow the nation to decline in the midst of peace.
+While the manners of a people are simple, and its faith unshaken,
+while society is steadily based upon traditional institutions, whose
+legitimacy has never been contested, this instinctive patriotism is wont
+to endure.
+
+But there is another species of attachment to a country which is more
+rational than the one we have been describing. It is perhaps less
+generous and less ardent, but it is more fruitful and more lasting; it
+is coeval with the spread of knowledge, it is nurtured by the laws, it
+grows by the exercise of civil rights, and in the end, it is confounded
+with the personal interest of the citizen. A man comprehends the
+influence which the prosperity of his country has upon his own welfare;
+he is aware that the laws authorize him to contribute his assistance
+to that prosperity, and he labors to promote it as a portion of his
+interest in the first place, and as a portion of his right in the
+second.
+
+But epochs sometimes occur, in the course of the existence of a nation,
+at which the ancient customs of a people are changed, public morality
+destroyed, religious belief disturbed, and the spell of tradition
+broken, while the diffusion of knowledge is yet imperfect, and the civil
+rights of the community are ill secured, or confined within very narrow
+limits. The country then assumes a dim and dubious shape in the eyes of
+the citizens; they no longer behold it in the soil which they inhabit,
+for that soil is to them a dull inanimate clod; nor in the usages
+of their forefathers, which they have been taught to look upon as a
+debasing yoke; nor in religion, for of that they doubt; nor in the laws,
+which do not originate in their own authority; nor in the legislator,
+whom they fear and despise. The country is lost to their senses, they
+can neither discover it under its own, nor under borrowed features, and
+they intrench themselves within the dull precincts of a narrow egotism.
+They are emancipated from prejudice, without having acknowledged
+the empire of reason; they are animated neither by the instinctive
+patriotism of monarchical subjects, nor by the thinking patriotism of
+republican citizens; but they have stopped half-way between the two, in
+the midst of confusion and of distress.
+
+In this predicament, to retreat is impossible; for a people cannot
+restore the vivacity of its earlier times, any more than a man can
+return to the innocence and the bloom of childhood; such things may
+be regretted, but they cannot be renewed. The only thing, then, which
+remains to be done, is to proceed, and to accelerate the union of
+private with public interests, since the period of disinterested
+patriotism is gone by for ever.
+
+I am certainly very far from averring, that, in order to obtain this
+result, the exercise of political rights should be immediately granted
+to all the members of the community. But I maintain that the most
+powerful, and perhaps the only means of interesting men in the welfare
+of their country, which we still possess, is to make them partakers
+in the government. At the present time civic zeal seems to me to be
+inseparable from the exercise of political rights; and I hold that the
+number of citizens will be found to augment or decrease in Europe in
+proportion as those rights are extended.
+
+In the United States, the inhabitants were thrown but as yesterday upon
+the soil which they now occupy, and they brought neither customs nor
+traditions with them there; they meet each other for the first time
+with no previous acquaintance; in short, the instinctive love of their
+country can scarcely exist in their minds; but every one takes as
+zealous an interest in the affairs of his township, his country, and
+of the whole state, as if they were his own, because every one, in his
+sphere, takes an active part in the government of society.
+
+The lower orders in the United States are alive to the perception of the
+influence exercised by the general prosperity upon their own welfare;
+and simple as this observation is, it is one which is but too rarely
+made by the people. But in America the people regard this prosperity as
+the result of its own exertions; the citizen looks upon the fortune of
+the public as his private interest, and he co-operates in its success,
+not so much from a sense of pride or of duty, as from what I shall
+venture to term cupidity.
+
+It is unnecessary to study the institutions and the history of the
+Americans in order to discover the truth of this remark, for their
+manners render it sufficiently evident. As the American participates
+in all that is done in his country, he thinks himself obliged to defend
+whatever may be censured; for it is not only his country which is
+attacked upon these occasions, but it is himself. The consequence is
+that his national pride resorts to a thousand artifices, and to all the
+petty tricks of individual vanity.
+
+Nothing is more embarrassing in the ordinary intercourse of life than
+this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A stranger may be well
+inclined to praise many of the institutions of their country, but he
+begs permission to blame some of the peculiarities which he observes--a
+permission which is however inexorably refused. America is therefore a
+free country, in which, lest anybody should be hurt by your remarks, you
+are not allowed to speak freely of private individuals or of the
+state; of the citizens or of the authorities; of public or of private
+undertakings; or, in short, of anything at all, except it be of the
+climate and the soil; and even then Americans will be found ready to
+defend either the one or the other, as if they had been contrived by the
+inhabitants of the country.
+
+In our times, option must be made between the patriotism of all and the
+government of a few; for the force and activity which the first confers,
+are irreconcilable with the guarantees of tranquillity which the second
+furnishes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTION OF RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+No great People without a Notion of Rights.--How the Notion of
+Rights can be given to a People.--Respect of Rights in the United
+States.--Whence it arises.
+
+After the idea of virtue, I am acquainted with no higher principle
+than that of right; or, to speak more accurately, these two ideas are
+commingled in one. The idea of right is simply that of virtue introduced
+into the political world. It is the idea of right which enabled men to
+define anarchy and tyranny; and which taught them to remain independent
+without arrogance, as well as to obey without servility. The man who
+submits to violence is debased by his compliance; but when he obeys
+the mandate of one who possesses that right of authority which he
+acknowledges in a fellow creature, he rises in some measure above the
+person who delivers the command. There are no great men without virtue,
+and there are no great nations--it may also be added that there would be
+no society--without the notion of rights; for what is the condition of a
+mass of rational and intelligent beings who are only united together by
+the bond of force?
+
+I am persuaded that the only means which we possess at the present time
+of inculcating the notion of rights, and of rendering it, as it were,
+palpable to the senses, is to invest all the members of the community
+with the peaceful exercise of certain rights: this is very clearly seen
+in children, who are men without the strength and the experience of
+manhood. When a child begins to move in the midst of the objects which
+surround him, he is instinctively led to turn everything which he can
+lay his hands upon to his own purpose; he has no notion of the property
+of others; but as he gradually learns the value of things, and begins
+to perceive that he may in his turn be deprived of his possessions, he
+becomes more circumspect, and he observes those rights in others which
+he wishes to have respected in himself. The principle which the child
+derives from the possession of his toys, is taught to the man by the
+objects which he may call his own. In America those complaints against
+property in general, which are so frequent in Europe, are never heard,
+because in America there are no paupers; and as every one has property
+of his own to defend, every one recognizes the principle upon which he
+holds it.
+
+The same thing occurs in the political world. In America the lowest
+classes have conceived a very high notion of political rights, because
+they exercise those rights; and they refrain from attacking those of
+other people, in order to ensure their own from attack. While in Europe
+the same classes sometimes recalcitrate even against the supreme power,
+the American submits without a murmur to the authority of the pettiest
+magistrate.
+
+This truth is exemplified by the most trivial details of national
+peculiarities. In France very few pleasures are exclusively reserved
+for the higher classes; the poor are admitted wherever the rich are
+received; and they consequently behave with propriety, and respect
+whatever contributes to the enjoyments in which they themselves
+participate. In England, where wealth has a monopoly of amusement as
+well as of power, complaints are made that whenever the poor happen to
+steal into the enclosures which are reserved for the pleasures of the
+rich, they commit acts of wanton mischief: can this be wondered at,
+since care has been taken that they should have nothing to lose?
+
+The government of the democracy brings the notion of political rights to
+the level of the humblest citizens, just as the dissemination of wealth
+brings the notion of property within the reach of all the members of the
+community; and I confess that, to my mind, this is one of its greatest
+advantages. I do not assert that it is easy to teach men to exercise
+political rights; but I maintain that when it is possible, the effects
+which result from it are highly important: and I add that if there ever
+was a time at which such an attempt ought to be made, that time is our
+own. It is clear that the influence of religious belief is shaken, and
+that the notion of divine rights is declining; it is evident that
+public morality is vitiated, and the notion of moral rights is also
+disappearing: these are general symptoms of the substitution of argument
+for faith, and of calculation for the impulses of sentiment. If, in the
+midst of this general disruption, you do not succeed in connecting
+the notion of rights with that of personal interest, which is the
+only immutable point in the human heart, what means will you have of
+governing the world except by fear? When I am told that since the laws
+are weak and the populace is wild, since passions are excited and the
+authority of virtue is paralyzed, no measures must be taken to increase
+the rights of the democracy; I reply that it is for these very reasons
+that some measures of the kind must be taken; and I am persuaded that
+governments are still more interested in taking them than society at
+large, because governments are liable to be destroyed, and society
+cannot perish.
+
+I am not, however, inclined to exaggerate the example which America
+furnishes. In those states the people was invested with political rights
+at a time when they could scarcely be abused, for the citizens were
+few in number and simple in their manners. As they have increased, the
+Americans have not augmented the power of the democracy, but they have,
+if I may use the expression, extended its dominions.
+
+It cannot be doubted that the moment at which political rights are
+granted to a people that had before been without them, is a very
+critical, though it be a very necessary one. A child may kill before he
+is aware of the value of life; and he may deprive another person of his
+property before he is aware that his own may be taken away from him. The
+lower orders, when first they are invested with political rights, stand
+in relation to those rights, in the same position as a child does to the
+whole of nature, and the celebrated adage may then be applied to them,
+_Homo, puer robustus_. This truth may even be perceived in America. The
+states in which the citizens have enjoyed their rights longest are those
+in which they make the best use of them.
+
+It cannot be repeated too often that nothing is more fertile in
+prodigies than the art of being free; but there is nothing more arduous
+than the apprenticeship of liberty. Such is not the case with despotic
+institutions; despotism often promises to make amends for a thousand
+previous ills; it supports the right, it protects the oppressed, and it
+maintains public order. The nation is lulled by the temporary prosperity
+which accrues to it, until it is roused to a sense of its own misery.
+Liberty, on the contrary, is generally established in the midst of
+agitation, it is perfected by civil discord, and its benefits cannot be
+appreciated until it is already old.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RESPECT FOR THE LAW IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Respect of the Americans for the Law.--Parental Affection which they
+entertain for it.--Personal Interest of every one to increase the
+Authority of the Law.
+
+It is not always feasible to consult the whole people, either directly
+or indirectly, in the formation of the law; but it cannot be denied that
+when such a measure is possible, the authority of the law is very much
+augmented. This popular origin, which impairs the excellence and the
+wisdom of legislation, contributes prodigiously to increase its power.
+There is an amazing strength in the expression of the determination of a
+whole people; and when it declares itself, the imagination of those who
+are most inclined to contest it, is overawed by its authority. The truth
+of this fact is very well known by parties; and they consequently strive
+to make out a majority whenever they can. If they have not the greater
+number of voters on their side, they assert that the true majority
+abstained from voting; and if they are foiled even there, they have
+recourse to the body of those persons who had no votes to give.
+
+In the United States, except slaves, servants, and paupers in the
+receipt of relief from the townships, there is no class of persons
+who do not exercise the elective franchise, and who do not contribute
+indirectly to make the laws. Those who design to attack the laws must
+consequently either modify the opinion of the nation or trample upon its
+decision.
+
+A second reason, which is still more weighty, may be farther adduced:
+in the United States every one is personally interested in enforcing
+the obedience of the whole community to the law; for as the minority
+may shortly rally the majority to its principles, it is interested in
+professing that respect for the decrees of the legislator, which it may
+soon have occasion to claim for its own. However irksome an enactment
+may be, the citizen of the United States complies with it, not only
+because it is the work of the majority, but because it originates in his
+own authority; and he regards it as a contract to which he is himself a
+party.
+
+In the United States, then, that numerous and turbulent multitude does
+not exist, which always looks upon the law as its natural enemy, and
+accordingly surveys it with fear and with distrust. It is impossible,
+on the other hand, not to perceive that all classes display the utmost
+reliance upon the legislation of their country, and that they are
+attached to it by a kind of parental affection.
+
+I am wrong, however, in saying all classes; for as in America the
+European scale of authority is inverted, the wealthy are there placed in
+a position analogous to that of the poor in the Old World, and it is
+the opulent classes which frequently look upon the law with suspicion.
+I have already observed that the advantage of democracy is not, as has
+been sometimes asserted, that it protects the interests of the whole
+community, but simply that it protects those of the majority. In the
+United States, where the poor rule, the rich have always some reason to
+dread the abuses of their power. This natural anxiety of the rich may
+produce a sullen dissatisfaction, but society is not disturbed by it;
+for the same reason which induces the rich to withhold their confidence
+in the legislative authority, makes them obey its mandates; their
+wealth, which prevents them from making the law, prevents them from
+withstanding it. Among civilized nations revolts are rarely excited
+except by such persons as have nothing to lose by them; and if the laws
+of a democracy are not always worthy of respect, at least they always
+obtain it; for those who usually infringe the laws have no excuse for
+not complying with the enactments they have themselves made, and by
+which they are themselves benefited, while the citizens whose interests
+might be promoted by the infraction of them, are induced, by their
+character and their station, to submit to the decisions of the
+legislature, whatever they may be. Beside which, the people in America
+obeys the law not only because it emanates from the popular authority,
+but because that authority may modify it in any points which may prove
+vexatory; a law is observed because it is a self-imposed evil in the
+first place, and an evil of transient duration in the second.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ACTIVITY WHICH PERVADES ALL THE BRANCHES OF THE BODY POLITIC IN THE
+UNITED STATES; INFLUENCE WHICH IT EXERCISES UPON SOCIETY.
+
+More difficult to conceive the political Activity which pervades the
+United States than the Freedom and Equality which reign here.--The great
+activity which perpetually agitates the legislative Bodies is only an
+Episode to the general Activity.--Difficult for an American to confine
+himself to his own Business.--Political Agitation extends to all social
+intercourse.--Commercial Activity of the Americans partly attributable
+to this cause.--Indirect Advantages which Society derives from a
+democratic Government.
+
+On passing from a country in which free institutions are established to
+one where they do not exist, the traveller is struck by the change; in
+the former all is bustle and activity, in the latter everything is calm
+and motionless. In the one, melioration and progress are the general
+topics of inquiry; in the other, it seems as if the community only
+aspired to repose in the enjoyment of the advantages which it has
+acquired. Nevertheless, the country which exerts itself so strenuously
+to promote its welfare is generally more wealthy and more prosperous
+than that which appears to be so contented with its lot; and when we
+compare them together, we can scarcely conceive how so many new wants
+are daily felt in the former, while so few seem to occur in the latter.
+
+If this remark is applicable to those free countries in which
+monarchical and aristocratic institutions subsist, it is still more
+striking with regard to democratic republics. In these states it is not
+only a portion of the people which is busied with the melioration of its
+social condition, but the whole community is engaged in the task; and it
+is not the exigencies and the convenience of a single class for which a
+provision is to be made, but the exigencies and the convenience of all
+ranks of life.
+
+It is not impossible to conceive the surpassing liberty which the
+Americans enjoy; some idea may likewise be formed of the extreme
+equality which subsists among them; but the political activity which
+pervades the United States must be seen in order to be understood. No
+sooner do you set foot upon the American soil than you are stunned by a
+kind of tumult; a confused clamor is heard on every side; and a thousand
+simultaneous voices demand the immediate satisfaction of their social
+wants. Everything is in motion around you; here, the people of one
+quarter of a town are met to decide upon the building of a church;
+there, the election of a representative is going on; a little further,
+the delegates of a district are posting to the town in order to consult
+upon some local improvements; or, in another place, the laborers of a
+village quit their ploughs to deliberate upon the project of a road or
+a public school. Meetings are called for the sole purpose of declaring
+their disapprobation of the line of conduct pursued by the government;
+while in other assemblies the citizens salute the authorities of the
+day as the fathers of their country. Societies are formed, which regard
+drunkenness as the principal cause of the evils under which the state
+labors, and which solemnly bind themselves to give a constant example of
+temperance.[180]
+
+The great political agitation of the American legislative bodies, which
+is the only kind of excitement that attracts the attention of foreign
+countries, is a mere episode or a sort of continuation of that universal
+movement which originates in the lowest classes of the people and
+extends successively to all the ranks of society. It is impossible to
+spend more efforts in the pursuit of enjoyment.
+
+The cares of political life engross a most prominent place in the
+occupation of a citizen in the United States; and almost the only
+pleasure of which an American has any idea, is to take a part in the
+government, and to discuss the part he has taken. This feeling pervades
+the most trifling habits of life; even the women frequently attend
+public meetings, and listen to political harangues as a recreation
+after their household labors. Debating clubs are to a certain extent a
+substitute for theatrical entertainments: an American cannot converse,
+but he can discuss; and when he attempts to talk he falls into a
+dissertation. He speaks to you as if he were addressing a meeting; and
+if he should warm in the course of the discussion, he will infallibly
+say "gentlemen," to the person with whom he is conversing.
+
+In some countries the inhabitants display a certain repugnance to avail
+themselves of the political privileges with which the law invests them;
+it would seem that they set too high a value upon their time to spend
+it on the interests of the community; and they prefer to withdraw within
+the exact limits of a wholesome egotism, marked out by four sunk fences
+and a quickset hedge. But if an American were condemned to confine
+his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of
+his existence; he would feel an immense void in the life which he is
+accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness would be unbearable.[181] I am
+persuaded that if ever a despotic government is established in America,
+it will find it more difficult to surmount the habits which free
+institutions have engendered, than to conquer the attachment of the
+citizens to freedom.
+
+This ceaseless agitation which democratic government has introduced into
+the political world, influences all social intercourse. I am not sure
+that upon the whole this is not the greatest advantage of democracy; and
+I am much less inclined to applaud it for what it does, than for what it
+causes to be done.
+
+It is incontestable that the people frequently conducts public business
+very ill; but it is impossible that the lower orders should take a part
+in public business without extending the circle of their ideas, and
+without quitting the ordinary routine of their mental acquirements. The
+humblest individual who is called upon to co-operate in the government
+of society, acquires a certain degree of self-respect; and as he
+possesses authority, he can command the services of minds much more
+enlightened than his own. He is canvassed by a multitude of applicants,
+who seek to deceive him in a thousand different ways, but who instruct
+him by their deceit. He takes a part in political undertakings which
+did not originate in his own conception, but which give him a taste for
+undertakings of the kind. New meliorations are daily pointed out in the
+property which he holds in common with others, and this gives him the
+desire of improving that property which is more peculiarly his own. He
+is perhaps neither happier nor better than those who came before him,
+but he is better informed and more active. I have no doubt that the
+democratic institutions of the United States, joined to the physical
+constitution of the country, are the cause (not the direct, as is so
+often asserted, but the indirect cause) of the prodigious commercial
+activity of the inhabitants. It is not engendered by the laws, but
+the people learns how to promote it by the experience derived from
+legislation.
+
+When the opponents of democracy assert that a single individual performs
+the duties which he undertakes much better than the government of
+the community, it appears to me that they are perfectly right. The
+government of an individual, supposing an equality of instruction on
+either side, is more consistent, more persevering, and more accurate
+than that of a multitude, and it is much better qualified judiciously
+to discriminate the characters of the men it employs. If any deny what I
+advance, they have certainly never seen a democratic government, or have
+formed their opinion upon very partial evidence. It is true that
+even when local circumstances and the disposition of the people allow
+democratic institutions to subsist, they never display a regular
+and methodical system of government. Democratic liberty is far from
+accomplishing all the projects it undertakes, with the skill of an
+adroit despotism. It frequently abandons them before they have borne
+their fruits, or risks them when the consequences may prove dangerous;
+but in the end it produces more than any absolute government, and if it
+do fewer things well, it does a great number of things. Under its
+sway, the transactions of the public administration are not nearly so
+important as what is done by private exertion. Democracy does not confer
+the most skilful kind of government upon the people, but it produces
+that which the most skilful governments are frequently unable to awaken,
+namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a superabundant force,
+and an energy which is inseparable from it, and which may, under
+favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing benefits. These are the
+true advantages of democracy.
+
+In the present age, when the destinies of Christendom seem to be in
+suspense, some hasten to assail democracy as its foe while it is yet in
+its early growth; and others are ready with their vows of adoration for
+this new duty which is springing forth from chaos: but both parties are
+very imperfectly acquainted with the object of their hatred or of their
+desires; they strike in the dark, and distribute their blows by mere
+chance.
+
+We must first understand what the purport of society and the aim of
+government are held to be. If it be your intention to confer a certain
+elevation upon the human mind, and to teach it to regard the things of
+this world with generous feelings; to inspire men with a scorn of mere
+temporal advantage; to give birth to living convictions, and to keep
+alive the spirit of honorable devotedness; if you hold it to be a good
+thing to refine the habits, to embellish the manners, to cultivate the
+arts of a nation, and to promote the love of poetry, of beauty, and of
+renown; if you would constitute a people not unfitted to act with power
+upon all other nations; nor unprepared for those high enterprises,
+which, whatever be the result of its efforts, will leave a name for
+ever famous in time--if you believe such to be the principal object of
+society, you must avoid the government of democracy, which would be a
+very uncertain guide to the end you have in view.
+
+But if you hold it to be expedient to divert the moral and intellectual
+activity of man to the production of comfort, and to the acquirement of
+the necessaries of life; if a clear understanding be more profitable
+to men than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of
+heroism, but to create habits of peace; if you had rather behold vices
+than crimes, and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided
+offences be diminished in the same proportion; if, instead of living
+in the midst of a brilliant state of society, you are contented to
+have prosperity around you; if, in short, you are of opinion that the
+principal object of a government is not to confer the greatest possible
+share of power and of glory upon the body of the nation, but to ensure
+the greatest degree of enjoyment, and the least degree of misery, to
+each of the individuals who compose it--if such be your desires, you can
+have no surer means of satisfying them than by equalizing the condition
+of men, and establishing democratic institutions.
+
+But if the time be past at which such a choice was possible, and if
+some superhuman power impel us toward one or the other of these two
+governments without consulting our wishes, let us at least endeavor to
+make the best of that which is allotted to us: and let us so inquire
+into its good and its evil propensities as to be able to foster the
+former, and repress the latter to the utmost.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[180] At the time of my stay in the United States the temperance
+societies already consisted of more than 270,000 members; and their
+effect had been to diminish the consumption of fermented liquors by
+500,000 gallons per annum in the state of Pennsylvania alone.
+
+[181] The same remark was made at Rome under the first Caesars.
+Montesquieu somewhere alludes to the excessive despondency of certain
+Roman citizens who, after the excitement of political life, were all at
+once flung back into the stagnation of private life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+UNLIMITED POWER OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS
+CONSEQUENCES.
+
+Natural Strength of the Majority in Democracies.--Most of the American
+Constitutions have increased this Strength by artificial Means.--How
+this has been done.--Pledged Delegates.--Moral Power of the
+Majority.--Opinions as to its Infallibility.--Respect for its Rights,
+how augmented in the United States.
+
+The very essence of democratic government consists in the absolute
+sovereignty of the majority: for there is nothing in democratic states
+which is capable of resisting it. Most of the American constitutions
+have sought to increase this natural strength of the majority by
+artificial means.[182]
+
+The legislature is, of all political institutions, the one which is most
+easily swayed by the wishes of the majority. The Americans determined
+that the members of the legislature should be elected by the people
+immediately, and for a very brief term, in order to subject them not
+only to the general convictions, but even to the daily passions of their
+constituents. The members of both houses are taken from the same
+class in society, and are nominated in the same manner; so that the
+modifications of the legislative bodies are almost as rapid and quite as
+irresistible as those of a single assembly. It is to a legislature thus
+constituted, that almost all the authority of the government has been
+intrusted.
+
+But while the law increased the strength of those authorities which
+of themselves were strong, it enfeebled more and more those which were
+naturally weak. It deprived the representatives of the executive of all
+stability and independence; and by subjecting them completely to the
+caprices of the legislature, it robbed them completely of the slender
+influence which the nature of a democratic government might have allowed
+them to retain. In several states the judicial power was also submitted
+to the elective discretion of the majority; and in all of them its
+existence was made to depend on the pleasure of the legislative
+authority, since the representatives were empowered annually to regulate
+the stipend of the judges.
+
+Custom, however, has done even more than law. A proceeding which will in
+the end set all the guarantees of representative government at naught,
+is becoming more and more general in the United States: it frequently
+happens that the electors, who choose a delegate, point out a certain
+line of conduct to him, and impose upon him a certain number of positive
+obligations which he is pledged to fulfil. With the exception of the
+tumult, this comes to the same thing as if the majority of the populace
+held its deliberations in the market-place.
+
+Several other circumstances concur in rendering the power of the
+majority in America, not only preponderant, but irresistible. The moral
+authority of the majority is partly based upon the notion, that there
+is more intelligence and more wisdom in a great number of men collected
+together than in a single individual, and that the quantity of
+legislators is more important than their quality. The theory of equality
+is in fact applied to the intellect of man; and human pride is thus
+assailed in its last retreat, by a doctrine which the minority hesitate
+to admit, and in which they very slowly concur. Like all other powers,
+and perhaps more than all other powers, the authority of the many
+requires the sanction of time; at first it enforces obedience by
+constraint; but its laws are not respected until they have long been
+maintained.
+
+The right of governing society, which the majority supposes itself to
+derive from its superior intelligence, was introduced into the United
+States by the first settlers; and this idea, which would be sufficient
+of itself to create a free nation, has now been amalgamated with the
+manners of the people, and the minor incidents of social intercourse.
+
+The French, under the old monarchy, held it for a maxim (which is still
+a fundamental principle of the English constitution), that the king
+could do no wrong; and if he did wrong, the blame was imputed to his
+advisers. This notion was highly favorable to habits of obedience; and
+it enabled the subject to complain of the law, without ceasing to love
+and honor the lawgiver. The Americans entertain the same opinion with
+respect to the majority.
+
+The moral power of the majority is founded upon yet another principle,
+which is, that the interests of the many are to be preferred to those
+of the few. It will readily be perceived that the respect here professed
+for the rights of the majority must naturally increase or diminish
+according to the state of parties. When a nation is divided into
+several irreconcilable factions, the privilege of the majority is often
+overlooked, because it is intolerable to comply with its demands.
+
+If there existed in America a class of citizens whom the legislating
+majority sought to deprive of exclusive privileges, which they had
+possessed for ages, and to bring down from an elevated station to the
+level of the ranks of the multitude, it is probable that the minority
+would be less ready to comply with its laws. But as the United States
+were colonized by men holding an equal rank among themselves, there
+is as yet no natural or permanent source of dissension between the
+interests of its different inhabitants.
+
+There are certain communities in which the persons who constitute the
+minority can never hope to draw over the majority to their side, because
+they must then give up the very point which is at issue between them.
+Thus, an aristocracy can never become a majority while it retains its
+exclusive privileges, and it cannot cede its privileges without ceasing
+to be an aristocracy.
+
+In the United States, political questions cannot be taken up in so
+general and absolute a manner; and all parties are willing to recognize
+the rights of the majority, because they all hope to turn those rights
+to their own advantage at some future time. The majority therefore
+in that country exercises a prodigious actual authority, and a moral
+influence which is scarcely less preponderant; no obstacles exist which
+can impede, or so much as retard its progress, or which can induce it to
+heed the complaints of those whom it crushes upon its path. This state
+of things is fatal in itself and dangerous for the future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HOW THE UNLIMITED POWER OF THE MAJORITY INCREASES, IN AMERICA, THE
+INSTABILITY OF LEGISLATION AND THE ADMINISTRATION INHERENT IN DEMOCRACY.
+
+The Americans increase the mutability of the Laws which is inherent in
+Democracy by changing the Legislature every Year, and by vesting it
+with unbounded Authority.--The same Effect is produced upon the
+Administration.--In America social Melioration is conducted more
+energetically, but less perseveringly than in Europe.
+
+I have already spoken of the natural defects of democratic institutions,
+and they all of them increase in the exact ratio of the power of the
+majority. To begin with the most evident of them all; the mutability
+of the laws is an evil inherent in democratic government, because it is
+natural to democracies to raise men to power in very rapid succession.
+But this evil is more or less sensible in proportion to the authority
+and the means of action which the legislature possesses.
+
+In America the authority exercised by the legislative bodies is supreme;
+nothing prevents them from accomplishing their wishes with celerity, and
+with irresistible power, while they are supplied by new representatives
+every year. That is to say, the circumstances which contribute most
+powerfully to democratic instability, and which admit of the free
+application of caprice to every object in the state, are here in full
+operation. In conformity with this principle, America is, at the present
+day, the country in the world where laws last the shortest time. Almost
+all the American constitutions have been amended within the course of
+thirty years: there is, therefore, not a single American state which has
+not modified the principles of its legislation in that lapse of time.
+As for the laws themselves, a single glance upon the archives of the
+different states of the Union suffices to convince one, that in America
+the activity of the legislator never slackens. Not that the American
+democracy is naturally less stable than any other, but that it is
+allowed to follow its capricious propensities in the formation of the
+laws.[183]
+
+The omnipotence of the majority and the rapid as well as absolute manner
+in which its decisions are executed in the United States, have not only
+the effect of rendering the law unstable, but they exercise the same
+influence upon the execution of the law and the conduct of the public
+administration. As the majority is the only power which it is important
+to court, all its projects are taken up with the greatest ardor; but no
+sooner is its attention distracted, than all this ardor ceases; while in
+the free states of Europe, the administration is at once independent and
+secure, so that the projects of the legislature are put into execution,
+although its immediate attention may be directed to other objects.
+
+In America certain meliorations are undertaken with much more zeal and
+activity than elsewhere; in Europe the same ends are promoted by much
+less social effort, more continuously applied.
+
+Some years ago several pious individuals undertook to meliorate the
+condition of the prisons. The public was excited by the statements
+which they put forward, and the regeneration of criminals became a very
+popular undertaking. New prisons were built; and, for the first time,
+the idea of reforming as well as of punishing the delinquent, formed
+a part of prison discipline. But this happy alteration, in which the
+public had taken so hearty an interest, and which the exertions of
+the citizens had irresistibly accelerated, could not be completed in a
+moment. While the new penitentiaries were being erected (and it was the
+pleasure of the majority they should be terminated with all possible
+celerity), the old prisons existed, which still contained a great number
+of offenders. These jails became more unwholesome and more corrupt
+in proportion as the new establishments were beautified and improved,
+forming a contrast which may readily be understood. The majority was so
+eagerly employed in founding the new prisons, that those which already
+existed were forgotten; and as the general attention was diverted to a
+novel object, the care which had hitherto been bestowed upon the others
+ceased. The salutary regulations of discipline were first relaxed, and
+afterward broken; so that in the immediate neighborhood of a prison
+which bore witness to the mild and enlightened spirit of our time,
+dungeons might be met with, which reminded the visitor of the barbarity
+of the middle ages.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY.
+
+How the Principle of the Sovereignty of the People is to be
+understood.--Impossibility of conceiving a mixed Government.--The
+sovereign Power must centre somewhere.--Precautions to be taken to
+control its Action.--These Precautions have not been taken in the United
+States.--Consequences.
+
+I hold it to be an impious and an execrable maxim that, politically
+speaking, a people has a right to do whatsoever it pleases; and yet I
+have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority.
+Am I, then, in contradiction with myself?
+
+A general law--which bears the name of justice--has been made and
+sanctioned, not only by a majority of this or that people, but by
+a majority of mankind. The rights of every people are consequently
+confined within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered
+in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large,
+and to apply the great and general law of justice. Ought such a jury,
+which represents society, to have more power than the society in which
+the laws it applies originate?
+
+When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which
+the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty
+of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. It has been asserted that
+a people can never entirely outstep the boundaries of justice and of
+reason in those affairs which are more peculiarly its own; and that
+consequently full power may fearlessly be given to the majority by which
+it is represented. But this language is that of a slave.
+
+A majority taken collectively may be regarded as a being whose opinions,
+and most frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another
+being, which is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man,
+possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his
+adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach?
+Men are not apt to change their characters by agglomeration; nor
+does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the
+consciousness of their strength.[184] And for these reasons I can never
+willingly invest any number of my fellow-creatures with that unlimited
+authority which I should refuse to any one of them.
+
+I do not think it is possible to combine several principles in the same
+government, so as at the same time to maintain freedom, and really to
+oppose them to one another. The form of government which is usually
+termed _mixed_ has always appeared to me to be a mere chimera.
+Accurately speaking, there is no such thing as a mixed government (with
+the meaning usually given to that word), because in all communities some
+one principle of action may be discovered, which preponderates over
+the others. England in the last century, which has been more especially
+cited as an example of this form of government, was in point of fact
+an essentially aristocratic state, although it comprised very powerful
+elements of democracy: for the laws and customs of the country were
+such, that the aristocracy could not but preponderate in the end, and
+subject the direction of public affairs to its own will. The error arose
+from too much attention being paid to the actual struggle which was
+going on between the nobles and the people, without considering the
+probable issue of the contest, which was in reality the important point.
+When a community really has a mixed government, that is to say, when it
+is equally divided between two adverse principles, it must either pass
+through a revolution, or fall into complete dissolution.
+
+I am therefore of opinion that some one social power must always be made
+to predominate over the others; but I think that liberty is endangered
+when this power is checked by no obstacles which may retard its course,
+and force it to moderate its own vehemence.
+
+Unlimited power is in itself a bad and dangerous thing; human beings
+are not competent to exercise it with discretion; and God alone can be
+omnipotent, because his wisdom and his justice are always equal to his
+power. But no power upon earth is so worthy of honor for itself, or of
+reverential obedience to the rights which it represents, that I would
+consent to admit its uncontrolled and all-predominate authority. When I
+see that the right and the means of absolute command are conferred on a
+people or upon a king, upon an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or
+a republic, I recognize the germ of tyranny, and I journey onward to a
+land of more hopeful institutions.
+
+In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of
+the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from
+their weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so
+much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country, as
+at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny.
+
+When an individual or a party is wronged in the United States, to
+whom can he apply for redress? If to public opinion, public opinion
+constitutes the majority; if to the legislature, it represents the
+majority, and implicitly obeys its instructions: if to the executive
+power, it is appointed by the majority and is a passive tool in its
+hands; the public troops consist of the majority under arms; the jury is
+the majority invested with the right of hearing judicial cases; and
+in certain states even the judges are elected by the majority. However
+iniquitous or absurd the evil of which you complain may be, you must
+submit to it as well as you can.[185]
+
+If, on the other hand, a legislative power could be so constituted as
+to represent the majority without necessarily being the slave of its
+passions; an executive, so as to retain a certain degree of uncontrolled
+authority; and a judiciary, so as to remain independent of the two other
+powers; a government would be formed which would still be democratic,
+without incurring any risk of tyrannical abuse.
+
+I do not say that tyrannical abuses frequently occur in America at the
+present day; but I maintain that no sure barrier is established against
+them, and that the causes which mitigate the government are to be found
+in the circumstances and the manners of the country more than its laws.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+EFFECTS OF THE UNLIMITED POWER OF THE MAJORITY UPON THE ARBITRARY
+AUTHORITY OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OFFICERS.
+
+Liberty left by the American Laws to public Officers within a certain
+Sphere.--Their Power.
+
+A distinction must be drawn between tyranny and arbitrary power.
+Tyranny may be exercised by means of the law, and in that case it is
+not arbitrary; arbitrary power may be exercised for the good of the
+community at large, in which case it is not tyrannical. Tyranny usually
+employs arbitrary means, but, if necessary, it can rule without them.
+
+In the United States the unbounded power of the majority, which is
+favorable to the legal despotism of the legislature, is likewise
+favorable to the arbitrary authority of the magistrates. The majority
+has an entire control over the law when it is made and when it is
+executed; and as it possesses an equal authority over those who are in
+power, and the community at large, it considers public officers as its
+passive agents, and readily confides the task of serving its designs to
+their vigilance. The details of their office and the privileges which
+they are to enjoy are rarely defined beforehand; but the majority treats
+them as a master does his servants, when they are always at work in his
+sight, and he has the power of directing or reprimanding them at every
+instant.
+
+In general the American functionaries are far more independent than the
+French civil officers, within the sphere which is prescribed to them.
+Sometimes, even, they are allowed by the popular authority to exceed
+those bounds; and as they are protected by the opinion, and backed by
+the cooperation of the majority, they venture upon such manifestations
+of their power as astonish a European. By this means habits are formed
+in the heart of a free country which may some day prove fatal to its
+liberties.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+POWER EXERCISED BY THE MAJORITY IN AMERICA UPON OPINION.
+
+In America, when the Majority has once irrevocably decided a Question,
+all Discussion ceases.--Reason of this.--Moral Power exercised by the
+Majority upon Opinion.--Democratic Republics have deprived Despotism of
+its physical Instruments.--Their Despotism sways the Minds of Men.
+
+It is in the examination of the display of public opinion in the United
+States, that we clearly perceive how far the power of the majority
+surpasses all the powers with which we are acquainted in Europe.
+Intellectual principles exercise an influence which is so invisible and
+often so inappreciable, that they baffle the toils of oppression. At the
+present time the most absolute monarchs in Europe are unable to prevent
+certain notions, which are opposed to their authority, from circulating
+in secret throughout their dominions, and even in their courts. Such
+is not the case in America; so long as the majority is still undecided,
+discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably
+pronounced, a submissive silence is observed; and the friends, as well
+as the opponents of the measure, unite in assenting to its propriety.
+The reason of this is perfectly clear: no monarch is so absolute as to
+combine all the powers of society in his own hands, and to conquer all
+opposition, with the energy of a majority, which is invested with the
+right of making and of executing the laws.
+
+The authority of a king is purely physical, and it controls the actions
+of the subject without subduing his private will; but the majority
+possesses a power which is physical and moral at the same time; it acts
+upon the will as well as upon the actions of men, and it represses not
+only all contest, but all controversy.
+
+I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind
+and freedom of discussion as in America. In any constitutional state in
+Europe every sort of religious and political theory may be advocated and
+propagated abroad; for there is no country in Europe so subdued by any
+single authority, as not to contain citizens who are ready to
+protect the man who raises his voice in the cause of truth, from the
+consequences of his hardihood. If he is unfortunate enough to live under
+an absolute government, the people is upon his side; if he inhabits a
+free country, he may find a shelter behind the authority of the throne,
+if he require one. The aristocratic part of society supports him in some
+countries, and the democracy in others. But in a nation where democratic
+institutions exist, organized like those of the United States, there is
+but one sole authority, one single element of strength and success, with
+nothing beyond it.
+
+In America, the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty
+of opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he
+pleases, but he will repent it if he ever step beyond them. Not that he
+is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe, but he is tormented by
+the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy. His political career is
+closed for ever, since he has offended the only authority which is
+able to promote his success. Every sort of compensation, even that
+of celebrity, is refused to him. Before he published his opinions, he
+imagined that he held them in common with many others; but no sooner has
+he declared them openly, than he is loudly censured by his overbearing
+opponents, while those who think, without having the courage to speak,
+like him, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, oppressed by the
+daily efforts he has been making, and he subsides into silence as if he
+was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth.
+
+Fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly
+employed; but the civilisation of our age has refined the arts of
+despotism, which seemed however to have been sufficiently perfected
+before. The excesses of monarchical power had devised a variety of
+political means of oppression; the democratic republics of the present
+day have rendered it as entirely an affair of the mind, as that will
+which it is intended to coerce. Under the absolute sway of an individual
+despot, the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul; and the soul
+escaped the blows which were directed against it, and rose superior to
+the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic
+republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The
+sovereign can no longer say, "You shall think as I do on pain of death;"
+but he says, "You are free to think differently from me, and to retain
+your life, your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your
+determination, you are henceforth an alien among your people. You may
+retain your civil rights, but they will be useless to you, for you will
+never be chosen by your fellow-citizens, if you solicit their suffrages;
+and they will affect to scorn you, if you solicit their esteem. You will
+remain among men, but you will be deprived of the rights of mankind.
+Your fellow-creatures will shun you like an impure being; and those who
+are most persuaded of your innocence will abandon you too, lest they
+should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace! I have given you your
+life, but it is an existence incomparably worse than death."
+
+Absolute monarchies have thrown an odium upon despotism; let us beware
+lest democratic republics should restore oppression, and should render
+it less odious and less degrading in the eyes of the many, by making it
+still more onerous to the few.
+
+Works have been published in the proudest nations of the Old World,
+expressly intended to censure the vices and deride the follies of the
+time; Labruyere inhabited the palace of Louis XIV. when he composed his
+chapter upon the Great, and Moliere criticised the courtiers in the very
+pieces which were acted before the court. But the ruling power in the
+United States is not to be made game of; the smallest reproach irritates
+its sensibility, and the slightest joke which has any foundation in
+truth, renders it indignant; from the style of its language to the more
+solid virtues of its character, everything must be made the subject
+of encomium. No writer, whatever be his eminence, can escape from this
+tribute of adulation to his fellow-citizens. The majority lives in the
+perpetual exercise of self-applause; and there are certain truths which
+the Americans can only learn from strangers or from experience.
+
+If great writers have not at present existed in America, the reason
+is very simply given in these facts; there can be no literary genius
+without freedom of opinion, and freedom of opinion does not exist in
+America. The inquisition has never been able to prevent a vast number
+of anti-religious books from circulating in Spain. The empire of the
+majority succeeds much better in the United States, since it actually
+removes the wish of publishing them. Unbelievers are to be met with in
+America, but, to say the truth, there is no public organ of infidelity.
+Attempts have been made by some governments to protect the morality of
+nations by prohibiting licentious books. In the United States no one is
+punished for this sort of works, but no one is induced to write them;
+not because all the citizens are immaculate in their manners, but
+because the majority of the community is decent and orderly.
+
+In these cases the advantages derived from the exercise of this power
+are unquestionable; and I am simply discussing the nature of the
+power itself. This irresistible authority is a constant fact, and its
+beneficent exercise is an accidental occurrence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+EFFECTS OF THE TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY UPON THE NATIONAL CHARACTER IN
+THE AMERICANS.
+
+Effects of the Tyranny of the Majority more sensibly felt hitherto in
+the Manners than in the Conduct of Society.--They check the development
+of leading Characters.--Democratic Republics, organized like the United
+States, bring the Practice of courting favor within the reach of the
+many.--Proofs of this Spirit in the United States.--Why there is more
+Patriotism in the People than in those who govern in its name.
+
+The tendencies which I have just alluded to are as yet very slightly
+perceptible in political society; but they already begin to exercise an
+unfavorable influence upon the national character of the Americans. I am
+inclined to attribute the paucity of distinguished political characters
+to the ever-increasing activity of the despotism of the majority in the
+United States.
+
+When the American revolution broke out, they arose in great numbers;
+for public opinion then served, not to tyrannize over, but to direct the
+exertions of individuals. Those celebrated men took a full part in the
+general agitation of mind common at that period, and they attained a
+high degree of personal fame, which was reflected back upon the nation,
+but which was by no means borrowed from it.
+
+In absolute governments, the great nobles who are nearest to the throne
+flatter the passions of the sovereign, and voluntarily truckle to
+his caprices. But the mass of the nation does not degrade itself
+by servitude; it often submits from weakness, from habit, or from
+ignorance, and sometimes from loyalty. Some nations have been known to
+sacrifice their own desires to those of the sovereign with pleasure and
+with pride; thus exhibiting a sort of independence in the very act of
+submission. These peoples are miserable, but they are not degraded.
+There is a great difference between doing what one does not approve, and
+feigning to approve what one does; the one is the necessary case of a
+weak person, the other befits the temper of a lacquey.
+
+In free countries, where every one is more or less called upon to give
+his opinions in the affairs of state; in democratic republics, where
+public life is incessantly commingled with domestic affairs, where the
+sovereign authority is accessible on every side, and where its attention
+can almost always be attracted by vociferation, more persons are to be
+met with who speculate upon its foibles, and live at the cost of its
+passions, than in absolute monarchies. Not because men are naturally
+worse in these states than elsewhere, but the temptation is stronger,
+and of easier access at the same time. The result is a far more
+extensive debasement of the characters of citizens.
+
+Democratic republics extend the practice of currying favor with the
+many, and they introduce it into a great number of classes at once: this
+is one of the most serious reproaches that can be addressed to them. In
+democratic states organized on the principles of the American republics,
+this is more especially the case, where the authority of the majority is
+so absolute and so irresistible, that a man must give up his rights as
+a citizen, and almost abjure his quality as a human being, if he intends
+to stray from the track which it lays down.
+
+In that immense crowd which throngs the avenues to power in the United
+States, I found very few men who displayed any of that manly candor, and
+that masculine independence of opinion, which frequently distinguished
+the Americans in former times, and which constitute the leading feature
+in distinguished characters wheresoever they may be found. It seems, at
+first sight, as if all the minds of the Americans were formed upon one
+model, so accurately do they correspond in their manner of judging. A
+stranger does, indeed, sometimes meet with Americans who dissent from
+these rigorous formularies; with men who deplore the defects of the
+laws, the mutability and the ignorance of democracy; who even go so far
+as to observe the evil tendencies which impair the national character,
+and to point out such remedies as it might be possible to apply; but
+no one is there to hear these things besides yourself, and you, to whom
+these secret reflections are confided, are a stranger and a bird of
+passage. They are very ready to communicate truths which are useless to
+you, but they continue to hold a different language in public.
+
+If ever these lines are read in America, I am well assured of two
+things: in the first place, that all who peruse them will raise their
+voices to condemn me; and in the second place, that very many of them
+will acquit me at the bottom of their conscience.
+
+[The author's views upon what he terms the tyranny of the majority, the
+despotism of public opinion in the United States, have already excited
+some remarks in this country, and will probably give occasion to more.
+As stated in the preface to this edition, the editor does not conceive
+himself called upon to discuss the speculative opinions of the
+author and supposes he will best discharge his duty by confining his
+observations to what he deems errors of fact or law. But in reference to
+this particular subject, it seems due to the author to remark, that
+he visited the United States at a particular time, when a successful
+political chieftain had succeeded in establishing his party in power, as
+it seemed, firmly and permanently; when the preponderance of that party
+was immense, and when there seemed little prospect of any change. He may
+have met with men, who sank under the astonishing popularity of General
+Jackson, who despaired of the republic, and who therefore shrank from
+the expression of their opinions. It must be confessed, however, that
+the author is obnoxious to the charge which has been made, of the want
+of perspicuity and distinctness in this part of his work. He does not
+mean that the press was silent, for he has himself not only noticed, but
+furnished proof of the great freedom, not to say licentiousness, with
+which it assailed the character of the president, and the measures of
+his administration.
+
+He does not mean to represent the opponents of the dominant party
+as having thrown down their weapons of warfare, for his book shows
+throughout his knowledge of the existence of an active and able party,
+constantly opposing and harassing the administration.
+
+But, after a careful perusal of the chapters on this subject, the editor
+is inclined to the opinion, that M. De Tocqueville intends to speak of
+the _tyranny of the party_ in excluding from public employment all those
+who do not adopt the _Shibboleth_ of the majority. The language at pp.
+266, 267, which he puts in the mouth of a majority, and his observations
+immediately preceding this note, seem to furnish the key to his meaning;
+although it must be admitted that there are other passages to which a
+wider construction may be given. Perhaps they may be reconciled by the
+idea that the author considers the acts and opinions of the dominant
+party as the just and true expression of public opinion. And hence,
+when he speaks of the intolerance of public opinion, he means
+the exclusiveness of the party, which, for the time being, may be
+predominant. He had seen men of acknowledged competency removed from
+office, or excluded from it, wholly on the ground of their entertaining
+opinions hostile to those of the dominant party, or majority. And he had
+seen this system extended to the very lowest officers of the government,
+and applied by the electors in their choice of all officers of all
+descriptions; and this he deemed persecution--tyranny--despotism. But he
+surely is mistaken in representing the effect of this system of terror
+as stifling all complaint, silencing all opposition, and inducing
+"enemies and friends to yoke themselves alike to the triumphant car of
+the majority." He mistook a temporary state of parties for a permanent
+and ordinary result, and he was carried away by the immense majority
+that then supported the administration, to the belief of a universal
+acquiescence. Without intending here to speak of the merits or demerits
+of those who represented that majority, it is proper to remark, that
+the great change which has taken place since the period when the author
+wrote, in the political condition of the very persons who he supposed
+then wielded the terrors of disfranchisement against their opponents, in
+itself furnishes a full and complete demonstration of the error of
+his opinions respecting the "true independence of mind and freedom of
+discussion" in America. For without such discussion to enlighten the
+minds of the people, and without a stern independence of the rewards
+and threats of those in power, the change alluded to could not have
+occurred.
+
+There is reason to complain not only of the ambiguity, but of the style
+of exaggeration which pervades all the remarks of the author on this
+subject--so different from the well considered and nicely adjusted
+language employed by him on all other topics. Thus, p. 262, he implies
+that there is no means of redress afforded even by the judiciary, for a
+wrong committed by the majority. His error is, _first_, in supposing the
+jury to constitute the judicial power; _second_, overlooking what he has
+himself elsewhere so well described, the independence of the judiciary,
+and its means of controlling the action of a majority in a state or
+in the federal government; and _thirdly_, in omitting the proper
+consideration of the frequent changes of popular sentiment by which the
+majority of yesterday becomes the minority of to-day, and its acts of
+injustice are reversed.
+
+Certain it is that the instances which he cites at this page, do not
+establish his position respecting the disposition of the majority. The
+riot at Baltimore was, like other riots in England and in France, the
+result of popular phrensy excited to madness by conduct of the
+most provoking character. The majority in the state of Maryland and
+throughout the United States, highly disapproved the acts of violence
+committed on the occasion. The acquittal by a jury of those arraigned
+for the murder of General Lingan, proves only that there was not
+sufficient evidence to identify the accused, or that the jury was
+governed by passion. It is not perceived how the majority of the people
+are answerable for the verdicts rendered. The guilty have often been
+erroneously acquitted in all countries, and in France particularly,
+recent instances are not wanting of acquittals especially in
+prosecutions for political offences, against clear and indisputable
+testimony. And it was entirely fortuitous that the jury was composed of
+men whose sympathies were with the rioters and murderers, if the
+fact was so. It not unfrequently happens that a jury taken from lists
+furnished years perhaps, and always a long time, before the trial, are
+decidedly hostile to the temporary prevailing sentiments of their city,
+county, or state.
+
+As in the other instance, if the inhabitant of Pennsylvania intended
+to intimate to our author, that a colored voter would be in personal
+jeopardy for venturing to appear at the polls to exercise his right,
+it must be said in truth, that the incident was local and peculiar, and
+contrary to what is annually seen throughout the states where colored
+persons are permitted to vote, who exercise that privilege with as full
+immunity from injury or oppression, as any white citizen. And, after
+all, it is believed that the state of feeling intimated by the informant
+of our author, is but an indication of dislike to a _caste_ degraded
+by servitude and ignorance; and it is not perceived how it proves the
+despotism of a majority over the freedom and independence of opinion.
+If it be true, it proves a detestable tyranny over _acts_, over the
+exercise of an acknowledged right. The apprehensions of a mob committing
+violence deterred the colored voters from approaching the polls. Are
+instances unknown in England or even in France, of peaceable subjects
+being prevented by mobs or the fear of them, from the exercise of a
+right, from the discharge of a duty? And are they evidences of the
+despotism of a majority in those countries?--_American Editor._]
+
+I have heard of patriotism in the United States, and it is a virtue
+which may be found among the people, but never among the leaders of
+the people. This may be explained by analogy; despotism debases the
+oppressed, much more than the oppressor; in absolute monarchies the king
+has often great virtues, but the courtiers are invariably servile. It
+is true that the American courtiers do not say, "sire," or "your
+majesty"--a distinction without a difference. They are for ever talking
+of the natural intelligence of the populace they serve; they do not
+debate the question as to which of the virtues of their master are
+pre-eminently worthy of admiration; for they assure him that he
+possesses all the virtues under heaven without having acquired them, or
+without caring to acquire them: they do not give him their daughters and
+their wives to be raised at his pleasure to the rank of his concubines,
+but, by sacrificing their opinions, they prostitute themselves.
+Moralists and philosophers in America are not obliged to conceal their
+opinions under the veil of allegory; but, before they venture upon
+a harsh truth, they say: "We are aware that the people which we are
+addressing is too superior to all the weaknesses of human nature to lose
+the command of its temper for an instant; and we should not hold this
+language if we were not speaking to men, whom their virtues and their
+intelligence render more worthy of freedom than all the rest of the
+world."
+
+It would have been impossible for the sycophants of Louis XIV. to
+flatter more dexterously. For my part, I am persuaded that in all
+governments, whatever their nature may be, servility will cower to
+force, and adulation will cling to power. The only means of preventing
+men from degrading themselves, is to invest no one with that unlimited
+authority which is the surest method of debasing them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GREATEST DANGERS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS PROCEED FROM THE
+UNLIMITED POWER OF THE MAJORITY.
+
+Democratic Republics liable to perish from a misuse of their Power, and
+not by Impotence.--The Governments of the American Republics are
+more Centralized and more Energetic than those of the Monarchies
+of Europe.--Dangers resulting from this.--Opinions of Hamilton and
+Jefferson upon this Point.
+
+Governments usually fall a sacrifice to impotence or to tyranny. In
+the former case their power escapes from them: it is wrested from their
+grasp in the latter. Many observers who have noticed the anarchy of
+domestic states, have imagined that the government of those states was
+naturally weak and impotent. The truth is, that when once hostilities
+are begun between parties, the government loses its control over
+society. But I do not think that a democratic power is naturally without
+resources: say rather, that it is almost always by the abuse of its
+force, and the misemployment of its resources, that a democratic
+government fails. Anarchy is almost always produced by its tyranny or
+its mistakes, but not by its want of strength.
+
+It is important not to confound stability with force, or the greatness
+of a thing with its duration. In democratic republics, the power which
+directs[186] society is not stable; for it often changes hands and
+assumes a new direction. But whichever way it turns, its force is almost
+irresistible. The governments of the American republics appear to me to
+be as much centralized as those of the absolute monarchies of Europe,
+and more energetic than they are. I do not, therefore, imagine that they
+will perish from weakness.[187]
+
+If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may
+be attributed to the unlimited authority of the majority, which may at
+some future time urge the minorities to desperation, and oblige them to
+have recourse to physical force. Anarchy will then be the result, but it
+will have been brought about by despotism.
+
+Mr. Hamilton expresses the same opinion in the Federalist, No. 51.
+"It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society
+against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the
+society against the injustice of the other part. Justice is the end of
+government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever
+will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the
+pursuit. In a society, under the forms of which the stronger faction can
+readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said
+to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not
+secured against the violence of the stronger: and as in the latter state
+even the stronger individuals are prompted by the uncertainty of their
+condition to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well
+as themselves, so in the former state will the more powerful factions be
+gradually induced by a like motive to wish for a government which will
+protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful. It can be
+little doubted, that if the state of Rhode Island was separated from
+the confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under the
+popular form of government within such narrow limits, would be displayed
+by such reiterated oppression of the factious majorities, that some
+power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by
+the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of
+it."
+
+Jefferson has also expressed himself in a letter to Madison:[188] "The
+executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the
+principal object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is
+really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many
+years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn,
+but at a more distant period."
+
+I am glad to cite the opinion of Jefferson upon this subject rather than
+that of another, because I consider him to be the most powerful advocate
+democracy has ever sent forth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[182] We observed in examining the federal constitution that the efforts
+of the legislators of the Union had been diametrically opposed to the
+present tendency. The consequence has been that the federal government
+is more independent in its sphere than that of the states. But the
+federal government scarcely ever interferes in any but external affairs;
+and the governments of the states are in reality the authorities which
+direct society in America.
+
+[183] The legislative acts promulgated by the state of Massachusetts
+alone, from the year 1780 to the present time, already fill three stout
+volumes: and it must not be forgotten that the collection to which I
+allude was published in 1823, when many old laws which had fallen into
+disuse were omitted. The state of Massachusetts, which is not more
+populous than a department of France, may be considered as the most
+stable, the most consistent, and the most sagacious in its undertakings
+of the whole Union.
+
+[184] No one will assert that a people cannot forcibly wrong another
+people: but parties may be looked upon as lesser nations within a
+greater one, and they are aliens to each other: if therefore it be
+admitted that a nation can act tyrannically toward another nation, it
+cannot be denied that a party may do the same toward another party.
+
+[185] A striking instance of the excesses which may be occasioned by
+the despotism of the majority occurred at Baltimore in the year 1812.
+At that time the war was very popular in Baltimore. A journal which
+had taken the other side of the question excited the indignation of
+the inhabitants by its opposition. The populace assembled, broke the
+printing-presses, and attacked the houses of the newspaper editors. The
+militia was called out, but no one obeyed the call; and the only means
+of saving the poor wretches who were threatened by the phrensy of the
+mob, was to throw them into prison as common malefactors. But even this
+precaution was ineffectual; the mob collected again during the night;
+the magistrates again made a vain attempt to call out the militia; the
+prison was forced, one of the newspaper editors was killed upon the
+spot, and the others were left for dead: the guilty parties were
+acquitted by the jury when they were brought to trial.
+
+I said one day to an inhabitant of Pennsylvania: "Be so good as to
+explain to me how it happens, that in a state founded by quakers, and
+celebrated for its toleration, freed blacks are not allowed to exercise
+civil rights. They pay the taxes: is it not fair that they should have a
+vote."
+
+"You insult us," replied my informant, "if you imagine that our
+legislators could have committed so gross an act of injustice and
+intolerance."
+
+"What, then, the blacks possess the right of voting in this country?"
+
+"Without the smallest doubt."
+
+"How comes it then, that at the polling-booth this morning I did not
+perceive a single negro in the whole meeting?"
+
+"This is not the fault of the law; the negroes have the undisputed right
+of voting; but they voluntarily abstain from making their appearance."
+
+"A very pretty piece of modesty on their parts," rejoined I.
+
+"Why, the truth is, that they are not disinclined to vote, but they are
+afraid of being maltreated; in this country the law is sometimes unable
+to maintain its authority without the support of the majority. But in
+this case the majority entertains very strong prejudices against the
+blacks, and the magistrates are unable to protect them in the exercise
+of their legal privileges."
+
+"What, then, the majority claims the right not only of making the laws,
+but of breaking the laws it has made?"
+
+[186] This power may be centred in an assembly, in which case it will be
+strong without being stable; or it may be centred in an individual, in
+which case it will be less strong, but more stable.
+
+[187] I presume that it is scarcely necessary to remind the reader here,
+as well as throughout the remainder of this chapter, that I am speaking
+not of the federal government, but of the several governments of each
+state which the majority controls at its pleasure.
+
+[188] 15th March, 1789.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CAUSES WHICH MITIGATE THE TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ABSENCE OF CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION.
+
+The national Majority does not pretend to conduct all Business.--Is
+obliged to employ the town and county Magistrates to execute its supreme
+Decisions.
+
+I have already pointed out the distinction which is to be made between
+a centralized government and a centralized administration. The former
+exists in America, but the latter is nearly unknown there. If the
+directing power of the American communities had both these instruments
+of government at its disposal, and united the habit of executing its own
+commands to the right of commanding; if, after having established the
+general principles of government, it descended to the details of public
+business; and if, having regulated the great interests of the country,
+it would penetrate into the privacy of individual interest, freedom
+would soon be banished from the New World.
+
+But in the United States the majority, which so frequently displays the
+tastes and the propensities of a despot, is still destitute of the more
+perfect instruments of tyranny.
+
+In the American republics the activity of the central government
+has never as yet been extended beyond a limited number of objects
+sufficiently prominent to call forth its attention. The secondary
+affairs of society have never been regulated by its authority; and
+nothing has hitherto betrayed its desire of interfering in them. The
+majority is become more and more absolute, but it has not increased the
+prerogatives of the central government; those great prerogatives have
+been confined to a certain sphere; and although the despotism of the
+majority may be galling upon one point, it cannot be said to extend to
+all. However the predominant party of the nation may be carried away by
+its passions; however ardent it may be in the pursuit of its projects,
+it cannot oblige all the citizens to comply with its desire in the same
+manner, and at the same time, throughout the country. When the central
+government which represents that majority has issued a decree, it must
+intrust the execution of its will to agents, over whom it frequently
+has no control, and whom it cannot perpetually direct. The townships,
+municipal bodies, and counties, may therefore be looked upon as
+concealed breakwaters, which check or part the tide of popular
+excitement. If an oppressive law were passed, the liberties of the
+people would still be protected by the means by which that law would be
+put in execution: the majority cannot descend to the details, and (as I
+will venture to style them) the puerilities of administrative tyranny.
+Nor does the people entertain that full consciousness of its authority,
+which would prompt it to interfere in these matters; it knows the
+extent of its natural powers, but it is unacquainted with the increased
+resources which the art of government might furnish.
+
+This point deserves attention; for if a democratic republic, similar
+to that of the United States, were ever founded in a country where the
+power of a single individual had previously subsisted, and the effects
+of a centralized administration had sunk deep into the habits and the
+laws of the people, I do not hesitate to assert, that in that country a
+more insufferable despotism would prevail than any which now exists in
+the absolute monarchies of Europe; or indeed than any which could be
+found on this side the confines of Asia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PROFESSION OF THE LAW IN THE UNITED STATES SERVES TO COUNTERPOISE
+THE DEMOCRACY.
+
+Utility of discriminating the natural Propensities of the Members of
+the legal Profession.--These Men called upon to act a prominent Part in
+future Society.--In what Manner the peculiar Pursuits of Lawyers give
+an aristocratic turn to their Ideas.--Accidental Causes which may check
+this Tendency.--Ease with which the Aristocracy coalesces with legal
+Men.--Use of Lawyers to a Despot.--The Profession of the Law constitutes
+the only aristocratic Element with which the natural Elements of
+Democracy will combine.--Peculiar Causes which tend to give an
+aristocratic turn of Mind to the English and American Lawyer.--The
+Aristocracy of America is on the Bench and at the Bar.--Influence of
+Lawyers upon American Society.--Their peculiar magisterial Habits affect
+the Legislature, the Administration, and even the People.
+
+In visiting the Americans and in studying their laws, we perceive that
+the authority they have intrusted to members of the legal profession,
+and the influence which these individuals exercise in the government, is
+the most powerful existing security against the excesses of democracy.
+
+This effect seems to me to result from a general cause which it is
+useful to investigate, since it may produce analogous consequences
+elsewhere.
+
+The members of the legal profession have taken an important part in all
+the vicissitudes of political society in Europe during the last five
+hundred years. At one time they have been the instruments of those
+who are invested with political authority, and at another they have
+succeeded in converting political authorities into their instrument. In
+the middle ages they afforded a powerful support to the crown; and since
+that period they have exerted themselves to the utmost to limit the
+royal prerogative. In England they have contracted a close alliance with
+the aristocracy; in France they have proved to be the most dangerous
+enemies of that class. It is my object to inquire whether, under all
+these circumstances, the members of the legal profession have been
+swayed by sudden and momentary impulses; or whether they have been
+impelled by principles which are inherent in their pursuits, and which
+will always recur in history. I am incited to this investigation by
+reflecting that this particular class of men will most likely play a
+prominent part in that order of things to which the events of our time
+are giving birth.
+
+Men who have more especially devoted themselves to legal pursuits,
+derive from those occupations certain habits of order, a taste for
+formalities, and a kind of instinctive regard for the regular connexion
+of ideas, which naturally render them very hostile to the revolutionary
+spirit and the unreflecting passions of the multitude.
+
+The special information which lawyers derive from their studies, ensures
+them a separate station in society: and they constitute a sort of
+privileged body in the scale of intelligence. This notion of their
+superiority perpetually recurs to them in the practice of their
+profession: they are the masters of a science which is necessary, but
+which is not very generally known: they serve as arbiters between the
+citizens; and the habit of directing the blind passions of parties in
+litigation to their purpose, inspires them with a certain contempt
+for the judgment of the multitude. To this it may be added, that they
+naturally constitute _a body_; not by any previous understanding, or
+by any agreement which directs them to a common end; but the analogy
+of their studies and the uniformity of their proceedings connect
+their minds together, as much as a common interest would combine their
+endeavors.
+
+A portion of the tastes and of the habits of the aristocracy may
+consequently be discovered in the characters of men in the profession of
+the law. They participate in the same instinctive love of order and of
+formalities; and they entertain the same repugnance to the actions of
+the multitude, and the same secret contempt of the government of the
+people. I do not mean to say that the natural propensities of lawyers
+are sufficiently strong to sway them irresistibly; for they, like most
+other men, are governed by their private interests and the advantages of
+the moment.
+
+In a state of society in which the members of the legal profession are
+prevented from holding that rank in the political world which they enjoy
+in private life, we may rest assured that they will be the foremost
+agents of revolution. But it must then be inquired whether the cause
+which induces them to innovate and to destroy is accidental, or whether
+it belongs to some lasting purpose which they entertain. It is true that
+lawyers mainly contributed to the overthrow of the French monarchy in
+1789; but it remains to be seen whether they acted thus because they had
+studied the laws, or because they were prohibited from co-operating in
+the work of legislation.
+
+Five hundred years ago the English nobles headed the people, and spoke
+in its name; at the present time, the aristocracy supports the throne,
+and defends the royal prerogative. But aristocracy has, notwithstanding
+this, its peculiar instincts and propensities. We must be careful not
+to confound isolated members of a body with the body itself. In all
+free governments, of whatsoever form they may be, members of the legal
+profession may be found at the head of all parties. The same remark
+is also applicable to the aristocracy; for almost all the democratic
+convulsions which have agitated the world have been directed by nobles.
+
+A privileged body can never satisfy the ambition of all its members;
+it has always more talents and more passions than it can find places to
+content and to employ; so that a considerable number of individuals
+are usually to be met with, who are inclined to attack those very
+privileges, which they find it impossible to turn to their own account.
+
+I do not, then, assert that _all_ the members of the legal profession
+are at _all_ times the friends of order and the opponents of innovation,
+but merely that most of them usually are so. In a community in which
+lawyers are allowed to occupy, without opposition, that high station
+which naturally belongs to them, their general spirit will be eminently
+conservative and anti-democratic. When an aristocracy excludes the
+leaders of that profession from its ranks, it excites enemies which
+are the more formidable to its security as they are independent of the
+nobility by their industrious pursuits; and they feel themselves to be
+its equal in point of intelligence, although they enjoy less opulence
+and less power. But whenever an aristocracy consents to impart some of
+its privileges to these same individuals, the two classes coalesce very
+readily, and assume, as it were, the consistency of a single order of
+family interests.
+
+I am, in like manner, inclined to believe that a monarch will always
+be able to convert legal practitioners into the most serviceable
+instruments of his authority. There is a far greater affinity between
+this class of individuals and the executive power, than there is between
+them and the people; just as there is a greater natural affinity between
+the nobles and monarch, than between the nobles and the people, although
+the higher orders of society have occasionally resisted the prerogative
+of the crown in concert with the lower classes.
+
+Lawyers are attached to public order beyond every other consideration,
+and the best security of public order is authority. It must not be
+forgotten, that if they prize the free institutions of their country
+much, they nevertheless value the legality of those institutions far
+more; they are less afraid of tyranny than of arbitrary power: and
+provided that the legislature takes upon itself to deprive men of their
+independence, they are not dissatisfied.[189]
+
+I am therefore convinced that the prince who, in presence of an
+encroaching democracy, should endeavor to impair the judicial authority
+in his dominions, and to diminish the political influence of lawyers,
+would commit a great mistake. He would let slip the substance
+of authority to grasp at the shadow. He would act more wisely in
+introducing men connected with the law into the government; and if he
+intrusted them with the conduct of a despotic power, bearing some marks
+of violence, that power would most likely assume the external features
+of justice and of legality in their hands.
+
+The government of democracy is favorable to the political power of
+lawyers; for when the wealthy, the noble, and the prince, are excluded
+from the government, they are sure to occupy the highest stations in
+their own right, as it were, since they are the only men of information
+and sagacity, beyond the sphere of the people, who can be the object of
+the popular choice. If, then, they are led by their tastes to combine
+with the aristocracy, and to support the crown, they are naturally
+brought into contact with the people by their interests. They like the
+government of democracy, without participating in its propensities, and
+without imitating its weaknesses; whence they derive a twofold authority
+from it and over it. The people in democratic states does not mistrust
+the members of the legal profession, because it is well known that they
+are interested in serving the popular cause; and it listens to them
+without irritation, because it does not attribute to them any sinister
+designs. The object of lawyers is not, indeed, to overthrow the
+institutions of democracy, but they constantly endeavor to give it an
+impulse which diverts it from its real tendency, by means which are
+foreign to its nature. Lawyers belong to the people by birth and
+interest, to the aristocracy by habit and by taste, and they may be
+looked upon as the natural bond and connecting link of the two great
+classes of society.
+
+The profession of the law is the only aristocratic element which can be
+amalgamated without violence with the natural elements of democracy, and
+which can be advantageously and permanently combined with them. I am
+not unacquainted with the defects which are inherent in the character
+of that body of men; but without this admixture of lawyer-like
+sobriety with the democratic principle, I question whether democratic
+institutions could long be maintained; and I cannot believe that a
+republic could subsist at the present time, if the influence of lawyers
+in public business did not increase in proportion to the power of the
+people.
+
+This aristocratic character, which I hold to be common to the legal
+profession, is much more distinctly marked in the United States and in
+England than in any other country. This proceeds not only from the legal
+studies of the English and American lawyers, but from the nature of the
+legislation, and the position which those persons occupy, in the two
+countries. The English and the Americans have retained the law of
+precedents; that is to say, they continue to found their legal opinions
+and the decisions of their courts upon the opinions and decisions of
+their forefathers. In the mind of an English or an American lawyer, a
+taste and a reverence for what is old are almost always united to a love
+of regular and lawful proceedings.
+
+This predisposition has another effect upon the character of the legal
+profession and upon the general course of society. The English and
+American lawyers investigate what has been done; the French advocate
+inquires what should have been done: the former produces precedents;
+the latter reasons. A French observer is surprised to hear how often an
+English or American lawyer quotes the opinions of others, and how little
+he alludes to his own; while the reverse occurs in France. There, the
+most trifling litigation is never conducted without the introduction
+of an entire system of ideas peculiar to the counsel employed; and the
+fundamental principles of law are discussed in order to obtain a
+perch of land by the decision of the court. This abnegation of his own
+opinion, and this implicit deference to the opinion of his forefathers,
+which are common to the English and American lawyer, this subjection of
+thought which he is obliged to profess, necessarily give him more timid
+habits and more sluggish inclinations in England and America than in
+France.
+
+The French codes are often difficult of comprehension, but they can be
+read by every one; nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable
+to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents. The
+indispensable want of legal assistance which is felt in England and in
+the United States, and the high opinion which is generally entertained
+of the ability of the legal profession, tend to separate it more and
+more from the people, and to place it in a distinct class. The French
+lawyer is simply a man extensively acquainted with the statutes of his
+country; but the English or American lawyer resembles the hierophants of
+Egypt, for, like them, he is the sole interpreter of an occult science.
+
+[The remark that English and American lawyers found their opinions and
+their decisions upon those of their forefathers, is calculated to excite
+surprise in an American reader, who supposes that law, as a prescribed
+rule of action, can only be ascertained in cases where the statutes are
+silent, by reference to the decisions of courts. On the continent, and
+particularly in France, as the writer of this note learned from the
+conversation of M. De Tocqueville, the judicial tribunals do not
+deem themselves bound by any precedents, or by any decisions of their
+predecessors or of the appellate tribunals. They respect such decisions
+as the opinions of distinguished men, and they pay no higher regard to
+their own previous adjudications of any case. It is not easy to perceive
+how the law can acquire any stability under such a system, or how any
+individual can ascertain his rights, without a lawsuit. This note should
+not be concluded without a single remark upon what the author calls an
+implicit deference to the opinions of our forefathers, and abnegation of
+our own opinions. The common law consists of principles founded on the
+common sense of mankind, and adapted to the circumstances of man in
+civilized society. When these principles are once settled by competent
+authority, or rather _declared_ by such authority, they are supposed to
+express the common sense and the common justice of the community; and
+it requires but a moderate share of modesty for any one entertaining
+a different view of them, to consider that the disinterested and
+intelligent judges who have declared them, are more likely to be right
+than he is. Perfection, even in the law, he does not consider attainable
+by human beings, and the greatest approximation to it is all he expects
+or desires. Besides, there are very few cases of positive and abstract
+rule, where it is of any consequence which, of any two or more
+modifications of it, should be adopted. The great point is, that there
+should be _a rule_ by which conduct may be regulated. Thus, whether
+in mercantile transactions notice of a default by a principal shall be
+given to an endorser, or a guarantor, and when and how such notice shall
+be given, are not so important in themselves, as it is that there
+should be some rule to which merchants may adapt themselves and their
+transactions. Statutes cannot or at least do not, prescribe the rules in
+a large majority of cases. If then they are not drawn from the decision
+of courts, they will not exist, and men will be wholly at a loss for
+a guide in the most important transactions of business. Hence the
+deference paid to legal decisions. But this is not implicit, as the
+author supposes. The course of reasoning by which the courts have come
+to their conclusions, is often assailed by the advocate and shown to be
+fallacious, and the instances are not unfrequent of courts disregarding
+prior decisions and overruling them when not fairly deducible from sound
+reason.
+
+Again, the principles of the common law are flexible, and adapt
+themselves to changes in society, and a well-known maxim in our system,
+that when the reason of the law ceases, the law itself ceases, has
+overthrown many an antiquated rule. Within these limits, it is conceived
+that there is range enough for the exercise of all the reason of the
+advocate and the judge, without unsettling everything and depriving the
+conduct of human affairs of all guidance from human authority;--and the
+talent of our lawyers and courts finds sufficient exercise in applying
+the principles of one case to facts of another.--_American Editor_.]
+
+The station which lawyers occupy in England and America exercises no
+less an influence upon their habits and their opinions. The English
+aristocracy, which has taken care to attract to its sphere whatever is
+at all analogous to itself, has conferred a high degree of importance
+and of authority upon the members of the legal profession. In English
+society lawyers do not occupy the first rank, but they are contented
+with the station assigned to them; they constitute, as it were, the
+younger branch of the English aristocracy, and they are attached to
+their elder brothers, although they do not enjoy all their privileges.
+The English lawyers consequently mingle the tastes and the ideas of the
+aristocratic circles in which they move, with the aristocratic interest
+of their profession.
+
+And indeed the lawyer-like character which I am endeavoring to depict,
+is most distinctly to be met with in England: there laws are esteemed
+not so much because they are good, as because they are old; and if it be
+necessary to modify them in any respect, or to adapt them to the
+changes which time operates in society, recourse is had to the most
+inconceivable contrivances in order to uphold the traditionary fabric,
+and to maintain that nothing has been done which does not square with
+the intentions, and complete the labors, of former generations. The
+very individuals who conduct these changes disclaim all intention of
+innovation, and they had rather resort to absurd expedients than plead
+guilty of so great a crime. This spirit more especially appertains to
+the English lawyers; they seem indifferent to the real meaning of what
+they treat, and they direct all their attention to the letter, seeming
+inclined to infringe the rules of common sense and of humanity, rather
+than to swerve one tittle from the law. The English legislation may be
+compared to the stock of an old tree, upon which lawyers have engrafted
+the most various shoots, with the hope, that, although their fruits may
+differ, their foliage at least will be confounded with the venerable
+trunk which supports them all.
+
+In America there are no nobles or literary men, and the people is apt
+to mistrust the wealthy; lawyers consequently form the highest political
+class, and the most cultivated circle of society. They have therefore
+nothing to gain by innovation, which adds a conservative interest to
+their natural taste for public order. If I were asked where I place the
+American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation, that it is not
+composed of the rich, who are united together by no common tie, but that
+it occupies the judicial bench and the bar.
+
+The more we reflect upon all that occurs in the United States, the
+more shall we be persuaded that the lawyers, as a body, form the most
+powerful, if not the only counterpoise to the democratic element. In
+that country we perceive how eminently the legal profession is qualified
+by its powers, and even by its defects, to neutralize the vices
+which are inherent in popular government. When the American people is
+intoxicated by passion, or carried away by the impetuosity of its ideas,
+it is checked and stopped by the almost invisible influence of its legal
+counsellors, who secretly oppose their aristocratic propensities to its
+democratic instincts, their superstitious attachment to what is antique
+to its love of novelty, their narrow views to its immense designs, and
+their habitual procrastination to its ardent impatience.
+
+The courts of justice are the most visible organs by which the legal
+profession is enabled to control the democracy. The judge is a lawyer,
+who, independently of the taste for regularity and order which he has
+contracted in the study of legislation, derives an additional love of
+stability from his own inalienable functions. His legal attainments have
+already raised him to a distinguished rank among his fellow-citizens;
+his political power completes the distinction of his station, and gives
+him the inclinations natural to privileged classes.
+
+Armed with the power of declaring the laws to be unconstitutional,[190]
+the American magistrate perpetually interferes in political affairs. He
+cannot force the people to make laws, but at least he can oblige it not
+to disobey its own enactments, or to act inconsistently with its own
+principles. I am aware that a secret tendency to diminish the judicial
+power exists in the United States; and by most of the constitutions
+of the several states, the government can, upon the demand of the two
+houses of the legislature, remove the judges from their station. By some
+other constitutions the members of the tribunals are elected, and they
+are even subjected to frequent re-elections. I venture to predict
+that these innovations will sooner or later be attended with fatal
+consequences; and that it will be found out at some future period,
+that the attack which is made upon the judicial power has affected the
+democratic republic itself.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that the legal spirit of which I have
+been speaking has been confined in the United States to the courts of
+justice; it extends far beyond them. As the lawyers constitute the only
+enlightened class which the people does not mistrust, they are naturally
+called upon to occupy most of the public stations. They fill the
+legislative assemblies, and they conduct the administration; they
+consequently exercise a powerful influence upon the formation of the
+law, and upon its execution. The lawyers are, however, obliged to yield
+to the current of public opinion, which is too strong for them to resist
+it; but it is easy to find indications of what their conduct would be,
+if they were free to act as they chose. The Americans who have made such
+copious innovations in their political legislation, have introduced very
+sparing alterations in their civil laws, and that with great difficulty,
+although those laws are frequently repugnant to their social condition.
+The reason of this is, that in matters of civil law the majority is
+obliged to defer to the authority of the legal profession, and that the
+American lawyers are disinclined to innovate when they are left to their
+own choice.
+
+It is curious for a Frenchman, accustomed to a very different state of
+things, to hear the perpetual complaints which are made in the United
+States, against the stationary propensities of legal men, and their
+prejudices in favor of existing institutions.
+
+The influence of the legal habits which are common in America extends
+beyond the limits I have just pointed out. Scarcely any question arises
+in the United States which does not become, sooner or later, a subject
+of judicial debate; hence all parties are obliged to borrow the ideas,
+and even the language, usual in judicial proceedings, in their
+daily controversies. As most public men are, or have been, legal
+practitioners, they introduce the customs and technicalities of their
+profession into the affairs of the country. The jury extends this
+habitude to all classes. The language of the law thus becomes, in some
+measure, a vulgar tongue; the spirit of the law, which is produced in
+the schools and courts of justice, gradually penetrates beyond their
+walls into the bosom of society, where it descends to the lowest
+classes, so that the whole people contracts the habits and the tastes of
+the magistrate. The lawyers of the United States form a party which is
+but little feared and scarcely perceived, which has no badge peculiar to
+itself, which adapts itself with great flexibility to the exigencies
+of the time, and accommodates itself to all the movements of the social
+body: but this party extends over the whole community, and it penetrates
+into all classes of society; it acts upon the country imperceptibly, but
+it finally fashions it to suit its purposes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+TRIAL BY JURY IN THE UNITED STATES CONSIDERED AS A POLITICAL
+INSTITUTION.
+
+Trial by Jury, which is one of the Instruments of the Sovereignty of the
+People, deserves to be compared with the other Laws which establish that
+sovereignty.--Composition of the Jury in the United States.--Effect of
+Trial by Jury upon the national Character.--It educates the People.--It
+tends to establish the Authority of the Magistrates, and to extend a
+knowledge of Law among the People.
+
+Since I have been led by my subject to recur to the administration of
+justice in the United States, I will not pass over this point without
+adverting to the institution of the jury. Trial by jury may be
+considered in two separate points of view: as a judicial, and as a
+political institution. If it entered into my present purpose to inquire
+how far trial by jury (more especially in civil cases) contributes to
+ensure the best administration of justice, I admit that its utility
+might be contested. As the jury was first introduced at a time when
+society was in an uncivilized state, and when courts of justice were
+merely called upon to decide on the evidence of facts, it is not an easy
+task to adapt it to the wants of a highly civilized community, when the
+mutual relations of men are multiplied to a surprising extent, and have
+assumed the enlightened and intellectual character of the age.[191]
+
+My present object is to consider the jury as a political institution;
+and any other course would divert me from my subject. Of trial by jury,
+considered as a judicial institution, I shall here say but very few
+words. When the English adopted trial by jury they were a semi-barbarous
+people; they are become, in course of time, one of the most enlightened
+nations of the earth; and their attachment to this institution seems
+to have increased with their increasing cultivation. They soon spread
+beyond their insular boundaries to every corner of the habitable globe;
+some have formed colonies, others independent states; the mother-country
+has maintained its monarchical constitution; many of its offspring have
+founded powerful republics; but wherever the English have been,
+they have boasted of the privilege of trial by jury.[192] They
+have established it, or hastened to re-establish it, in all their
+settlements. A judicial institution which obtains the suffrages of a
+great people for so long a series of ages, which is zealously renewed at
+every epoch of civilisation, in all the climates of the earth, and under
+every form of human government, cannot be contrary to the spirit of
+justice.[193]
+
+I turn, however, from this part of the subject. To look upon the jury
+as a mere judicial institution, is to confine our attention to a very
+narrow view of it; for, however great its influence may be upon the
+decisions of the law-courts, that influence is very subordinate to the
+powerful effects which it produces on the destinies of the community
+at large. The jury is above all a political institution, and it must be
+regarded in this light in order to be duly appreciated.
+
+By the jury, I mean a certain number of citizens chosen
+indiscriminately, and invested with a temporary right of judging.
+Trial by jury, as applied to the repression of crime, appears to me to
+introduce an eminently republican element into the government, upon the
+following grounds:--
+
+The institution of the jury may be aristocratic or democratic, according
+to the class of society from which the jurors are selected; but it
+always preserves its republican character, inasmuch as it places the
+real direction of society in the hands of the governed, or of a portion
+of the governed, instead of leaving it under the authority of the
+government. Force is never more than a transient element of success; and
+after force comes the notion of right. A government which should only
+be able to crush its enemies upon a field of battle, would very soon be
+destroyed. The true sanction of political laws is to be found in penal
+legislation, and if that sanction be wanting, the law will sooner
+or later lose its cogency. He who punishes infractions of the law is
+therefore the real master of society. Now, the institution of the jury
+raises the people itself, or at least a class of citizens, to the bench
+of judicial authority. The institution of the jury consequently
+invests the people, or that class of citizens, with the direction of
+society.[194]
+
+In England the jury is returned from the aristocratic portion of the
+nation,[195] the aristocracy makes the laws, applies the laws, and
+punishes all infractions of the laws; everything is established upon a
+consistent footing, and England may with truth be said to constitute an
+aristocratic republic. In the United States the same system is applied
+to the whole people. Every American citizen is qualified to be an
+elector, a juror, and is eligible to office.[196] The system of the
+jury, as it is understood in America, appears to me to be as direct and
+as extreme a consequence of the sovereignty of the people, as universal
+suffrage. These institutions are two instruments of equal power, which
+contribute to the supremacy of the majority. All the sovereigns who have
+chosen to govern by their own authority, and to direct society instead
+of obeying its direction, have destroyed or enfeebled the institution of
+the jury. The monarchs of the house of Tudor sent to prison jurors
+who refused to convict, and Napoleon caused them to be returned by his
+agents.
+
+However clear most of these truths may seem to be, they do not command
+universal assent, and in France, at least, the institution of trial by
+jury is still very imperfectly understood. If the question arise as to
+the proper qualification of jurors, it is confined to a discussion of
+the intelligence and knowledge of the citizens who may be returned, as
+if the jury was merely a judicial institution. This appears to me to
+be the least part of the subject. The jury is pre-eminently a political
+institution; it must be regarded as one form of the sovereignty of the
+people; when that sovereignty is repudiated, it must be rejected; or it
+must be adapted to the laws by which that sovereignty is established.
+The jury is that portion of the nation to which the execution of the
+laws is intrusted, as the houses of parliament constitute that part
+of the nation which makes the laws; and in order that society may be
+governed with consistency and uniformity, the list of citizens qualified
+to serve on juries must increase and diminish with the list of electors.
+This I hold to be the point of view must worthy of the attention of the
+legislator; and all that remains is merely accessary.
+
+I am so entirely convinced that the jury is pre-eminently a political
+institution, that I still consider it in this light when it is applied
+in civil causes. Laws are always unstable unless they are founded upon
+the manners of a nation: manners are the only durable and resisting
+power in a people. When the jury is reserved for criminal offences, the
+people only sees its occasional action in certain particular cases;
+the ordinary course of life goes on without its interference, and it
+is considered as an instrument, but not as the only instrument, of
+obtaining justice. This is true _a fortiori_ when the jury is only
+applied to certain criminal causes.
+
+When, on the contrary, the influence of the jury is extended to civil
+causes, its application is constantly palpable; it affects all the
+interests of the community; every one co-operates in its work: it thus
+penetrates into all the usages of life, it fashions the human mind to
+its peculiar forms, and is gradually associated with the idea of justice
+itself.
+
+The institution of the jury, if confined to criminal causes, is always
+in danger; but when once it is introduced into civil proceedings, it
+defies the aggressions of time and of man. If it had been as easy to
+remove the jury from the manners as from the laws of England, it would
+have perished under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth: and the civil jury did in
+reality, at that period, save the liberties of the country. In whatever
+manner the jury be applied, it cannot fail to exercise a powerful
+influence upon the national character; but this influence is
+prodigiously increased when it is introduced into civil causes. The
+jury, and more especially the civil jury, serves to communicate the
+spirit of the judges to the minds of all the citizens; and this spirit,
+with the habits which attend it, is the soundest preparation for free
+institutions. It imbues all classes with a respect for the thing judged,
+and with the notion of right. If these two elements be removed, the love
+of independence is reduced to a more destructive passion. It teaches men
+to practise equity; every man learns to judge his neighbor as he would
+himself be judged: and this is especially true of the jury in civil
+causes; for, while the number of persons who have reason to apprehend
+a criminal prosecution is small, every one is liable to have a civil
+action brought against him. The jury teaches every man not to recoil
+before the responsibility of his own actions, and impresses him with
+that manly confidence without which political virtue cannot exist. It
+invests each citizen with a kind of magistracy; it makes them all feel
+the duties which they are bound to discharge toward society; and the
+part which they take in the government. By obliging men to turn their
+attention to affairs which are not exclusively their own, it rubs off
+that individual egotism which is the rust of society.
+
+The jury contributes most powerfully to form the judgment, and to
+increase the natural intelligence of a people; and this is, in my
+opinion, its greatest advantage. It may be regarded as a gratuitous
+public school ever open, in which every juror learns to exercise his
+rights, enters into daily communication with the most learned and
+enlightened members of the upper classes, and becomes practically
+acquainted with the laws of his country, which are brought within the
+reach of his capacity by the efforts of the bar, the advice of the
+judge, and even by the passions of the parties. I think that the
+practical intelligence and political good sense of the Americans are
+mainly attributable to the long use which they have made of the jury in
+civil causes.
+
+I do not know whether the jury is useful to those who are in litigation;
+but I am certain it is highly beneficial to those who decide the
+litigation: and I look upon it as one of the most efficacious means for
+the education of the people, which society can employ.
+
+What I have hitherto said, applies to all nations; but the remark I
+am now about to make, is peculiar to the Americans and to democratic
+peoples. I have already observed that in democracies the members of the
+legal profession, and the magistrates, constitute the only aristocratic
+body which can check the irregularities of the people. This aristocracy
+is invested with no physical power; but it exercises its conservative
+influence upon the minds of men: and the most abundant source of its
+authority is the institution of the civil jury. In criminal causes, when
+society is armed against a single individual, the jury is apt to
+look upon the judge as the passive instrument of social power, and to
+mistrust his advice. Moreover, criminal causes are entirely founded upon
+the evidence of facts which common sense can readily appreciate; upon
+this ground the judge and the jury are equal. Such, however, is not the
+case in civil causes; then the judge appears as a disinterested arbiter
+between the conflicting passions of the parties. The jurors look up
+to him with confidence, and listen to him with respect, for in this
+instance their intelligence is completely under the control of his
+learning. It is the judge who sums up the various arguments with which
+their memory has been wearied out, and who guides them through the
+devious course of the proceedings; he points their attention to the
+exact question of fact, which they are called upon to solve, and he puts
+the answer to the question of law into their mouths. His influence upon
+their verdict is almost unlimited.
+
+If I am called upon to explain why I am but little moved by the
+arguments derived from the ignorance of jurors in civil causes, I reply,
+that in these proceedings, whenever the question to be solved is not
+a mere question of fact, the jury has only the semblance of a judicial
+body. The jury sanctions the decisions of the judge; they, by the
+authority of society which they represent, and he, by that of reason and
+of law.[197]
+
+In England and in America the judges exercise an influence upon criminal
+trials which the French judges have never possessed. The reason of
+this difference may easily be discovered; the English and American
+magistrates establish their authority in civil causes, and only transfer
+it afterward to tribunals of another kind, where that authority was
+not acquired. In some cases (and they are frequently the most important
+ones), the American judges have the right of deciding causes alone.[198]
+Upon these occasions they are, accidentally, placed in the position
+which the French judges habitually occupy: but they are still surrounded
+by the reminiscence of the jury, and their judgment has almost as much
+authority as the voice of the community at large, represented by that
+institution. Their influence extends beyond the limits of the courts;
+in the recreations of private life, as well as in the turmoil of public
+business, abroad and in the legislative assemblies, the American
+judge is constantly surrounded by men who are accustomed to regard his
+intelligence as superior to their own; and after having exercised his
+power in the decision of causes, he continues to influence the habits
+of thought, and the character of the individuals who took a part in his
+judgment.
+
+[The remark in the text, that "in some cases, and they are frequently
+the most important ones, the American judges have the right of deciding
+causes alone," and the author's note, that "the federal judges decide,
+upon their own authority, almost all the questions most important to the
+country," seem to require explanation in consequence of their connexion
+with the context in which the author is speaking of the trial by jury.
+They seem to imply that there are some cases which ought to be tried by
+jury, that are decided by the judges. It is believed that the learned
+author, although a distinguished advocate in France, never thoroughly
+comprehended the grand divisions of our complicated system of law, in
+civil cases. _First_, is the distinction between cases in equity and
+those in which the rules of the common law govern.--Those in equity
+are always decided by the judge or judges, who _may_, however, send
+questions of fact to be tried in the common law courts by a jury. But as
+a general rule this is entirely in the discretion of the equity judge.
+_Second_, in cases at common law, there are questions of fact and
+questions of law:--the former are invariably tried by a jury, the
+latter, whether presented in the course of a jury trial, or by pleading,
+in which the facts are admitted, are always decided by the judges.
+
+_Third_, cases of admiralty jurisdiction, and proceedings _in rem_ of an
+analogous nature, are decided by the judges without the intervention
+of a jury. The cases in this last class fall within the peculiar
+jurisdiction of the federal courts, and, with this exception, the
+federal judges do not decide upon their own authority any questions,
+which, if presented in the state courts, would not also be decided by
+the judges of those courts. The supreme court of the United States, from
+the nature of its institution as almost wholly an appellant court, is
+called on to decide merely questions of law, and in no case can that
+court decide a question of fact, unless it arises in suits peculiar to
+equity or admiralty jurisdiction. Indeed the author's original note is
+more correct than the translation. It is as follows: "Les juges federaux
+tranchent presque toujours seuls les questions qui touchent de plus pres
+au _gouvernement_ du pays." And it is very true that the supreme court
+of the United States, in particular, decides those questions which most
+nearly affect the _government_ of the country, because those are the
+very questions which arise upon the constitutionality of the laws
+of congress and of the several states, the final and conclusive
+determination of which is vested in that tribunal.--_American Editor_.]
+
+The jury, then, which seems to restrict the rights of magistracy, does
+in reality consolidate its power; and in no country are the judges so
+powerful as there where the people partakes their privileges. It is
+more especially by means of the jury in civil causes that the American
+magistrates imbue all classes of society with the spirit of their
+profession. Thus the jury, which is the most energetic means of making
+the people rule, is also the most efficacious means of teaching it to
+rule well.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[189] This translation does not accurately convey the meaning of M. de
+Tocqueville's expression. He says: "Ils craignent moins la tyrannie que
+l'arbitraire, et pourvu que le legislateur se charge lui-meme d'enlever
+aux hommes leur independance, ils sont a peu pres content."
+
+The more correct rendering would be: 'They fear tyranny less than
+arbitrary sway, and provided it is the legislator himself who
+undertakes to deprive men of their independence, they are almost
+content.'--_Reviser_.
+
+[190] See chapter vi., p. 94, on the judicial power in the United
+States.
+
+[191] The investigation of trial by jury as a judicial institution, and
+the appreciation of its effects in the United States, together with the
+advantages the Americans have derived from it, would suffice to form a
+book, and a book upon a very useful and curious subject. The state of
+Louisiana would in particular afford the curious phenomenon of a French
+and English legislation, as well as a French and English population,
+which are generally combining with each other. See the "Digeste des Lois
+de la Louisiane," in two volumes; and the "Traite sur les Regles des
+Actions civiles," printed in French and English at New Orleans in 1830.
+
+[192] All the English and American jurists are unanimous upon this head.
+Mr. Story, judge of the supreme court of the United States, speaks, in
+his treatise on the federal constitution, of the advantages of trial by
+jury in civil cases: "The inestimable privilege of a trial by jury in
+civil cases--a privilege scarcely inferior to that in criminal cases,
+which is counted by all persons to be essential to political and civil
+liberty" ... (Story, book iii, ch. xxxviii.).
+
+[193] If it were our province to point out the utility of the jury as
+a judicial institution in this place, much might be said, and the
+following arguments might be brought forward among others:--
+
+By introducing the jury into the business of the courts, you are enabled
+to diminish the number of judges; which is a very great advantage. When
+judges are very numerous, death is perpetually thinning the ranks of
+the judicial functionaries, and laying places vacant for new comers. The
+ambition of the magistrates is therefore continually excited, and they
+are naturally made dependant upon the will of the majority, or the
+individual who fills up vacant appointments: the officers of the courts
+then rise like the officers of an army. This state of things is entirely
+contrary to the sound administration of justice, and to the intentions
+of the legislator. The office of a judge is made inalienable in order
+that he may remain independent; but of what advantage is it that his
+independence is protected, if he be tempted to sacrifice it of his own
+accord? When judges are very numerous, many of them must necessarily be
+incapable of performing their important duties; for a great magistrate
+is a man of no common powers; and I am inclined to believe that a half
+enlightened tribunal is the worst of all instruments for obtaining those
+objects which it is the purpose of courts of justice to accomplish.
+For my own part, I had rather submit the decision of a case to ignorant
+jurors directed by a skilfull judge, than to judges, a majority of whom
+are imperfectly acquainted with jurisprudence and with the laws.
+
+[I venture to remind the reader, lest this note should appear somewhat
+redundant to an English eye, that the jury is an institution which has
+only been naturalized in France within the present century; that it is
+even now exclusively applied to those criminal causes which come before
+the courts of assize, or to the prosecutions of the public press; and
+that the judges and counsellors of the numerous local tribunals of
+France--forming a body of many thousand judicial functionaries--try all
+civil causes, appeals from criminal causes, and minor offences, without
+the jury.--_Translator's Note_.]
+
+[194] An important remark must however be made. Trial by jury does
+unquestionably invest the people with a general control over the actions
+of citizens, but it does not furnish means of exercising this control in
+all cases, or with an absolute authority. When an absolute monarch has
+the right of trying offences by his representatives, the fate of the
+prisoner is, as it were, decided beforehand. But even if the people were
+predisposed to convict, the composition and the non-responsibility of
+the jury would still afford some chances favorable to the protection of
+innocence.
+
+[195] In France, the qualification of the jurors is the same as the
+electoral qualification, namely, the payment of 200 francs per annum in
+direct taxes: they are chosen by lot. In England they are returned by
+the sheriff; the qualifications of jurors were raised to 10_l_ per annum
+in England, and 6_l_ in Wales, of freehold land or copyhold, by the
+statute W. and M., c. 24: leaseholders for a time determinable upon life
+or lives, of the clear yearly value of 20_l_ per annum over and above
+the rent reserved, are qualified to serve on juries; and jurors in
+the courts of Westminster and city of London must be householders,
+and possessed of real and personal estates of the value of 100_l_.
+The qualifications, however, prescribed in different statutes,
+vary according to the object for which the jury is impannelled. See
+Blackstone's Commentaries, b. iii., c. 23.--_Translator's Note_.
+
+[196] See Appendix Q.
+
+[197] See Appendix R.
+
+[198] The federal judges decide upon their own authority almost all the
+questions most important to the country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH TEND TO MAINTAIN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN THE
+UNITED STATES.
+
+
+A democratic republic subsists in the United States; and the principal
+object of this book has been to account for the fact of its existence.
+Several of the causes which contribute to maintain the institutions of
+America have been voluntarily passed by, or only hinted at, as I was
+borne along by my subject. Others I have been unable to discuss and
+those on which I have dwelt most, are, as it were, buried in the details
+of the former part of this work.
+
+I think, therefore, that before I proceed to speak of the future, I
+cannot do better than collect within a small compass the reasons which
+best explain the present. In this retrospective chapter I shall be
+succinct; for I shall take care to remind the reader very summarily of
+what he already knows; and I shall only select the most prominent of
+those facts which I have not yet pointed out.
+
+All the causes which contribute to the maintenance of the democratic
+republic in the United States are reducible to three heads:
+
+I. The peculiar and accidental situation in which Providence has placed
+the Americans.
+
+II. The laws.
+
+III. The manners and customs of the people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ACCIDENTAL OR PROVIDENTIAL CAUSES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO THE MAINTENANCE OF
+THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+The Union has no Neighbors.--No Metropolis.--The Americans have had the
+Chances of Birth in their favor.--America an empty country.--How this
+circumstance contributes powerfully to the Maintenance of the democratic
+Republic in America.--How the American Wilds are Peopled.--Avidity of
+the Anglo-Americans in taking Possession of the Solitudes of the New
+World.--Influence of physical Prosperity upon the political Opinions of
+the Americans.
+
+A thousand circumstances, independent of the will of man, concur to
+facilitate the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United
+States. Some of these peculiarities are known, the others may easily
+be pointed out; but I shall confine myself to the most prominent among
+them.
+
+The Americans have no neighbors, and consequently they have no great
+wars, or financial crises, or inroads, or conquests to dread; they
+require neither great taxes, nor great armies, nor great generals; and
+they have nothing to fear from a scourge which is more formidable to
+republics than all these evils combined, namely, military glory. It
+is impossible to deny the inconceivable influence which military
+glory exercises upon the spirit of a nation. General Jackson, whom the
+Americans have twice elected to be the head of their government, is a
+man of violent temper and mediocre talents; no one circumstance in the
+whole course of his career ever proved that he is qualified to govern a
+free people; and indeed the majority of the enlightened classes of
+the Union has always been opposed to him. But he was raised to the
+presidency, and has been maintained in that lofty station, solely by the
+recollection of a victory which he gained, twenty years ago, under the
+walls of New Orleans; a victory which was, however, a very ordinary
+achievement, and which could only be remembered in a country where
+battles are rare. Now the people who are thus carried away by the
+illusions of glory, are unquestionably the most cold and calculating,
+the most unmilitary (if I may use the expression), and the most prosaic
+of all the peoples of the earth.
+
+America has no great capital city,[199] whose influence is directly or
+indirectly felt over the whole extent of the country, which I hold to be
+one of the first causes of the maintenance of republican institutions
+in the United States. In cities, men cannot be prevented from concerting
+together, and from awakening a mutual excitement which prompts
+sudden and passionate resolutions. Cities may be looked upon as large
+assemblies, of which all the inhabitants are members; their populace
+exercises a prodigious influence upon the magistrates, and frequently
+executes its own wishes without their intervention.
+
+To subject the provinces to the metropolis, is therefore not only
+to place the destiny of the empire in the hands of a portion of the
+community, which may be reprobated as unjust, but to place it in the
+hands of a populace acting under its own impulses, which must be avoided
+as dangerous. The preponderance of capital cities is therefore a serious
+blow upon the representative system; and it exposes modern republics to
+the same defect as the republics of antiquity, which all perished from
+not being acquainted with that system.
+
+It would be easy for me to adduce a great number of secondary causes
+which have contributed to establish, and which concur to maintain, the
+democratic republic of the United States. But I discern two principal
+circumstances among these favorable elements, which I hasten to point
+out. I have already observed that the origin of the American settlements
+may be looked upon as the first and most efficacious cause to which the
+present prosperity of the United States may be attributed. The Americans
+had the chances of birth in their favor; and their forefathers imported
+that equality of conditions into the country, whence the democratic
+republic has very naturally taken its rise. Nor was this all they did;
+for besides this republican condition of society, the early settlers
+bequeathed to their descendants those customs, manners, and opinions,
+which contribute most to the success of a republican form of government.
+When I reflect upon the consequences of this primary circumstance,
+methinks I see the destiny of America embodied in the first puritan who
+landed on those shores, just as the human race was represented by the
+first man.
+
+The chief circumstance which has favored the establishment and the
+maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States, is the nature
+of the territory which the Americans inhabit. Their ancestors gave them
+the love of equality and of freedom: but God himself gave them the means
+of remaining equal and free, by placing them upon a boundless continent,
+which is open to their exertions. General prosperity is favorable to
+the stability of all governments, but more particularly of a democratic
+constitution, which depends upon the disposition of the majority, and
+more particularly of that portion of the community which is most exposed
+to feel the pressure of want. When the people rules, it must be rendered
+happy, or it will overturn the state: and misery is apt to stimulate it
+to those excesses to which ambition rouses kings. The physical causes,
+independent of the laws, which contribute to promote general prosperity,
+are more numerous in America than they have ever been in any other
+country in the world, at any other period of history. In the United
+States, not only is legislation democratic, but nature herself favors
+the cause of the people.
+
+In what part of human tradition can be found anything at all similar to
+that which is occurring under our eyes in North America? The celebrated
+communities of antiquity were all founded in the midst of hostile
+nations, which they were obliged to subjugate before they could flourish
+in their place. Even the moderns have found, in some parts of South
+America, vast regions inhabited by a people of inferior civilisation,
+but which occupied and cultivated the soil. To found their new states,
+it was necessary to extirpate or to subdue a numerous population, until
+civilisation has been made to blush for their success. But North America
+was only inhabited by wandering tribes, who took no thought of the
+natural riches of the soil: and that vast country was still, properly
+speaking, an empty continent, a desert land awaiting its inhabitants.
+
+Everything is extraordinary in America, the social condition of
+the inhabitants, as well as the laws; but the soil upon which these
+institutions are founded is more extraordinary than all the rest. When
+man was first placed upon the earth by the Creator, that earth was
+inexhaustible in its youth; but man was weak and ignorant: and when he
+had learned to explore the treasures which it contained, hosts of his
+fellow-creatures covered its surface, and he was obliged to earn an
+asylum for repose and for freedom by the sword. At that same period
+North America was discovered, as if it had been kept in reserve by the
+Deity, and had just risen from beneath the waters of the deluge.
+
+That continent still presents, as it did in the primeval time, rivers
+which rise from never-failing sources, green and moist solitudes, and
+fields which the ploughshare of the husbandman has never turned. In this
+state it is offered to man, not in the barbarous and isolated condition
+of the early ages, but to a being who is already in possession of
+the most potent secrets of the natural world, who is united to his
+fellow-men, and instructed by the experience of fifty centuries. At
+this very time thirteen millions of civilized Europeans are peaceably
+spreading over those fertile plains, with whose resources and whose
+extent they are not yet accurately acquainted. Three or four thousand
+soldiers drive the wandering races of the aborigines before them; these
+are followed by the pioneers, who pierce the woods, scare off the beasts
+of prey, explore the courses of the inland streams, and make ready the
+triumphal procession of civilisation across the waste.
+
+The favorable influence of the temporal prosperity of America upon the
+institutions of that country has been so often described by others,
+and adverted to by myself, that I shall not enlarge upon it beyond the
+addition of a few facts. An erroneous notion is generally entertained,
+that the deserts of America are peopled by European emigrants, who
+annually disembark upon the coasts of the New World, while the American
+population increases and multiplies upon the soil which its forefathers
+tilled. The European settler, however, usually arrives in the United
+States without friends, and sometimes without resources; in order to
+subsist he is obliged to work for hire, and he rarely proceeds beyond
+that belt of industrious population which adjoins the ocean. The desert
+cannot be explored without capital or credit, and the body must be
+accustomed to the rigors of a new climate before it can be exposed to
+the chances of forest life. It is the Americans themselves who daily
+quit the spots which gave them birth, to acquire extensive domains in
+a remote country. Thus the European leaves his country for the
+transatlantic shores; and the American, who is born on that very coast,
+plunges into the wilds of central America. This double emigration is
+incessant: it begins in the remotest parts of Europe, it crosses the
+Atlantic ocean, and it advances over the solitudes of the New World.
+Millions of men are marching at once toward the same horizon; their
+language, their religion, their manners differ, their object is the
+same. The gifts of fortune are promised in the west, and to the west
+they bend their course.
+
+No event can be compared with this continuous removal of the human race,
+except perhaps those irruptions which preceded the fall of the Roman
+Empire. Then, as well as now, generations of men were impelled forward
+in the same direction to meet and struggle on the same spot; but the
+designs of Providence were not the same; then, every new comer was the
+harbinger of destruction and of death; now, every adventurer brings with
+him the elements of prosperity and of life. The future still conceals
+from us the ulterior consequences of this emigration of the American
+toward the west; but we can hardly apprehend its more immediate results.
+As a portion of the inhabitants annually leave the states in which
+they were born, the population of these states increases very slowly,
+although they have long been established: thus in Connecticut, which
+only contains 59 inhabitants to the square mile, the population has not
+been increased by more than one quarter in forty years, while that of
+England has been augmented by one third in the lapse of the same period.
+The European emigrant always lands, therefore, in a country which is but
+half full, and where hands are in request: he becomes a workman in easy
+circumstances; his son goes to seek his fortune in unpeopled regions,
+and he becomes a rich landowner. The former amasses the capital
+which the latter invests, and the stranger as well as the native is
+unacquainted with want.
+
+The laws of the United States are extremely favorable to the division
+of property; but a cause which is more powerful than the laws prevents
+property from being divided to excess.[200] This is very perceptible in
+the states which are beginning to be thickly peopled; Massachusetts is
+the most populous part of the Union, but it contains only 80 inhabitants
+to the square mile, which is much less than in France, where 162 are
+reckoned to the same extent of country. But in Massachusetts estates are
+very rarely divided; the eldest son takes the land, and the others go
+to seek their fortune in the desert. The law has abolished the right of
+primogeniture, but circumstances have concurred to re-establish it
+under a form of which none can complain, and by which no just rights are
+impaired.
+
+A single fact will suffice to show the prodigious number of individuals
+who leave New England, in this manner, to settle themselves in the
+wilds. We were assured in 1830, that thirty-six of the members of
+congress were born in the little state of Connecticut. The population of
+Connecticut, which constitutes only one forty-third part of that of
+the United States, thus furnished one-eighth of the whole body of
+representatives. The state of Connecticut, however, only sends five
+delegates to congress; and the thirty-one others sit for the new western
+states. If these thirty-one individuals had remained in Connecticut,
+it is probable that instead of becoming rich landowners they would
+have remained humble laborers, that they would have lived in obscurity
+without being able to rise into public life, and that, far from becoming
+useful members of the legislature, they might have been unruly citizens.
+
+These reflections do not escape the observation of the Americans any
+more than of ourselves. "It cannot be doubted," says Chancellor Kent in
+his Treatise on American Law, "that the division of landed estates must
+produce great evils when it is carried to such excess that each parcel
+of land is insufficient to support a family; but these disadvantages
+have never been felt in the United States, and many generations must
+elapse before they can be felt. The extent of our inhabited territory,
+the abundance of adjacent land, and the continual stream of emigration
+flowing from the shores of the Atlantic toward the interior of
+the country, suffice as yet, and will long suffice, to prevent the
+parcelling out of estates."
+
+It is difficult to describe the rapacity with which the American rushes
+forward to secure the immense booty which fortune proffers to him.
+In the pursuit he fearlessly braves the arrow of the Indian and the
+distempers of the forest; he is unimpressed by the silence of the woods;
+the approach of beasts of prey does not disturb him; for he is goaded
+onward by a passion more intense than the love of life. Before him lies
+a boundless continent, and he urges onward as if time pressed, and he
+was afraid of finding no room for his exertions. I have spoken of the
+emigration from the older states, but how shall I describe that which
+takes place from the more recent ones? Fifty years have scarcely elapsed
+since that of Ohio was founded; the greater part of its inhabitants were
+not born within its confines; its capital has only been built thirty
+years, and its territory is still covered by an immense extent of
+uncultivated fields; nevertheless, the population of Ohio is already
+proceeding westward, and most of the settlers who descend to the fertile
+savannahs of Illinois are citizens of Ohio. These men left their first
+country to improve their condition; they quit their resting-place to
+meliorate it still more; fortune awaits them everywhere, but happiness
+they cannot attain. The desire of prosperity has become an ardent and
+restless passion in their minds, which grows by what it gains. They
+early broke the ties which bound them to their natal earth, and they
+have contracted no fresh ones on their way. Emigration was at first
+necessary to them as a means of subsistence; and it soon becomes a sort
+of game of chance, which they pursue for the emotions it excites, as
+much as for the gain it procures.
+
+Sometimes the progress of man is so rapid that the desert reappears
+behind him. The woods stoop to give him a passage, and spring up again
+when he has passed. It is not uncommon in crossing the new states of
+the west to meet with deserted dwellings in the midst of the wilds; the
+traveller frequently discovers the vestiges of a log-house in the most
+solitary retreats, which bear witness to the power, and no less to the
+inconstancy of man. In these abandoned fields, and over those ruins of
+a day, the primeval forest soon scatters a fresh vegetation; the beasts
+resume the haunts which were once their own; and nature covers the
+traces of man's path with branches and with flowers, which obliterate
+his evanescent track.
+
+I remember that in crossing one of the woodland districts which still
+cover the state of New York, I reached the shore of a lake, which was
+embosomed with forests coeval with the world. A small island, covered
+with woods, whose thick foliage concealed its banks, rose from the
+centre of the waters. Upon the shores of the lake no object attested
+the presence of man, except a column of smoke which might be seen on the
+horizon rising from the tops of the trees to the clouds, and seeming
+to hang from heaven rather than to be mounting to the sky. An Indian
+shallop was hauled up on the sand, which tempted me to visit the islet
+that had at first attracted my attention, and in a few minutes I set
+foot upon its banks. The whole island formed one of those delicious
+solitudes of the New World, which almost lead civilized man to regret
+the haunts of the savage. A luxuriant vegetation bore witness to the
+incomparable fruitfulness of the soil. The deep silence, which is common
+to the wilds of North America, was only broken by the hoarse cooing
+of the wood-pigeon and the tapping of the woodpecker upon the bark of
+trees. I was far from supposing that this spot had ever been inhabited,
+so completely did nature seem to be left to her own caprices; but when
+I reached the centre of the isle I thought that I discovered some traces
+of man. I then proceeded to examine the surrounding objects with care,
+and I soon perceived that an European had undoubtedly been led to seek a
+refuge in this retreat. Yet what changes had taken place in the scene of
+his labors! The logs which he had hastily hewn to build himself a
+shed had sprouted afresh; the very props were intertwined with living
+verdure, and his cabin was transformed into a bower. In the midst of
+these shrubs a few stones were to be seen, blackened with fire and
+sprinkled with thin ashes; here the hearth had no doubt been, and the
+chimney in falling had covered it with rubbish. I stood for some time in
+silent admiration of the exuberance of nature and the littleness of man;
+and when I was obliged to leave that enchanting solitude, I exclaimed
+with melancholy, "Are ruins, then, already here?"
+
+In Europe we are wont to look upon a restless disposition, an unbounded
+desire of riches, and an excessive love of independence, as propensities
+very formidable to society. Yet these are the very elements which ensure
+a long and peaceful duration to the republics of America. Without these
+unquiet passions the population would collect in certain spots, and
+would soon be subject to wants like those of the Old World, which it is
+difficult to satisfy; for such is the present good fortune of the New
+World, that the vices of its inhabitants are scarcely less favorable
+to society than their virtues. These circumstances exercise a great
+influence on the estimation in which human actions are held in the two
+hemispheres. The Americans frequently term what we should call cupidity
+a laudable industry; and they blame as faint-heartedness what we
+consider to be the virtue of moderate desires.
+
+In France simple tastes, orderly manners, domestic affections, and the
+attachment which men feel to the place of their birth, are looked upon
+as great guarantees of the tranquillity and happiness of the state. But
+in America nothing seems to be more prejudicial to society than these
+virtues. The French Canadians, who have faithfully preserved the
+traditions of their pristine manners, are already embarrassed for room
+upon their small territory; and this little community, which has so
+recently begun to exist, will shortly be a prey to the calamities
+incident to old nations. In Canada the most enlightened, patriotic,
+and humane inhabitants, make extraordinary efforts to render the people
+dissatisfied with those simple enjoyments which still content it. There
+the seductions of wealth are vaunted with as much zeal, as the charms
+of an honest but limited income in the Old World: and more exertions
+are made to excite the passions of the citizens there than to calm them
+elsewhere. If we listen to the eulogies, we shall hear that nothing is
+more praiseworthy than to exchange the pure and homely pleasures which
+even the poor man tastes in his own country, for the dull delights of
+prosperity under a foreign sky; to leave the patrimonial hearth, and
+the turf beneath which his forefathers sleep; in short, to abandon the
+living and the dead in quest of fortune.
+
+At the present time America presents a field for human effort, far more
+extensive than any sum of labor which can be applied to work it. In
+America, too much knowledge cannot be diffused; for all knowledge, while
+it may serve him who possesses it, turns also to the advantage of those
+who are without it. New wants are not to be feared, since they can be
+satisfied without difficulty; the growth of human passions need not be
+dreaded, since all passions may find an easy and a legitimate object:
+nor can men be put in possession of too much freedom, since they are
+scarcely ever tempted to misuse their liberties.
+
+The American republics of the present day are like companies of
+adventurers, formed to explore in common the waste lands of the New
+World, and busied in a flourishing trade. The passions which agitate
+the Americans most deeply, are not their political, but their commercial
+passions; or, to speak more correctly, they introduce the habits they
+contract in business into their political life. They love order, without
+which affairs do not prosper; and they set an especial value upon a
+regular conduct, which is the foundation of a solid business; they
+prefer the good sense which amasses large fortunes, to that enterprising
+spirit which frequently dissipates them; general ideas alarm their
+minds, which are accustomed to positive calculations; and they hold
+practice in more honor than theory.
+
+It is in America that one learns to understand the influence which
+physical prosperity exercises over political actions, and even over
+opinions which ought to acknowledge no sway but that of reason; and it
+is more especially among strangers that this truth is perceptible. Most
+of the European emigrants to the New World carry with them that wild
+love of independence and of change, which our calamities are apt to
+engender. I sometimes met with Europeans, in the United States, who had
+been obliged to leave their own country on account of their political
+opinions. They all astonished me by the language they held; but one of
+them surprised me more than all the rest. As I was crossing one of the
+most remote districts of Pennsylvania, I was benighted, and obliged
+to beg for hospitality at the gate of a wealthy planter, who was a
+Frenchman by birth. He bade me sit down beside his fire, and we began to
+talk with that freedom which befits persons who meet in the backwoods,
+two thousand leagues from their native country. I was aware that my host
+had been a great leveller and an ardent demagogue, forty years ago,
+and that his name was not unknown to fame. I was therefore not a little
+surprised to hear him discuss the rights of property as an economist or
+a landowner might have done: he spoke of the necessary gradations which
+fortune established among men, of obedience to established laws, of
+the influence of good morals in commonwealths, and of the support which
+religious opinions give to order and to freedom; he even went so far
+as to quote an evangelical authority in corroboration of one of his
+political tenets.
+
+I listened, and marvelled at the feebleness of human reason. A
+proposition is true or false, but no art can prove it to be one or the
+other, in the midst of the uncertainties of science and the conflicting
+lessons of experience, until a new incident disperses the clouds of
+doubt; I was poor, I become rich; and I am not to expect that prosperity
+will act upon my conduct, and leave my judgment free: my opinions
+change with my fortune, and the happy circumstances which I turn to
+my advantage, furnish me with that decisive argument which was before
+wanting.
+
+[The sentence beginning "I was poor, I become rich," &c, struck the
+editor, on perusal, as obscure, if not contradictory. The original seems
+more explicit, and justice to the author seems to require that it should
+be presented to the reader. "J'etais pauvre, me voici riche; du moins,
+si le bien-etre, en agissant sur ma conduite, laissait mon jugement en
+liberte! Mais non, mes opinions sont en effet changees avec ma fortune,
+et, dans l'evenement heureux dont je profite, j'ai reellement decouvert
+la raison determinante qui jusque-la m'avait manque."--_American
+Editor_.]
+
+The influence of prosperity acts still more freely upon the American
+than upon strangers. The American has always seen the connexion of
+public order and public prosperity, intimately united as they are, go on
+before his eyes; he does not conceive that one can subsist without the
+other; he has therefore nothing to forget: nor has he, like so many
+Europeans, to unlearn the lessons of his early education.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INFLUENCE OF THE LAWS UPON THE MAINTENANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN
+THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Three principal Causes of the Maintenance of the democratic
+Republic.--Federal Constitutions.--Municipal Institutions.--Judicial
+Power.
+
+The principal aim of this book has been to make known the laws of the
+United States; if this purpose has been accomplished, the reader is
+already enabled to judge for himself which are the laws that really tend
+to maintain the democratic republic, and which endanger its existence.
+If I have not succeeded in explaining this in the whole course of my
+work, I cannot hope to do so within the limits of a single chapter. It
+is not my intention to retrace the path I have already pursued; and
+a very few lines will suffice to recapitulate what I have previously
+explained.
+
+Three circumstances seem to me to contribute most powerfully to the
+maintenance of the democratic republic in the United States.
+
+The first is that federal form of government which the Americans have
+adopted, and which enables the Union to combine the power of a great
+empire with the security of a small state;--
+
+The second consists in those municipal institutions which limit the
+despotism of the majority, and at the same time impart a taste for
+freedom, and a knowledge of the art of being free, to the people;--
+
+The third is to be met with in the constitution of the judicial power.
+I have shown in what manner the courts of justice serve to repress the
+excesses of democracy; and how they check and direct the impulses of the
+majority, without stopping its activity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INFLUENCE OF MANNERS UPON THE MAINTENANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN
+THE UNITED STATES.
+
+I have previously remarked that the manners of the people may be
+considered as one of the general causes to which the maintenance of a
+democratic republic in the United States is attributable. I here use the
+word _manners_, with the meaning which the ancients attached to the word
+_mores_; for I apply it not only to manners, in their proper sense of
+what constitutes the character of social intercourse, but I extend it to
+the various notions and opinions current among men, and to the mass
+of those ideas which constitute their character of mind. I comprise,
+therefore, under this term the whole moral and intellectual condition of
+a people. My intention is not to draw a picture of American manners,
+but simply to point out such features of them as are favorable to the
+maintenance of political institutions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RELIGION CONSIDERED AS A POLITICAL INSTITUTION, WHICH POWERFULLY
+CONTRIBUTES TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC AMONG THE
+AMERICANS.
+
+North America peopled by Men who professed a democratic and republican
+Christianity.--Arrival of the Catholics.--For what Reason the Catholics
+form the most democratic and the most republican Class at the present
+Time.
+
+Every religion is to be found in juxtaposition to a political opinion,
+which is connected with it by affinity. If the human mind be left
+to follow its own bent, it will regulate the temporal and spiritual
+institutions of society upon one uniform principle; and man will
+endeavor, if I may use the expression, to harmonize the state in which
+he lives upon earth, with the state he believes to await him in heaven.
+
+The greatest part of British America was peopled by men who, after
+having shaken off the authority of the pope, acknowledged no other
+religious supremacy: they brought with them into the New World a form
+of Christianity, which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a
+democratic and republican religion. This sect contributed powerfully to
+the establishment of a democracy and a republic; and from the earliest
+settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an
+alliance which has never been dissolved.
+
+About fifty years ago Ireland began to pour a catholic population into
+the United States; on the other hand, the catholics of America made
+proselytes, and at the present moment more than a million of Christians,
+professing the truths of the church of Rome, are to be met with in
+the Union. These catholics are faithful to the observances of their
+religion; they are fervent and zealous in the support and belief of
+their doctrines. Nevertheless they constitute the most republican and
+the most democratic class of citizens which exists in the United States;
+and although this fact may surprise the observer at first, the cause by
+which it is occasioned may easily be discovered upon reflection.
+
+I think that the catholic religion has erroneously been looked upon as
+the natural enemy of democracy. Among the various sects of Christians,
+catholicism seems to me, on the contrary, to be one of those which are
+most favorable to the equality of conditions. In the catholic church,
+the religious community is composed of only two elements; the priest and
+the people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all
+below him are equal.
+
+On doctrinal points the catholic faith places all human capacities upon
+the same level; it subjects the wise and the ignorant, the man of genius
+and the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed; it imposes
+the same observances upon the rich and needy, it inflicts the same
+austerities upon the strong and the weak, it listens to no compromises
+with mortal man, but reducing all the human race to the same standard,
+it confounds all the distinctions of society at the foot of the same
+altar, even as they are confounded in the sight of God. If catholicism
+predisposes the faithful to obedience, it certainly does not prepare
+them for inequality; but the contrary may be said of protestantism,
+which generally tends to make men independent, more than to render them
+equal.
+
+Catholicism is like an absolute monarchy; if the sovereign be removed,
+all the other classes of society are more equal than they are in
+republics. It has not unfrequently occurred that the catholic priest
+has left the service of the altar to mix with the governing powers of
+society, and to make his place among the civil gradations of men. This
+religious influence has sometimes been used to secure the interests
+of that political state of things to which he belonged. At other times
+catholics have taken the side of aristocracy from a spirit of religion.
+
+But no sooner is the priesthood entirely separated from the government,
+as is the case in the United States, than it is found that no class
+of men are more naturally disposed than the catholics to transfuse the
+doctrine of the equality of conditions into the political world. If,
+then, the catholic citizens of the United States are not forcibly led
+by the nature of their tenets to adopt democratic and republican
+principles, at least they are not necessarily opposed to them; and their
+social position, as well as their limited number, obliges them to adopt
+these opinions. Most of the catholics are poor, and they have no
+chance of taking a part in the government unless it be open to all the
+citizens. They constitute a minority, and all rights must be respected
+in order to ensure to them the free exercise of their own privileges.
+These two causes induce them, unconsciously, to adopt political
+doctrines which they would perhaps support with less zeal if they were
+rich and preponderant.
+
+The catholic clergy of the United States has never attempted to oppose
+this political tendency; but it seeks rather to justify its results. The
+priests in America have divided the intellectual world into two parts:
+in the one they place the doctrines of revealed religion, which command
+their assent; in the other they leave those truths, which they believe
+to have been freely left open to the researches of political inquiry.
+Thus the catholics of the United States are at the same time the most
+faithful believers and the most zealous citizens.
+
+It may be asserted that in the United States no religious doctrine
+displays the slightest hostility to democratic and republican
+institutions. The clergy of all the different sects holds the same
+language; their opinions are consonant to the laws, and the human
+intellect flows onward in one sole current.
+
+I happened to be staying in one of the largest towns in the Union, when
+I was invited to attend a public meeting which had been called for the
+purpose of assisting the Poles, and of sending them supplies of arms and
+money. I found two or three thousand persons collected in a vast hall
+which had been prepared to receive them. In a short time a priest in
+his ecclesiastical robes advanced to the front of the hustings: the
+spectators rose, and stood uncovered, while he spoke in the following
+terms:--
+
+"Almighty God! the God of armies! Thou who didst strengthen the hearts
+and guide the arms of our fathers when they were fighting for the sacred
+rights of national independence; thou who didst make them triumph over
+a hateful oppression, and hast granted to our people the benefits
+of liberty and peace; turn, O Lord, a favorable eye upon the other
+hemisphere; pitifully look down upon that heroic nation which is even
+now struggling as we did in the former time, and for the same rights
+which we defended with our blood. Thou, who didst create man in the
+likeness of the same image, let no tyranny mar thy work, and establish
+inequality upon the earth. Almighty God! do thou watch over the destiny
+of the Poles, and render them worthy to be free. May thy wisdom direct
+their councils, and may thy strength sustain their arms! Shed forth thy
+terror over their enemies; scatter the powers which take counsel against
+them; and vouchsafe that the injustice which the world has beheld for
+fifty years, be not consummated in our time. O Lord, who holdest alike
+the hearts of nations and of men in thy powerful hand, raise up allies
+to the sacred cause of right; arouse the French nation from the apathy
+in which its rulers retain it, that it go forth again to fight for the
+liberties of the world.
+
+"Lord, turn not thou thy face from us, and grant that we may always be
+the most religious as well as the freest people of the earth. Almighty
+God, hear our supplications this day. Save the Poles, we beseech thee,
+in the name of thy well beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died
+upon the cross for the salvation of men. Amen."
+
+The whole meeting responded "Amen!" with devotion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INDIRECT INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS OPINIONS UPON POLITICAL SOCIETY IN THE
+UNITED STATES.
+
+Christian Morality common to all Sects.--Influence of Religion upon the
+Manners of the Americans.--Respect for the marriage Tie.--In what
+manner Religion confines the Imagination of the Americans within certain
+Limits, and checks the Passion of Innovation.--Opinion of the Americans
+on the political Utility of Religion.--Their Exertions to extend and
+secure its Predominance.
+
+I have just shown what the direct influence of religion upon politics
+is in the United States; but its indirect influence appears to me to be
+still more considerable, and it never instructs the Americans more fully
+in the art of being free than when it says nothing of freedom.
+
+The sects which exist in the United States are innumerable. They all
+differ in respect to the worship which is due from man to his Creator;
+but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to
+man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner; but all
+the sects preach the same moral law in the name of God. If it be of the
+slightest importance to man, as an individual, that his religion should
+be true, the case of society is not the same. Society has no future life
+to hope for or to fear; and provided the citizens profess a religion,
+the peculiar tenets of that religion are of very little importance to
+its interests. Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are
+comprised within the great unity of christianity, and Christian morality
+is everywhere the same.
+
+It may be believed without unfairness, that a certain number of
+Americans pursue a peculiar form of worship, from habit more than from
+conviction. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious,
+and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country
+in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater
+influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no
+greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature,
+than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most
+enlightened and free nation of the earth.
+
+I have remarked that the members of the American clergy in general,
+without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty, are
+all in favor of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular
+political system. They keep aloof from parties, and from public affairs.
+In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon the
+laws, and upon the details of public opinion; but it directs the manners
+of the community, and by regulating domestic life, it regulates the
+state.
+
+I do not question that the great austerity of manners which is
+observable in the United States, arises, in the first instance, from
+religious faith. Religion is often unable to restrain man from the
+numberless temptations of fortune; nor can it check that passion for
+gain which every incident of his life contributes to arouse; but
+its influence over the mind of women is supreme, and women are the
+protectors of morals. There is certainly no country in the world
+where the tie of marriage is so much respected as in America, or where
+conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated. In Europe
+almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of
+domestic life. To despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasures of
+home, is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness of heart, and
+the evil of fluctuating desires. Agitated by the tumultuous passions
+which frequently disturb his dwelling, the European is galled by the
+obedience which the legislative powers of the state exact. But when the
+American retires from the turmoil of public life to the bosom of his
+family, he finds in it the image of order and of peace. There his
+pleasures are simple and natural, his joys are innocent and calm; and
+as he finds that an orderly life is the surest path to happiness, he
+accustoms himself without difficulty to moderate his opinions as well as
+his tastes. While the European endeavors to forget his domestic troubles
+by agitating society, the American derives from his own home that love
+of order, which he afterward carries with him into public affairs.
+
+In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the
+manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people. Among
+the Anglo-Americans, there are some who profess the doctrines of
+Christianity from a sincere belief in them, and others who do the same
+because they are afraid to be suspected of unbelief. Christianity,
+therefore, reigns without any obstacle, by universal consent; the
+consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the
+moral world is fixed and determinate, although the political world is
+abandoned to the debates and the experiments of men. Thus the human mind
+is never left to wander across a boundless field; and, whatever may be
+its pretensions, it is checked from time to time by barriers which it
+cannot surmount. Before it can perpetrate innovation, certain primal and
+immutable principles are laid down, and the boldest conceptions of
+human device are subjected to certain forms which retard and stop their
+completion.
+
+The imagination of the Americans, even in its greatest flights, is
+circumspect and undecided; its impulses are checked, and its works
+unfinished. These habits of restraint recur in political society, and
+are singularly favorable both to the tranquillity of the people and
+the durability of the institutions it has established. Nature and
+circumstances concurred to make the inhabitants of the United States
+bold men, as is sufficiently attested by the enterprising spirit with
+which they seek for fortune. If the minds of the Americans were free
+from all trammels, they would very shortly become the most daring
+innovators and the most implacable disputants in the world. But the
+revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect
+for Christian morality and equity, which does not easily permit them to
+violate the laws that oppose their designs; nor would they find it easy
+to surmount the scruples of their partisans, even if they were able to
+get over their own. Hitherto no one, in the United States, has dared
+to advance the maxim, that everything is permissible with a view to
+the interests of society; an impious adage, which seems to have been
+invented in an age of freedom, to shelter all the tyrants of future
+ages. Thus while the law permits the Americans to do what they please,
+religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what
+is rash and unjust.
+
+Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society,
+but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political
+institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for
+freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. Indeed, it is
+in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States
+themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all the
+Americans have a sincere faith in their religion; for who can search the
+human heart? but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to
+the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar
+to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole
+nation, and to every rank of society.
+
+In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect, this may
+not prevent even the partisans of that very sect, from supporting him;
+but if he attacks all the sects together, every one abandons him, and he
+remains alone.
+
+While I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the
+assizes of the county of Chester (state of New York), declared that he
+did not believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the
+soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the
+witness had destroyed beforehand all the confidence of the court in what
+he was about to say.[201] The newspapers related the fact without any
+farther comment.
+
+The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so
+intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive
+the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring
+from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul
+rather than to live.
+
+I have known of societies formed by the Americans to send out ministers
+of the gospel into the new western states, to found schools and churches
+there, lest religion should be suffered to die away in those remote
+settlements, and the rising states be less fitted to enjoy free
+institutions than the people from which they emanated. I met with
+wealthy New Englanders who abandoned the country in which they were
+born, in order to lay the foundations of Christianity and of freedom on
+the banks of the Missouri or in the prairies of Illinois. Thus religious
+zeal is perpetually stimulated in the United States by the duties of
+patriotism. These men do not act from an exclusive consideration of the
+promises of a future life; eternity is only one motive of their devotion
+to the cause; and if you converse with these missionaries of Christian
+civilisation, you will be surprised to find how much value they set upon
+the goods of this world, and that you meet with a politician where you
+expected to find a priest. They will tell you that "all the American
+republics are collectively involved with each other; if the republics of
+the west were to fall into anarchy, or to be mastered by a despot,
+the republican institutions which now flourish upon the shores of the
+Atlantic ocean would be in great peril. It is therefore our interest
+that the new states should be religious, in order to maintain our
+liberties."
+
+Such are the opinions of the Americans; and if any hold that the
+religious spirit which I admire is the very thing most amiss in America,
+and that the only element wanting to the freedom and happiness of the
+human race is to believe in some blind cosmogony, or to assert with
+Cabanis the secretion of thought by the brain, I can only reply, that
+those who hold this language have never been in America, and that they
+have never seen a religious or a free nation. When they return from
+their expedition, we shall hear what they have to say.
+
+There are persons in France who look upon republican institutions as
+a temporary means of power, of wealth and distinction; men who are
+the _condottieri_ of liberty, and who fight for their own advantage,
+whatever be the colors they wear: it is not to these that I address
+myself. But there are others who look forward to the republican form of
+government as a tranquil and lasting state, toward which modern
+society is daily impelled by the ideas and manners of the time, and
+who sincerely desire to prepare men to be free. When these men attack
+religious opinions, they obey the dictates of their passions to the
+prejudice of their interests. Despotism may govern without faith, but
+liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which
+they set forth in glowing colors, than in the monarchy which they
+attack; and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any
+others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if
+the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is
+relaxed? and what can be done with a people which is its own master, if
+it be not submissive to the Divinity?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH RENDER RELIGION POWERFUL IN AMERICA.
+
+Care taken by the Americans to separate the Church from the State.--The
+Laws, public Opinion, and even the Exertions of the Clergy concur to
+promote this end.--Influence of Religion upon the Mind, in the United
+States, attributable to this Cause.--Reason of this.--What is the
+natural State of Men with regard to Religion at the present time.--What
+are the peculiar and incidental Causes which prevent Men, in certain
+Countries, from arriving at this State.
+
+The philosophers of the eighteenth century explained the gradual decay
+of religious faith in a very simple manner. Religious zeal, said they,
+must necessarily fail, the more generally liberty is established and
+knowledge diffused. Unfortunately, facts are by no means in accordance
+with their theory. There are certain populations in Europe whose
+unbelief is only equalled by their ignorance and their debasement, while
+in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world
+fulfils all the outward duties of religion with fervor.
+
+Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the
+country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I
+stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences
+resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In
+France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit
+of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in
+America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned
+in common over the same country. My desire to discover the causes of
+this phenomenon increased from day to day. In order to satisfy it, I
+questioned the members of all the different sects; and I more especially
+sought the society of the clergy, who are the depositaries of the
+different persuasions, and who are more especially interested in
+their duration. As a member of the Roman catholic church I was more
+particularly brought into contact with several of its priests, with
+whom I became intimately acquainted. To each of these men I expressed my
+astonishment and I explained my doubts: I found that they differed upon
+matters of detail alone; and that they mainly attributed the peaceable
+dominion of religion in their country, to the separation of church and
+state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America, I did
+not meet with a single individual, of the clergy or of the laity, who
+was not of the same opinion upon this point.
+
+This led me to examine more attentively than I had hitherto done, the
+station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned
+with surprise that they fill no public appointments;[202] not one of
+them is to be met with in the administration, and they are not even
+represented in the legislative assemblies. In several states[203] the
+law excludes them from political life; public opinion in all. And when
+I came to inquire into the prevailing spirit of the clergy, I found
+that most of its members seemed to retire of their own accord from the
+exercise of power, and that they made it the pride of their profession
+to abstain from politics.
+
+I heard them inveigh against ambition and deceit, under whatever
+political opinions these vices might chance to lurk; but I learned
+from their discourses that men are not guilty in the eye of God for any
+opinions concerning political government, which they may profess with
+sincerity, any more than they are for their mistakes in building a house
+or in driving a furrow. I perceived that these ministers of the gospel
+eschewed all parties, with the anxiety attendant upon personal interest.
+These facts convinced me that what I had been told was true; and it
+then became my object to investigate their causes, and to inquire how it
+happened that the real authority of religion was increased by a state
+of things which diminished its apparent force: these causes did not long
+escape my researches.
+
+The short space of threescore years can never content the imagination
+of man; nor can the imperfect joys of this world satisfy his heart. Man
+alone, of all created beings, displays a natural contempt of existence,
+and yet a boundless desire to exist; he scorns life, but he dreads
+annihilation. These different feelings incessantly urge his soul to
+the contemplation of a future state, and religion directs his musings
+thither. Religion, then, is simply another form of hope; and it is no
+less natural to the human heart than hope itself. Men cannot abandon
+their religious faith without a kind of aberration of intellect, and
+a sort of violent distortion of their true natures; but they are
+invincibly brought back to more pious sentiments; for unbelief is an
+accident, and faith is the only permanent state of mankind. If we only
+consider religious institutions in a purely human point of view, they
+may be said to derive an inexhaustible element of strength from man
+himself, since they belong to one of the constituent principles of human
+nature.
+
+I am aware that at certain times religion may strengthen this influence,
+which originates in itself, by the artificial power of the laws, and
+by the support of those temporal institutions which direct society.
+Religions, intimately united to the governments of the earth, have been
+known to exercise a sovereign authority derived from the twofold source
+of terror and of faith; but when a religion contracts an alliance of
+this nature, I do not hesitate to affirm that it commits the same error,
+as a man who should sacrifice his future to his present welfare; and
+in obtaining a power to which it has no claim, it risks that authority
+which is rightfully its own. When a religion founds its empire upon the
+desire of immortality which lives in every human heart, it may aspire
+to universal dominion: but when it connects itself with a government,
+it must necessarily adopt maxims which are only applicable to certain
+nations. Thus, in forming an alliance with a political power, religion
+augments its authority over a few, and forfeits the hope of reigning
+over all.
+
+As long as a religion rests upon those sentiments which are the
+consolation of all affliction, it may attract the affections of mankind.
+But if it be mixed up with the bitter passions of the world, it may be
+constrained to defend allies whom its interests, and not the principle
+of love, have given to it; or to repel as antagonists men who are still
+attached to its own spirit, however opposed they may be to the powers
+to which it is allied. The church cannot share the temporal power of the
+state, without being the object of a portion of that animosity which the
+latter excites.
+
+The political powers which seem to be most firmly established have
+frequently no better guarantee for their duration, than the opinions of
+a generation, the interests of the time, or the life of an individual.
+A law may modify the social condition which seems to be most fixed and
+determinate; and with the social condition everything else must change.
+The powers of society are more or less fugitive, like the years which
+we spend upon the earth; they succeed each other with rapidity like the
+fleeting cares of life; and no government has ever yet been founded upon
+an invariable disposition of the human heart, or upon an imperishable
+interest.
+
+As long as religion is sustained by those feelings, propensities, and
+passions, which are found to occur under the same forms at all the
+different periods of history, it may defy the efforts of time; or at
+least it can only be destroyed by another religion. But when religion
+clings to the interests of the world, it becomes almost as fragile a
+thing as the powers of the earth. It is the only one of them all which
+can hope for immortality; but if it be connected with their ephemeral
+authority, it shares their fortunes, and may fall with those transient
+passions which supported them for a day. The alliance which religion
+contracts with political powers must needs be onerous to itself; since
+it does not require their assistance to live, and by giving them its
+assistance it may be exposed to decay.
+
+The danger which I have just pointed out always exists, but it is
+not always equally visible. In some ages governments seem to be
+imperishable, in others the existence of society appears to be more
+precarious than the life of man. Some constitutions plunge the
+citizens into a lethargic somnolence, and others rouse them to feverish
+excitement. When government appears to be so strong, and laws so stable,
+men do not perceive the dangers which may accrue from a union of church
+and state. When governments display so much inconstancy, the danger is
+self-evident, but it is no longer possible to avoid it; to be effectual,
+measures must be taken to discover its approach.
+
+In proportion as a nation assumes a democratic condition of society, and
+as communities display democratic propensities, it becomes more and more
+dangerous to connect religion with political institutions; for the
+time is coming when authority will be bandied from hand to hand, when
+political theories will succeed each other, and when men, laws and
+constitutions, will disappear or be modified from day to day, and this
+not for a season only, but unceasingly. Agitation and mutability are
+inherent in the nature of democratic republics, just as stagnation and
+inertness are the law of absolute monarchies.
+
+If the Americans, who change the head of the government once in
+four years, who elect new legislators every two years, and renew the
+provincial officers every twelvemonth; if the Americans, who have
+abandoned the political world to the attempts of innovators, had not
+placed religion beyond their reach, where could it abide in the ebb and
+flow of human opinions? where would that respect which belongs to it
+be paid, amid the struggles of faction? and what would become of its
+immortality in the midst of perpetual decay? The American clergy were
+the first to perceive this truth, and to act in conformity with it. They
+saw that they must renounce their religious influence, if they were to
+strive for political power; and they chose to give up the support of the
+state, rather than to share in its vicissitudes.
+
+In America, religion is perhaps less powerful than it has been at
+certain periods in the history of certain peoples; but its influence
+is more lasting. It restricts itself to its own resources, but of those
+none can deprive it: its circle is limited to certain principles, but
+those principles are entirely its own, and under its undisputed control.
+
+On every side in Europe we hear voices complaining of the absence of
+religious faith, and inquiring the means of restoring to religion some
+remnant of its pristine authority. It seems to me that we must first
+attentively consider what ought to be _the natural state_ of men with
+regard to religion, at the present time; and when we know what we have
+to hope and to fear, we may discern the end to which our efforts ought
+to be directed.
+
+The two great dangers which threaten the existence of religions are
+schism and indifference. In ages of fervent devotion, men sometimes
+abandon their religion, but they only shake it off in order to adopt
+another. Their faith changes the objects to which it is directed, but
+it suffers no decline. The old religion, then, excites enthusiastic
+attachment or bitter enmity in either party; some leave it with anger,
+others cling to it with increased devotedness, and although persuasions
+differ, irreligion is unknown. Such, however, is not the case when a
+religious belief is secretly undermined by doctrines which may be termed
+negative, since they deny the truth of one religion without affirming
+that of any other. Prodigious revolutions then take place in the human
+mind, without the apparent co-operation of the passions of man, and
+almost without his knowledge. Men lose the object of their fondest
+hopes, as if through forgetfulness. They are carried away by an
+imperceptible current which they have not the courage to stem, but which
+they follow with regret, since it bears them from a faith they love, to
+a scepticism that plunges them into despair.
+
+In ages which answer to this description, men desert their religious
+opinions from lukewarmness rather than from dislike; they do not reject
+them, but the sentiments by which they were once fostered disappear. But
+if the unbeliever does not admit religion to be true, he still considers
+it useful. Regarding religious institutions in a human point of view,
+he acknowledges their influence upon manners and legislation. He admits
+that they may serve to make men live in peace with one another and to
+prepare them gently for the hour of death. He regrets the faith which
+he has lost; and as he is deprived of a treasure which he has learned to
+estimate at its full value, he scruples to take it from those who still
+possess it.
+
+On the other hand, those who continue to believe, are not afraid
+openly to avow their faith. They look upon those who do not share their
+persuasion as more worthy of pity than of opposition; and they are
+aware, that to acquire the esteem of the unbelieving, they are not
+obliged to follow their example. They are hostile to no one in the
+world; and as they do not consider the society in which they live as an
+arena in which religion is bound to face its thousand deadly foes, they
+love their contemporaries, while they condemn their weaknesses, and
+lament their errors.
+
+As those who do not believe, conceal their incredulity; and as those who
+believe, display their faith, public opinion pronounces itself in favor
+of religion: love, support, and honor, are bestowed upon it, and it is
+only by searching the human soul, that we can detect the wounds which it
+has received. The mass of mankind, who are never without the feeling
+of religion, do not perceive anything at variance with the established
+faith. The instinctive desire of a future life brings the crowd about
+the altar, and opens the hearts of men to the precepts and consolations
+of religion.
+
+But this picture is not applicable to us; for there are men among us
+who have ceased to believe in Christianity, without adopting any other
+religion; others who are in the perplexities of doubt, and who already
+affect not to believe; and others, again, who are afraid to avow that
+Christian faith which they still cherish in secret.
+
+Amid these lukewarm partisans and ardent antagonists, a small number of
+believers exist, who are ready to brave all obstacles, and to scorn
+all dangers in defence of their faith. They have done violence to human
+weakness, in order to rise superior to public opinion. Excited by the
+effort they have made, they scarcely know where to stop; and as they
+know that the first use which the French made, of independence, was to
+attack religion, they look upon their contemporaries with dread, and
+they recoil in alarm from the liberty which their fellow-citizens are
+seeking to obtain. As unbelief appears to them to be a novelty, they
+comprise all that is new in one indiscriminate animosity. They are at
+war with their age and country, and they look upon every opinion which
+is put forth there as the necessary enemy of the faith.
+
+Such is not the natural state of men with regard to religion at the
+present day; and some extraordinary or incidental cause must be at
+work in France, to prevent the human mind from following its original
+propensities, and to drive it beyond the limits at which it ought
+naturally to stop.
+
+I am intimately convinced that this extraordinary and incidental cause
+is the close connexion of politics and religion. The unbelievers of
+Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents, rather than
+as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as
+the opinion of a party, much more than as an error of belief; and they
+reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the
+Divinity, than because they are the allies of authority.
+
+In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers of
+the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it were, buried
+under their ruins. The living body of religion has been bound down to
+the dead corpse of superannuated polity; cut the bonds which restrain
+it, and that which is alive will rise once more. I know not what could
+restore the Christian church of Europe to the energy of its earlier
+days; that power belongs to God alone; but it may be the effect of human
+policy to leave the faith in all the full exercise of the strength which
+it still retains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HOW THE INSTRUCTION, THE HABITS, AND THE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE
+AMERICANS PROMOTE THE SUCCESS OF THEIR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS.
+
+What is to be understood by the instruction of the American People.--The
+human Mind is more superficially instructed in the United States than in
+Europe.--No one completely uninstructed.--Reason of this Rapidity with
+which Opinions are diffused even in the uncultivated States of the
+West.--Practical Experience more serviceable to the Americans than
+Book-learning.
+
+I have but little to add to what I have already said, concerning the
+influence which the instruction and the habits of the Americans exercise
+upon the maintenance of their political institutions.
+
+America has hitherto produced very few writers of distinction; it
+possesses no great historians, and not a single eminent poet. The
+inhabitants of that country look upon what are properly styled literary
+pursuits with a kind of disapprobation; and there are towns of very
+second rate importance in Europe, in which more literary works are
+annually published, than in the twenty-four states of the Union put
+together. The spirit of the Americans is averse to general ideas; and it
+does not seek theoretical discoveries. Neither politics nor manufactures
+direct them to these occupations; and although new laws are perpetually
+enacted in the United States, no great writers have hitherto inquired
+into the principles of their legislation. The Americans have lawyers
+and commentators, but no jurists; and they furnish examples rather than
+lessons to the world. The same observation applies to the mechanical
+arts. In America, the inventions of Europe are adopted with sagacity;
+they are perfected, and adapted with admirable skill to the wants of
+the country. Manufactures exist, but the science of manufacture is not
+cultivated; and they have good workmen, but very few inventors. Fulton
+was obliged to proffer his services to foreign nations for a long time
+before he was able to devote them to his own country.
+
+[The remark that in America "there are very good workmen but very
+few inventors," will excite surprise in this country. The inventive
+character of Fulton he seems to admit, but would apparently deprive us
+of the credit of his name, by the remark that he was obliged to proffer
+his services to foreign nations for a long time. He might have added,
+that those proffers were disregarded and neglected, and that it was
+finally in his own country that he found the aid necessary to put in
+execution his great project. If there be patronage extended by the
+citizens of the United States to any one thing in preference to another,
+it is to the results of inventive genius. Surely Franklin, Rittenhouse,
+and Perkins, have been heard of by our author; and he must have heard
+something of that wonderful invention, the cotton-gin of Whitney, and
+of the machines for making cards to comb wool. The original machines of
+Fulton for the application of steam have been constantly improving, so
+that there is scarcely a vestige of them remaining. But to sum up the
+whole in one word, can it be possible that our author did not visit the
+patent office at Washington? Whatever may be said of the _utility_ of
+nine-tenths of the inventions of which the descriptions and models are
+there deposited, no one who has ever seen that depository, or who has
+read a description of its contents, can doubt that they furnish the most
+incontestible evidence of extraordinary inventive genius--a genius that
+has excited the astonishment of other European travellers.--_American
+Editor_.]
+
+The observer who is desirous of forming an opinion on the state of
+instruction among the Anglo-Americans, must consider the same object
+from two different points of view. If he only singles out the learned,
+he will be astonished to find how rare they are; but if he counts the
+ignorant, the American people will appear to be the most enlightened
+community in the world. The whole population, as I observed in another
+place, is situated between these two extremes.
+
+In New England, every citizen receives the elementary notions of human
+knowledge; he is moreover taught the doctrines and the evidences of his
+religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its
+constitution. In the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is
+extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these
+things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon.
+
+When I compare the Greek and Roman republics with these American states;
+the manuscript libraries of the former, and their rude population, with
+the innumerable journals and the enlightened people of the latter; when
+I remember all the attempts which are made to judge the modern republics
+by the assistance of those of antiquity, and to infer what will happen
+in our time from what took place two thousand years ago, I am tempted
+to burn my books, in order to apply none but novel ideas to so novel a
+condition of society.
+
+What I have said of New England must not, however, be applied
+indiscriminately to the whole Union: as we advance towards the west or
+the south, the instruction of the people diminishes. In the states which
+are adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico, a certain number of individuals may
+be found, as in our own countries, who are devoid of the rudiments of
+instruction. But there is not a single district in the United States
+sunk in complete ignorance; and for a very simple reason; the peoples
+of Europe started from the darkness of a barbarous condition to advance
+toward the light of civilisation; their progress has been unequal; some
+of them have improved apace, while others have loitered in their course,
+and some have stopped, and are still sleeping upon the way.
+
+Such has not been the case in the United States. The Anglo-Americans
+settled in a state of civilisation, upon that territory which their
+descendants occupy; they had not to begin to learn, and it was
+sufficient not to forget. Now the children of these same Americans are
+the persons who, year by year, transport their dwellings into the wilds:
+and with their dwellings their acquired information and their esteem for
+knowledge. Education has taught them the utility of instruction, and
+has enabled them to transmit that instruction to their posterity. In the
+United States society has no infancy, but it is born in man's estate.
+
+The Americans never use the word "peasant," because they have no idea of
+the peculiar class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote
+ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager,
+have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with
+the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an
+early stage of civilisation. At the extreme borders of the confederate
+states, upon the confines of society and of the wilderness, a population
+of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce the solitudes
+of the American woods, and seek a country there, in order to escape that
+poverty which awaited them in their native provinces. As soon as the
+pioneer arrives upon the spot which is to serve him for a retreat,
+he fells a few trees and builds a log-house. Nothing can offer a more
+miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings. The traveller who
+approaches one of them toward night-fall, sees the flicker of the
+hearth-flame through the chinks in the walls; and at night, if the wind
+rises, he hears the roof of boughs shake to and fro in the midst of
+the great forest trees. Who would not suppose that this poor hut is the
+asylum of rudeness and ignorance? Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn
+between the pioneer and the dwelling which shelters him. Everything
+about him is primitive and unformed, but he is himself the result of the
+labor and the experience of eighteen centuries. He wears the dress,
+and he speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past,
+curious of the future, and ready for argument upon the present; he is,
+in short, a highly civilized being, who consents, for a time, to inhabit
+the back-woods, and who penetrates into the wilds of a New World with
+the Bible, an axe, and a file of newspapers.
+
+It is difficult to imagine the incredible rapidity with which public
+opinion circulates in the midst of these deserts.[204] I do not
+think that so much intellectual intercourse takes place in the most
+enlightened and populous districts of France.[205] It cannot be doubted
+that in the United States, the instruction of the people powerfully
+contributes to the support of a democratic republic; and such must
+always be the case, I believe, where instruction, which awakens the
+understanding, is not separated from moral education which amends the
+heart. But I by no means exaggerate this benefit, and I am still farther
+from thinking, as so many people do think in Europe, that men can be
+instantaneously made citizens by teaching them to read and write. True
+information is mainly derived from experience, and if the Americans had
+not been gradually accustomed to govern themselves, their book-learning
+would not assist them much at the present day.
+
+I have lived a great deal with the people in the United States, and I
+cannot express how much I admire their experience and their good sense.
+An American should never be allowed to speak of Europe; for he will then
+probably display a vast deal of presumption and very foolish pride. He
+will take up with those crude and vague notions which are so useful to
+the ignorant all over the world. But if you question him respecting his
+own country, the cloud which dimmed his intelligence will immediately
+disperse; his language will become as clear and as precise as his
+thoughts. He will inform you what his rights are, and by what means he
+exercises them; he will be able to point out the customs which obtain in
+the political world. You will find that he is well acquainted with the
+rules of the administration, and that he is familiar with the mechanism
+of the laws. The citizen of the United States does not acquire his
+practical science and his positive notions from books; the instruction
+he has acquired may have prepared him for receiving those ideas, but
+it did not furnish them. The American learns to know the laws by
+participating in the act of legislation; and he takes a lesson in the
+forms of government, from governing. The great work of society is ever
+going on beneath his eyes, and, as it were, under his hands.
+
+In the United States politics are the end and aim of education;
+in Europe its principal object is to fit men for private life. The
+interference of the citizens in public affairs is too rare an occurrence
+for it to be anticipated beforehand. Upon casting a glance over society
+in the two hemispheres, these differences are indicated even by its
+external aspect.
+
+In Europe, we frequently introduce the ideas and the habits of private
+life into public affairs; and as we pass at once from the domestic
+circle to the government of the state, we may frequently be heard to
+discuss the great interests of society in the same manner in which we
+converse with our friends. The Americans, on the other hand, transfuse
+the habits of public life into their manners in private; and in their
+country the jury is introduced into the games of school-boys, and
+parliamentary forms are observed in the order of a feast.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE LAWS CONTRIBUTE MORE TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
+IN THE UNITED STATES THAN THE PHYSICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE COUNTRY, AND
+THE MANNERS MORE THAN THE LAWS.
+
+All the Nations of America have a democratic State of Society.--Yet
+democratic Institutions subsist only among the Anglo-Americans.--The
+Spaniards of South America, equally favored by physical Causes as the
+Anglo-Americans, unable to maintain a democratic Republic.--Mexico,
+which has adopted the Constitution of the United States, in the same
+Predicament.--The Anglo-Americans of the West less able to maintain it
+than those of the East.--Reason of these different Results.
+
+I have remarked that the maintenance of democratic institutions in the
+United States is attributable to the circumstances, the laws, and the
+manners of that country.[206] Most Europeans are only acquainted
+with the first of these three causes, and they are apt to give it a
+preponderating importance which it does not really possess.
+
+It is true that the Anglo-Americans settled in the New World in a state
+of social equality; the low-born and the noble were not to be found
+among them; and professional prejudices were always as entirely unknown
+as the prejudices of birth. Thus, as the condition of society was
+democratic, the empire of democracy was established without difficulty.
+But this circumstance is by no means peculiar to the United States;
+almost all the transatlantic colonies were founded by men equal among
+themselves, or who became so by inhabiting them. In no one part of
+the New World have Europeans been able to create an aristocracy.
+Nevertheless democratic institutions prosper nowhere but in the United
+States.
+
+The American Union has no enemies to contend with; it stands in the
+wilds like an island in the ocean. But the Spaniards of South America
+were no less isolated by nature; yet their position has not relieved
+them from the charge of standing armies. They make war upon each other
+when they have no foreign enemies to oppose; and the Anglo-American
+democracy is the only one which has hitherto been able to maintain
+itself in peace.
+
+The territory of the Union presents a boundless field to human activity,
+and inexhaustible materials for industry and labor. The passion of
+wealth takes the place of ambition, and the warmth of faction is
+mitigated by a sense of prosperity. But in what portion of the globe
+shall we meet with more fertile plains, with mightier rivers, or with
+more unexplored and inexhaustible riches, than in South America?
+
+Nevertheless South America has been unable to maintain democratic
+institutions. If the welfare of nations depended on their being placed
+in a remote position, with an unbounded space of habitable territory
+before them, the Spaniards of South America would have no reason to
+complain of their fate. And although they might enjoy less prosperity
+than the inhabitants of the United States, their lot might still be such
+as to excite the envy of some nations in Europe. There are, however, no
+nations upon the face of the earth more miserable than those of South
+America.
+
+Thus, not only are physical causes inadequate to produce results
+analogous to those which occur in North America, but they are unable
+to raise the population of South America above the level of European
+states, where they act in a contrary direction. Physical causes do not
+therefore affect the destiny of nations so much as has been supposed.
+
+I have met with men in New England who were on the point of leaving a
+country, where they might have remained in easy circumstances, to go to
+seek their fortunes in the wilds. Not far from that district I found
+a French population in Canada, which was closely crowded on a narrow
+territory, although the same wilds were at hand; and while the emigrant
+from the United States purchased an extensive estate with the earnings
+of a short term of labor, the Canadian paid as much for land as he would
+have done in France. Nature offers the solitudes of the New World to
+Europeans; but they are not always acquainted with the means of turning
+her gifts to account. Other peoples of America have the same physical
+conditions of prosperity as the Anglo-Americans, but without their laws
+and their manners; and these peoples are wretched. The laws and manners
+of the Anglo-Americans are therefore that cause of their greatness which
+is the object of my inquiry.
+
+I am far from supposing that the American laws are preeminently good
+in themselves; I do not hold them to be applicable to all democratic
+peoples; and several of them seem to me to be dangerous, even in the
+United States. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the American
+legislation, taken collectively, is extremely well adapted to the genius
+of the people and the nature of the country which it is intended to
+govern. The American laws are therefore good, and to them must be
+attributed a large portion of the success which attends the government
+of democracy in America: but I do not believe them to be the principal
+cause of that success; and if they seem to me to have more influence
+upon the social happiness of the Americans than the nature of the
+country, on the other hand there is reason to believe that their effect
+is still inferior to that produced by the manners of the people.
+
+The federal laws undoubtedly constitute the most important part of the
+legislation of the United States. Mexico, which is not less fortunately
+situated than the Anglo-American Union, has adopted these same laws, but
+is unable to accustom itself to the government of democracy. Some other
+cause is therefore at work independently of those physical circumstances
+and peculiar laws which enable the democracy to rule in the United
+States.
+
+Another still more striking proof may be adduced. Almost all the
+inhabitants of the territory of the Union are the descendants of a
+common stock; they speak the same language, they worship God in the same
+manner, they are affected by the same physical causes, and they obey the
+same laws. Whence, then, do their characteristic differences arise?
+Why, in the eastern states of the Union, does the republican government
+display vigor and regularity, and proceed with mature deliberation?
+Whence does it derive the wisdom and durability which mark its acts,
+while in the western states, on the contrary, society seems to be ruled
+by the powers of chance? There, public business is conducted with an
+irregularity, and a passionate and feverish excitement, which does not
+announce a long or sure duration.
+
+I am no longer comparing the Anglo-American states to foreign nations;
+but I am contrasting them with each other, and endeavoring to discover
+why they are so unlike. The arguments which are derived from the nature
+of the country and the difference of legislation, are here all set
+aside. Recourse must be had to some other cause; and what other cause
+can there be except the manners of the people?
+
+It is in the eastern states that the Anglo-Americans have been longest
+accustomed to the government of democracy, and that they have adopted
+the habits and conceived the notions most favorable to its maintenance.
+Democracy has gradually penetrated into their customs, their opinions,
+and the forms of social intercourse; it is to be found in all the
+details of daily life equally as in the laws. In the eastern states
+the instruction and practical education of the people have been most
+perfected, and religion has been most thoroughly amalgamated with
+liberty. Now these habits, opinions, customs, and convictions, are
+precisely the constituent elements of that which I have denominated
+manners.
+
+In the western states, on the contrary, a portion of the same advantages
+is still wanting. Many of the Americans of the west were born in the
+woods, and they mix the ideas and the customs of savage life with the
+civilisation of their parents. Their passions are more intense; their
+religious morality less authoritative; and their convictions are
+less secure. The inhabitants exercise no sort of control over their
+fellow-citizens, for they are scarcely acquainted with each other. The
+nations of the west display, to a certain extent, the inexperience
+and the rude habits of a people in its infancy; for although they are
+composed of old elements, their assemblage is of recent date.
+
+The manners of the Americans of the United States are, then, the real
+cause which renders that people the only one of the American nations
+that is able to support a democratic government; and it is the influence
+of manners which produces the different degrees of order and of
+prosperity, that may be distinguished in the several Anglo-American
+democracies. Thus the effect which the geographical position of a
+country may have upon the duration of democratic institutions is
+exaggerated in Europe. Too much importance is attributed to legislation,
+too little to manners. These three great causes serve, no doubt, to
+regulate and direct the American democracy; but if they were to
+be classed in their proper order, I should say that the physical
+circumstances are less efficient than the laws, and the laws very
+subordinate to the manners of the people. I am convinced that the most
+advantageous situation and the best possible laws cannot maintain a
+constitution in spite of the manners of a country: while the latter
+may turn the most unfavorable positions and the worst laws to some
+advantage. The importance of manners is a common truth to which study
+and experience incessantly direct our attention. It may be regarded as
+a central point in the range of human observation, and the common
+termination of all inquiry. So seriously do I insist upon this head,
+that if I have hitherto failed in making the reader feel the important
+influence which I attribute to the practical experience, the habits,
+the opinions, in short, to the manners of the Americans, upon the
+maintenance of their institutions, I have failed in the principal object
+of my work.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHETHER LAWS AND MANNERS ARE SUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN DEMOCRATIC
+INSTITUTIONS IN OTHER COUNTRIES BESIDE AMERICA.
+
+The Anglo-Americans, if transported into Europe, would be obliged
+to modify their Laws.--Distinction to be made between democratic
+Institutions and American Institutions.--Democratic Laws may be
+conceived better than, or at least different from, those which the
+American Democracy has adopted.--The Example of America only proves that
+it is possible to regulate Democracy by the assistance of Manners and
+Legislation.
+
+I have asserted that the success of democratic institutions in the
+United States is more intimately connected with the laws themselves, and
+the manners of the people, than with the nature of the country. But
+does it follow that the same causes would of themselves produce the same
+results, if they were put into operation elsewhere; and if the country
+is no adequate substitute for laws and manners, can laws and manners
+in their turn prove a substitute for a country? It will readily be
+understood that the necessary elements of a reply to this question
+are wanting: other peoples are to be found in the New World beside the
+Anglo-Americans, and as these peoples are affected by the same physical
+circumstances as the latter, they may fairly be compared together. But
+there are no nations out of America which have adopted the same laws
+and manners, being destitute of the physical advantages peculiar to the
+Anglo-Americans. No standard of comparison therefore exists, and we can
+only hazard an opinion upon this subject.
+
+It appears to me in the first place, that a careful distinction must
+be made between the institutions of the United States and democratic
+institutions in general. When I reflect upon the state of Europe, its
+mighty nations, its populous cities, its formidable armies, and
+the complex nature of its politics, I cannot suppose that even the
+Anglo-Americans, if they were transported to our hemisphere, with
+their ideas, their religion, and their manners, could exist without
+considerably altering their laws. But a democratic nation may be
+imagined, organized differently from the American people. It is not
+impossible to conceive a government really established upon the will
+of the majority; but in which the majority, repressing its natural
+propensity to equality, should consent, with a view to the order and the
+stability of the state, to invest a family or an individual with all
+the prerogatives of the executive. A democratic society might exist, in
+which the forces of the nation would be more centralized than they are
+in the United States; the people would exercise a less direct and less
+irresistible influence upon public affairs, and yet every citizen,
+invested with certain rights, would participate, within his sphere,
+in the conduct of the government. The observations I made among the
+Anglo-Americans induce me to believe that democratic institutions of
+this kind, prudently introduced into society, so as gradually to mix
+with the habits and to be infused with the opinions of the people, might
+subsist in other countries beside America. If the laws of the United
+States were the only imaginable democratic laws, or the most perfect
+which it is possible to conceive, I should admit that the success
+of those institutions affords no proof of the success of democratic
+institutions in general, in a country less favored by natural
+circumstances. But as the laws of America appear to me to be defective
+in several respects, and as I can readily imagine others of the same
+general nature, the peculiar advantages of that country do not prove
+that democratic institutions cannot succeed in a nation less favored by
+circumstances, if ruled by better laws.
+
+If human nature were different in America from what it is elsewhere; or
+if the social condition of the Americans engendered habits and opinions
+among them different from those which originate in the same social
+condition in the Old World, the American democracies would afford
+no means of predicting what may occur in other democracies. If the
+Americans displayed the same propensities as all other democratic
+nations, and if their legislators had relied upon the nature of the
+country and the favor of circumstances to restrain those propensities
+within due limits, the prosperity of the United States would be
+exclusively attributable to physical causes, and it would afford no
+encouragement to a people inclined to imitate their example, without
+sharing their natural advantages. But neither of these suppositions is
+borne out by facts.
+
+In America the same passions are to be met with as in Europe; some
+originating in human nature, others in the democratic condition of
+society. Thus in the United States I found that restlessness of heart
+which is natural to men, when all ranks are nearly equal and the chances
+of elevation are the same to all. I found the democratic feeling of envy
+expressed under a thousand different forms. I remarked that the people
+frequently displayed, in the conduct of affairs, a consummate mixture
+of ignorance and presumption, and I inferred that, in America, men are
+liable to the same failings and the same absurdities as among ourselves.
+But upon examining the state of society more attentively, I speedily
+discovered that the Americans had made great and successful efforts
+to counteract these imperfections of human nature, and to correct the
+natural defects of democracy. Their divers municipal laws appeared to
+me to be a means of restraining the ambition of the citizens within
+a narrow sphere, and of turning those same passions, which might have
+worked havoc in the state, to the good of the township or the parish.
+The American legislators have succeeded to a certain extent in opposing
+the notion of rights, to the feelings of envy; the permanence of the
+religious world, to the continual shifting of politics; the experience
+of the people, to its theoretical ignorance; and its practical knowledge
+of business, to the impatience of its desires.
+
+The Americans, then, have not relied upon the nature of their country,
+to counterpoise those dangers which originate in their constitution and
+in their political laws. To evils which are common to all democratic
+peoples, they have applied remedies which none but themselves had
+ever thought of before; and although they were the first to make the
+experiment, they have succeeded in it.
+
+The manners and laws of the Americans are not the only ones which may
+suit a democratic people; but the Americans have shown that it would be
+wrong to despair of regulating democracy by the aid of manners and of
+laws. If other nations should borrow this general and pregnant idea from
+the Americans, without however intending to imitate them in the peculiar
+application which they have made of it; if they should attempt to fit
+themselves for that social condition, which it seems to be the will of
+Providence to impose upon the generations of this age, and so to escape
+from the despotism of the anarchy which threatens them; what reason is
+there to suppose that their efforts would not be crowned with success?
+The organization and the establishment of democracy in Christendom, is
+the great political problem of the time. The Americans, unquestionably,
+have not resolved this problem, but they furnish useful data to those
+who undertake the task.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IMPORTANCE OF WHAT PRECEDES WITH RESPECT TO THE STATE OF EUROPE.
+
+It may readily be discovered with what intention I undertook the
+foregoing inquiries. The question here discussed is interesting not only
+to the United States, but to the whole world; it concerns, not a nation,
+but all mankind. If those nations whose social condition is democratic
+could only remain free as long as they are inhabitants of the wilds,
+we could not but despair of the future destiny of the human race; for
+democracy is rapidly acquiring a more extended sway, and the wilds are
+gradually peopled with men. If it were true that laws and manners are
+insufficient to maintain democratic institutions, what refuge would
+remain open to the nations except the despotism of a single individual?
+I am aware that there are many worthy persons at the present time who
+are not alarmed at this latter alternative, and who are so tired of
+liberty as to be glad of repose, far from those storms by which it is
+attended. But these individuals are ill acquainted with the haven to
+which they are bound. They are so deluded by their recollections, as to
+judge the tendency of absolute power by what it was formerly, and not
+what it might become at the present time.
+
+If absolute power were re-established among the democratic nations of
+Europe, I am persuaded that it would assume a new form, and appear under
+features unknown to our forefathers. There was a time in Europe, when
+the laws and the consent of the people had invested princes with almost
+unlimited authority; but they scarcely ever availed themselves of it.
+I do not speak of the prerogatives of the nobility, of the authority of
+supreme courts of justice, of corporations and their chartered rights,
+or of provincial privileges, which served to break the blows of the
+sovereign authority, and to maintain a spirit of resistance in the
+nation. Independently of these political institutions--which, however
+opposed they might be to personal liberty, served to keep alive the love
+of freedom in the mind of the public, and which may be esteemed to have
+been useful in this respect--the manners and opinions of the nation
+confined the royal authority within barriers which were not less
+powerful, although they were less conspicuous. Religion, the affections
+of the people, the benevolence of the prince, the sense of honor, family
+pride, provincial prejudices, custom, and public opinion, limited the
+power of kings, and restrained their authority within an invisible
+circle. The constitution of nations was despotic at that time but their
+manners were free. Princes had the right, but they had neither the means
+nor the desire, of doing whatever they pleased.
+
+But what now remains of those barriers which formerly arrested the
+aggressions of tyranny? Since religion has lost its empire over the
+souls of men, the most prominent boundary which divided good from evil
+is overthrown: the very elements of the moral world are indeterminate;
+the princes and the peoples of the earth are guided by chance, and none
+can define the natural limits of despotism and the bounds of license.
+Long revolutions have for ever destroyed the respect which surrounded
+the rulers of the state; and since they have been relieved from the
+burden of public esteem, princes may henceforward surrender themselves
+without fear to the seductions of arbitrary power.
+
+When kings find that the hearts of their subjects are turned toward
+them, they are clement, because they are conscious of their strength;
+and they are chary of the affection of their people, because the
+affection of their people is the bulwark of the throne. A mutual
+interchange of good will then takes place between the prince and the
+people, which resembles the gracious intercourse of domestic society.
+The subjects may murmur at the sovereign's decree, but they are grieved
+to displease him; and the sovereign chastises his subjects with the
+light hand of parental affection.
+
+But when once the spell of royalty is broken in the tumult of
+revolution; when successive monarchs have occupied the throne, and
+alternately displayed to the people the weakness of right, and the
+harshness of power, the sovereign is no longer regarded by any as the
+father of the state, and he is feared by all as its master. If he be
+weak, he is despised; if he be strong, he is detested. He is himself
+full of animosity and alarm; he finds that he is a stranger in his own
+country, and he treats his subjects like conquered enemies.
+
+When the provinces and the towns formed so many different nations in the
+midst of their common country, each of them had a will of its own, which
+was opposed to the general spirit of subjection; but now that all the
+parts of the same empire, after having lost their immunities, their
+customs, their prejudices, their traditions, and their names, are
+subjected and accustomed to the same laws, it is not more difficult to
+oppress them collectively, than it was formerly to oppress them singly.
+
+While the nobles enjoyed their power, and indeed long after that power
+was lost, the honor of aristocracy conferred an extraordinary degree
+of force upon their personal opposition. They afforded instances of men
+who, notwithstanding their weakness, still entertained a high opinion of
+their personal value, and dared to cope single-handed with the efforts
+of the public authority. But at the present day, when all ranks are more
+and more confounded, when the individual disappears in the throng, and
+is easily lost in the midst of a common obscurity, when the honor of
+monarchy has almost lost its empire without being succeeded by public
+virtue, and when nothing can enable man to rise above himself, who shall
+say at what point the exigencies of power and servility of weakness will
+stop?
+
+As long as family feeling was kept alive, the antagonist of oppression
+was never alone; he looked about him, and found his clients, his
+hereditary friends, and his kinsfolk. If this support was wanting, he
+was sustained by his ancestors and animated by his posterity. But
+when patrimonial estates are divided, and when a few years suffice to
+confound the distinctions of a race, where can family feeling be found?
+What force can there be in the customs of a country which has changed,
+and is still perpetually changing its aspect; in which every act of
+tyranny has a precedent, and every crime an example; in which there
+is nothing so old that its antiquity can save it from destruction, and
+nothing so unparalleled that its novelty can prevent it from being done?
+What resistance can be offered by manners of so pliant a make, that they
+have already often yielded? What strength can even public opinion have
+retained, when no twenty persons are connected by a common tie; when
+not a man, nor a family, nor chartered corporation, nor class, nor free
+institution, has the power of representing that opinion; and when every
+citizen--being equally weak, equally poor, and equally dependant--has
+only his personal impotence to oppose to the organized force of the
+government?
+
+The annals of France furnish nothing analogous to the condition in which
+that country might then be thrown. But it may more aptly be assimilated
+to the times of old, and to those hideous eras of Roman oppression, when
+the manners of the people were corrupted, their traditions obliterated,
+their habits destroyed, their opinions shaken, and freedom, expelled
+from the laws, could find no refuge in the land; when nothing protected
+the citizens, and the citizens no longer protected themselves; when
+human nature was the sport of man, and princes wearied out the clemency
+of Heaven before they exhausted the patience of their subjects. Those
+who hope to revive the monarchy of Henry IV. or of Louis XIV., appear
+to me to be afflicted with mental blindness; and when I consider the
+present condition of several European nations--a condition to which all
+the others tend--I am led to believe that they will soon be left with
+no other alternative than democratic liberty, or the tyranny of the
+Caesars.
+
+And, indeed, it is deserving of consideration, whether men are to be
+entirely emancipated, or entirely enslaved; whether their rights are to
+be made equal, or wholly taken away from them. If the rulers of society
+were reduced either gradually to raise the crowd to their own level,
+or to sink the citizens below that of humanity, would not the doubts of
+many be resolved, the consciences of many be healed, and the community
+be prepared to make great sacrifices with little difficulty? In that
+case, the gradual growth of democratic manners and institutions should
+be regarded, not as the best, but as the only means of preserving
+freedom; and without liking the government of democracy, it might be
+adopted as the most applicable and the fairest remedy for the present
+ills of society.
+
+It is difficult to associate a people in the work of government; but it
+is still more difficult to supply it with experience, and to inspire
+it with the feelings which it requires in order to govern well. I grant
+that the caprices of democracy are perpetual; its instruments are rude,
+its laws imperfect. But if it were true that soon no just medium would
+exist between the empire of democracy and the dominion of a single arm,
+should we not rather incline toward the former, than submit voluntarily
+to the latter? And if complete equality be our fate, is it not better to
+be levelled by free institutions than by despotic power?
+
+Those who, after having read this book, should imagine that my
+intention in writing it has been to propose the laws and manners of
+the Anglo-Americans for the imitation of all democratic peoples, would
+commit a very great mistake; they must have paid more attention to the
+form than to the substance of my ideas. My aim has been to show, by the
+example of America, that laws, and especially manners, may exist, which
+will allow a democratic people to remain free. But I am very far from
+thinking that we ought to follow the example of the American democracy,
+and copy the means which it has employed to attain its ends; for I
+am well aware of the influence which the nature of a country and its
+political precedents exercise upon a constitution; and I should regard
+it as a great misfortune for mankind, if liberty were to exist, all over
+the world, under the same forms.
+
+But I am of opinion that if we do not succeed in gradually introducing
+democratic institutions into France, and if we despair of imparting to
+the citizens those ideas and sentiments which first prepare them
+for freedom, and afterward allow them to enjoy it, there will be no
+independence at all, either for the middling classes or the nobility,
+for the poor or for the rich, but an equal tyranny over all; and I
+foresee that if the peaceable empire of the majority be not founded
+among us in time, we shall sooner or later arrive at the unlimited
+authority of a single despot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[199] The United States have no metropolis; but they already contain
+several very large cities. Philadelphia reckoned 161,000 inhabitants,
+and New York 202,000, in the year 1830. The lower orders which inhabit
+these cities constitute a rabble even more formidable than the populace
+of European towns. They consist of freed blacks in the first place, who
+are condemned by the laws and by public opinion, to an hereditary state
+of misery and degradation. They also contain a multitude of Europeans
+who have been driven to the shores of the New World by their misfortunes
+or their misconduct; and these men inoculate the United States with
+all our vices, without bringing with them any of those interests which
+counteract their baneful influence. As inhabitants of a country where
+they have no civil rights, they are ready to turn all the passions which
+agitate the community to their own advantage; thus, within the last few
+months serious riots have broken out in Philadelphia and in New York.
+Disturbances of this kind are unknown in the rest of the country, which
+is nowise alarmed by them, because the population of the cities has
+hitherto exercised neither power nor influence over the rural districts.
+
+Nevertheless, I look upon the size of certain American cities, and
+especially on the nature of their population, as a real danger which
+threatens the future security of the democratic republics of the
+New World: and I venture to predict that they will perish from this
+circumstance, unless the government succeed in creating an armed force,
+which, while it remains under the control of the majority of the nation,
+will be independent of the town population, and able to repress its
+excesses.
+
+[200] In New England the estates are exceedingly small, but they are
+rarely subjected to farther division.
+
+[201] The New York Spectator of August 23, 1831, relates the fact in
+the following terms: "The court of common pleas of Chester county (New
+York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief
+in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not
+before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in
+the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction of
+all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no cause in a
+Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without
+such belief."
+
+[The instance given by the author, of a person offered as a witness
+having been rejected on the ground that he did not believe in the
+existence of a God, seems to be adduced to prove either his assertion
+that the Americans hold religion to be indispensable to the maintenance
+of republican institutions--or his assertion, that if a man attacks all
+the sects together, every one abandons him and he remains alone. But
+it is questionable how far the fact quoted proves either of these
+positions. The rule which prescribes as a qualification for a witness
+the belief in a Supreme Being who will punish falsehood, without which
+he is deemed wholly incompetent to testify, is established for the
+protection of personal rights, and not to compel the adoption of any
+system of religious belief. It came with all our fundamental principles
+from England as a part of the common law which the colonists brought
+with them. It is supposed to prevail in every country in Christendom,
+whatever may be the form of its government; and the only doubt that
+arises respecting its existence in France, is created by our author's
+apparent surprise at finding such a rule in America.--_American
+Editor_.]
+
+[202] Unless this term be applied to the functions which many of them
+fill in the schools. Almost all education is intrusted to the clergy.
+
+[203] See the constitution of New York, art. 7, Sec. 4:--"And whereas,
+the ministers of the gospel are, by their profession, dedicated to the
+service of God and the care of souls, and ought not to be diverted
+from the great duties of their functions; therefore no minister of the
+gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall, at any time
+hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be eligible to,
+or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within this
+state."
+
+See also the constitutions of North Carolina, art. 31. Virginia. South
+Carolina, art. 1, Sec. 23. Kentucky, art. 2, Sec. 26. Tennessee, art S, Sec. 1.
+Louisiana, art. 2, Sec. 22.
+
+[204] I travelled along a portion of the frontier of the United States
+in a sort of cart which was termed the mail. We passed, day and night,
+with great rapidity along roads which were scarcely marked out, through
+immense forests: when the gloom of the woods became impenetrable, the
+coachman lighted branches of fir and we journied along by the light they
+cast. From time to time we came to a hut in the midst of the forest,
+which was a postoffice. The mail dropped an enormous bundle of letters
+at the door of this isolated dwelling, and we pursued our way at full
+gallop, leaving the inhabitants of the neighboring log-houses to send
+for their share of the treasure.
+
+[205] In 1832, each inhabitant of Michigan paid a sum equivalent to 1
+franc, 22 centimes (French money) to the postoffice revenue; and each
+inhabitant of the Floridas paid 1 fr. 5 cent (See National Calendar,
+1833, p. 244.) In the same year each inhabitant of the department du
+Nord, paid 1 fr. 4 cent, to the revenue of the French postoffice. (See
+the Compte rendu de l'Administration des Finances, 1833, p. 623.) Now
+the state of Michigan only contained at that time 7 inhabitants per
+square league; and Florida only 5; the instruction and the commercial
+activity of these districts are inferior to those of most of the
+states in the Union; while the department du Nord, which contains
+3,400 inhabitants per square league, is one of the most enlightened and
+manufacturing parts of France.
+
+[206] I remind the reader of the general signification which I give to
+the word _manners_, namely, the moral and intellectual characteristics
+of social man taken collectively.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE CONDITION OF THE THREE RACES WHICH
+INHABIT THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The principal part of the task which I had imposed upon myself is now
+performed: I have shown, as far as I was able, the laws and manners of
+the American democracy. Here I might stop; but the reader would perhaps
+feel that I had not satisfied his expectations.
+
+The absolute supremacy of democracy is not all that we meet with in
+America; the inhabitants of the New World may be considered from more
+than one point of view. In the course of this work, my subject has often
+led me to speak of the Indians and the negroes; but I have never been
+able to stop in order to show what places these two races occupy, in the
+midst of the democratic people whom I was engaged in describing. I have
+mentioned in what spirit, and according to what laws, the Anglo-American
+Union was formed; but I could only glance at the dangers which menace
+that confederation, while it was equally impossible for me to give a
+detailed account of its chances of duration, independently of its laws
+and manners. When speaking of the United republican States, I hazarded
+no conjectures upon the permanence of republican forms in the New World;
+and when making frequent allusion to the commercial activity which
+reigns in the Union, I was unable to inquire into the future condition
+of the Americans as a commercial people.
+
+These topics are collaterally connected with my subject, without forming
+a part of it; they are American, without being democratic; and to
+portray democracy has been my principal aim. It was therefore necessary
+to postpone these questions, which I now take up as the proper
+termination of my work.
+
+The territory now occupied or claimed by the American Union, spreads
+from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific ocean. On the
+east and west its limits are those of the continent itself. On the
+south it advances nearly to the tropic, and it extends upward to the icy
+regions of the north.[207]
+
+The human beings who are scattered over this space do not form, as
+in Europe, so many branches of the same stock. Three races naturally
+distinct, and I might almost say hostile to each other, are discoverable
+among them at the first glance. Almost insurmountable barriers had been
+raised between them by education and by law, as well as by their origin
+and outward characteristics; but fortune has brought them together on
+the same soil, where, although they are mixed, they do not amalgamate,
+and each race fulfils its destiny apart.
+
+Among these widely differing families of men, the first which attracts
+attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is
+the white or European, the MAN pre-eminent; and in subordinate grades,
+the negro and the Indian. These two unhappy races have nothing in
+common; neither birth, nor features, nor language, nor habits. Their
+only resemblance lies in their misfortunes. Both of them occupy an
+inferior rank in the country they inhabit; both suffer from tyranny; and
+if their wrongs are not the same, they originate at any rate with the
+same authors.
+
+If we reasoned from what passes in the world, we should almost say that
+the European is to the other races of mankind, what man is to the lower
+animals;--he makes them subservient to his use; and when he cannot
+subdue, he destroys them. Oppression has at one stroke deprived the
+descendants of the Africans of almost all the privileges of humanity.
+The negro of the United States has lost all remembrance of his country;
+the language which his forefathers spoke is never heard around him; he
+abjured their religion and forgot their customs when he ceased to belong
+to Africa, without acquiring any claim to European privileges. But he
+remains half-way between the two communities; sold by the one, repulsed
+by the other; finding not a spot in the universe to call by the name
+of country, except the faint image of a home which the shelter of his
+master's roof affords.
+
+The negro has no family; woman is merely the temporary companion of his
+pleasures, and his children are upon an equality with himself from the
+moment of their birth. Am I to call it a proof of God's mercy, or
+a visitation of his wrath, that man in certain states appears to be
+insensible to his extreme wretchedness, and almost affects with a
+depraved taste the cause of his misfortunes? The negro, who is plunged
+in this abyss of evils, scarcely feels his own calamitous situation.
+Violence made him a slave, and the habit of servitude gives him the
+thoughts and desires of a slave; he admires his tyrants more than he
+hates them, and finds his joy and his pride in the servile imitation of
+those who oppress him: his understanding is degraded to the level of his
+soul.
+
+The negro enters upon slavery as soon as he is born; nay, he may have
+been purchased in the womb, and have begun his slavery before he began
+his existence. Equally devoid of wants and of enjoyment, and useless to
+himself, he learns, with his first notions of existence, that he is the
+property of another who has an interest in preserving his life, and that
+the care of it does not devolve upon himself; even the power of thought
+appears to him a useless gift of Providence, and he quietly enjoys the
+privileges of his debasement.
+
+If he becomes free, independence is often felt by him to be a heavier
+burden than slavery; for having learned, in the course of his life, to
+submit to everything except reason, he is too much unacquainted with
+her dictates to obey them. A thousand new desires beset him, and he is
+destitute of the knowledge and energy necessary to resist them: these
+are masters which it is necessary to contend with, and he has learned
+only to submit and obey. In short, he sinks to such a depth of
+wretchedness, that while servitude brutalizes, liberty destroys him.
+
+Oppression has been no less fatal to the Indian than to the negro race,
+but its effects are different. Before the arrival of the white men in
+the New World, the inhabitants of North America lived quietly in their
+woods, enduring the vicissitudes, and practising the virtues and vices
+common to savage nations. The Europeans, having dispersed the Indian
+tribes and driven them into the deserts, condemned them to a wandering
+life full of inexpressible sufferings.
+
+Savage nations are only controlled by opinion and by custom. When the
+North American Indians had lost their sentiment of attachment to their
+country; when their families were dispersed, their traditions obscured,
+and the chain of their recollections broken; when all their habits were
+changed, and their wants increased beyond measure, European tyranny
+rendered them more disorderly and less civilized than they were before.
+The moral and physical condition of these tribes continually grew
+worse, and they became more barbarous as they became more wretched.
+Nevertheless the Europeans have not been able to metamorphose the
+character of the Indians; and though they have had power to destroy
+them, they have never been able to make them submit to the rules of
+civilized society.
+
+The lot of the negro is placed on the extreme limit of servitude, while
+that of the Indian lies on the utmost verge of liberty; and slavery does
+not produce more fatal effects upon the first, than independence upon
+the second. The negro has lost all property in his own person, and he
+cannot dispose of his existence without committing a sort of fraud:
+but the savage is his own master as soon as he is able to act; parental
+authority is scarcely known to him; he has never bent his will to
+that of any of his kind, or learned the difference between voluntary
+obedience and a shameful subjection; and the very name of law is unknown
+to him. To be free, with him, signifies to escape from all the shackles
+of society. As he delights in this barbarous independence, and would
+rather perish than sacrifice the least part of it, civilisation has
+little power over him.
+
+The negro makes a thousand fruitless efforts to insinuate himself among
+men who repulse him; he conforms to the taste of his oppressors, adopts
+their opinions, and hopes by imitating them to form a part of their
+community. Having been told from infancy that his race is naturally
+inferior to that of the whites, he assents to the proposition, and is
+ashamed of his own nature. In each of his features he discovers a trace
+of slavery, and, if it were in his power, he would willingly rid himself
+of everything that makes him what he is.
+
+The Indian, on the contrary, has his imagination inflated with the
+pretended nobility of his origin, and lives and dies in the midst of
+these dreams of pride. Far from desiring to conform his habits to ours,
+he loves his savage life as the distinguishing mark of his race, and he
+repels every advance to civilisation, less perhaps from the hatred
+which he entertains for it, than from a dread of resembling the
+Europeans.[208] While he has nothing to oppose to our perfection in
+the arts but the resources of the desert, to our tactics nothing but
+undisciplined courage; while our well-digested plans are met by the
+spontaneous instincts of savage life, who can wonder if he fails in this
+unequal contest?
+
+The negro who earnestly desires to mingle his race with that of the
+European, cannot effect it; while the Indian, who might succeed to a
+certain extent, disdains to make the attempt. The servility of the one
+dooms him to slavery, the pride of the other to death.
+
+I remember that while I was travelling through the forests which still
+cover the state of Alabama, I arrived one day at the log house of a
+pioneer. I did not wish to penetrate into the dwelling of the American,
+but retired to rest myself for a while on the margin of a spring, which
+was not far off, in the woods. While I was in this place (which was
+in the neighborhood of the Creek territory), an Indian woman appeared,
+followed by a negress, and holding by the hand a little white girl of
+five or six years old, whom I took to be the daughter of the pioneer.
+A sort of barbarous luxury set off the costume of the Indian; rings
+of metal were hanging from her nostrils and ears; her hair, which was
+adorned with glass beads, fell loosely upon her shoulders; and I saw
+that she was not married, for she still wore the necklace of shells
+which the bride always deposits on the nuptial couch. The negress was
+clad in squalid European garments.
+
+They all three came and seated themselves upon the banks of the
+fountain; and the young Indian, taking the child in her arms, lavished
+upon her such fond caresses as mothers give; while the negress
+endeavored by various little artifices to attract the attention of
+the young Creole. The child displayed in her slightest gestures a
+consciousness of superiority which formed a strange contrast with her
+infantine weakness; as if she received the attentions of her companions
+with a sort of condescension.
+
+The negress was seated on the ground before her mistress, watching her
+smallest desires, and apparently divided between strong affection for
+the child and servile fear; while the savage displayed, in the midst
+of her tenderness, an air of freedom and of pride which was almost
+ferocious. I had approached the group, and I contemplated them in
+silence; but my curiosity was probably displeasing to the Indian woman,
+for she suddenly rose, pushed the child roughly from her, and giving me
+an angry look, plunged into the thicket.
+
+I had often chanced to see individuals met together in the same place,
+who belonged to the three races of men which people North America. I had
+perceived from many different results the preponderance of the whites.
+But in the picture which I have just been describing there was something
+peculiarly touching; a bond of affection here united the oppressors with
+the oppressed, and the effort of Nature to bring them together rendered
+still more striking the immense distance placed between them by
+prejudice and by law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE CONDITION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES WHICH
+INHABIT THE TERRITORY POSSESSED BY THE UNION.
+
+Gradual disappearance of the native Tribes.--Manner in which it takes
+place.--Miseries accompanying the forced Migrations of the Indians.--The
+Savages of North America had only two ways of escaping Destruction; War
+or Civilisation.--They are no longer able to make War.--Reasons why they
+refused to become civilized when it was in their Power, and why they
+cannot become so now that they desire it.--Instance of the Creek
+and Cherokees.--Policy of the particular States toward these
+Indians.--Policy of the federal Government.
+
+None of the Indian tribes which formerly inhabited the territory of New
+England--the Narragansets, the Mohicans, the Pequots--have any existence
+but in the recollection of man. The Lenapes, who received William Penn
+a hundred and fifty years ago upon the banks of the Delaware, have
+disappeared; and I myself met with the last of the Iroquois, who were
+begging alms. The nations I have mentioned formerly covered the country
+to the seacoast; but a traveller at the present day must penetrate more
+than a hundred leagues into the interior of the continent to find
+an Indian. Not only have these wild tribes receded, but they are
+destroyed;[209] and as they give way or perish, an immense and
+increasing people fills their place. There is no instance on record of
+so prodigious a growth, or so rapid a destruction; the manner in which
+the latter change takes place is not difficult to describe.
+
+When the Indians were the sole inhabitants of the wilds whence they
+have been expelled, their wants were few. Their arms were of their own
+manufacture, their only drink was the water of the brook, and their
+clothes consisted of the skin of animals, whose flesh furnished them
+with food.
+
+The Europeans introduced among the savages of North America firearms,
+ardent spirits, and iron: they taught them to exchange for manufactured
+stuffs the rough garments which had previously satisfied their untutored
+simplicity. Having acquired new tastes, without the arts by which they
+could be gratified, the Indians were obliged to have recourse to the
+workmanship of the whites; but in return for their productions, the
+savage had nothing to offer except the rich furs which still abounded in
+his woods. Hence the chase became necessary, not merely to provide for
+his subsistence, but in order to procure the only objects of barter
+which he could furnish to Europe.[210] While the wants of the natives
+were thus increasing, their resources continued to diminish. From the
+moment when a European settlement is formed in the neighborhood of
+the territory occupied by the Indians, the beasts of chase take the
+alarm.[211] Thousands of savages, wandering in the forest and destitute
+of any fixed dwelling, did not disturb them; but as soon as the
+continuous sounds of European labor are heard in the neighborhood, they
+begin to flee away, and retire to the west, where their instinct teaches
+them that they will find deserts of immeasurable extent. "The buffalo is
+constantly receding", say Messrs. Clarke and Cass in their Report of the
+year 1829; "a few years since they approached the base of the Allegany;
+and a few years hence they may even be rare upon the immense plains
+which extend to the base of the Rocky mountains." I have been assured
+that this effect of the approach of the whites is often felt at two
+hundred leagues' distance from the frontier. Their influence is thus
+exerted over tribes whose name is unknown to them, and who suffer the
+evils of usurpation long before they are acquainted with the authors of
+their distress.[212]
+
+Bold adventurers soon penetrate into the country the Indians have
+deserted, and when they have advanced about fifteen or twenty
+leagues from the extreme frontiers of the whites, they begin to build
+habitations for civilized beings in the midst of the wilderness. This
+is done without difficulty, as the territory of a hunting nation is ill
+defined; it is the common property of the tribe, and belongs to no one
+in particular, so that individual interests are not concerned in the
+protection of any part of it.
+
+A few European families, settled in different situations at a
+considerable distance from each other, soon drive away the wild animals
+which remain between their places of abode. The Indians, who had
+previously lived in a sort of abundance, then find it difficult to
+subsist, and still more difficult to procure the articles of barter
+which they stand in need of.
+
+To drive away their game is to deprive them of the means of existence,
+as effectually as if the fields of our agriculturists were stricken with
+barrenness; and they are reduced, like famished wolves, to prowl through
+the forsaken woods in quest of prey. Their instinctive love of their
+country attaches them to the soil which gave them birth,[213] even after
+it has ceased to yield anything but misery and death. At length they
+are compelled to acquiesce, and to depart: they follow the traces of the
+elk, the buffalo, and the beaver, and are guided by those wild animals
+in the choice of their future country. Properly speaking, therefore, it
+is not the Europeans who drive away the native inhabitants of America;
+it is famine which compels them to recede; a happy distinction, which
+had escaped the casuists of former times, and for which we are indebted
+to modern discovery.
+
+It is impossible to conceive the extent of the sufferings which attend
+these forced emigrations. They are undertaken by a people already
+exhausted and reduced; and the countries to which the new-comers betake
+themselves are inhabited by other tribes which receive them with jealous
+hostility. Hunger is in the rear; war awaits them, and misery besets
+them on all sides. In the hope of escaping from such a host of enemies,
+they separate, and each individual endeavors to procure the means
+of supporting his existence in solitude and secrecy, living in the
+immensity of the desert like an outcast in civilized society. The social
+tie, which distress had long since weakened, is then dissolved; they
+have lost their country, and their people soon deserts them; their very
+families are obliterated; the names they bore in common are forgotten,
+their language perishes, and all the traces of their origin disappear.
+Their nation has ceased to exist, except in the recollection of the
+antiquaries of America and a few of the learned of Europe.
+
+I should be sorry to have my reader suppose that I am coloring the
+picture too highly: I saw with my own eyes several of the cases of
+misery which I have been describing; and I was the witness of sufferings
+which I have not the power to portray.
+
+At the end of the year 1831, while I was on the left bank of the
+Mississippi, at a place named by Europeans Memphis, there arrived a
+numerous band of Choctaws (or Chactas, as they are called by the
+French in Louisiana). These savages had left their country, and were
+endeavoring to gain the right bank of the Mississippi, where they
+hoped to find an asylum which had been promised them by the American
+government. It was then in the middle of winter, and the cold was
+unusually severe; the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the
+river was drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families
+with them; and they brought in their train the wounded and the sick,
+with children newly born, and old men upon the verge of death. They
+possessed neither tents nor wagons, but only their arms and some
+provisions. I saw them embark to pass the mighty river, and never will
+that solemn spectacle fade from my remembrance. No cry, no sob was heard
+among the assembled crowd: all were silent. Their calamities were of
+ancient date, and they knew them to be irremediable. The Indians had
+all stepped into the bark which was to carry them across, but their dogs
+remained upon the bank. As soon as these animals perceived that their
+masters were finally leaving the shore, they set up a dismal howl, and
+plunging all together into the icy waters of the Mississippi, they swam
+after the boat.
+
+The ejectment of the Indians very often takes place at the present
+day, in a regular, and, as it were, a legal manner. When the European
+population begins to approach the limit of the desert inhabited by a
+savage tribe, the government of the United States usually despatches
+envoys to them, who assemble the Indians in a large plain, and having
+first eaten and drunk with them, accost them in the following manner:
+"What have you to do in the land of your fathers? Before long you must
+dig up their bones in order to live. In what respect is the country you
+inhabit better than another? Are there no woods, marshes, or prairies,
+except where you dwell? And can you live nowhere but under your own sun?
+Beyond those mountains which you see at the horizon, beyond the lake
+which bounds your territory on the west, there lie vast countries where
+beasts of chase are found in great abundance; sell your land to us, and
+go to live happily in those solitudes." After holding this language,
+they spread before the eyes of the Indians fire-arms, woollen garments,
+kegs of brandy, glass necklaces, bracelets of tinsel, ear-rings, and
+looking-glasses.[214] If, when they have beheld all these riches,
+they still hesitate, it is insinuated that they have not the means of
+refusing their required consent, and that the government itself will not
+long have the power of protecting them in their rights. What are they to
+do? Half convinced and half compelled, they go to inhabit new deserts,
+where the importunate whites will not let them remain ten years in
+tranquillity. In this manner do the Americans obtain at a very low
+price whole provinces, which the richest sovereigns of Europe could not
+purchase.[215]
+
+These are great evils, and it must be added that they appear to me to
+be irremediable. I believe that the Indian nations of North America are
+doomed to perish: and that whenever the Europeans shall be established
+on the shores of the Pacific ocean, that race of men will be no
+more.[216] The Indians had only the two alternatives of war or
+civilization; in other words, they must either have destroyed the
+Europeans or become their equals.
+
+At the first settlement of the colonies they might have found it
+possible, by uniting their forces, to deliver themselves from the small
+bodies of strangers who landed on their continent.[217] They several
+times attempted to do it, and were on the point of succeeding; but the
+disproportion of their resources, at the present day, when compared
+with those of the whites, is too great to allow such an enterprise to
+be thought of. Nevertheless, there do arise from time to time among the
+Indians men of penetration, who foresee the final destiny which awaits
+the native population, and who exert themselves to unite all the tribes
+in common hostility to the Europeans; but their efforts are unavailing.
+Those tribes which are in the neighborhood of the whites are too much
+weakened to offer an effectual resistance; while the others, giving way
+to that childish carelessness of the morrow which characterizes savage
+life, wait for the near approach of danger before they prepare to meet
+it: some are unable, the others are unwilling to exert themselves.
+
+It is easy to foresee that the Indians will never conform to
+civilisation; or that it will be too late, whenever they may be inclined
+to make the experiment.
+
+Civilisation is the result of long social process which takes place in
+the same spot, and is handed down from one generation to another, each
+one profiting by the experience of the last. Of all nations, those
+submit to civilisation with the most difficulty, which habitually live
+by the chase. Pastoral tribes, indeed, often change their place of
+abode; but they follow in regular order in their migrations, and often
+return again to their old stations, while the dwelling of the hunter
+varies with that of the animals he pursues.
+
+Several attempts have been made to diffuse knowledge among the Indians,
+without controlling their wandering propensities; by the Jesuits in
+Canada, and by the puritans in New England;[218] but none of these
+endeavors were crowned by any lasting success. Civilisation began in the
+cabin, but it soon retired to expire in the woods; the great error of
+these legislators of the Indians was their not understanding, that in
+order to succeed in civilizing a people, it is first necessary to fix
+it; which cannot be done without inducing it to cultivate the soil: the
+Indians ought in the first place to have been accustomed to agriculture.
+But not only are they destitute of this indispensable preliminary to
+civilisation, they would even have great difficulty in acquiring it. Men
+who have once abandoned themselves to the restless and adventurous
+life of the hunter, feel an insurmountable disgust for the constant and
+regular labor which tillage requires. We see this proved in the bosom
+of our own society; but it is far more visible among peoples whose
+partiality for the chase is a part of their natural character.
+
+Independently of this general difficulty, there is another, which
+applies peculiarly to the Indians; they consider labor not merely as an
+evil, but as a disgrace; so that their pride prevents them from becoming
+civilized, as much as their indolence.[219]
+
+There is no Indian so wretched as not to retain, under his hut of bark,
+a lofty idea of his personal worth; he considers the cares of industry
+and labor as degrading occupations, he compares the husbandman to the ox
+which traces the furrow; and even in our most ingenious handicraft,
+he can see nothing but the labor of slaves. Not that he is devoid of
+admiration for the power and intellectual greatness of the whites; but
+although the result of our efforts surprises him, he contemns the means
+by which we obtain it; and while he acknowledges our ascendency, he
+still believes in his superiority. War and hunting are the only pursuits
+which appear to him worthy to be the occupations of a man.[220] The
+Indian, in the dreary solitude of his woods, cherishes the same ideas,
+the same opinions, as the noble of the middle ages in his castle, and he
+only requires to become a conqueror to complete the resemblance; thus,
+however strange it may seem, it is in the forests of the New World,
+and not among the Europeans who people its coasts, that the ancient
+prejudices of Europe are still in existence.
+
+More than once, in the course of this work, I have endeavored to explain
+the prodigious influence which the social condition appears to exercise
+upon the laws and the manners of men; and I beg to add a few words on
+the same subject. When I perceive the resemblance which exists between
+the political institutions of our ancestors, the Germans, and of the
+wandering tribes of North America: between the customs described by
+Tacitus, and those of which I have sometimes been a witness, I cannot
+help thinking that the same cause has brought about the same results
+in both hemispheres; and that in the midst of the apparent diversity of
+human affairs, a certain number of primary facts may be discovered, from
+which all the others are derived. In what we usually call the German
+institutions, then, I am inclined only to perceive barbarian habits; and
+the opinions of savages, in what we style feudal principles.
+
+However strongly the vices and prejudices of the North American Indians
+may be opposed to their becoming agricultural and civilized, necessity
+sometimes obliges them to it. Several of the southern nations, and among
+them the Cherokees and the Creeks,[221] were surrounded by Europeans,
+who had landed on the shores of the Atlantic, and who, either descending
+the Ohio or proceeding up the Mississippi, arrived simultaneously upon
+their borders. These tribes have not been driven from place to place,
+like their northern brethren; but they have been gradually enclosed
+within narrow limits, like the game within the thicket before the
+huntsmen plunge into the interior. The Indians, who were thus placed
+between civilisation and death, found themselves obliged to live by
+ignominious labor like the whites. They took to agriculture, and without
+entirely forsaking their old habits or manners, sacrificed only as much
+as was necessary to their existence.
+
+The Cherokees went further; they created a written language; established
+a permanent form of government; and as everything proceeds rapidly
+in the New World, before they had all of them clothes, they set up a
+newspaper.[222]
+
+The growth of European habits has been remarkably accelerated among
+these Indians by the mixed race which has sprung up[223]: Deriving
+intelligence from the father's side, without entirely losing the savage
+customs of the mother, the half-blood forms the natural link between
+civilisation and barbarism. Wherever this race has multiplied, the
+savage state has become modified, and a great change has taken place in
+the manners of the people.[224]
+
+The success of the Cherokees proves that the Indians are capable of
+civilisation, but it does not prove that they will succeed in it. The
+difficulty which the Indians find in submitting to civilisation proceeds
+from the influence of a general cause, which it is almost impossible
+for them to escape. An attentive survey of history demonstrates that,
+in general, barbarous nations have raised themselves to civilisation by
+degrees, and by their own efforts. Whenever they derived knowledge from
+a foreign people, they stood toward it in the relation of conquerors,
+not of a conquered nation. When the conquered nation is enlightened, and
+the conquerors are half savage, as in the case of the invasion of Rome
+by the northern nations, or that of China by the Moguls, the power
+which victory bestows upon the barbarian is sufficient to keep up his
+importance among civilized men, and permit him to rank as their equal,
+until he becomes their rival: the one has might on his side, the other
+has intelligence; the former admires the knowledge and the arts of the
+conquered, the latter envies the power of the conquerors. The barbarians
+at length admit civilized man into their palaces, and he in turn opens
+his schools to the barbarians. But when the side on which the physical
+force lies, also possesses an intellectual preponderance, the conquered
+party seldom becomes civilized; it retreats, or is destroyed. It may
+therefore be said, in a general way, that savages go forth in arms to
+seek knowledge, but that they do not receive it when it comes to them.
+
+If the Indian tribes which now inhabit the heart of the continent could
+summon up energy enough to attempt to civilize themselves, they might
+possibly succeed. Superior already to the barbarous nations which
+surround them, they would gradually gain strength and experience; and
+when the Europeans should appear upon their borders, they would be in a
+state, if not to maintain their independence, at least to assert their
+right to the soil, and to incorporate themselves with the conquerors.
+But it is the misfortune of Indians to be brought into contact with a
+civilized people, which is also (it may be owned) the most avaricious
+nation on the globe, while they are still semi-barbarian: to find
+despots in their instructors, and to receive knowledge from the hand
+of oppression. Living in the freedom of the woods, the North American
+Indian was destitute, but he had no feeling of inferiority toward any
+one; as soon, however, as he desires to penetrate into the social
+scale of the whites, he takes the lowest rank in society, for he enters
+ignorant and poor within the pale of science and wealth. After having
+led a life of agitation, beset with evils and dangers, but at the same
+time filled with proud emotions,[225] he is obliged to submit to a
+wearisome, obscure, and degraded state, and to gain the bread which
+nourishes him by hard and ignoble labor; such are in his eyes the only
+results of which civilisation can boast: and even this much he is not
+sure to obtain.
+
+When the Indians undertake to imitate their European neighbors, and to
+till the earth like the settlers, they are immediately exposed to a
+very formidable competition. The white man is skilled in the craft of
+agriculture; the Indian is a rough beginner in an art with which he is
+unacquainted. The former reaps abundant crops without difficulty, the
+latter meets with a thousand obstacles in raising the fruits of the
+earth.
+
+The European is placed among a population whose wants he knows and
+partakes. The savage is isolated in the midst of a hostile people, with
+whose manners, language and laws, he is imperfectly acquainted, but
+without whose assistance he cannot live. He can only procure the
+materials of comfort by bartering his commodities against the goods
+of the European, for the assistance of his countrymen is wholly
+insufficient to supply his wants. When the Indian wishes to sell the
+produce of his labor, he cannot always meet with a purchaser, while the
+European readily finds a market; and the former can only produce at a
+considerable cost, that which the latter vends at a very low rate. Thus
+the Indian has no sooner escaped those evils to which barbarous nations
+are exposed, than he is subjected to the still greater miseries of
+civilized communities; and he finds it scarcely less difficult to live
+in the midst of our abundance, than in the depth of his own wilderness.
+
+He has not yet lost the habits of his erratic life; the traditions of
+his fathers and his passion for the chase are still alive within him.
+The wild enjoyments which formerly animated him in the woods painfully
+excite his troubled imagination; and his former privations appear to
+be less keen, his former perils less appalling. He contrasts the
+independence which he possessed among his equals with the servile
+position which he occupies in civilized society. On the other hand,
+the solitudes which were so long his free home are still at hand; a few
+hours' march will bring him back to them once more. The whites offer him
+a sum, which seems to him to be considerable, for the ground which he
+has begun to clear. This money of the Europeans may possibly furnish him
+with the means of a happy and peaceful subsistence in remote regions;
+and he quits the plough, resumes his native arms, and returns to the
+wilderness for ever.[226] The condition of the Creeks and Cherokees,
+to which I have already alluded, sufficiently corroborates the truth of
+this deplorable picture.
+
+The Indians, in the little which they have done, have unquestionably
+displayed as much natural genius as the peoples of Europe in their most
+important designs; but nations as well as men require time to learn,
+whatever may be their intelligence and their zeal. While the savages
+were engaged in the work of civilisation, the Europeans continued to
+surround them on every side, and to confine them within narrower limits;
+the two races gradually met, and they are now in immediate juxtaposition
+to each other. The Indian is already superior to his barbarous parent,
+but he is still very far below his white neighbor. With their resources
+and acquired knowledge, the Europeans soon appropriated to themselves
+most of the advantages which the natives might have derived from the
+possession of the soil: they have settled in the country, they have
+purchased land at a very low rate or have occupied it by force, and the
+Indians have been ruined by a competition which they had not the means
+of resisting. They were isolated in their own country, and their race
+only constituted a colony of troublesome aliens in the midst of a
+numerous and domineering people.[227]
+
+Washington said in one of his messages to congress, "We are more
+enlightened and powerful than the Indian nations, we are therefore bound
+in honor to treat them with kindness and even with generosity." But this
+virtuous and high-minded policy has not been followed. The rapacity
+of the settlers is usually backed by the tyranny of the government.
+Although the Cherokees and the Creeks are established upon the territory
+which they inhabited before the settlement of the Europeans, and
+although the Americans have frequently treated with them as with foreign
+nations, the surrounding states have not consented to acknowledge them
+as an independent people, and attempts have been made to subject
+these children of the woods to Anglo-American magistrates, laws, and
+customs.[228] Destitution had driven these unfortunate Indians to
+civilisation, and oppression now drives them back to their former
+condition; many of them abandon the soil which they had begun to clear,
+and return to their savage course of life.
+
+If we consider the tyrannical measures which have been adopted by the
+legislatures of the southern states, the conduct of their governors, and
+the decrees of their courts of justice, we shall be convinced that the
+entire expulsion of the Indians is the final result to which the efforts
+of their policy are directed. The Americans of that part of the Union
+look with jealousy upon the aborigines,[229] they are aware that these
+tribes have not yet lost the traditions of savage life, and before
+civilisation has permanently fixed them to the soil, it is intended
+to force them to recede by reducing them to despair. The Creeks and
+Cherokees, oppressed by the several states, have appealed to the central
+government, which is by no means insensible to their misfortunes, and
+is sincerely desirous of saving the remnant of the natives, and of
+maintaining them in the free possession of that territory which the
+Union is pledged to respect.[230] But the several states oppose so
+formidable a resistance to the execution of this design, that the
+government is obliged to consent to the extirpation of a few barbarous
+tribes in order not to endanger the safety of the American Union.
+
+But the federal government, which is not able to protect the Indians,
+would fain mitigate the hardships of their lot; and, with this
+intention, proposals have been made to transport them into more remote
+regions at the public cost.
+
+Between the 33d and 37th degrees of north latitude, a vast tract of
+country lies, which has taken the name of Arkansas, from the principal
+river that waters its extent. It is bounded on the one side by the
+confines of Mexico, on the other by the Mississippi. Numberless
+streams cross it in every direction; the climate is mild, and the
+soil productive, but it is only inhabited by a few wandering hordes
+of savages. The government of the Union wishes to transport the broken
+remnants of the indigenous population of the south, to the portion of
+this country which is nearest to Mexico, and at a great distance from
+the American settlements.
+
+We were assured, toward the end of the year 1831, that 10,000 Indians
+had already gone to the shores of the Arkansas; and fresh detachments
+were constantly following them; but congress has been unable to excite
+a unanimous determination in those whom it is disposed to protect.
+Some, indeed, are willing to quit the seat of oppression, but the most
+enlightened members of the community refuse to abandon their recent
+dwellings and the springing crops; they are of opinion that the work of
+civilisation, once interrupted, will never be resumed; they fear that
+those domestic habits which have been so recently contracted, may be
+irrecoverably lost in the midst of a country which is still barbarous,
+and where nothing is prepared for the subsistence of an agricultural
+people; they know that their entrance into those wilds will be opposed
+by inimical hordes, and that they have lost the energy of barbarians,
+without acquiring the resources of civilisation to resist their attacks.
+Moreover the Indians readily discover that the settlement which is
+proposed to them is merely a temporary expedient. Who can assure them
+that they will at length be allowed to dwell in peace in their new
+retreat? The United States pledge themselves to the observance of the
+obligation; but the territory which they at present occupy was formerly
+secured to them by the most solemn oaths of Anglo-American faith.[231]
+The American government does not indeed rob them of their lands, but it
+allows perpetual incursions to be made on them. In a few years the same
+white population which now flocks around them, will track them to the
+solitudes of the Arkansas, they will then be exposed to the same evils
+without the same remedies; and as the limits of the earth will at last
+fail them, their only refuge is the grave.
+
+The Union treats the Indians with less cupidity and rigor than the
+policy of the several states, but the two governments are alike
+destitute of good faith. The states extend what they are pleased to term
+the benefits of their laws to the Indians, with a belief that the
+tribes will recede rather than submit; and the central government, which
+promises a permanent refuge to these unhappy beings, is well aware of
+its inability to secure it to them.[232]
+
+Thus the tyranny of the states obliges the savages to retire, the Union,
+by its promises and resources facilitates their retreat; and these
+measures tend to precisely the same end.[233] "By the will of our Father
+in heaven, the governor of the whole world," said the Cherokees in their
+petition to congress,[234] "the red man of America has become small, and
+the white man great and renowned. When the ancestors of the people of
+these United States first came to the shores of America, they found the
+red man strong: though he was ignorant and savage, yet he received them
+kindly, and gave them dry land to rest their weary feet. They met in
+peace, and shook hands in token of friendship. Whatever the white man
+wanted and asked of the Indian, the latter willingly gave. At that time
+the Indian was the lord, and the white man the suppliant. But now the
+scene has changed. The strength of the red man has become weakness. As
+his neighbors increased in numbers, his power became less and less, and
+now, of the many and powerful tribes who once covered the United States,
+only a few are to be seen--a few whom a sweeping pestilence had left.
+The northern tribes, who were once so numerous and powerful, are now
+nearly extinct. Thus it has happened to the red man of America. Shall
+we, who are remnants, share the same fate?
+
+"The land on which we stand we have received as an inheritance from our
+fathers who possessed it from time immemorial, as a gift from our common
+Father in heaven. They bequeathed it to us as their children, and
+we have sacredly kept it, as containing their remains. This right of
+inheritance we have never ceded, nor ever forfeited. Permit us to ask
+what better right can the people have to a country than the right of
+inheritance and immemorial peaceable possession? We know it is said of
+late by the state of Georgia and by the executive of the United States,
+that we have forfeited this right; but we think it is said gratuitously.
+At what time have we made the forfeit? What great crime have we
+committed, whereby we must for ever be divested of our country and
+rights? Was it when we were hostile to the United States, and took part
+with the king of Great Britain, during the struggle for independence?
+If so, why was not this forfeiture declared in the first treaty which
+followed that war? Why was not such an article as the following inserted
+in the treaty: 'The United States give peace to the Cherokees, but for
+the part they took in the last war, declare them to be but tenants at
+will, to be removed when the convenience of the states, within whose
+chartered limits they live, shall require it?' That was the proper time
+to assume such a possession. But it was not thought of, nor would our
+forefathers have agreed to any treaty, whose tendency was to deprive
+them of their rights and their country."
+
+Such is the language of the Indians: their assertions are true, their
+forebodings inevitable. From whichever side we consider the destinies
+of the aborigines of North America, their calamities appear to be
+irremediable: if they continue barbarous, they are forced to retire: if
+they attempt to civilize their manners, the contact of a more civilized
+community subjects them to oppression and destitution. They perish if
+they continue to wander from waste to waste, and if they attempt to
+settle, they still must perish; the assistance of Europeans is necessary
+to instruct them, but the approach of Europeans corrupts and repels them
+into savage life; they refuse to change their habits as long as their
+solitudes are their own, and it is too late to change them when they are
+constrained to submit.
+
+The Spaniards pursued the Indians with blood-hounds, like wild beasts;
+and they sacked the New World with no more temper or compassion than a
+city taken by storm: but destruction must cease, and phrensy be stayed;
+the remnant of the Indian population, which had escaped the massacre,
+mixed with its conquerors and adopted their religion and manners.[235]
+The conduct of the Americans of the United States towards the aborigines
+is characterized, on the other hand, by a singular attachment to the
+formalities of law. Provided that the Indians retain their barbarous
+condition, the Americans take no part in their affairs: they treat them
+as independent nations, and do not possess themselves of their hunting
+grounds without a treaty of purchase; and if an Indian nation happens
+to be so encroached upon as to be unable to subsist upon its territory,
+they afford it brotherly assistance in transporting it to a grave
+sufficiently remote from the land of its fathers.
+
+The Spaniards were unable to exterminate the Indian race by those
+unparalleled atrocities which brand them with indelible shame, nor
+did they even succeed in wholly depriving it of its rights; but the
+Americans of the United States have accomplished this twofold purpose
+with singular felicity; tranquilly, legally, philanthropically, without
+shedding blood, and without violating a single great principle of
+morality in the eyes of the world.[236] It is impossible to destroy men
+with more respect for the laws of humanity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SITUATION OF THE BLACK POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND DANGERS WITH
+WHICH ITS PRESENCE THREATENS THE WHITES.
+
+Why it is more difficult to abolish Slavery, and to efface all Vestiges
+of it among the Moderns, than it was among the Ancients.--In the United
+States the prejudices of the Whites against the Blacks seem to increase
+in Proportion as Slavery is abolished.--Situation of the Negroes in
+the Northern and Southern States.--Why the Americans abolish
+Slavery.--Servitude, which debases the Slave, impoverishes the
+Master.--Contrast between the left and the right Bank of the Ohio.--To
+what attributable.--The black Race, as well as Slavery, recedes toward
+the South.--Explanation of this fact.--Difficulties attendant upon
+the Abolition of Slavery in the South.--Dangers to come.--General
+Anxiety.--Foundation of a black Colony in Africa.--Why the Americans of
+the South increase the Hardships of Slavery, while they are distressed
+at its Continuance.
+
+The Indians will perish in the same isolated condition in which they
+have lived; but the destiny of the negroes is in some measure interwoven
+with that of the Europeans. These two races are attached to each other
+without intermingling; and they are alike unable entirely to separate
+or to combine. The most formidable of all the ills which threaten the
+future existence of the United States, arises from the presence of a
+black population upon its territory; and in contemplating the causes
+of the present embarrassments or of the future dangers of the United
+States, the observer is invariably led to consider this as a primary
+fact.
+
+The permanent evils to which mankind is subjected are usually produced
+by the vehement or the increasing efforts of men; but there is one
+calamity which penetrated furtively into the world, and which was at
+first scarcely distinguishable amid the ordinary abuses of power: it
+originated with an individual whose name history has not preserved; it
+was wafted like some accursed germ upon a portion of the soil, but it
+afterward nurtured itself, grew without effort, and spreads naturally
+with the society to which it belongs. I need scarcely add that this
+calamity is slavery. Christianity suppressed slavery, but the Christians
+of the sixteenth century re-established it--as an exception, indeed, to
+their social system, and restricted to one of the races of mankind; but
+the wound thus inflicted upon humanity, though less extensive, was at
+the same time rendered far more difficult of cure.
+
+It is important to make an accurate distinction between slavery itself
+and its consequences. The immediate evils which are produced by slavery
+were very nearly the same in antiquity as they are among the moderns;
+but the consequences of these evils were different. The slave, among the
+ancients, belonged to the same race as his master, and he was often the
+superior of the two in education[237] and instruction. Freedom was the
+only distinction between them; and when freedom was conferred, they were
+easily confounded together. The ancients, then, had a very simple
+means of avoiding slavery and its evil consequences, which was that of
+enfranchisement; and they succeeded as soon as they adopted this
+measure generally. Not but, in ancient states, the vestiges of servitude
+subsisted for some time after servitude was abolished. There is a
+natural prejudice which prompts men to despise whomsoever has been their
+inferior, long after he has become their equal; and the real inequality
+which is produced by fortune or by law, is always succeeded by an
+imaginary inequality which is implanted in the manners of the people.
+Nevertheless, this secondary consequence of slavery was limited to
+a certain term among the ancients; for the freedman bore so entire
+a resemblance to those born free, that it soon became impossible to
+distinguish him from among them.
+
+The greatest difficulty in antiquity was that of altering the law;
+among the moderns it is of altering the manners; and, as far as we are
+concerned, the real obstacles begin where those of the ancients left
+off. This arises from the circumstance that, among the moderns, the
+abstract and transient fact of slavery is fatally united to the physical
+and permanent fact of color. The tradition of slavery dishonors the
+race, and the peculiarity of the race perpetuates the tradition of
+slavery. No African has ever voluntarily emigrated to the shores of the
+New World; whence it must be inferred, that all the blacks who are now
+to be found in that hemisphere are either slaves or freedmen. Thus the
+negro transmits the eternal mark of his ignominy to all his descendants;
+and although the law may abolish slavery, God alone can obliterate the
+traces of its existence.
+
+The modern slave differs from his master not only in his condition,
+but in his origin. You may set the negro free, but you cannot make him
+otherwise than an alien to the European. Nor is this all; we scarcely
+acknowledge the common features of mankind in this child of debasement
+whom slavery has brought among us. His physiognomy is to our eyes
+hideous, his understanding weak, his tastes low; and we are almost
+inclined to look upon him as a being intermediate between man and the
+brutes.[238] The moderns, then, after they have abolished slavery, have
+three prejudices to contend against, which are less easy to attack, and
+far less easy to conquer, than the mere fact of servitude: the prejudice
+of the master, the prejudice of the race, and the prejudice of color.
+
+It is difficult for us, who have had the good fortune to be born among
+men like ourselves by nature, and equal to ourselves by law, to conceive
+the irreconcilable differences which separate the negro from the
+European in America. But we may derive some faint notion of them from
+analogy. France was formerly a country in which numerous distinctions of
+rank existed, that had been created by the legislation. Nothing can be
+more fictitious than a purely legal inferiority; nothing more contrary
+to the instinct of mankind than these permanent divisions which had
+been established between beings evidently similar. Nevertheless these
+divisions subsisted for ages; they still subsist in many places; and
+on all sides they have left imaginary vestiges, which time alone can
+efface. If it be so difficult to root out an inequality which solely
+originates in the law, how are those distinctions to be destroyed which
+seem to be founded upon the immutable laws of nature herself? When
+I remember the extreme difficulty with which aristocratic bodies, of
+whatever nature they may be, are commingled with the mass of the people;
+and the exceeding care which they take to preserve the ideal boundaries
+of their caste inviolate, I despair of seeing an aristocracy disappear
+which is founded upon visible and indelible signs. Those who hope that
+the Europeans will ever mix with the negroes, appear to me to delude
+themselves; and I am not led to any such conclusion by my own reason, or
+by the evidence of facts.
+
+Hitherto, wherever the whites have been the most powerful, they have
+maintained the blacks in a subordinate or a servile position; wherever
+the negroes have been strongest, they have destroyed the whites; such
+has been the only course of events which has ever taken place between
+the two races.
+
+I see that in a certain portion of the territory of the United States
+at the present day, the legal barrier which separated the two races is
+tending to fall away, but not that which exists in the manners of the
+country; slavery recedes, but the prejudice to which it has given birth
+remains stationary. Whosoever has inhabited the United States, must have
+perceived, that in those parts of the Union in which the negroes are no
+longer slaves, they have in nowise drawn nearer to the whites. On the
+contrary, the prejudice of the race appears to be stronger in the states
+which have abolished slavery, than in those where it still exists; and
+nowhere is it so intolerant as in those states where servitude has never
+been known.
+
+It is true, that in the north of the Union, marriages may be legally
+contracted between negroes and whites, but public opinion would
+stigmatize a man who should connect himself with a negress as infamous,
+and it would be difficult to meet with a single instance of such a
+union. The electoral franchise has been conferred upon the negroes in
+almost all the States in which slavery has been abolished; but if they
+come forward to vote, their lives are in danger. If oppressed, they may
+bring an action at law, but they will find none but whites among
+their judges; and although they may legally serve as jurors, prejudice
+repulses them from that office. The same schools do not receive the
+child of the black and of the European. In the theatres, gold cannot
+procure a seat for the servile race beside their former masters; in the
+hospitals they lie apart; and although they are allowed to invoke the
+same Divinity as the whites, it must be at a different altar, and in
+their own churches, with their own clergy. The gates of heaven are not
+closed against these unhappy beings; but their inferiority is continued
+to the very confines of the other world. When the negro is defunct, his
+bones are cast aside, and the distinction of condition prevails even in
+the equality of death. The negro is free, but he can share neither the
+rights, nor the pleasure, nor the labor, nor the afflictions, nor the
+tomb of him whose equal he has been declared to be; and he cannot meet
+him upon fair terms in life or in death.
+
+In the south, where slavery still exists, the negroes are less carefully
+kept apart; they sometimes share the labor and the recreations of the
+whites; the whites consent to intermix with them to a certain extent,
+and although the legislation treats them more harshly, the habits of the
+people are more tolerant and compassionate. In the south the master is
+not afraid to raise his slave to his own standing, because he knows that
+he can in a moment reduce him to the dust at pleasure. In the north,
+the white no longer distinctly perceives the barrier which separates
+him from the degraded race, and he shuns the negro with the more
+pertinacity, because he fears lest they should be some day confounded
+together.
+
+Among the Americans of the south, nature sometimes reasserts her rights,
+and restores a transient equality between the blacks and the whites; but
+in the north, pride restrains the most imperious of human passions. The
+American of the northern states would perhaps allow the negress to share
+his licentious pleasures, if the laws of his country did not declare
+that she may aspire to be the legitimate partner of his bed; but he
+recoils with horror from her who might become his wife.
+
+Thus it is, in the United States, that the prejudice which repels the
+negroes seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated, and
+inequality is sanctioned by the manners while it is effaced from the
+laws of the country. But if the relative position of the two races which
+inhabit the United States, is such as I have described, it may be asked
+why the Americans have abolished slavery in the north of the Union,
+why they maintain it in the south, and why they aggravate its hardships
+there? The answer is easily given. It is not for the good of the
+negroes, but for that of the whites, that measures are taken to abolish
+slavery in the United States.
+
+The first negroes were imported into Virginia about the year 1621.[239]
+In America, therefore, as well as in the rest of the globe, slavery
+originated in the south. Thence it spread from one settlement to
+another; but the number of slaves diminished toward the northern states,
+and the negro population was always very limited in New England.[240]
+
+A century had scarcely elapsed since the foundation of the colonies,
+when the attention of the planters was struck by the extraordinary
+fact, that the provinces which were comparatively destitute of slaves,
+increased in population, in wealth, and in prosperity, more rapidly than
+those which contained the greatest number of negroes. In the former,
+however, the inhabitants were obliged to cultivate the soil themselves,
+or by hired laborers; in the latter, they were furnished with hands for
+which they paid no wages; yet, although labor and expense were on
+the one side, and ease with economy on the other, the former were in
+possession of the most advantageous system. This consequence seemed to
+be the more difficult to explain, since the settlers, who all belonged
+to the same European race, had the same habits, the same civilisation,
+the same laws, and their shades of difference were extremely slight.
+
+Time, however, continued to advance; and the Anglo Americans, spreading
+beyond the coasts of the Atlantic ocean, penetrated farther and farther
+into the solitudes of the west; they met with a new soil and an unwonted
+climate; the obstacles which opposed them were of the most various
+character; their races intermingled, the inhabitants of the south went
+up toward the north, those of the north descended to the south; but in
+the midst of all these causes, the same result recurred at every step;
+and in general, the colonies in which there were no slaves became more
+populous and more rich than those in which slavery flourished. The more
+progress was made, the more was it shown that slavery, which is so cruel
+to the slave, is prejudicial to the master.
+
+But this truth was most satisfactorily demonstrated when civilisation
+reached the banks of the Ohio. The stream which the Indians had
+distinguished by the name of Ohio, or Beautiful river, waters one of
+the most magnificent valleys which have ever been made the abode of man.
+Undulating lands extend upon both shores of the Ohio, whose soil affords
+inexhaustible treasures to the laborer; on either bank the air is
+wholesome and the climate mild; and each of them forms the extreme
+frontier of a vast state: that which follows the numerous windings of
+the Ohio upon the left is called Kentucky; that upon the right bears
+the name of the river. These two states only differ in a single respect;
+Kentucky has admitted slavery, but the state of Ohio has prohibited the
+existence of slaves within its borders.[241]
+
+Thus the traveller who floats down the current of the Ohio, to the spot
+where that river falls into the Mississippi, may be said to sail between
+liberty and servitude; and a transient inspection of the surrounding
+objects will convince him which of the two is most favorable to mankind.
+
+Upon the left bank of the stream the population is rare; from time to
+time one descries a troop of slaves loitering in the half-desert fields;
+the primeval forest recurs at every turn; society seems to be asleep,
+man to be idle, and nature alone offers a scene of activity and of life.
+
+From the right bank, on the contrary, a confused hum is heard, which
+proclaims the presence of industry; the fields are covered with abundant
+harvests; the elegance of the dwellings announces the taste and activity
+of the laborer; and man appears to be in the enjoyment of that wealth
+and contentment which are the reward of labor.[242]
+
+The state of Kentucky was founded in 1775, the state of Ohio only twelve
+years later; but twelve years are more in America than half a century in
+Europe, and, at the present day, the population of Ohio exceeds that of
+Kentucky by 250,000 souls.[243] These opposite consequences of slavery
+and freedom may readily be understood; and they suffice to explain many
+of the differences which we remark between the civilisation of antiquity
+and that of our own time.
+
+Upon the left bank of the Ohio labor is confounded with the idea of
+slavery, upon the right bank it is identified with that of prosperity
+and improvement; on the one side it is degraded, on the other it is
+honored; on the former territory no white laborers can be found, for
+they would be afraid of assimilating themselves to the negroes; on the
+latter no one is idle, for the white population extends its activity and
+its intelligence to every kind of employment. Thus the men whose task
+it is to cultivate the rich soil of Kentucky are ignorant and lukewarm;
+while those who are active and enlightened either do nothing, or pass
+over into the state of Ohio, where they may work without dishonor.
+
+It is true that in Kentucky the planters are not obliged to pay wages
+to the slaves whom they employ; but they derive small profits from
+their labor, while the wages paid to free workmen would be returned with
+interest in the value of their services. The free workman is paid, but
+he does his work quicker than the slave; and rapidity of execution is
+one of the great elements of economy. The white sells his services, but
+they are only purchased at the times at which they may be useful; the
+black can claim no remuneration for his toil, but the expense of his
+maintenance is perpetual; he must be supported in his old age as well
+as in the prime of manhood, in his profitless infancy as well as in
+the productive years of youth. Payment must equally be made in order to
+obtain the services of either class of men; the free workman receives
+his wages in money; the slave in education, in food, in care, and in
+clothing. The money which a master spends in the maintenance of his
+slaves, goes gradually and in detail, so that it is scarcely perceived;
+the salary of the free workman is paid in a round sum, which appears
+only to enrich the individual who receives it; but in the end the
+slave has cost more than the free servant, and his labor is less
+productive.[244]
+
+The influence of slavery extends still farther; it affects the character
+of the master, and imparts a peculiar tendency to his ideas and his
+tastes. Upon both banks of the Ohio, the character of the inhabitants is
+enterprising and energetic; but this vigor is very differently exercised
+in the two states. The white inhabitant of Ohio, who is obliged to
+subsist by his own exertions, regards temporal prosperity as the
+principal aim of his existence; and as the country which he occupies
+presents inexhaustible resources to his industry, and ever-varying lures
+to his activity, his acquisitive ardor surpasses the ordinary limits of
+human cupidity: he is tormented by the desire of wealth, and he boldly
+enters upon every path which fortune opens to him; he becomes a sailor,
+pioneer, an artisan, or a laborer, with the same indifference, and he
+supports, with equal constancy, the fatigues and the dangers incidental
+to these various professions; the resources of his intelligence are
+astonishing, and his avidity in the pursuit of gain amounts to a species
+of heroism.
+
+But the Kentuckian scorns not only labor, but all the undertakings which
+labor promotes; as he lives in an idle independence, his tastes are
+those of an idle man; money loses a portion of its value in his eyes;
+he covets wealth much less than pleasure and excitement; and the energy
+which his neighbor devotes to gain, turns with him to a passionate love
+of field sports and military exercises; he delights in violent bodily
+exertion, he is familiar with the use of arms, and is accustomed from
+a very early age to expose his life in single combat. Thus slavery not
+only prevents the whites from becoming opulent, but even from desiring
+to become so.
+
+As the same causes have been continually producing opposite effects for
+the last two centuries in the British colonies of North America, they
+have established a very striking difference between the commercial
+capacity of the inhabitants of the south and that of the north. At the
+present day, it is only the northern states which are in possession
+of shipping, manufactures, railroads, and canals. This difference is
+perceptible not only in comparing the north with the south, but in
+comparing the several southern states. Almost all the individuals who
+carry on commercial operations, or who endeavor to turn slave-labor to
+account in the most southern districts of the Union, have emigrated from
+the north. The natives of the northern states are constantly spreading
+over that portion of the American territory, where they have less to
+fear from competition; they discover resources there, which escaped the
+notice of the inhabitants; and, as they comply with a system which they
+do not approve, they succeed in turning it to better advantage than
+those who first founded, and who still maintain it.
+
+Were I inclined to continue this parallel, I could easily prove that
+almost all the differences, which may be remarked between the characters
+of the Americans in the southern and in the northern states, have
+originated in slavery; but this would divert me from my subject, and my
+present intention is not to point out all the consequences of servitude,
+but those effects which it has produced upon the prosperity of the
+countries which have admitted it.
+
+The influence of slavery upon the production of wealth must have been
+very imperfectly known in antiquity, as slavery then obtained throughout
+the civilized world, and the nations which were unacquainted with
+it were barbarous. And indeed Christianity only abolished slavery
+by advocating the claims of the slave; at the present time it may be
+attacked in the name of the master; and, upon this point, interest is
+reconciled with morality.
+
+As these truths became apparent in the United States, slavery receded
+before the progress of experience. Servitude had begun in the south, and
+had thence spread toward the north; but it now retires again. Freedom,
+which started from the north, now descends uninterruptedly toward the
+south. Among the great states, Pennsylvania now constitutes the
+extreme limit of slavery to the north; but even within those limits
+the slave-system is shaken; Maryland, which is immediately below
+Pennsylvania, is preparing for its abolition; and Virginia, which
+comes next to Maryland, is already discussing its utility and its
+dangers.[245]
+
+No great change takes place in human institutions, without involving
+among its causes the law of inheritance. When the law of primogeniture
+obtained in the south, each family was represented by a wealthy
+individual, who was neither compelled nor induced to labor; and he was
+surrounded, as by parasitic plants, by the other members of his family,
+who were then excluded by law from sharing the common inheritance,
+and who led the same kind of life as himself. The very same thing then
+occurred in all the families of the south that still happens in the
+wealthy families of some countries in Europe, namely, that the younger
+sons remain in the same state of idleness as their elder brother,
+without being as rich as he is. This identical result seems to be
+produced in Europe and in America by wholly analogous causes. In
+the south of the United States, the whole race of whites formed an
+aristocratic body, which was headed by a certain number of privileged
+individuals, whose wealth was permanent, and whose leisure was
+hereditary. These leaders of the American nobility kept alive the
+traditional prejudices of the white race in the body of which they were
+the representatives, and maintained the honor of inactive life. This
+aristocracy contained many who were poor, but none who would work; its
+members preferred want to labor; consequently no competition was set on
+foot against negro laborers and slaves, and whatever opinion might be
+entertained as to the utility of their efforts, it was indispensable to
+employ them, since there was no one else to work.
+
+No sooner was the law of primogeniture abolished than fortunes began
+to diminish, and all the families of the country were simultaneously
+reduced to a state in which labor became necessary to procure the means
+of subsistence: several of them have since entirely disappeared; and
+all of them learned to look forward to the time at which it would
+be necessary for every one to provide for his own wants. Wealthy
+individuals are still to be met with, but they no longer constitute a
+compact and hereditary body, nor have they been able to adopt a line of
+conduct in which they could persevere, and which they could infuse into
+all ranks of society. The prejudice which stigmatized labor was in the
+first place abandoned by common consent; the number of needy men was
+increased, and the needy were allowed to gain a laborious subsistence
+without blushing for their exertions. Thus one of the most immediate
+consequences of the partible quality of estates has been to create a
+class of free laborers. As soon as a competition was set on foot between
+the free laborer and the slave, the inferiority of the latter became
+manifest, and slavery was attacked in its fundamental principles, which
+is, the interest of the master.
+
+As slavery recedes, the black population follows its retrograde course,
+and returns with it to those tropical regions from which it originally
+came. However singular this fact may at first appear to be, it may
+readily be explained. Although the Americans abolish the principle of
+slavery, they do not set their slaves free. To illustrate this remark I
+will quote the example of the state of New York. In 1788, the state of
+New York prohibited the sale of slaves within its limits; which was an
+indirect method of prohibiting the importation of blacks. Thenceforward
+the number of negroes could only increase according to the ratio of the
+natural increase of population. But eight years later a more decisive
+measure was taken, and it was enacted that all children born of slave
+parents after the 4th of July, 1799, should be free. No increase could
+then take place, and although slaves still existed, slavery might be
+said to be abolished.
+
+From the time at which a northern state prohibited the importation of
+slaves, no slaves were brought from the south to be sold in its markets.
+On the other hand, as the sale of slaves was forbidden in that state,
+an owner was no longer able to get rid of his slaves (who thus became a
+burdensome possession) otherwise than by transporting him to the south.
+But when a northern state declared that the son of the slave should be
+born free, the slave lost a large portion of his market value, since his
+posterity was no longer included in the bargain, and the owner had then
+a strong interest in transporting him to the south. Thus the same law
+prevents the slaves of the south from coming to the northern states, and
+drives those of the north to the south.
+
+The want of free hands is felt in a state in proportion as the number of
+slaves decreases. But in proportion as labor is performed by free hands,
+slave-labor becomes less productive; and the slave is then a useless or
+an onerous possession, whom it is important to export to those southern
+states where the same competition is not to be feared. Thus the
+abolition of slavery does not set the slave free, but it merely
+transfers him from one master to another, and from the north to the
+south.
+
+The emancipated negroes, and those born after the abolition of slavery,
+do not, indeed, migrate from the north to the south; but their situation
+with regard to the Europeans is not unlike that of the aborigines of
+America; they remain half civilized, and deprived of their rights in
+the midst of a population which is far superior to them in wealth and in
+knowledge; where they are exposed to the tyranny of the laws,[246] and
+the intolerance of the people. On some accounts they are still more to
+be pitied than the Indians, since they are haunted by the reminiscence
+of slavery, and they cannot claim possession of a single portion of the
+soil: many of them perish miserably,[247] and the rest congregate in the
+great towns, where they perform the meanest offices, and lead a wretched
+and precarious existence.
+
+But even if the number of negroes continued to increase as rapidly as
+when they were still in a state of slavery, as the number of whites
+augments with twofold rapidity since the abolition of slavery, the
+blacks would soon be, as it were, lost in the midst of a strange
+population.
+
+A district which is cultivated by slaves is in general more scantily
+peopled than a district cultivated by free labor: moreover, America is
+still a new country, and a state is therefore not half peopled at the
+time when it abolished slavery. No sooner is an end put to slavery, than
+the want of free labor is felt, and a crowd of enterprising adventurers
+immediately arrive from all parts of the country, who hasten to profit
+by the fresh resources which are then opened to industry. The soil is
+soon divided among them, and a family of white settlers takes possession
+of each tract of country. Besides which, European emigration is
+exclusively directed to the free states; for what would be the fate of a
+poor emigrant who crosses the Atlantic in search of ease and happiness,
+if he were to land in a country where labor is stigmatized as degrading?
+
+Thus the white population grows by its natural increase, and at the
+same time by the immense influx of emigrants; while the black population
+receives no emigrants, and is upon its decline. The proportion which
+existed between the two races is soon inverted. The negroes constitute a
+scanty remnant, a poor tribe of vagrants, which is lost in the midst of
+an immense people in full possession of the land; and the presence of
+the blacks is only marked by the injustice and the hardships of which
+they are the unhappy victims.
+
+In several of the western states the negro race never made its
+appearance; and in all the northern states it is rapidly declining. Thus
+the great question of its future condition is confined within a narrow
+circle, where it becomes less formidable, though not more easy of
+solution.
+
+The more we descend toward the south, the more difficult does it become
+to abolish slavery with advantage: and this arises from several physical
+causes, which it is important to point out.
+
+The first of these causes is the climate: it is well known that in
+proportion as Europeans approach the tropics, they suffer more from
+labor. Many of the Americans even assert, that within a certain latitude
+the exertions which a negro can make without danger are fatal to
+them;[248] but I do not think that this opinion, which is so favorable
+to the indolence of the inhabitants of southern regions, is confirmed
+by experience. The southern parts of the Union are not hotter than the
+south of Italy and of Spain;[249] and it may be asked why the European
+cannot work as well there as in the two latter countries. If slavery has
+been abolished in Italy and in Spain without causing the destruction of
+the masters, why should not the same thing take place in the Union? I
+cannot believe that Nature has prohibited the Europeans in Georgia and
+the Floridas, under pain of death, from raising the means of subsistence
+from the soil; but their labor would unquestionably be more irksome and
+less productive[250] to them than the inhabitants of New England. As the
+free workman thus loses a portion of his superiority over the slave in
+the southern states, there are fewer inducements to abolish slavery.
+
+All the plants of Europe grow in the northern parts of the Union; the
+south has special productions of its own. It has been observed that
+slave labor is a very expensive method of cultivating corn. The farmer
+of corn-land in a country where slavery is unknown, habitually retains a
+small number of laborers in his service, and at seed-time and harvest
+he hires several additional hands, who only live at his cost for a short
+period. But the agriculturist in a slave state is obliged to keep a
+large number of slaves the whole year round, in order to sow his fields
+and to gather in his crops, although their services are only required
+for a few weeks; but slaves are unable to wait till they are hired, and
+to subsist by their own labor in the meantime like free laborers;
+in order to have their services, they must be bought. Slavery,
+independently of its general disadvantages, is therefore still more
+inapplicable to countries in which corn is cultivated than to those
+which produce crops of a different kind.
+
+The cultivation of tobacco, of cotton, and especially of the sugar-cane,
+demands, on the other hand, unremitting attention: and women and
+children are employed in it, whose services are of but little use in
+the cultivation of wheat. Thus slavery is naturally more fitted to the
+countries from which these productions are derived.
+
+Tobacco, cotton, and the sugar-cane, are exclusively grown in the
+south, and they form one of the principal sources of the wealth of those
+states. If slavery were abolished, the inhabitants of the south would
+be constrained to adopt one of two alternatives: they must either change
+their system of cultivation, and then they would come into competition
+with the more active and more experienced inhabitants of the north; or,
+if they continued to cultivate the same produce without slave labor,
+they would have to support the competition of the other states of the
+south, which might still retain their slaves. Thus, peculiar reasons
+for maintaining slavery exist in the south which do not operate in the
+north.
+
+But there is yet another motive which is more cogent than all the
+others; the south might indeed, rigorously speaking, abolish slavery,
+but how should it rid its territory of the black population? Slaves
+and slavery are driven from the north by the same law, but this twofold
+result cannot be hoped for in the south.
+
+The arguments which I have adduced to show that slavery is more natural
+and more advantageous in the south than in the north, sufficiently prove
+that the number of slaves must be far greater in the former districts.
+It was to the southern settlements that the first Africans were brought,
+and it is there that the greatest number of them have always been
+imported. As we advance toward the south, the prejudice which sanctions
+idleness increases in power. In the states nearest to the tropics there
+is not a single white laborer; the negroes are consequently much
+more numerous in the south than in the north. And, as I have already
+observed, this disproportion increases daily, since the negroes are
+transferred to one part of the Union as soon as slavery is abolished in
+the other. Thus the black population augments in the south, not only by
+its natural fecundity, but by the compulsory emigration of the negroes
+from the north; and the African race has causes of increase in the south
+very analogous to those which so powerfully accelerate the growth of the
+European race in the north.
+
+In the state of Maine there is one negro in three hundred inhabitants;
+in Massachusetts, one in one hundred; in New York, two in one hundred;
+in Pennsylvania, three in the same number; in Maryland, thirty-four;
+in Virginia, forty-two; and lastly, in South Carolina, fifty-five per
+cent.[251] Such was the proportion of the black population to the whites
+in the year 1830. But this proportion is perpetually changing, as it
+constantly decreases in the north and augments in the south.
+
+It is evident that the most southern states of the Union cannot abolish
+slavery without incurring very great dangers, which the north had no
+reason to apprehend when it emancipated its black population. We
+have already shown the system by which the northern states secure the
+transition from slavery to freedom, by keeping the present generation
+in chains, and setting their descendants free; by this means the negroes
+are gradually introduced into society; and while the men who might
+abuse their freedom are kept in a state of servitude, those who are
+emancipated may learn the art of being free before they become their own
+masters. But it would be difficult to apply this method in the south. To
+declare that all the negroes born after a certain period shall be free,
+is to introduce the principle and the notion of liberty into the heart
+of slavery; the blacks, whom the law thus maintains in a state of
+slavery from which their children are delivered, are astonished at so
+unequal a fate, and their astonishment is only the prelude to their
+impatience and irritation. Thenceforward slavery loses in their eyes
+that kind of moral power which it derived from time and habit; it is
+reduced to a mere palpable abuse of force. The northern states had
+nothing to fear from the contrast, because in them the blacks were few
+in number, and the white population was very considerable. But if
+this faint dawn of freedom were to show two millions of men their true
+position, the oppressors would have reason to tremble. After having
+enfranchised the children of their slaves, the Europeans of the southern
+states would very shortly be obliged to extend the same benefit to the
+whole black population.
+
+In the north, as I have already remarked, a two-fold migration ensues
+upon the abolition of slavery, or even precedes that event when
+circumstances have rendered it probable; the slaves quit the country to
+be transported southward; and the whites of the northern states as well
+as the emigrants from Europe hasten to fill up their place. But these
+two causes cannot operate in the same manner in the southern states.
+On the one hand, the mass of slaves is too great for any expectation of
+their ever being removed from the country to be entertained; and on
+the other hand, the Europeans and the Anglo-Americans of the north are
+afraid to come to inhabit a country, in which labor has not yet been
+reinstated in its rightful honors. Besides, they very justly look upon
+the states in which the proportion of the negroes equals or exceeds that
+of the whites, as exposed to very great dangers; and they refrain from
+turning their activity in that direction.
+
+Thus the inhabitants if the south would not be able, like their northern
+countrymen, to initiate the slaves gradually into a state of freedom,
+by abolishing slavery; they have no means of perceptibly diminishing
+the black population, and they would remain unsupported to repress its
+excesses. So that in the course of a few years, a great people of free
+negroes would exist in the heart of a white nation of equal size.
+
+The same abuses of power which still maintain slavery, would then become
+the source of the most alarming perils, which the white population of
+the south might have to apprehend. At the present time the descendants
+of the Europeans are the sole owners of the land; the absolute masters
+of all labor; and the only persons who are possessed of wealth,
+knowledge, and arms. The black is destitute of all these advantages,
+but he subsists without them because he is a slave. If he were free, and
+obliged to provide for his own subsistence, would it be possible for
+him to remain without these things and to support life? Or would not the
+very instruments of the present superiority of the white, while slavery
+exists, expose him to a thousand dangers if it were abolished?
+
+As long as the negro remains a slave, he may be kept in a condition
+not very far removed from that of the brutes; but, with his liberty,
+he cannot but acquire a degree of instruction which will enable him to
+appreciate his misfortunes, and to discern a remedy for them. Moreover,
+there exists a singular principle of relative justice which is very
+firmly implanted in the human heart. Men are much more forcibly struck
+by those inequalities which exist within the circles of the same class,
+than with those which may be remarked between different classes. It is
+more easy for them to admit slavery, than to allow several millions
+of citizens to exist under a load of eternal infamy and hereditary
+wretchedness. In the north, the population of freed negroes feels these
+hardships and resents these indignities; but its members and its powers
+are small, while in the south it would be numerous and strong.
+
+As soon as it is admitted that the whites and the emancipated blacks
+are placed upon the same territory in the situation of two alien
+communities, it will readily be understood that there are but two
+alternatives for the future; the negroes and the whites must either
+wholly part or wholly mingle. I have already expressed the conviction
+which I entertain as to the latter event.[252] I do not imagine that the
+white and the black races will ever live in any country upon an equal
+footing. But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the
+United States than elsewhere. An isolated individual may surmount the
+prejudices of religion, of his country, or of his race, and if this
+individual is a king he may effect surprising changes in society; but a
+whole people cannot rise, as it were, above itself. A despot who should
+subject the Americans and their former slaves to the same yoke, might
+perhaps succeed in commingling their races; but as long as the American
+democracy remains at the head of affairs, no one will undertake so
+difficult a task; and it may be foreseen that the freer the white
+population of the United States becomes, the more isolated will it
+remain.[253]
+
+I have previously observed that the mixed race is the true bond of union
+between the Europeans and the Indians; just so the mulattoes are the
+true means of transition between the white and the negro; so that
+wherever mulattoes abound, the intermixture of the two races is not
+impossible. In some parts of America the European and the negro races
+are so crossed by one another, that it is rare to meet with a man who is
+entirely black or entirely white: when they are arrived at this point,
+the two races may really be said to be combined; or rather to have been
+absorbed in a third race, which is connected with both, without being
+identical with either.
+
+Of all the Europeans the English are those who have mixed least with the
+negroes. More mulattoes are to be seen in the south of the Union than in
+the north, but still they are infinitely more scarce than in any other
+European colony: Mulattoes are by no means numerous in the United
+States; they have no force peculiar to themselves, and when quarrels
+originating in differences of color take place, they generally side
+with the whites, just as the lacqueys of the great in Europe assume the
+contemptuous airs of nobility to the lower orders.
+
+The pride of origin, which is natural to the English, is singularly
+augmented by the personal pride which democratic liberty fosters among
+the Americans: the white citizen of the United States is proud of his
+race, and proud of himself. But if the whites and the negroes do not
+intermingle in the north of the Union, how should they mix in the south?
+Can it be supposed for an instant, that an American of the southern
+states, placed, as he must for ever be, between the white man with all
+his physical and moral superiority, and the negro, will ever think of
+preferring the latter? The Americans of the southern states have two
+powerful passions, which will always keep them aloof; the first is the
+fear of being assimilated to the negroes, their former slaves; and the
+second, the dread of sinking below the whites, their neighbors.
+
+If I were called upon to predict what will probably occur at some future
+time, I should say, that the abolition of slavery in the south, will,
+in the common course of things, increase the repugnance of the white
+population for the men of color. I found this opinion upon the analogous
+observation which I already had occasion to make in the north. I there
+remarked, that the white inhabitants of the north avoid the negroes with
+increasing care, in proportion as the legal barriers of separation are
+removed by the legislature; and why should not the same result
+take place in the south? In the north, the whites are deterred from
+intermingling with the blacks by the fear of an imaginary danger; in the
+south, where the danger would be real, I cannot imagine that the fear
+would be less general.
+
+If, on the one hand, it be admitted (and the fact is unquestionable),
+that the colored population perpetually accumulates in the extreme
+south, and that it increases more rapidly than that of the whites; and
+if, on the other hand, it be allowed that it is impossible to foresee
+a time at which the whites and the blacks will be so intermingled as to
+derive the same benefits from society; must it not be inferred, that the
+blacks and the whites will, sooner or later, come to open strife in the
+southern states of the Union? But if it be asked what the issue of the
+struggle is likely to be, it will readily be understood, that we are
+here left to form a very vague surmise of the truth. The human mind may
+succeed in tracing a wide circle, as it were, which includes the course
+of future events; but within that circle a thousand various chances
+and circumstances may direct it in as many different ways; and in
+every picture of the future there is a dim spot, which the eye of the
+understanding cannot penetrate. It appears, however, to be extremely
+probable, that, in the West India islands the white race is destined
+to be subdued, and the black population to share the same fate upon the
+continent.
+
+In the West India islands the white planters are surrounded by an
+immense black population; on the continent, the blacks are placed
+between the ocean and an innumerable people, which already extends over
+them in a dense mass from the icy confines of Canada to the frontiers
+of Virginia, and from the banks of the Missouri to the shores of the
+Atlantic. If the white citizens of North America remain united, it
+cannot be supposed that the negroes will escape the destruction with
+which they are menaced; they must be subdued by want or by the sword.
+But the black population which is accumulating along the coast of
+the gulf of Mexico, has a chance of success, if the American Union is
+dissolved when the struggle between the two races begins. If the federal
+tie were broken, the citizens of the south would be wrong to rely upon
+any lasting succor from their northern countrymen. The latter are
+well aware that the danger can never reach them; and unless they are
+constrained to march to the assistance of the south by a positive
+obligation, it may be foreseen that the sympathy of color will be
+insufficient to stimulate their exertions.
+
+Yet, at whatever period the strife may break out, the whites of the
+south, even if they are abandoned to their own resources, will enter
+the lists with an immense superiority of knowledge and of the means of
+warfare: but the blacks will have numerical strength and the energy of
+despair upon their side; and these are powerful resources to men who
+have taken up arms. The fate of the white population of the southern
+states will, perhaps, be similar to that of the Moors in Spain. After
+having occupied the land for centuries, it will perhaps be forced to
+retire to the country whence its ancestors came, and to abandon to the
+negroes the possession of a territory, which Providence seems to have
+more peculiarly destined for them, since they can subsist and labor in
+it more easily than the whites.
+
+The danger of a conflict between the white and the black inhabitants of
+the southern states of the Union--a danger which, however remote it may
+be, is inevitable--perpetually haunts the imagination of the Americans.
+The inhabitants of the north make it a common topic of conversation,
+although they have no direct injury to fear from the struggle; but they
+vainly endeavor to devise some means of obviating the misfortunes which
+they foresee. In the southern states the subject is not discussed: the
+planter does not allude to the future in conversing with strangers; the
+citizen does not communicate his apprehensions to his friends: he seeks
+to conceal them from himself: but there is something more alarming in
+the tacit forebodings of the south, than in the clamorous fears of the
+northern states.
+
+This all-pervading disquietude has given birth to an undertaking which
+is but little known, but which may have the effect of changing the fate
+of a portion of the human race. From apprehension of the dangers which
+I have just been describing, a certain number of American citizens have
+formed a society for the purpose of exporting to the coast of Guinea,
+at their own expense, such free negroes as may be willing to escape from
+the oppression to which they are subject.[254] In 1820, the society to
+which I allude formed a settlement in Africa, upon the 7th degree
+of north latitude, which bears the name of Liberia. The most recent
+intelligence informs us that two thousand five hundred negroes are
+collected there; they have introduced the democratic institutions
+of America into the country of their forefathers; and Liberia has a
+representative system of government, negro-jurymen, negro-magistrates,
+and negro-priests; churches have been built, newspapers established,
+and, by a singular change in the vicissitudes of the world, white men
+are prohibited from sojourning within the settlement.[255]
+
+This is indeed a strange caprice of fortune. Two hundred years have now
+elapsed since the inhabitants of Europe undertook to tear the negro
+from his family and his home, in order to transport him to the shores of
+North America; at the present day, the European settlers are engaged in
+sending back the descendants of those very negroes to the continent from
+which they were originally taken; and the barbarous Africans have been
+brought into contact with civilisation in the midst of bondage, and have
+become acquainted with free political institutions in slavery. Up to the
+present time Africa has been closed against the arts and sciences of the
+whites; but the inventions of Europe will perhaps penetrate into those
+regions, now that they are introduced by Africans themselves. The
+settlement of Liberia is founded upon a lofty and a most fruitful idea;
+but whatever may be its results with regard to the continent of Africa,
+it can afford no remedy to the New World.
+
+In twelve years the Colonization society has transported two thousand
+five hundred negroes to Africa; in the same space of time about seven
+hundred thousand blacks were born in the United States. If the colony
+of Liberia were so situated as to be able to receive thousands of new
+inhabitants every year, and if the negroes were in a state to be sent
+thither with advantage; if the Union were to supply the society with
+annual subsidies,[256] and to transport the negroes to Liberia, there
+is little chance that the negro population of the United States would
+change.
+
+In the South, however, this leaves two choices: either for the whites
+to remain in communities with the negroes, and to intermingle with them;
+or, remaining isolated from them, to keep them in a state of slavery
+as long as possible. All intermediate measures seem to me likely to
+terminate, and that shortly, in the most horrible of civil wars, and
+perhaps in the extirpation of one or other of the two races. Such is the
+view which the Americans of the south take of the question, and they
+act consistently with it. As they are determined not to mingle with the
+negroes, they refuse to emancipate them.
+
+Not that the inhabitants of the south regard slavery as necessary to the
+wealth of the planter; for on this point many of them agree with their
+northern countrymen in freely admitting that slavery is prejudicial to
+their interests; but they are convinced that, however prejudicial it may
+be, they hold their lives upon no other tenure. The instruction which is
+now diffused in the south has convinced the inhabitants that slavery is
+injurious to the slave-owner, but it has also shown them, more clearly
+than before, that no means exist of getting rid of its bad consequences.
+Hence arises a singular contrast; the more the utility of slavery is
+contested, the more firmly is it established in the laws; and while
+the principle of servitude is gradually abolished in the north, that
+self-same principle gives rise to more and more rigorous consequences in
+the south.
+
+The legislation of the southern states, with regard to slaves, presents
+at the present day such unparalleled atrocities, as suffice to show how
+radically the laws of humanity have been perverted, and to betray the
+desperate position of the community in which that legislation has
+been promulgated. The Americans of this portion of the Union have not,
+indeed, augmented the hardships of slavery; they have, on the contrary,
+bettered the physical condition of the slaves. The only means by which
+the ancients maintained slavery were fetters and death; the Americans of
+the south of the Union have discovered more intellectual securities
+for the duration of their power. They have employed their despotism and
+their violence against the human mind. In antiquity, precautions were
+taken to prevent the slave from breaking his chains; at the present day
+measures are adopted to deprive him even of the desire of freedom. The
+ancients kept the bodies of their slaves in bondage, but they placed
+no restraint upon the mind and no check upon education; and they
+acted consistently with their established principle, since a natural
+termination of slavery then existed, and one day or other the slave
+might be set free, and become the equal of his master. But the Americans
+of the south, who do not admit that the negroes can ever be commingled
+with themselves, have forbidden them to be taught to read or to write,
+under severe penalties; and as they will not raise them to their own
+level, they sink them as nearly as possible to that of the brutes.
+
+The hope of liberty had always been allowed to the slave to cheer the
+hardships of his condition. But the Americans of the south are well
+aware that emancipation cannot but be dangerous, when the freed man can
+never be assimilated to his former master. To give a man his freedom,
+and to leave him in wretchedness and ignominy, is nothing less than to
+prepare a future chief for a revolt of the slaves. Moreover, it has long
+been remarked, that the presence of a free negro vaguely agitates the
+minds of his less fortunate brethren, and conveys to them a dim notion
+of their rights. The Americans of the south have consequently taken
+measures to prevent slave-owners from emancipating their slaves in most
+cases; not indeed by a positive prohibition, but by subjecting that step
+to various forms which it is difficult to comply with.
+
+I happened to meet with an old man, in the south of the Union, who had
+lived in illicit intercourse with one of his negresses, and had had
+several children by her, who were born the slaves of their father. He
+had indeed frequently thought of bequeathing to them at least their
+liberty; but years had elapsed without his being able to surmount the
+legal obstacles to their emancipation, and in the meanwhile his old
+age was come, and he was about to die. He pictured to himself his sons
+dragged from market to market, and passing from the authority of a
+parent to the rod of the stranger, until these horrid anticipations
+worked his expiring imagination into phrensy. When I saw him he was a
+prey to all the anguish of despair, and he made me feel how awful is the
+retribution of Nature upon those who have broken her laws.
+
+These evils are unquestionably great; but they are the necessary and
+foreseen consequences of the very principle of modern slavery. When the
+Europeans chose their slaves from a race differing from their own, which
+many of them considered as inferior to the other races of mankind,
+and which they all repelled with horror from any notion of intimate
+connexion, they must have believed that slavery would last for ever;
+since there is no intermediate state which can be durable, between the
+excessive inequality produced by servitude, and the complete equality
+which originates in independence. The Europeans did imperfectly feel
+this truth, but without acknowledging it even to themselves. Whenever
+they have had to do with negroes, their conduct has either been dictated
+by their interest and their pride, or by their compassion. They first
+violated every right of humanity by their treatment of the negro;
+and they afterward informed him that those rights were precious and
+inviolable. They affected to open their ranks to the slave, but the
+negroes who attempted to penetrate into the community were driven back
+with scorn; and they have incautiously and involuntarily been led to
+admit of freedom instead of slavery, without having the courage to be
+wholly iniquitous, or wholly just.[257]
+
+If it be impossible to anticipate a period at which the Americans of the
+south will mingle their blood with that of the negroes, can they allow
+their slaves to become free without compromising their own security? And
+if they are obliged to keep that race in bondage, in order to save their
+own families, may they not be excused for availing themselves of the
+means best adapted to that end? The events which are taking place in the
+southern states of the Union, appear to be at once the most horrible
+and the most natural results of slavery. When I see the order of nature
+overthrown, and when I hear the cry of humanity in its vain struggle
+against the laws, my indignation does not light upon the men of our
+own time who were the instruments of these outrages; but I reserve my
+execration for those who, after a thousand years of freedom, brought
+back slavery into the world once more.
+
+Whatever may be the efforts of the Americans of the south to maintain
+slavery, they will not always succeed. Slavery, which is now confined to
+a single tract of the civilized earth, which is attacked by Christianity
+as unjust, and by political economy as prejudicial, and which is now
+contrasted with democratic liberties and the information of our age,
+cannot survive. By the choice of the master or the will of the slave,
+it will cease; and in either case great calamities may be expected to
+ensue. If liberty be refused to the negroes of the south, they will
+in the end seize it for themselves by force; if it be given, they will
+abuse it ere long.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WHAT ARE THE CHANCES IN FAVOR OF THE DURATION OF THE AMERICAN UNION, AND
+WHAT DANGERS THREATEN IT.
+
+Reasons why the preponderating Force lies in the States rather than in
+the Union.--The Union will only last as long as all the States choose
+to belong to it.--Causes which tend to keep them united.--Utility of
+the Union to resist foreign Enemies, and to prevent the Existence
+of Foreigners in America.--No natural Barriers between the several
+States.--No conflicting Interests to divide them.--Reciprocal Interests
+of the Northern, Southern, and Western States.--Intellectual ties of
+Union.--Uniformity of Opinions.--Dangers of the Union resulting from the
+different Characters and the Passions of its Citizens.--Character of the
+Citizens in the South and in the North.--The rapid growth of the
+Union one of its greatest Dangers.--Progress of the Population to
+the Northwest.--Power gravitates in the same Direction.--Passions
+originating from sudden turns of Fortune.--Whether the existing
+Government of the Union tends to gain strength, or to lose
+it.--Various signs of its Decrease.--Internal Improvement.--Waste
+Lands.--Indians.--The Bank.--The Tariff.--General Jackson.
+
+The maintenance of the existing institutions of the several states
+depends in some measure upon the maintenance of the Union itself. It is
+therefore important in the first instance to inquire into the probable
+fate of the Union. One point may indeed be assumed at once; if
+the present confederation were dissolved, it appears to me to be
+incontestable that the states of which it is now composed would not
+return to their original isolated condition; but that several Unions
+would then be formed in the place of one. It is not my intention to
+inquire into the principles upon which these new Unions would probably
+be established, but merely to show what the causes are which may effect
+the dismemberment of the existing confederation.
+
+With this object I shall be obliged to retrace some of the steps which
+I have already taken, and to revert to topics which I have before
+discussed. I am aware that the reader may accuse me of repetition, but
+the importance of the matter which still remains to be treated is my
+excuse; I had rather say too much, than say too little to be thoroughly
+understood, and I prefer injuring the author to slighting the subject.
+
+The legislators who formed the constitution of 1789 endeavored to confer
+a distinct and preponderating authority upon the federal power. But they
+were confined by the conditions of the task which they had undertaken
+to perform. They were not appointed to constitute the government of a
+single people, but to regulate the association of several states; and,
+whatever their inclinations might be, they could not but divide the
+exercise of sovereignty in the end.
+
+In order to understand the consequences of this division, it is
+necessary to make a short distinction between the affairs of government.
+There are some objects which are national by their very nature, that is
+to say, which affect the nation as a body, and can only be intrusted to
+the man or the assembly of men who most completely represent the entire
+nation. Among these may be reckoned war and diplomacy. There are other
+objects which are provincial by their very nature, that is to say, which
+only affect certain localities, and which can only be properly treated
+in that locality. Such, for instance, is the budget of municipality.
+Lastly, there are certain objects of a mixed nature, which are national
+inasmuch as they affect all the citizens who compose the nation, and
+which are provincial inasmuch as it is not necessary that the nation
+itself should provide for them all. Such are the rights which regulate
+the civil and political condition of the citizens. No society can exist
+without civil and political rights. These rights therefore interest all
+the citizens alike; but it is not always necessary to the existence and
+the prosperity of the nation that these rights should be uniform, nor
+consequently, that they should be regulated by the central authority.
+
+There are, then, two distinct categories of objects which are submitted
+to the direction of the sovereign power; and these categories occur in
+all well-constituted communities, whatever the basis of the political
+constitution may otherwise be. Between these two extremes, the objects
+which I have termed mixed may be considered to lie. As these objects
+are neither exclusively national nor entirely provincial, they may be
+attained by a national or a provincial government, according to the
+agreement of the contracting parties, without in any way impairing the
+contract of association.
+
+The sovereign power is usually formed by the union of separate
+individuals, who compose a people; and individual powers or collective
+forces, each representing a very small portion of the sovereign
+authority, are the sole elements which are subjected to the general
+government of their choice. In this case the general government is more
+naturally called upon to regulate, not only those affairs which are
+of essential national importance, but those which are of a more local
+interest; and the local governments are reduced to that small share of
+sovereign authority which is indispensable to their prosperity.
+
+But sometimes the sovereign authority is composed of preorganized
+political bodies, by virtue of circumstances anterior to their union;
+and in this case the provincial governments assume the control, not only
+of those affairs which more peculiarly belong to their province, but of
+all, or of a part of the mixed affairs to which allusion has been made.
+For the confederate nations which were independent sovereign states
+before their Union, and which still represent a very considerable share
+of the sovereign power, have only consented to cede to the general
+government the exercise of those rights which are indispensable to the
+Union.
+
+When the national government, independently of the prerogative inherent
+in its nature, is invested with the right of regulating the affairs
+which relate partly to the general and partly to the local interest,
+it possesses a preponderating influence. Not only are its own rights
+extensive, but all the rights which it does not possess exist by its
+sufferance, and it may be apprehended that the provincial governments
+may be deprived of their natural and necessary prerogatives by its
+influence.
+
+When, on the other hand, the provincial governments are invested
+with the power of regulating those same affairs of mixed interest, an
+opposite tendency prevails in society. The preponderating force resides
+in the province, not in the nation; and it may be apprehended that the
+national government may in the end be stripped of the privileges which
+are necessary to its existence.
+
+Independent nations have therefore a natural tendency to centralization,
+and confederations to dismemberment.
+
+It now only remains for us to apply these general principles to the
+American Union. The several states were necessarily possessed of the
+right of regulating all exclusively provincial affairs. Moreover these
+same states retained the right of determining the civil and political
+competency of the citizens, of regulating the reciprocal relations of
+the members of the community, and of dispensing justice; rights which
+are of a general nature, but which do not necessarily appertain to the
+national government. We have shown that the government of the Union is
+invested with the power of acting in the name of the whole nation, in
+those cases in which the nation has to appear as a single and undivided
+power; as, for instance, in foreign relations, and in offering a common
+resistance to a common enemy; in short, in conducting those affairs
+which I have styled exclusively national.
+
+In this division of the rights of sovereignty, the share of the Union
+seems at first sight to be more considerable than that of the states;
+but a more attentive investigation shows it to be less so. The
+undertakings of the government of the Union are more vast, but their
+influence is more rarely felt. Those of the provincial government are
+comparatively small, but they are incessant, and they serve to keep
+alive the authority which they represent. The government of the Union
+watches the general interests of the country; but the general interests
+of a people have a very questionable influence upon individual
+happiness; while provincial interests produce a most immediate effect
+upon the welfare of the inhabitants. The Union secures the independence
+and the greatness of the nation, which do not immediately affect private
+citizens; but the several states maintain the liberty, regulate the
+rights, protect the fortune, and secure the life and the whole future
+prosperity of every citizen.
+
+The federal government is very far removed from its subjects, while the
+provincial governments are within the reach of them all, and are ready
+to attend to the smallest appeal. The central government has upon its
+side the passions of a few superior men who aspire to conduct it; but
+upon the side of the provincial governments are the interests of all
+those second-rate individuals who can only hope to obtain power within
+their own state, and who nevertheless exercise the largest share of
+authority over the people because they are placed nearest to its level.
+
+The Americans have therefore much more to hope and to fear from the
+states than from the Union; and, in conformity with the natural tendency
+of the human mind, they are more likely to attach themselves to the
+former than to the latter. In this respect their habits and feelings
+harmonize with their interests.
+
+When a compact nation divides its sovereignty, and adopts a confederate
+form of government, the traditions, the customs, and the manners of the
+people are for a long time at variance with their legislation; and the
+former tend to give a degree of influence to the central government
+which the latter forbids. When a number of confederate states unite to
+form a single nation, the same causes operate in an opposite direction.
+I have no doubt that if France were to become a confederate republic
+like that of the United States, the government would at first display
+more energy than that of the Union; and if the Union were to alter
+its constitution to a monarchy like that of France, I think that the
+American government would be a long time in acquiring the force
+which now rules the latter nation. When the national existence of the
+Anglo-Americans began, their provincial existence was already of long
+standing; necessary relations were established between the townships and
+the individual citizens of the same states; and they were accustomed
+to consider some objects as common to them all, and to conduct other
+affairs as exclusively relating to their own special interests.
+
+The Union is a vast body, which presents no definite object to
+patriotic feeling. The forms and limits of the state are distinct and
+circumscribed, since it represents a certain number of objects which are
+familiar to the citizens and beloved by all. It is identified with the
+very soil, with the right of property and the domestic affections, with
+the recollections of the past, the labors of the present, and the hopes
+of the future. Patriotism, then, which is frequently a mere extension of
+individual egotism, is still directed to the state, and is not excited
+by the Union. Thus the tendency of the interests, the habits, and the
+feelings of the people, is to centre political activity in the states,
+in preference to the Union.
+
+It is easy to estimate the different forces of the two governments, by
+remarking the manner in which they fulfil their respective functions.
+Whenever the government of a state has occasion to address an
+individual, or an assembly of individuals, its language is clear and
+imperative; and such is also the tone of the federal government in its
+intercourse with individuals, but no sooner has it anything to do with a
+state, than it begins to parley, to explain its motives, and to justify
+its conduct, to argue, to advise, and in short, anything but to command.
+If doubts are raised as to the limits of the constitutional powers
+of each government, the provincial government prefers its claims with
+boldness, and takes prompt and energetic steps to support it. In
+the meanwhile the government of the Union reasons, it appeals to the
+interests, to the good sense, to the glory of the nation; it temporizes,
+it negotiates, and does not consent to act until it is reduced to the
+last extremity. At first sight it might readily be imagined that it
+is the provincial government which is armed with the authority of the
+nation, and that congress represents a single state.
+
+The federal government is, therefore, notwithstanding the precautions
+of those who founded it, naturally so weak, that it more peculiarly
+requires the free consent of the governed to enable it to subsist. It is
+easy to perceive that its object is to enable the states to realize with
+facility their determination of remaining united; and, as long as this
+preliminary consideration exists, its authority is great, temperate, and
+effective. The constitution fits the government to control individuals,
+and easily to surmount such obstacles as they may be inclined to
+offer, but it was by no means established with a view to the possible
+separation of one or more of the states from the Union.
+
+If the sovereignty of the Union were to engage in a struggle with
+that of the states at the present day, its defeat may be confidently
+predicted; and it is not probable that such a struggle would be
+seriously undertaken. As often as steady resistance is offered to the
+federal government, it will be found to yield. Experience has hitherto
+shown that whenever a state has demanded anything with perseverance
+and resolution, it has invariably succeeded; and that if a separate
+government has distinctly refused to act, it was left to do as it
+thought fit.[258]
+
+But even if the government of the Union had any strength inherent in
+itself, the physical situation of the country would render the exercise
+of that strength very difficult.[259] The United States cover an immense
+territory; they are separated from each other by great distances; and
+the population is disseminated over the surface of a country which is
+still half a wilderness. If the Union were to undertake to enforce the
+allegiance of the confederate states by military means, it would be in
+a position very analogous to that of England at the time of the war of
+independence.
+
+However strong a government may be, it cannot easily escape from the
+consequences of a principle which it has once admitted as the foundation
+of its constitution. The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement
+of the states; and, in uniting together, they have not forfeited their
+nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the
+same people. If one of the states chose to withdraw its name from the
+compact, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so; and
+the federal government would have no means of maintaining its claims
+directly, either by force or by right. In order to enable the federal
+government easily to conquer the resistance which may be offered to it
+by any one of its subjects, it would be necessary that one or more of
+them should be especially interested in the existence of the Union, as
+has frequently been the case in the history of confederations.
+
+If it be supposed that among the states which are united by the federal
+tie, there are some which exclusively enjoy the principal advantages of
+union, or whose prosperity depends on the duration of that union, it
+is unquestionable that they will always be ready to support the central
+government in enforcing the obedience of the others. But the government
+would then be exerting a force not derived from itself, but from a
+principle contrary to its nature. States form confederations in order to
+derive equal advantages from their union; and in the case just alluded
+to, the federal government would derive its power from the unequal
+distribution of those benefits among the states.
+
+If one of the confederated states have acquired a preponderance
+sufficiently great to enable it to take exclusive possession of
+the central authority, it will consider the other states as subject
+provinces, and will cause its own supremacy to be respected under the
+borrowed name of the sovereignty of the Union. Great things may then
+be done in the name of the federal government, but in reality that
+government will have ceased to exist.[260] In both these cases, the
+power which acts in the name of the confederation becomes stronger, the
+more it abandons the natural state and the acknowledged principles of
+confederations.
+
+In America the existing Union is advantageous to all the states, but it
+is not indispensable to any one of them. Several of them might break
+the federal tie without compromising the welfare of the others, although
+their own prosperity would be lessened. As the existence and the
+happiness of none of the states are wholly dependent on the present
+constitution, they would none of them be disposed to make great personal
+sacrifices to maintain it. On the other hand, there is no state which
+seems, hitherto, to have its ambition much interested in the maintenance
+of the existing Union. They certainly do not all exercise the same
+influence in the federal councils, but no one of them can hope to
+domineer over the rest, or to treat them as its inferiors or as its
+subjects.
+
+It appears to me unquestionable, that if any portion of the Union
+seriously desired to separate itself from the other states, they would
+not be able, nor indeed would they attempt, to prevent it; and that
+the present Union will only last as long as the states which compose
+it choose to continue members of the confederation. If this point be
+admitted, the question becomes less difficult; and our object is not
+to inquire whether the states of the existing Union are capable of
+separating, but whether they will choose to remain united.
+
+[The remarks respecting the inability of the federal government to
+retain within the Union any state that may choose "to withdraw its name
+from the contract," ought not to pass through an American edition of
+this work, without the expression of a dissent by the editor from the
+opinion of the author. The laws of the United States must remain in
+force in a revolted state, until repealed by congress; the customs and
+postages must be collected; the courts of the United States must sit,
+and must decide the causes submitted to them; as has been very happily
+explained by the author, the courts act upon individuals. If their
+judgments are resisted, the executive arm must interpose, and if the
+state authorities aid in the resistance, the military power of the whole
+Union must be invoked to overcome it. So long as the laws affecting
+the citizens of such a state remain, and so long as there remain any
+officers of a general government to enforce them, these results must
+follow not only theoretically but actually. The author probably formed
+the opinions which are the subject of these remarks, at the commencement
+of the controversy with South Carolina respecting the tariff. And when
+they were written and published, he had not learned the result of
+that controversy, in which the supremacy of the Union and its laws
+was triumphant. There was doubtless great reluctance in adopting the
+necessary measures to collect the customs, and to bring every legal
+question that could possibly arise out of the controversy, before the
+judiciary of the United States, but they were finally adopted, and were
+not the less successful for being the result of deliberation and of
+necessity. Out of that controversy have arisen some advantages of a
+permanent character, produced by the legislation which it required.
+There were defects in the laws regulating the manner of bringing from
+the state courts into those of the United States, a cause involving the
+constitutionality of acts of congress or of the states, through which
+the federal authority might be evaded. Those defects were remedied
+by the legislation referred to; and it is now more emphatically and
+universally true, than when the author wrote, that the acts of the
+general government operate through the judiciary, upon individual
+citizens, and not upon the states.--_American Editor._]
+
+Among the various reasons which tend to render the existing Union useful
+to the Americans, two principal causes are peculiarly evident to the
+observer. Although the Americans are, as it were, alone upon their
+continent, their commerce makes them the neighbors of all the nations
+with which they trade. Notwithstanding their apparent isolation, the
+Americans require a certain degree of strength, which they cannot retain
+otherwise than by remaining united to each other. If the states were to
+split, they would not only diminish the strength which they are now able
+to display toward foreign nations, but they would soon create foreign
+powers upon their own territory. A system of inland custom-houses would
+then be established; the valleys would be divided by imaginary boundary
+lines; the courses of the rivers would be confined by territorial
+distinctions and a multitude of hindrances would prevent the Americans
+from exploring the whole of that vast continent which Providence has
+allotted to them for a dominion. At present they have no invasion to
+fear, and consequently no standing armies to maintain, no taxes to levy.
+If the Union were dissolved, all these burdensome measures might ere
+long be required. The Americans are then very powerfully interested
+in the maintenance of their Union. On the other hand, it is almost
+impossible to discover any sort of material interest which might at
+present tempt a portion of the Union to separate from the other states.
+
+When we cast our eyes upon the map of the United States, we perceive
+the chain of the Allegany mountains, running from the northeast to the
+southwest, and crossing nearly one thousand miles of country; and we are
+led to imagine that the design of Providence was to raise, between the
+valley of the Mississippi and the coasts of the Atlantic ocean, one of
+those natural barriers which break the mutual intercourse of men, and
+form the necessary limits of different states. But the average height of
+the Alleganies does not exceed 2,500 feet; their greatest elevation is
+not above 4,000 feet; their rounded summits, and the spacious valleys
+which they conceal within their passes, are of easy access from several
+sides. Beside which, the principal rivers that fall into the Atlantic
+ocean, the Hudson, the Susquehannah, and the Potomac, take their rise
+beyond the Alleganies, in an open district, which borders upon
+the valley of the Mississippi. These streams quit this tract of
+country,[261] make their way through the barrier which would seem to
+turn them westward, and as they wind through the mountains, they open an
+easy and natural passage to man.
+
+No natural barrier exists in the regions which are now inhabited by the
+Anglo-Americans; the Alleganies are so far from serving as a boundary
+to separate nations, that they do not even serve as a frontier to the
+states. New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, comprise them within their
+borders and extend as much to the west as to the east of the line.
+
+The territory now occupied by the twenty-four states of the Union,
+and the three great districts which have not yet acquired the rank of
+states, although they already contain inhabitants, covers a surface
+of 1,002,600 square miles,[262] which is about equal to five times the
+extent of France. Within these limits the qualities of the soil, the
+temperature, and the produce of the country, are extremely various. The
+vast extent of territory occupied by the Anglo-American republics
+has given rise to doubts as to the maintenance of the Union. Here a
+distinction must be made; contrary interests sometimes arise in the
+different provinces of a vast empire, which often terminate in open
+dissensions; and the extent of the country is then most prejudicial to
+the power of the state. But if the inhabitants of these vast regions are
+not divided by contrary interests, the extent of the territory may be
+favorable to their prosperity; for the unity of the government promotes
+the interchange of the different productions of the soil, and increases
+their value by facilitating their consumption.
+
+It is indeed easy to discover different interests in the different parts
+of the Union, but I am unacquainted with any which are hostile to each
+other. The southern states are almost exclusively agricultural; the
+northern states are more peculiarly commercial and manufacturing; the
+states of the west are at the same time agricultural and manufacturing.
+In the south the crops consist of tobacco, of rice, of cotton, and
+of sugar; in the north and the west, of wheat and maize; these are
+different sources of wealth; but union is the means by which these
+sources are opened to all, and rendered equally advantageous to the
+several districts.
+
+The north, which ships the produce of the Anglo-Americans to all parts
+of the world, and brings back the produce of the globe to the Union,
+is evidently interested in maintaining the confederation in its present
+condition, in order that the number of American producers and consumers
+may remain as large as possible. The north is the most natural agent
+of communication between the south and the west of the Union on the one
+hand, and the rest of the world upon the other; the north is therefore
+interested in the union and prosperity of the south and the west,
+in order that they may continue to furnish raw materials for its
+manufactures, and cargoes for its shipping.
+
+The south and the west, on their side, are still more directly
+interested in the preservation of the Union, and the prosperity of the
+north. The produce of the south is for the most part exported beyond
+seas; the south and the west consequently stand in need of the
+commercial resources of the north. They are likewise interested in
+the maintenance of a powerful fleet by the Union, to protect them
+efficaciously. The south and the west have no vessels, but they cannot
+refuse a willing subsidy to defray the expenses of the navy; for if the
+fleets of Europe were to blockade the ports of the south and the delta
+of the Mississippi, what would become of the rice of the Carolinas, the
+tobacco of Virginia, and the sugar and cotton which grow in the valley
+of the Mississippi? Every portion of the federal budget does therefore
+contribute to the maintenance of material interests which are common to
+all the confederate states.
+
+Independently of this commercial utility, the south and the west of the
+Union derive great political advantages from their connexion with the
+north. The south contains an enormous slave population; a population
+which is already alarming, and still more formidable for the future. The
+states of the west lie in the remoter part of a single valley; and all
+the rivers which intersect their territory rise in the Rocky mountains
+or in the Alleganies, and fall into the Mississippi, which bears them
+onward to the gulf of Mexico. The western states are consequently
+entirely cut off, by their position, from the traditions of Europe and
+the civilisation of the Old World. The inhabitants of the south, then,
+are induced to support the Union in order to avail themselves of its
+protection against the blacks; and the inhabitants of the west, in order
+not to be excluded from a free communication with the rest of the globe,
+and shut up in the wilds of central America. The north cannot but desire
+the maintenance of the Union, in order to remain, as it now is, the
+connecting link between that vast body and the other parts of the world.
+
+The temporal interests of all the several parts of the Union are, then,
+intimately connected; and the same assertion holds true respecting those
+opinions and sentiments which may be termed the immaterial interests of
+men.
+
+The inhabitants of the United States talk a great deal of their
+attachment to their country; but I confess that I do not rely upon
+that calculating patriotism which is founded upon interest, and which
+a change in the interest at stake may obliterate. Nor do I attach much
+importance to the language of the Americans, when they manifest in their
+daily conversation, the intention of maintaining the federal system
+adopted by their forefathers. A government retains its sway over a great
+number of citizens, far less by the voluntary and rational consent
+of the multitude, than by that instinctive and, to a certain extent,
+involuntary agreement, which results from similarity of feelings and
+resemblances of opinion. I will never admit that men constitute a social
+body, simply because they obey the same head and the same laws. Society
+can only exist when a great number of men consider a great number of
+things in the same point of view; when they hold the same opinions upon
+many subjects, and when the same occurrences suggest the same thoughts
+and impressions to their minds.
+
+The observer who examines the present condition of the United States
+upon this principle, will readily discover, that although the citizens
+are divided into twenty-four distinct sovereignties, they nevertheless
+constitute a single people; and he may perhaps be led to think that the
+state of the Anglo-American Union is more truly a state of society, than
+that of certain nations of Europe which live under the same legislation
+and the same prince.
+
+Although the Anglo-Americans have several religious sects, they all
+regard religion in the same manner. They are not always agreed upon the
+measures which are most conducive to good government, and they vary upon
+some of the forms of government which it is expedient to adopt; but
+they are unanimous upon the general principles which ought to rule human
+society. From Maine to the Floridas, and from Missouri to the Atlantic
+ocean, the people is held to be the legitimate source of all power.
+The same notions are entertained respecting liberty and equality,
+the liberty of the press, the right of association, the jury, and the
+responsibility of the agents of government.
+
+If we turn from their political and religious opinions to the moral and
+philosophical principles which regulate the daily actions of life,
+and govern their conduct, we shall still find the same uniformity. The
+Anglo-Americans[263] acknowledge the absolute moral authority of the
+reason of the community, as they acknowledge the political authority of
+the mass of citizens; and they hold that public opinion is the surest
+arbiter of what is lawful or forbidden, true or false. The majority
+of them believe that a man will be led to do what is just and good by
+following his own interests, rightly understood. They hold that every
+man is born in possession of the right of self-government, and that no
+one has the right of constraining his fellow-creatures to be happy.
+They have all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man; they are of
+opinion that the effects of the diffusion of knowledge must necessarily
+be advantageous, and the consequences of ignorance fatal; they all
+consider society as a body in a state of improvement, humanity as a
+changing scene, in which nothing is, or ought to be, permanent; and they
+admit that what appears to them to be good to-day may be superseded by
+something better to-morrow. I do not give all these opinions as true,
+but I quote them as characteristic of the Americans.
+
+The Anglo-Americans are not only united together by those common
+opinions, but they are separated from all other nations by a common
+feeling of pride. For the last fifty years, no pains have been spared to
+convince the inhabitants of the United States that they constitute the
+only religious, enlightened, and free people. They perceive that, for
+the present, their own democratic institutions succeed, while those
+of other countries fail; hence they conceive an overweening opinion
+of their superiority, and they are not very remote from believing
+themselves to belong to a distinct race of mankind.
+
+The dangers which threaten the American Union do not originate in the
+diversity of interests or opinions; but in the various characters and
+passions of the Americans. The men who inhabit the vast territory of
+the United States are almost all the issue of a common stock; but the
+effects of the climate, and more especially of slavery, have gradually
+introduced very striking differences between the British settler of the
+southern states, and the British settler of the north. In Europe it is
+generally believed that slavery has rendered the interests of one
+part of the Union contrary to those of another part; but I by no means
+remarked this to be the case; slavery has not created interests in the
+south contrary to those of the north, but it has modified the character
+and changed the habits of the natives of the south.
+
+I have already explained the influence which slavery has exerted upon
+the commercial ability of the Americans in the south; and this same
+influence equally extends to their manners. The slave is a servant who
+never remonstrates, and who submits to everything without complaint. He
+may sometimes assassinate, but he never withstands, his master. In the
+south there are no families so poor as not to have slaves. The citizen
+of the southern states of the Union is invested with a sort of domestic
+dictatorship from his earliest years; the first notion he acquires in
+life is, that he is born to command, and the first habit he contracts is
+that of being obeyed without resistance. His education tends, then, to
+give him the character of a supercilious and a hasty man; irascible,
+violent, and ardent in his desires, impatient of obstacles, but easily
+discouraged if he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.
+
+The American of the northern states is surrounded by no slaves in
+his childhood; he is even unattended by free servants; and is usually
+obliged to provide for his own wants. No sooner does he enter the world
+than the idea of necessity assails him on every side; he soon learns to
+know exactly the natural limits of his authority; he never expects to
+subdue those who withstand him, by force; and he knows that the surest
+means of obtaining the support of his fellow-creatures, is to win their
+favor. He therefore becomes patient, reflecting, tolerant, slow to act,
+and persevering in his designs.
+
+In the southern states the more immediate wants of life are always
+supplied; the inhabitants of those parts are not busied in the material
+cares of life, which are always provided for by others; and their
+imagination is diverted to more captivating and less definite objects.
+The American of the south is fond of grandeur, luxury, and renown, of
+gaiety, of pleasure, and above all, of idleness; nothing obliges him
+to exert himself in order to subsist; and as he has no necessary
+occupations, he gives way to indolence, and does not even attempt what
+would be useful.
+
+But the equality of fortunes, and the absence of slavery in the north,
+plunge the inhabitants in those same cares of daily life which are
+disdained by the white population of the south. They are taught from
+infancy to combat want, and to place comfort above all the pleasures
+of the intellect or the heart. The imagination is extinguished by the
+trivial details of life; and the ideas become less numerous and less
+general, but far more practical and more precise. As prosperity is
+the sole aim of exertion, it is excellently well attained; nature and
+mankind are turned to the best pecuniary advantage; and society is
+dexterously made to contribute to the welfare of each of its members,
+while individual egotism is the source of general happiness.
+
+The citizen of the north has not only experience, but knowledge:
+nevertheless, he sets but little value upon the pleasures of knowledge;
+he esteems it as the means of obtaining a certain end, and he is only
+anxious to seize its more lucrative applications. The citizen of the
+south is more given to act upon impulse; he is more clever, more frank,
+more generous, more intellectual, and more brilliant. The former, with
+a greater degree of activity, of common sense, of information, and of
+general aptitude, has the characteristic good and evil qualities of
+the middle classes. The latter has the tastes, the prejudices, the
+weaknesses, and the magnanimity of all aristocracies.
+
+If two men are united in society, who have the same interests, and to
+a certain extent the same opinions, but different characters, different
+acquirements, and a different style of civilisation, it is probable that
+these men will not agree. The same remark is applicable to a society of
+nations.
+
+Slavery then does not attack the American Union directly in its
+interests, but indirectly in its manners.
+
+The states which gave their assent to the federal contract in 1790 were
+thirteen in number; the Union now consists of twenty-four members. The
+population which amounted to nearly four millions in 1790, had more than
+tripled in the space of forty years; and in 1830 it amounted to nearly
+thirteen millions.[264] Changes of such magnitude cannot take place
+without some danger.
+
+A society of nations, as well as a society of individuals, derive its
+principal chances of duration from the wisdom of its members, their
+individual weakness, and their limited number. The Americans who quit
+the coasts of the Atlantic ocean to plunge into the western wilderness,
+are adventurers impatient of restraint, greedy of wealth, and frequently
+men expelled from the states in which they were born. When they arrive
+in the deserts, they are unknown to each other; and they have neither
+traditions, family feeling, nor the force of example to check their
+excesses. The empire of the laws is feeble among them; that of morality
+is still more powerless. The settlers who are constantly peopling the
+valley of the Mississippi are, then, in every respect inferior to the
+Americans who inhabit the older parts of the Union. Nevertheless, they
+already exercise a great influence in its councils; and they arrive at
+the government of the commonwealth before they have learned to govern
+themselves.[265]
+
+The greater the individual weakness of each of the contracting parties,
+the greater are the chances of the duration of the contract; for their
+safety is then dependant upon their union. When, in 1790, the
+most populous of the American republics did not contain 500,000
+inhabitants,[266] each of them felt its own insignificance as an
+independent people, and this feeling rendered compliance with the
+federal authority more easy. But when one of the confederate states
+reckons, like the State of New York, two millions of inhabitants,
+and covers an extent of territory equal in surface to a quarter of
+France,[267] it feels its own strength; and although it may continue
+to support the Union as advantageous to its prosperity, it no longer
+regards that body as necessary to its existence; and, as it continues
+to belong to the federal compact, it soon aims at preponderance in the
+federal assemblies. The probable unanimity of the states is diminished
+as their number increases. At present the interests of the different
+parts of the Union are not at variance; but who is able to foresee the
+multifarious changes of the future, in a country in which towns are
+founded from day to day, and states almost from year to year?
+
+Since the first settlement of the British colonies, the number of
+inhabitants has about doubled every twenty-two years. I perceive no
+causes which are likely to check this progressive increase of the
+Anglo-American population for the next hundred years; and before
+that space of time has elapsed, I believe that the territories and
+dependencies of the United States will be covered by more than a hundred
+millions of inhabitants, and divided into forty states.[268] I admit
+that these hundred millions of men have no hostile interests; I suppose,
+on the contrary, that they are all equally interested in the maintenance
+of the Union; but I am still of opinion, that where there are a hundred
+millions of men, and forty distinct nations unequally strong, the
+continuance of the federal government can only be a fortunate accident.
+
+Whatever faith I may have in the perfectibility of man until human
+nature is altered, and men wholly transformed, I shall refuse to believe
+in the duration of a government which is called upon to hold together
+forty different peoples, disseminated over a territory equal to one-half
+of Europe in extent; to avoid all rivalry, ambition, and struggles,
+between them; and to direct their independent activity to the
+accomplishment of the same designs.
+
+But the greatest peril to which the Union is exposed by its increase,
+arises from the continual changes which take place in the position of
+its internal strength. The distance from Lake Superior to the gulf of
+Mexico extends from the 47th to the 30th degree of latitude, a distance
+of more than twelve hundred miles, as the bird flies. The frontier of
+the United States winds along the whole of this immense line; sometimes
+falling within its limits, but more frequently extending far beyond it,
+into the waste. It has been calculated that the whites advance a mean
+distance of seventeen miles along the whole of this vast boundary.[269]
+Obstacles, such as an unproductive district, a lake, or an Indian nation
+unexpectedly encountered, are sometimes met with. The advancing column
+then halts for a while; its two extremities fall back upon themselves,
+and as soon as they are reunited they proceed onward. This gradual and
+continuous progress of the European race toward the Rocky mountains, has
+the solemnity of a providential event; it is like a deluge of men rising
+unabatedly, and daily driven onward by the hand of God.
+
+Within this first line of conquering settlers, towns are built, and
+vast states founded. In 1790 there were only a few thousand pioneers
+sprinkled along the valleys of the Mississippi; and at the present day
+these valleys contain as many inhabitants as were to be found in
+the whole Union in 1790. Their population amounts to nearly four
+millions.[270] The city of Washington was founded in 1800, in the very
+centre of the Union; but such are the changes which have taken place,
+that it now stands at one of the extremities; and the delegates of the
+most remote western states are already obliged to perform a journey as
+long as that from Vienna to Paris.[271]
+
+All the states are borne onward at the same time in the path of
+fortune, but of course they do not all increase and prosper in the same
+proportion. In the north of the Union detached branches of the Allegany
+chain, extending as far as the Atlantic ocean, form spacious roads
+and ports, which are constantly accessible to vessels of the greatest
+burden. But from the Potomac to the mouth of the Mississippi, the coast
+is sandy and flat. In this part of the Union the mouths of almost all
+the rivers are obstructed; and the few harbors which exist among
+these lagunes, afford much shallower water to vessels, and much fewer
+commercial advantages than those of the north.
+
+This first natural cause of inferiority is united to another cause
+proceeding from the laws. We have already seen that slavery, which is
+abolished in the north, still exists in the south; and I have pointed
+out its fatal consequences upon the prosperity of the planter himself.
+
+The north is therefore superior to the south both in commerce[272] and
+manufacture; the natural consequence of which is the more rapid increase
+of population and of wealth within its borders. The states situated upon
+the shores of the Atlantic ocean are already half-peopled. Most of the
+land is held by an owner; and these districts cannot therefore receive
+so many emigrants as the western states, where a boundless field is
+still open to their exertions. The valley of the Mississippi is far more
+fertile than the coast of the Atlantic ocean. This reason, added to all
+the others, contributes to drive the Europeans westward--a fact which
+may be rigorously demonstrated by figures. It is found that the sum
+total of the population of all the United States has about tripled in
+the course of forty years. But in the recent states adjacent to the
+Mississippi, the population has increased thirty-one fold within the
+same space of time.[273]
+
+The relative position of the central federal power is continually
+displaced. Forty years ago the majority of the citizens of the Union was
+established upon the coast of the Atlantic, in the environs of the spot
+upon which Washington now stands; but the great body of the people
+is now advancing inland and to the north, so that in twenty years the
+majority will unquestionably be on the western side of the Alleganies.
+If the Union goes on to subsist, the basin of the Mississippi is
+evidently marked out, by its fertility and its extent, as the future
+centre of the federal government. In thirty or forty years, that tract
+of country will have assumed the rank which naturally belongs to it. It
+is easy to calculate that its population, compared to that of the coast
+of the Atlantic, will be, in round numbers, as 40 to 11. In a few
+years the states which founded the Union will lose the direction of
+its policy, and the population of the valleys of the Mississippi will
+preponderate in the federal assemblies.
+
+This constant gravitation of the federal power and influence toward
+the northwest, is shown every ten years, when a general census of the
+population is made, and the number of delegates which each state sends
+to congress is settled afresh.[274] In 1790 Virginia had nineteen
+representatives in congress. This number continued to increase until the
+year 1813, when it reached to twenty-three: from that time it began
+to decrease, and in 1833, Virginia elected only twenty-one
+representatives.[275] During the same period the state of New York
+advanced in the contrary direction; in 1790, it had ten representatives
+in congress; in 1813, twenty-seven; in 1823, thirty-four; and in 1833,
+forty. The state of Ohio had only one representative in 1803, and in
+1833, it had already nineteen.
+
+It is difficult to imagine a durable union of a people which is rich and
+strong, with one which is poor and weak, and if it were proved that the
+strength and wealth of the one are not the causes of the weakness and
+poverty of the other. But union is still move difficult to maintain at a
+time at which one party is losing strength, and the other is gaining it.
+This rapid and disproportionate increase of certain states threatens the
+independence of the others. New York might, perhaps, succeed with its
+two millions of inhabitants and its forty representatives, in dictating
+to the other states in congress. But even if the more powerful states
+make no attempt to bear down the lesser ones, the danger still exists;
+for there is almost as much in the possibility of the act as in the act
+itself. The weak generally mistrusts the justice and the reason of the
+strong. The states which increase less rapidily than the others, look
+upon those which are more favored by fortune, with envy and suspicion.
+Hence arise the deep-seated uneasiness and ill-defined agitation which
+are observable in the south, and which form so striking a contrast to
+the confidence and prosperity which are common to other parts of the
+Union. I am inclined to think that the hostile measures taken by the
+southern provinces upon a recent occasion, are attributable to no other
+cause. The inhabitants of the southern states are, of all the Americans,
+those who are most interested in the maintenance of the Union; they
+would assuredly suffer most from being left to themselves; and yet they
+are the only citizens who threaten to break the tie of confederation.
+But it is easy to perceive that the south, which has given four
+presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, to the Union;
+which perceives that it is losing its federal influence, and that the
+number of its representatives in congress is diminishing from year to
+year while those of the northern and western states are increasing; the
+south, which is peopled with ardent and irascible beings, is becoming
+more and more irritated and alarmed. The citizens reflect upon their
+present position and remember their past influence, with the melancholy
+uneasiness of men who suspect oppression: if they discover a law of
+the Union which is not unequivocally favorable to their interests,
+they protest against it as an abuse of force; and if their ardent
+remonstrances are not listened to, they threaten to quit an association
+which loads them with burdens while it deprives them of their due
+profits. "The tariff," said the inhabitants of Carolina in 1832,
+"enriches the north, and ruins the south; for if this were not the case,
+to what can we attribute the continually increasing power and wealth
+of the north, with its inclement skies and arid soil; while the south,
+which may be styled the garden of America, is rapidly declining."[276]
+If the changes which I have described were gradual, so that each
+generation at least might have time to disappear with the order of
+things under which it had lived, the danger would be less: but the
+progress of society in America is precipitate, and almost revolutionary.
+The same citizen may have lived to see his state take the lead in the
+Union, and afterward become powerless in the federal assemblies; and
+an Anglo-American republic has been known to grow as rapidly as a man,
+passing from birth and infancy to maturity in the course of thirty
+years. It must not be imagined, however, that the states which lose
+their preponderance, also lose their population or their riches; no stop
+is put to their prosperity, and they even go on to increase more rapidly
+than any kingdom in Europe.[277] But they believe themselves to be
+impoverished because their wealth does not augment as rapidly as that of
+their neighbors; and they think that their power is lost, because they
+suddenly come into collision with a power greater than their own.[278]
+Thus they are more hurt in their feelings and their passions, than
+in their interests. But this is amply sufficient to endanger the
+maintenance of the Union. If kings and peoples had only had their true
+interests in view, ever since the beginning of the world, the name of
+war would scarcely be known among mankind.
+
+Thus the prosperity of the United States is the source of the most
+serious dangers that threaten them, since it tends to create in some of
+the confederate states that over-excitement which accompanies a rapid
+increase of fortune; and to awaken in others those feelings of envy,
+mistrust, and regret, which usually attend upon the loss of it. The
+Americans contemplate this extraordinary and hasty progress with
+exultation; but they would be wiser to consider it with sorrow and
+alarm. The Americans of the United States must inevitably become one of
+the greatest nations in the world; their offset will cover almost
+the whole of North America; the continent which they inhabit is their
+dominion, and it cannot escape them. What urges them to take possession
+of it so soon? Riches, power, and renown, cannot fail to be theirs at
+some future time; but they rush upon their fortune as if but a moment
+remained for them to make it their own.
+
+I think I have demonstrated, that the existence of the present
+confederation depends entirely on the continued assent of all the
+confederates; and, starting from this principle, I have inquired into
+the causes which may induce any of the states to separate from the
+others. The Union may, however, perish in two different ways: one of
+the confederate states may choose to retire from the compact, and so
+forcibly sever the federal tie; and it is to this supposition that most
+of the remarks which I have made apply: or the authority of the federal
+government may be progressively intrenched on by the simultaneous
+tendency of the united republics to resume their independence. The
+central power, successively stripped of all its prerogatives, and
+reduced to impotence by tacit consent, would become incompetent to
+fulfil its purpose; and the second Union would perish, like the first,
+by a sort of senile inaptitude. The gradual weakening of the federal
+tie, which may finally lead to the dissolution of the Union, is a
+distinct circumstance, that may produce a variety of minor consequences
+before it operates so violent a change. The confederation might still
+subsist, although its government were reduced to such a degree of
+inanition as to paralyze the nation, to cause internal anarchy, and to
+check the general prosperity of the country.
+
+After having investigated the causes which may induce the
+Anglo-Americans to disunite, it is important to inquire whether, if the
+Union continues to subsist, their government will extend or contract
+its sphere of action, and whether it will become more energetic or more
+weak.
+
+The Americans are evidently disposed to look upon their future condition
+with alarm. They perceive that in most of the nations of the world, the
+exercise of the rights of sovereignty tends to fall under the control of
+a few individuals, and they are dismayed by the idea that such will also
+be the case in their own country. Even the statesmen feel, or affect
+to feel, these fears; for, in America, centralization is by no means
+popular, and there is no surer means of courting the majority, than by
+inveighing against the encroachments of the central power. The Americans
+do not perceive that the countries in which this alarming tendency to
+centralization exists, are inhabited by a single people; while the fact
+of the Union being composed of different confederate communities,
+is sufficient to baffle all the inferences which might be drawn from
+analogous circumstances. I confess that I am inclined to consider the
+fears of a great number of Americans as purely imaginary; and far from
+participating in their dread of the consolidation of power in the hands
+of the Union, I think that the federal government is visibly losing
+strength.
+
+To prove this assertion I shall not have recourse to any remote
+occurrences, but to circumstances which I have myself observed, and
+which belong to our own time.
+
+An attentive examination of what is going on in the United States, will
+easily convince us that two opposite tendencies exist in that country,
+like two distinct currents flowing in contrary directions in the same
+channel. The Union has now existed for forty-five years, and in the
+course of that time a vast number of provincial prejudices, which were
+at first hostile to its power, have died away. The patriotic feeling
+which attached each of the Americans to his own native state is become
+less exclusive; and the different parts of the Union have become more
+intimately connected the better they have become acquainted with each
+other. The post,[279] that great instrument of intellectual intercourse,
+now reaches into the backwoods; and steamboats have established daily
+means of communication between the different points of the coast. An
+inland navigation of unexampled rapidity conveys commodities up and down
+the rivers of the country.[280] And to these facilities of nature and
+art may be added those restless cravings, that busymindedness, and love
+of self, which are constantly urging the American into active life,
+and bringing him into contact with his fellow-citizens. He crosses the
+country in every direction; he visits all the various populations of the
+land; and there is not a province in France, in which the natives are so
+well known to each other as the thirteen millions of men who cover the
+territory of the United States.
+
+But while the Americans intermingle, they grow in resemblance of each
+other; the differences resulting from their climate, their origin, and
+their institutions diminish; and they all draw nearer and nearer to the
+common type. Every year, thousands of men leave the north to settle in
+different parts of the Union; they bring with them their faith, their
+opinions, and their manners; and as they are more enlightened than the
+men among whom they are about to dwell, they soon rise to the head of
+affairs and they adapt society to their own advantage. This continual
+emigration of the north to the south is peculiarly favorable to the
+fusion of all the different provincial characters into one national
+character. The civilisation of the north appears to be the common
+standard, to which the whole nation will one day be assimilated.
+
+The commercial ties which unite the confederate states are strengthened
+by the increasing manufactures of the Americans; and the union which
+began to exist in their opinions, gradually forms a part of their
+habits: the course of time has swept away the bugbear thoughts which
+haunted the imaginations of the citizens in 1789. The federal power
+is not become oppressive; it has not destroyed the independence of
+the states; it has not subjected the confederates to monarchical
+institutions; and the Union has not rendered the lesser states dependant
+upon the larger ones; but the confederation has continued to increase in
+population, in wealth, and in power. I am therefore convinced that the
+natural obstacles to the continuance of the American Union are not so
+powerful at the present time as they were in 1789; and that the enemies
+of the Union are not so numerous.
+
+Nevertheless, a careful examination of the history of the United States
+for the last forty-five years, will readily convince us that the federal
+power is declining; nor is it difficult to explain the causes of this
+phenomenon. When the constitution of 1789 was promulgated, the nation
+was a prey to anarchy; the Union, which succeeded this confusion,
+excited much dread and much animosity; but it was warmly supported
+because it satisfied an imperious want. Thus, although it was more
+attacked than it is now, the federal power soon reached the maximum of
+its authority, as is usually the case with a government which triumphs
+after having braced its strength by the struggle. At that time the
+interpretation of the constitution seemed to extend rather than to
+repress, the federal sovereignty; and the Union offered, in several
+respects, the appearance of a single and undivided people, directed in
+its foreign and internal policy by a single government. But to attain
+this point the people had risen, to a certain extent, above itself.
+
+The constitution had not destroyed the distinct sovereignty of the
+states; and all communities, of whatever nature they may be, are
+impelled by a secret propensity to assert their independence. This
+propensity is still more decided in a country like America, in which
+every village forms a sort of republic accustomed to conduct its own
+affairs. It therefore cost the states an effort to submit to the federal
+supremacy; and all efforts, however successful they may be, necessarily
+subside with the causes in which they originated.
+
+As the federal government consolidated its authority, America resumed
+its rank among the nations, peace returned to its frontiers, and public
+credit was restored; confusion was succeeded by a fixed state of
+things which was favorable to the full and free exercise of industrious
+enterprise. It was this very prosperity which made the Americans forget
+the cause to which it was attributable; and when once the danger was
+passed, the energy and the patriotism which had enabled them to brave
+it, disappeared from among them. No sooner were they delivered from the
+cares which oppressed them, than they easily returned to their ordinary
+habits, and gave themselves up without resistance to their natural
+inclinations. When a powerful government no longer appeared to
+be necessary, they once more began to think it irksome. The Union
+encouraged a general prosperity, and the states were not inclined to
+abandon the Union; but they desired to render the action of the power
+which represented that body as light as possible. The general principle
+of union was adopted, but in every minor detail there was an actual
+tendency to independence. The principle of confederation was every
+day more easily admitted and more rarely applied; so that the federal
+government brought about its own decline, while it was creating order
+and peace.
+
+As soon as this tendency of public opinion began to be manifested
+externally, the leaders of parties, who live by the passions of the
+people, began to work it to their own advantage. The position of the
+federal government then became exceedingly critical. Its enemies were
+in possession of the popular favor; and they obtained the right of
+conducting its policy by pledging themselves to lessen its influence.
+From that time forward, the government of the Union has invariably been
+obliged to recede, as often as it has attempted to enter the lists with
+the government of the states. And whenever an interpretation of
+the terms of the federal constitution has been called for, that
+interpretation has most frequently been opposed to the Union, and
+favorable to the states.
+
+The constitution invested the federal government with the right of
+providing for the interests of the nation; and it has been held that no
+other authority was so fit to superintend the "internal improvements"
+which affected the prosperity of the whole Union; such, for instance, as
+the cutting of canals. But the states were alarmed at a power,
+distinct from their own, which could thus dispose of a portion of their
+territory, and they were afraid that the central government would, by
+this means, acquire a formidable extent of patronage within their own
+confines, and exercise a degree of influence which they intended to
+reserve exclusively to their own agents. The democratic party, which has
+constantly been opposed to the increase of the federal authority,
+then accused the congress of usurpation, and the chief magistrate of
+ambition. The central government was intimidated by the opposition;
+and it soon acknowledged its error, promising exactly to confine its
+influence, for the future, within the circle which was prescribed to it.
+
+The constitution confers upon the Union the right of treating with
+foreign nations. The Indian tribes, which border upon the frontiers of
+the United States, have usually been regarded in this light. As long
+as these savages consented to retire before the civilized settlers,
+the federal right was not contested; but as soon as an Indian tribe
+attempted to fix its dwelling upon a given spot, the adjacent states
+claimed possession of the lands and the rights of sovereignty over the
+natives. The central government soon recognized both these claims; and
+after it had concluded treaties with the Indians as independent
+nations, it gave them up as subjects to the legislative tyranny of the
+states.[281]
+
+Some of the states which had been founded upon the coast of the
+Atlantic, extended indefinitely to the west, into wild regions, where no
+European had ever penetrated. The states whose confines were irrevocably
+fixed, looked with a jealous eye upon the unbounded regions which the
+future would enable their neighbors to explore. The latter then agreed,
+with a view to conciliate the others, and to facilitate the act
+of union, to lay down their own boundaries, and to abandon all the
+territory which lay beyond those limits to the confederation at
+large.[282] Thenceforward the federal government became the owner of
+all the uncultivated lands which lie beyond the borders of the thirteen
+states first confederated. It was invested with the right of parcelling
+and selling them, and the sums derived from this source were exclusively
+reserved to the public treasury of the Union, in order to furnish
+supplies for purchasing tracts of country from the Indians, for opening
+roads to the remote settlements, and for accelerating the increase of
+civilisation as much as possible. New states have, however, been formed
+in the course of time, in the midst of those wilds which were formerly
+ceded by the inhabitants of the shores of the Atlantic. Congress has
+gone on to sell, for the profit of the nation at large, the uncultivated
+lands which those new states contained. But the latter at length
+asserted that, as they were now fully constituted, they ought to enjoy
+the exclusive right of converting the produce of these sales to their
+own use. As their remonstrances became more and more threatening,
+congress thought fit to deprive the Union of a portion of the privileges
+which it had hitherto enjoyed; and at the end of 1832 it passed a law
+by which the greatest part of the revenue derived from the sale of
+lands was made over to the new western republics, although the lands
+themselves were not ceded to them.[283]
+
+[The remark of the author, that "whenever an interpretation of the terms
+of the federal constitution has been called for, that interpretation has
+most frequently been opposed to the Union, and favorable to the states"
+requires considerable qualification. The instances which the author
+cites, are those of _legislative_ interpretations, not those made by the
+judiciary. It may be questioned whether any of those cited by him are
+fair instances of _interpretation_. Although the then president and many
+of his friends doubted or denied the power of congress over many of the
+subjects mentioned by the author, yet the omission to exercise the
+power thus questioned, did not proceed wholly from doubts of the
+constitutional authority. It must be remembered that all these questions
+affected local interests of the states or districts represented in
+congress, and the author has elsewhere shown the tendency of the local
+feeling to overcome all regard for the abstract interest of the Union.
+Hence many members have voted on these questions without reference to
+the constitutional question, and indeed without entertaining any doubt
+of their power. These instances may afford proof that the federal power
+is declining, as the author contends, but they do not prove any actual
+interpretation of the constitution. And so numerous and various are the
+circumstances to influence the decision of a legislative body like the
+congress of the United States, that the people do not regard them
+as sound and authoritative expositions of the true sense of the
+constitution, except perhaps in those very few cases, where there has
+been a constant and uninterrupted practice from the organization of the
+government. The judiciary is looked to as the only authentic expounder
+of the constitution, and until a law of congress has passed that
+ordeal, its constitutionality is open to question: of which our history
+furnishes many examples ... There are errors in some of the instances
+given by our author, which would materially mislead, if not corrected.
+That in relation to the Indians proceeds upon the assumption that the
+United States claimed some rights over Indians or the territory occupied
+by them, inconsistent with the claims of the states. But this is a
+mistake. As to their lands, the United States never pretended to any
+right in them, except such as was granted by the cessions of the states.
+The principle universally acknowledged in the courts of the United
+States and of the several states, is, that by the treaty with Great
+Britain in which the independence of the colonies was acknowledged,
+the states became severally and individually independent, and as such
+succeeded to the rights of the crown of England to and over the lands
+within the boundaries of the respective states. The right of the crown
+in these lands was the absolute ownership, subject only to the rights
+of occupancy by the Indians so long as they remained a tribe. This
+right devolved to each state by the treaty which established their
+independence, and the United States have never questioned it. See 6th
+Cranch, 87; 8th Wheaton, 502, 884; 17th Johnson's Reports, 231. On
+the other hand, the right of holding treaties with the Indians has
+universally been conceded to the United States. The right of a state to
+the lands occupied by the Indians, within the boundaries of such state,
+does not in the least conflict with the right of holding treaties on
+national subjects by the United States with those Indians. With respect
+to Indians residing in any territory _without_ the boundaries of any
+state, or on lands ceded to the United States, the case is different;
+the United States are in such cases the proprietors of the soil, subject
+to the Indian right of occupancy, and when that right is extinguished
+the proprietorship becomes absolute. It will be seen, then, that
+in relation to the Indians and their lands, no question could arise
+respecting the interpretation of the constitution. The observation that
+"as soon as an Indian tribe attempted to fix its dwelling upon a given
+spot, the adjacent states claimed possession of the lands, and the
+rights of sovereignty over the natives"--is a strange compound of error
+and of truth. As above remarked, the Indian right of occupancy has ever
+been recognized by the states, with the exception of the case referred
+to by the author, in which Georgia claimed the right to possess certain
+lands occupied by the Cherokees. This was anomalous, and grew out
+of treaties and cessions, the details of which are too numerous and
+complicated for the limits of a note. But in no other cases have the
+states ever claimed the possession of lands occupied by Indians, without
+having previously extinguished their right by purchase.
+
+As to the rights of sovereignty over the natives, the principle admitted
+in the United States is that all persons within the territorial limits
+of a state are and of necessity must be, subject to the jurisdiction of
+its laws. While the Indian tribes were numerous, distinct, and separate
+from the whites, and possessed a government of their own, the state
+authorities, from considerations of policy, abstained from the exercise
+of criminal jurisdiction for offences committed by the Indians among
+themselves, although for offences against the whites they were subjected
+to the operation of the state laws. But as these tribes diminished
+in numbers, as those who remained among them became enervated by bad
+habits, and ceased to exercise any effectual government, humanity
+demanded that the power of the states should be interposed to protect
+the miserable remnants from the violence and outrage of each other. The
+first recorded instance of interposition in such a case was in 1821,
+when an Indian of the Seneca tribe in the state of New York was tried
+and convicted of murder on a squaw of the tribe. The courts declared
+their competency to take cognizance of such offences, and the
+legislature confirmed the declaration by a law.--Another instance of
+what the author calls interpretation of the constitution against the
+general government, is given by him in the proposed act of 1832, which
+passed both houses of congress, but was vetoed by the president, by
+which, as he says, "the greatest part of the revenue derived from the
+sale of lands, was made over to the new western republics." But this act
+was not founded on any doubt of the title of the United States to the
+lands in question, or of its constitutional power over them, and cannot
+be cited as any evidence of the interpretation of the constitution. An
+error of fact in this statement ought to be corrected. The bill to which
+the author refers, is doubtless that usually called Mr. Clay's land
+bill. Instead of making over the greatest part of the revenue to the new
+states, it appropriated twelve and a half per cent. to them, in addition
+to five per cent. which had been originally granted for the purpose
+of making roads. See Niles's Register, vol. 42, p. 355.--_American
+Editor._]
+
+The slightest observation in the United States enables one to appreciate
+the advantages which the country derives from the bank. These advantages
+are of several kinds, but one of them is peculiarly striking to the
+stranger. The bank-notes of the United States are taken upon the borders
+of the desert for the same value as at Philadelphia, where the bank
+conducts its operations.[284]
+
+The bank of the United States is nevertheless an object of great
+animosity. Its directors have proclaimed their hostility to the
+president; and they are accused, not without some show of probability,
+of having abused their influence to thwart his election. The president
+therefore attacks the establishment which they represent, with all the
+warmth of personal enmity; and he is encouraged in the pursuit of
+his revenge by the conviction that he is supported by the secret
+propensities of the majority. The bank may be regarded as the great
+monetary tie of the Union, just as congress is the great legislative
+tie; and the same passions which tend to render the states independent
+of the central power, contribute to the overthrow of the bank.
+
+The bank of the United States always holds a great number of the notes
+issued by the provincial banks, which it can at any time oblige them to
+convert into cash. It has itself nothing to fear from a similar demand,
+as the extent of its resources enables it to meet all claims. But
+the existence of the provincial banks is thus threatened, and their
+operations are restricted, since they are only able to issue a quantity
+of notes duly proportioned to their capital. They submit with impatience
+to this salutary control. The newspapers which they have bought over,
+and the president, whose interest renders him their instrument, attack
+the bank with the greatest vehemence. They rouse the local passions,
+and the blind democratic instinct of the country to aid their cause; and
+they assert that the bank-directors form a permanent aristocratic body,
+whose influence must ultimately be felt in the government, and must
+affect those principles of equality upon which society rests in America.
+
+The contest between the bank and its opponents is only an incident in
+the great struggle which is going on in America between the provinces
+and the central power; between the spirit of democratic independence,
+and the spirit of gradation and subordination. I do not mean that the
+enemies of the bank are identically the same individuals, who, on other
+points, attack the federal government; but I assert that the attacks
+directed against the bank of the United States originate in the
+propensities which militate against the federal government; and that the
+very numerous opponents of the former afford a deplorable symptom of the
+decreasing support of the latter.
+
+The Union has never displayed so much weakness as in the celebrated
+question of the tariff.[285] The wars of the French revolution and of
+1812 had created manufacturing establishments in the north of the Union,
+by cutting off all free communication between America and Europe. When
+peace was concluded, and the channel of intercourse reopened by which
+the produce of Europe was transmitted to the New World, the Americans
+thought fit to establish a system of import duties, for the twofold
+purpose of protecting their incipient manufactures, and of paying off
+the amount of the debt contracted during the war. The southern states,
+which have no manufactures to encourage, and which are exclusively
+agricultural, soon complained of this measure. Such were the simple
+facts, and I do not pretend to examine in this place whether their
+complaints were well founded or unjust.
+
+As early as the year 1820, South Carolina declared, in a petition
+to Congress, that the tariff was "unconstitutional, oppressive, and
+unjust." And the states of Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama,
+and Mississippi, subsequently remonstrated against it with more or less
+vigor. But Congress, far from lending an ear to these complaints, raised
+the scale of tariff duties in the years 1824 and 1828, and recognized
+anew the principle on which it was founded. A doctrine was then
+proclaimed, or rather revived, in the south, which took the name of
+nullification.
+
+I have shown in the proper place that the object of the federal
+constitution was not to form a league, but to create a national
+government. The Americans of the United States form a sole and undivided
+people, in all the cases which are specified by that constitution; and
+upon these points the will of the nation is expressed, as it is in all
+constitutional nations, by the voice of the majority. When the majority
+has pronounced its decision, it is the duty of the minority to submit.
+Such is the sound legal doctrine, and the only one which agrees with the
+text of the constitution, and the known intention of those who framed
+it.
+
+The partisans of nullification in the south maintain, on the contrary,
+that the intention of the Americans in uniting was not to reduce
+themselves to the condition of one and the same people; that they meant
+to constitute a league of independent states; and that each state,
+consequently, retains its entire sovereignty, if not _de facto_, at
+least _de jure_; and has the right of putting its own construction
+upon the laws of congress, and of suspending their execution within the
+limits of its own territory, if they are held to be unconstitutional or
+unjust.
+
+The entire doctrine of nullification is comprised in a sentence uttered
+by Vice-President Calhoun, the head of that party in the south, before
+the senate of the United States, in the year 1833: "The constitution is
+a compact to which the states were parties in their sovereign capacity;
+now, whenever a contract is entered into by parties which acknowledge
+no tribunal above their authority to decide in the last resort, each of
+them has a right to judge for himself in relation to the nature,
+extent, and obligations of the instrument." It is evident that a similar
+doctrine destroys the very basis of the federal constitution, and brings
+back all the evils of the old confederation, from which the Americans
+were supposed to have had a safe deliverance.
+
+When South Carolina perceived that Congress turned a deaf ear to its
+remonstrances, it threatened to apply the doctrine of nullification to
+the federal tariff bill. Congress persisted in its former system; and at
+length the storm broke out. In the course of 1832 the citizens of South
+Carolina[286] named a national [state] convention, to consult upon the
+extraordinary measures which they were called upon to take; and on the
+24th November of the same year, this convention promulgated a law, under
+the form of a decree, which annulled the federal law of the tariff,
+forbade the levy of the imposts which that law commands, and refused
+to recognize the appeal which might be made to the federal courts of
+law.[287] This decree was only to be put into execution in the ensuing
+month of February, and it was intimated, that if Congress modified the
+tariff before that period, South Carolina might be induced to proceed no
+farther with her menaces; and a vague desire was afterward expressed
+of submitting the question to an extraordinary assembly of all the
+confederate states.
+
+In the meantime South Carolina armed her militia, and prepared for war.
+But congress, which had slighted its suppliant subjects, listened to
+their complaints as soon as they were found to have taken up arms.[288]
+A law was passed, by which the tariff duties were to be progressively
+reduced for ten years, until they were brought so low as not to exceed
+the amount of supplies necessary to the government.[289] Thus congress
+completely abandoned the principle of the tariff; and substituted a mere
+fiscal impost for a system of protective duties.[290] The government of
+the Union, in order to conceal its defeat, had recourse to an expedient
+which is very much in vogue with feeble governments. It yielded the
+point _de facto_, but it remained inflexible upon the principles in
+question; and while congress was altering the tariff law, it passed
+another bill, by which the president was invested with extraordinary
+powers, enabling him to overcome by force a resistance which was then no
+longer to be apprehended.
+
+But South Carolina did not consent to leave the Union in the enjoyment
+of these scanty trophies of success: the same national [state]
+convention which annulled the tariff bill, met again, and accepted the
+proffered concession: but at the same time it declared its unabated
+perseverance in the doctrine of nullification; and to prove what it
+said, it annulled the law investing the president with extraordinary
+powers, although it was very certain that the clauses of that law would
+never be carried into effect.
+
+Almost all the controversies of which I have been speaking have taken
+place under the presidency of General Jackson; and it cannot be denied
+that in the question of the tariff he has supported the claims of
+the Union with vigor and with skill. I am however of opinion that the
+conduct of the individual who now represents the federal government, may
+be reckoned as one of the dangers which threaten its continuance.
+
+Some persons in Europe have formed an opinion of the possible influence
+of General Jackson upon the affairs of his country, which appears highly
+extravagant to those who have seen more of the subject. We have
+been told that General Jackson has won sundry battles, that he is
+an energetic man, prone by nature and by habit to the use of force,
+covetous of power, and a despot by taste. All this may perhaps be
+true; but the inferences which have been drawn from these truths are
+exceedingly erroneous. It has been imagined that General Jackson is bent
+on establishing a dictatorship in America, on introducing a military
+spirit, and on giving a degree of influence to the central authority
+which cannot but be dangerous to provincial liberties. But in America,
+the time for similar undertakings, and the age for men of this kind, is
+not yet come; if General Jackson had entertained a hope of exercising
+his authority in this manner, he would infallibly have forfeited his
+political station, and compromised his life; accordingly he has not been
+so imprudent as to make any such attempt.
+
+Far from wishing to extend the federal power, the president belongs
+to the party which is desirous of limiting that power to the bare and
+precise letter of the constitution, and which never puts a construction
+upon that act, favorable to the government of the Union; far from
+standing forth as the champion of centralization, General Jackson is
+the agent of all the jealousies of the states; and he was placed in the
+lofty station he occupies, by the passions of the people which are most
+opposed to the central government. It is by perpetually flattering these
+passions, that he maintains his station and his popularity. General
+Jackson is the slave of the majority: he yields to its wishes, its
+propensities, and its demands; say rather, that he anticipates and
+forestalls them.
+
+Whenever the governments of the states come into collision with that
+of the Union, the president is generally the first to question his own
+rights: he almost always outstrips the legislature; and when the extent
+of the federal power is controverted he takes part, as it were, against
+himself; he conceals his official interests, and extinguishes his own
+natural inclinations. Not indeed that he is naturally weak or hostile
+to the Union; for when the majority decided against the claims of the
+partisans of nullification, he put himself at its head, asserted the
+doctrines which the nation held, distinctly and energetically, and was
+the first to recommend forcible measures; but General Jackson appears to
+me, if I may use the American expressions, to be a federalist by taste,
+and a republican by calculation.
+
+General Jackson stoops to gain the favor of the majority but when he
+feels that his popularity is secure, he overthrows all obstacles in the
+pursuit of the objects which the community approves, or of those which
+it does not look upon with a jealous eye. He is supported by a power
+with which his predecessors were unacquainted; and he tramples on his
+personal enemies wherever they cross his path, with a facility which no
+former president ever enjoyed; he takes upon himself the responsibility
+of measures which no one, before him, would have ventured to attempt;
+he even treats the national representatives with disdain approaching
+to insult; he puts his veto upon the laws of congress, and frequently
+neglects to reply to that powerful body. He is a favorite who sometimes
+treats his master roughly. The power of General Jackson perpetually
+increases; but that of the President declines: in his hands the federal
+government is strong, but it will pass enfeebled into the hands of his
+successor.
+
+I am strangely mistaken if the federal government of the United States
+be not constantly losing strength, retiring gradually from public
+affairs, and narrowing its circle of action more and more. It is
+naturally feeble, but it now abandons even its pretensions to strength.
+On the other hand, I thought that I remarked a more lively sense of
+independence, and a more decided attachment to provincial government, in
+the states. The Union is to subsist, but to subsist as a shadow; it
+is to be strong in certain cases, and weak in all others; in time of
+warfare, it is to be able to concentrate all the forces of the nation
+and all the resources of the country in its hands; and in time of
+peace its existence is to be scarcely perceptible: as if this alternate
+debility and vigor were natural or possible.
+
+I do not foresee anything for the present which may be able to
+check this general impulse of public opinion: the causes in which it
+originated do not cease to operate with the same effect. The change will
+therefore go on, and it may be predicted that, unless some extraordinary
+event occurs, the government of the Union will grow weaker and weaker
+every day.
+
+I think, however, that the period is still remote, at which the federal
+power will be entirely extinguished by its inability to protect itself
+and to maintain peace in the country. The Union is sanctioned by
+the manners and desires of the people; its results are palpable, its
+benefits visible. When it is perceived that the weakness of the federal
+government compromises the existence of the Union, I do not doubt that a
+reaction will take place with a view to increase its strength.
+
+The government of the United States is, of all the federal governments
+which have hitherto been established, the one which is most naturally
+destined to act. As long as it is only indirectly assailed by the
+interpretation of its laws, and as long as its substance is not
+seriously altered, a change of opinion, an internal crisis, or a war,
+may restore all the vigor which it requires. The point which I have
+been most anxious to put in a clear light is simply this; many people,
+especially in France, imagine that a change of opinion is going on in
+the United States, which is favorable to a centralization of power in
+the hands of the president and the congress. I hold that a contrary
+tendency may be distinctly observed. So far is the federal government
+from acquiring strength, and from threatening the sovereignty of the
+states, as it grows older, that I maintain it to be growing weaker and
+weaker, and that the sovereignty of the Union alone is in danger. Such
+are the facts which the present time discloses. The future conceals the
+final result of this tendency, and the events which may check, retard,
+or accelerate, the changes I have described; but I do not affect to be
+able to remove the veil which hides them from our sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THE REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND WHAT THEIR
+CHANCES OF DURATION ARE.
+
+The Union is Accidental.--The Republican Institutions have more prospect
+of Permanence.--A Republic for the Present the Natural State of the
+Anglo-Americans.--Reason of this.--In order to destroy it, all Laws
+must be changed at the same time, and a great alteration take place
+in Manners.--Difficulties experienced by the Americans in creating an
+Aristocracy.
+
+The dismemberment of the Union, by the introduction of war into the
+heart of those states which are now confederate, with standing armies, a
+dictatorship, and a heavy taxation, might eventually compromise the fate
+of the republican institutions. But we ought not to confound the future
+prospects of the republic with those of the Union. The Union is an
+accident, which will last only so long as circumstances are favorable to
+its existence; but a republican form of government seems to me to be the
+natural state of the Americans; which nothing but the continued action
+of hostile causes, always acting in the same direction, could change
+into a monarchy. The Union exists principally in the law which formed
+it; one revolution, one change in public opinion, might destroy it for
+ever; but the republic has a much deeper foundation to rest upon.
+
+What is understood by republican government in the United States, is the
+slow and quiet action of society upon itself. It is a regular state of
+things really founded upon the enlightened will of the people. It is
+a conciliatory government under which resolutions are allowed time to
+ripen, and in which they are deliberately discussed, and executed with
+mature judgment. The republicans in the United States set a high value
+upon morality, respect religious belief, and acknowledge the existence
+of rights. They profess to think that a people ought to be moral,
+religious, and temperate, in proportion as it is free. What is called
+the republic in the United States, is the tranquil rule of the majority,
+which, after having had time to examine itself, and to give proof of its
+existence, is the common source of all the powers of the state. But the
+power of the majority is not of itself unlimited. In the moral world
+humanity, justice, and reason, enjoy an undisputed supremacy; in the
+political world vested rights are treated with no less deference. The
+majority recognizes these two barriers; and if it now and then overstep
+them, it is because, like individuals, it has passions, and like them,
+it is prone to do what is wrong, while it discerns what is right.
+
+But the demagogues of Europe have made strange discoveries. A republic
+is not, according to them, the rule of the majority, as has hitherto
+been taught, but the rule of those who are strenuous partisans of
+the majority. It is not the people who preponderates in this kind of
+government, but those who best know what is for the good of the people.
+A happy distinction, which allows men to act in the name of nations
+without consulting them, and to claim their gratitude while their rights
+are spurned. A republican government, moreover, is the only one which
+claims the right of doing whatever it chooses, and despising what men
+have hitherto respected, from the highest moral obligations to the
+vulgar rules of common sense. It had been supposed, until our time,
+that despotism was odious, under whatever form it appeared. But it is
+a discovery of modern days that there are such things as legitimate
+tyranny and holy injustice, provided they are exercised in the name of
+the people.
+
+The ideas which the Americans have adopted respecting the republican
+form of government, render it easy for them to live under it, and ensure
+its duration. If, in their country, this form be often practically bad,
+at least it is theoretically good; and, in the end, the people always
+acts in conformity with it.
+
+It was impossible, at the foundation of the states, and it would still
+be difficult, to establish a central administration in America. The
+inhabitants are dispersed over too great a space, and separated by too
+many natural obstacles, for one man to undertake to direct the details
+of their existence. America is therefore pre-eminently the country of
+provincial and municipal government. To this cause, which was plainly
+felt by all the Europeans of the New World, the Anglo-Americans added
+several others peculiar to themselves.
+
+At the time of the settlement of the North American colonies, municipal
+liberty had already penetrated into the laws as well as the manners
+of the English, and the emigrants adopted it, not only as a necessary
+thing, but as a benefit which they knew how to appreciate. We have
+already seen the manner in which the colonies were founded: every
+province, and almost every district, was peopled separately by men who
+were strangers to each other, or who associated with very different
+purposes. The English settlers in the United States, therefore, early
+perceived that they were divided into a great number of small and
+distinct communities which belonged to no common centre; and that it
+was needful for each of these little communities to take care of its own
+affairs, since there did not appear to be any central authority which
+was naturally bound and easily enabled to provide for them. Thus, the
+nature of the country, the manner in which the British colonies were
+founded, the habits of the first emigrants, in short everything, united
+to promote, in an extra-ordinary degree, municipal and provincial
+liberties.
+
+In the United States, therefore, the mass of the institutions of the
+country is essentially republican; and in order permanently to destroy
+the laws which form the basis of the republic, it would be necessary to
+abolish all the laws at once. At the present day, it would be even more
+difficult for a party to succeed in founding a monarchy in the
+United States, than for a set of men to proclaim that France should
+henceforward be a republic. Royalty would not find a system of
+legislation prepared for it beforehand; and a monarchy would then exist,
+really surrounded by republican institutions. The monarchical principle
+would likewise have great difficulty in penetrating into the manners of
+the Americans.
+
+In the United States, the sovereignty of the people is not an isolated
+doctrine bearing no relation to the prevailing manners and ideas of the
+people: it may, on the contrary, be regarded as the last link of a chain
+of opinions which binds the whole Anglo-American world. That Providence
+has given to every human being the degree of reason necessary to direct
+himself in the affairs which interest him exclusively; such is the grand
+maxim upon which civil and political society rests in the United States.
+The father of a family applies it to his children; the master to his
+servants; the township to its officers; the province to its townships;
+the state to the provinces; the Union to the states; and when extended
+to the nation, it becomes the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people.
+
+Thus, in the United States, the fundamental principle of the republic
+is the same which governs the greater part of human actions; republican
+notions insinuate themselves into all the ideas, opinions, and habits
+of the Americans, while they are formally recognized by the legislation:
+and before this legislation can be altered, the whole community must
+undergo very serious changes. In the United States, even the religion of
+most of the citizens is republican, since it submits the truths of the
+other world to private judgment: as in politics the care of its temporal
+interests is abandoned to the good sense of the people. Thus every man
+is allowed freely to take that road which he thinks will lead him to
+heaven; just as the law permits every citizen to have the right of
+choosing his government.
+
+It is evident that nothing but a long series of events, all having the
+same tendency, can substitute for this combination of laws, opinions,
+and manners, a mass of opposite opinions, manners and laws.
+
+If republican principles are to perish in America, they can only yield
+after a laborious social process, often interrupted, and as often
+resumed; they will have many apparent revivals, and will not become
+totally extinct until an entirely new people shall have succeeded to
+that which now exists. Now, it must be admitted that there is no symptom
+or presage of the approach of such a revolution. There is nothing more
+striking to a person newly arrived in the United States, than the kind
+of tumultuous agitation in which he finds political society. The laws
+are incessantly changing, and at first sight it seems impossible that a
+people so variable in its desires should avoid adopting, within a short
+space of time, a completely new form of government. Such apprehensions
+are, however, premature; the instability which affects political
+institutions is of two kinds, which ought not to be confounded: the
+first, which modifies secondary laws, is not incompatible with a very
+settled state of society; the other shakes the very foundations of the
+constitution, and attacks the fundamental principles of legislation;
+this species of instability is always followed by troubles and
+revolutions, and the nation which suffers under it, is in a state of
+violent transition.
+
+Experience shows that these two kinds of legislative instability have
+no necessary connexion; for they have been found united or separate,
+according to times and circumstances. The first is common in the United
+States, but not the second: the Americans often change their laws, but
+the foundation of the constitution is respected.
+
+In our days the republican principle rules in America, as the
+monarchical principle did in France under Louis XIV. The French of
+that period were not only friends of the monarchy, but they thought it
+impossible to put anything in its place; they received it as we receive
+the rays of the sun and the return of the seasons. Among them the royal
+power had neither advocates nor opponents. In like manner does
+the republican government exist in America, without contention or
+opposition; without proofs and arguments, by a tacit agreement, a
+sort of _consensus universalis_. It is, however, my opinion, that, by
+changing their administrative forms as often as they do, the inhabitants
+of the United States compromise the future stability of their
+government.
+
+It may be apprehended that men, perpetually thwarted in their designs
+by the mutability of legislation, will learn to look upon republican
+institutions as an inconvenient form of society; the evil resulting from
+the instability of the secondary enactments, might then raise a doubt
+as to the nature of the fundamental principles of the constitution,
+and indirectly bring about a revolution; but this epoch is still very
+remote.
+
+[It has been objected by an American review, that our author is mistaken
+in charging our laws with instability, and in answer to the charge, the
+permanence of our fundamental political institutions has been contrasted
+with the revolutions in France. But the objection proceeds upon a
+mistake of the author's meaning, which at this page is very clearly
+expressed. He refers to the instability which modifies _secondary laws_,
+and not to that which shakes the foundations of the constitution. The
+distinction is equally sound and philosophic, and those in the least
+acquainted with the history of our legislation, must bear witness to the
+truth of the author's remarks. The frequent revisions of the statutes of
+the states rendered necessary by the multitude, variety, and often
+the contradiction of the enactments, furnish abundant evidence of this
+instability.--_American Editor_.]
+
+It may, however, be foreseen, even now, that when the Americans lose
+their republican institutions, they will speedily arrive at a despotic
+government, without a long interval of limited monarchy. Montesquieu
+remarked, that nothing is more absolute than the authority of a
+prince who immediately succeeds a republic, since the powers which had
+fearlessly been intrusted to an elected magistrate are then transferred
+to an hereditary sovereign. This is true in general, but it is more
+peculiarly applicable to a democratic republic. In the United States,
+the magistrates are not elected by a particular class of citizens, but
+by the majority of the nation; they are the immediate representatives of
+the passions of the multitude; and as they are wholly dependent upon its
+pleasure, they excite neither hatred nor fear: hence, as I have already
+shown, very little care has been taken to limit their influence, and
+they are left in possession of a vast deal of arbitrary power. This
+state of things has engendered habits which would outlive itself; the
+American magistrate would retain his power, but he would cease to be
+responsible for the exercise of it; and it is impossible to say what
+bounds could then be set to tyranny.
+
+Some of our European politicians expect to see an aristocracy arise in
+America, and they already predict the exact period at which it will be
+able to assume the reins of government. I have previously observed, and
+I repeat my assertion, that the present tendency of American society
+appears to me to become more and more democratic. Nevertheless, I do not
+assert that the Americans will not, at some future time, restrict the
+circle of political rights in their country, or confiscate those rights
+to the advantage of a single individual; but I cannot imagine that they
+will ever bestow the exclusive exercise of them upon a privileged
+class of citizens, or, in other words, that they will ever found an
+aristocracy.
+
+An aristocratic body is composed of a certain number of citizens,
+who, without being very far removed from the mass of the people, are,
+nevertheless, permanently stationed above it: a body which it is easy
+to touch, and difficult to strike; with which the people are in daily
+contact, but with which they can never combine. Nothing can be imagined
+more contrary to nature and to the secret propensities of the human
+heart, than a subjection of this kind; and men, who are left to follow
+their own bent, will always prefer the arbitrary power of a king to
+the regular administration of an aristocracy. Aristocratic institutions
+cannot subsist without laying down the inequality of men as a
+fundamental principle, as a part and parcel of the legislation,
+affecting the condition of the human family as much as it affects that
+of society; but these things are so repugnant to natural equity that
+they can only be extorted from men by constraint.
+
+I do not think a single people can be quoted, since human society began
+to exist, which has, by its own free will and by its own exertions,
+created an aristocracy within its own bosom. All the aristocracies of
+the middle ages were founded by military conquest: the conqueror was the
+noble, the vanquished became the serf. Inequality was then imposed by
+force; and after it had been introduced into the manners of the country,
+it maintained its own authority, and was sanctioned by the legislation.
+Communities have existed which were aristocratic from their earliest
+origin, owing to circumstances anterior to that event, and which became
+more democratic in each succeeding age. Such was the destiny of the
+Romans, and of the Barbarians after them. But a people, having taken its
+rise in civilisation and democracy, which should gradually establish an
+inequality of conditions until it arrived at inviolable privileges and
+exclusive castes, would be a novelty in the world; and nothing intimates
+that America is likely to furnish so singular an example.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+REFLECTIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY OF THE UNITED
+STATES.
+
+The Americans destined by Nature to be a great maritime People.--Extent
+of their Coasts.--Depth of their Ports.--Size of their Rivers.--The
+commercial Superiority of the Anglo-Saxons less attributable, however,
+to physical Circumstances than to moral and intellectual Causes.--Reason
+of this Opinion.--Future Destiny of the Anglo-Americans as a commercial
+Nation.--The Dissolution of the Union would not check the maritime Vigor
+of the States.--Reason of this.--Anglo-Americans will naturally supply
+the Wants of the inhabitants of South America.--They will become, like
+the English, the Factors of a great portion of the World.
+
+The coast of the United States, from the bay of Fundy to the Sabine
+river in the gulf of Mexico, is more than two thousand miles in extent.
+These shores form an unbroken line, and they are all subject to the same
+government. No nation in the world possesses vaster, deeper, or more
+secure ports for shipping than the Americans.
+
+The inhabitants of the United States constitute a great civilized
+people, which fortune has placed in the midst of an uncultivated
+country, at a distance of three thousand miles from the central point
+of civilisation. America consequently stands in daily need of European
+trade. The Americans will, no doubt, ultimately succeed in producing or
+manufacturing at home most of the articles which they require; but the
+two continents can never be independent of each other, so numerous are
+the natural ties which exist between their wants, their ideas, their
+habits, and their manners.
+
+The Union produces peculiar commodities which are now become necessary
+to us, but which cannot be cultivated, or can only be raised at an
+enormous expense, upon the soil of Europe. The Americans only consume a
+small portion of this produce, and they are willing to sell us the rest.
+Europe is therefore the market of America, as America is the market
+of Europe; and maritime commerce is no less necessary to enable the
+inhabitants of the United States to transport their raw materials to
+the ports of Europe, than it is to enable us to supply them with our
+manufactured produce. The United States were therefore necessarily
+reduced to the alternative of increasing the business of other maritime
+nations to a great extent, if they had themselves declined to enter
+into commerce, as the Spaniards of Mexico have hitherto done; or, in the
+second place, of becoming one of the first trading powers of the globe.
+
+The Anglo-Americans have always displayed a very decided taste for the
+sea. The declaration of independence broke the commercial restrictions
+which united them to England, and gave a fresh and powerful stimulus to
+their maritime genius. Ever since that time, the shipping of the Union
+has increased in almost the same rapid proportion as the number of its
+inhabitants. The Americans themselves now transport to their own shores
+nine-tenths of the European produce which they consume.[291] And
+they also bring three-quarters of the exports of the New World to the
+European consumer.[292] The ships of the United States fill the docks of
+Havre and of Liverpool; while the number of English and French vessels
+which are to be seen at New York is comparatively small.[293]
+
+Thus, not only does the American merchant face competition in his own
+country, but he even supports that of foreign nations in their own ports
+with success. This is readily explained by the fact that the vessels of
+the United States can cross the seas at a cheaper rate than any other
+vessels in the world. As long as the mercantile shipping of the United
+States preserves this superiority, it will not only retain what it has
+acquired, but it will constantly increase in prosperity.
+
+It is difficult to say for what reason the Americans can trade at a
+lower rate than other nations; and one is at first led to attribute
+this circumstance to the physical or natural advantages which are within
+their reach; but this supposition is erroneous. The American vessels
+cost almost as much to build as our own[294]; they are not better built,
+and they generally last for a shorter time. The pay of the American
+sailor is more considerable than the pay on board European ships; which
+is proved by the great number of Europeans who are to be met with in the
+merchant vessels of the United States. But I am of opinion that the
+true cause of their superiority must not be sought for in physical
+advantages, but that it is wholly attributable to their moral and
+intellectual qualities.
+
+The following comparison will illustrate my meaning. During the
+campaigns of the revolution the French introduced a new system of
+tactics into the art of war, which perplexed the oldest generals,
+and very nearly destroyed the most ancient monarchies in Europe. They
+undertook (what had never been before attempted) to make shift without
+a number of things which had always been held to be indispensable in
+warfare; they required novel exertions on the part of their troops,
+which no civilized nations had ever thought of; they achieved great
+actions in an incredibly short space of time: and they risked human life
+without hesitation, to obtain the object in view. The French had less
+money and fewer men than their enemies; their resources were infinitely
+inferior; nevertheless they were constantly victorious, until their
+adversaries chose to imitate their example.
+
+The Americans have introduced a similar system into their commercial
+speculations; and they do for cheapness what the French did for
+conquest. The European sailor navigates with prudence; he only sets sail
+when the weather is favorable; if an unforeseen accident befalls him, he
+puts into port; at night he furls a portion of his canvass; and when the
+whitening billows intimate the vicinity of land, he checks his way,
+and takes an observation of the sun. But the American neglects these
+precautions and braves these dangers. He weighs anchor in the midst
+of tempestuous gales; by night and by day he spreads his sheets to the
+wind; he repairs as he goes along such damage as his vessel may have
+sustained from the storm; and when he at last approaches the term of his
+voyage, he darts onward to the shore as if he already descried a port.
+The Americans are often shipwrecked, but no trader crosses the seas so
+rapidly. And as they perform the same distance in a shorter time, they
+can perform it at a cheaper rate.
+
+The European touches several times at different ports in the course of a
+long voyage; he loses a good deal of precious time in making the harbor,
+or in waiting for a favorable wind to leave it; and he pays daily dues
+to be allowed to remain there. The American starts from Boston to go to
+purchase tea in China: he arrives at Canton, stays there a few days and
+then returns. In less than two years he has sailed as far as the entire
+circumference of the globe, and he has seen land but once. It is true
+that during a voyage of eight or ten months he has drunk brackish water,
+and lived upon salt meat; that he has been in a continual contest with
+the sea, with disease, and with the tedium of monotony; but, upon his
+return, he can sell a pound of his tea for a halfpenny less than the
+English merchant, and his purpose is accomplished.
+
+I cannot better explain my meaning than by saying that the Americans
+affect a sort of heroism in their manner of trading. But the European
+merchant will always find it very difficult to imitate his American
+competitor, who, in adopting the system which I have just described,
+follows not only a calculation of his gain, but an impulse of his
+nature.
+
+The inhabitants of the United States are subject to all the wants and
+all the desires which result from an advanced stage of civilisation; but
+as they are not surrounded by a community admirably adapted, like that
+of Europe, to satisfy their wants, they are often obliged to procure for
+themselves the various articles which education and habit have rendered
+necessaries. In America it sometimes happens that the same individual
+tills his field, builds his dwelling, contrives his tools, makes his
+shoes, and weaves the coarse stuff of which his dress is composed.
+This circumstance is prejudicial to the excellence of the work: but
+it powerfully contributes to awaken the intelligence of the workman.
+Nothing tends to materialise man, and to deprive his work of the
+faintest trace of mind, more than extreme division of labor. In a
+country like America, where men devoted to special occupations are rare,
+a long apprenticeship cannot be required from any one who embraces a
+profession. The Americans therefore change their means of gaining
+a livelihood very readily; and they suit their occupations to the
+exigencies of the moment, in the manner most profitable to themselves.
+Men are to be met with who have successively been barristers, farmers,
+merchants, ministers of the gospel, and physicians. If the American be
+less perfect in each craft than the European, at least there is scarcely
+any trade with which he is utterly unacquainted. His capacity is more
+general, and the circle of his intelligence is enlarged.
+
+The inhabitants of the United States are never fettered by the axioms of
+their profession; they escape from all the prejudices of their present
+station; they are not more attached to one line of operation than to
+another; they are not more prone to employ an old method than a new
+one; they have no rooted habits, and they easily shake off the influence
+which the habits of other nations might exercise upon their minds,
+from a conviction that their country is unlike any other, and that its
+situation is without a precedent in the world. America is a land of
+wonders, in which everything is in constant motion, and every movement
+seems an improvement. The idea of novelty is there indissolubly
+connected with the idea of melioration. No natural boundary seems to be
+set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet done is only what he has
+not yet attempted to do.
+
+This perpetual change which goes on in the United States, these frequent
+vicissitudes of fortune, accompanied by such unforeseen fluctuations in
+private and in public wealth, serve to keep the minds of the citizens
+in a perpetual state of feverish agitation, which admirably invigorates
+their exertions, and keeps them in a state of excitement above the
+ordinary level of mankind. The whole life of an American is passed like
+a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis or a battle. As the same causes
+are continually in operation throughout the country, they ultimately
+impart an irresistible impulse to the national character. The American,
+taken as a chance specimen of his countrymen, must then be a man of
+singular warmth in his desires, enterprising, fond of adventure, and
+above all of innovation. The same bent is manifest in all that he does;
+he introduces it into his political laws, his religious doctrines, his
+theories of social economy, and his domestic occupations; he bears it
+with him in the depth of the backwoods, as well as in the business of
+the city. It is the same passion, applied to maritime commerce, which
+makes him the cheapest and the quickest trader in the world.
+
+As long as the sailors of the United States retain these inspiriting
+advantages, and the practical superiority which they derive from them,
+they will not only continue to supply the wants of the producers and
+consumers of their own country, but they will tend more and more to
+become, like the English, the factors of all other peoples.[295] This
+prediction has already begun to be realized; we perceive that the
+American traders are introducing themselves as intermediate agents in
+the commerce of several European nations;[296] and America will offer a
+still wider field to their enterprise.
+
+The great colonies which were founded in South America by the Spaniards
+and the Portuguese have since become empires. Civil war and oppression
+now lay waste those extensive regions. Population does not increase, and
+the thinly-scattered inhabitants are too much absorbed in the cares of
+self-defence even to attempt any melioration of their condition. Such,
+however, will not always be the case. Europe has succeeded by her own
+efforts in piercing the gloom of the middle ages; South America has the
+same Christian laws and Christian manners as we have; she contains all
+the germs of civilisation which have grown amid the nations of Europe or
+their offsets, added to the advantages to be derived from our example;
+why then should she always remain uncivilized? It is clear that the
+question is simply one of time; at some future period, which may be
+more or less remote, the inhabitants of South America will constitute
+flourishing and enlightened nations.
+
+But when the Spaniards and Portuguese of South America begin to feel
+the wants common to all civilized nations, they will still be unable
+to satisfy those wants for themselves; as the youngest children of
+civilisation, they must perforce admit the superiority of their elder
+brethren. They will be agriculturists long before they succeed in
+manufactures or commerce, and they will require the mediation of
+strangers to exchange their produce beyond seas for those articles for
+which a demand will begin to be felt.
+
+It is unquestionable that the Americans of the north will one day supply
+the wants of the Americans of the south. Nature has placed them in
+contiguity; and has furnished the former with every means of knowing and
+appreciating those demands, of establishing a permanent connexion with
+those states, and of gradually filling their markets. The merchant of
+the United States could only forfeit these natural advantages if he were
+very inferior to the merchant of Europe; to whom he is, on the contrary,
+superior in several respects. The Americans of the United States already
+exercise a very considerable moral influence upon all the people of
+the New World. They are the source of intelligence, and all the nations
+which inhabit the same continent are already accustomed to consider them
+as the most enlightened, the most powerful, and the most wealthy members
+of the great American family. All eyes are therefore turned toward the
+Union; and the states of which that body is composed are the models
+which the other communities try to imitate to the best of their power:
+it is from the United states that they borrow their political principles
+and their laws.
+
+The Americans of the United States stand in precisely the same position
+with regard to the peoples of South America as their fathers, the
+English, occupy with regard to the Italians, the Spaniards, the
+Portuguese, and all those nations of Europe, which receive their
+articles of daily consumption from England, because they are less
+advanced in civilisation and trade. England is at this time the natural
+emporium of almost all the nations which are within its reach; the
+American Union will perform the same part in the other hemisphere; and
+every community which is founded, or which prospers in the New World, is
+founded and prospers to the advantage of the Anglo-Americans.
+
+If the Union were to be dissolved, the commerce of the states which
+now compose it, would undoubtedly be checked for a time; but this
+consequence would be less perceptible than is generally supposed. It
+is evident that whatever may happen, the commercial states will remain
+united. They are all contiguous to each other; they have identically the
+same opinions, interests, and manners, and they are alone competent to
+form a very great maritime power. Even if the south of the Union were to
+become independent of the north, it would still require the service of
+those states. I have already observed that the south is not a commercial
+country, and nothing intimates that it is likely to become so. The
+Americans of the south of the United States will therefore be obliged,
+for a long time to come, to have recourse to strangers to export their
+produce, and to supply them with the commodities which are requisite to
+satisfy their wants. But the northern states are undoubtedly able to act
+as their intermediate agents cheaper than any other merchants. They will
+therefore retain that employment, for cheapness is the sovereign law
+of commerce. National claims and national prejudices cannot resist the
+influence of cheapness. Nothing can be more virulent than the hatred
+which exists between the Americans of the United States and the English.
+But, notwithstanding these inimical feelings, the Americans derive the
+greater part of their manufactured commodities from England, because
+England supplies them at a cheaper rate than any other nation. Thus the
+increasing prosperity of America turns, notwithstanding the grudges of
+the Americans, to the advantage of British manufactures.
+
+Reason shows and experience proves that no commercial prosperity can be
+durable if it cannot be united, in case of need, to naval force. This
+truth is as well understood in the United States as it can be anywhere
+else: the Americans are already able to make their flag respected: in a
+few years they will be able to make it feared. I am convinced that the
+dismemberment of the Union would not have the effect of diminishing the
+naval power of the Americans, but that it would powerfully contribute
+to increase it. At the present time the commercial states are connected
+with others which have not the same interests, and which frequently
+yield an unwilling consent to the increase of a maritime power by which
+they are only indirectly benefited. If, on the contrary, the commercial
+states of the Union formed one independent nation, commerce would become
+the foremost of their national interests; they would consequently be
+willing to make very great sacrifices to protect their shipping, and
+nothing would prevent them from pursuing their designs upon this point.
+
+Nations, as well as men, almost always betray the most prominent
+features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When
+I contemplate the ardor with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute
+commercial enterprise, the advantages which befriend them, and the
+success of their undertakings, I cannot refrain from believing that they
+will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They are born
+to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[207] See the map. [Transcriber's Note: Map of North America.]
+
+[208] The native of North America retains his opinions and the most
+insignificant of his habits with a degree of tenacity which has no
+parallel in history. For more than two hundred years the wandering
+tribes of North America have had daily intercourse with the whites, and
+they have never derived from them either a custom or an idea. Yet the
+European have exercised a powerful influence over the savages: they have
+made them more licentious, but not more European. In the summer of 1831,
+I happened to be beyond Lake Michigan, at a place called Green Bay,
+which serves as the extreme frontier between the United States and
+the Indians on the northwestern side. Here I became acquainted with an
+American officer, Major H., who, after talking to me at length on the
+inflexibility of the Indian character, related the following fact: "I
+formerly knew a young Indian," said he, "who had been educated at a
+college in New England, where he had greatly distinguished himself, and
+had acquired the external appearance of a member of civilized society.
+When the war broke out between ourselves and the English, in 1810, I
+saw this young man again; he was serving in our army at the head of the
+warriors of his tribe; for the Indians were admitted among the ranks
+of the Americans, upon condition that they would abstain from their
+horrible custom of scalping their victims. On the evening of the battle
+of ----, C. came and sat himself down by the fire of our bivouac. I
+asked him what had been his fortune that day: he related his exploits;
+and growing warm and animated by the recollection of them, he concluded
+by suddenly opening the breast of his coat, saying, 'You must not betray
+me--see here!' And I actually beheld," said the major, "between his body
+and his shirt, the skin and hair of an English head still dripping with
+gore."
+
+[209] In the thirteen original states, there are only 6,273 Indians
+remaining. (See Legislative Documents, 20th congress, No. 117, p. 90.)
+
+[210] Messrs. Clarke and Cass, in their report to congress, the 4th
+February, 1829, p. 23, expressed themselves thus: "The time when the
+Indians generally could supply themselves with food and clothing,
+without any of the articles of civilized life, has long since passed
+away. The more remote tribes, beyond the Mississippi, who live where
+immense herds of buffalo are yet to be found, and who follow those
+animals in their periodical migrations, could more easily than any
+others recur to the habits of their ancestors, and live without the
+white man or any of his manufactures. But the buffalo is constantly
+receding. The smaller animals--the bear, the deer, the beaver, the
+otter, the muskrat, &c., principally minister to the comfort and support
+of the Indians; and these cannot be taken without guns, ammunition, and
+traps.
+
+"Among the northwestern Indians particularly, the labor of supplying
+a family with food is excessive. Day after day is spent by the hunter
+without success, and during this interval his family must subsist upon
+bark or roots, or perish. Want and misery are around them and among
+them. Many die every winter from actual starvation."
+
+The Indians will not live as Europeans live; and yet they can neither
+subsist without them, nor exactly after the fashion of their fathers.
+This is demonstrated by a fact which I likewise give upon official
+authority. Some Indians of a tribe on the banks of Lake Superior had
+killed a European; the American government interdicted all traffic
+with the tribe to which the guilty parties belonged, until they were
+delivered up to justice. This measure had the desired effect.
+
+[211] "Five years ago," says Volney in his Tableaux des Etats Unis, p.
+370, "in going from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, a territory which now forms
+part of the State of Illinois, but which at the time I mention was
+completely wild (1797), you could not cross a prairie without seeing
+herds of from four to five hundred buffaloes. There are now none
+remaining; they swam across the Mississippi to escape from the hunters,
+and more particularly from the bells of the American cows."
+
+[212] The truth of what I here advance may be easily proved by
+consulting the tabular statement of Indian tribes inhabiting the United
+States, and their territories. (Legislative Documents, 20th congress,
+No. 117, pp. 90-105.) It is there shown that the tribes of America
+are rapidly decreasing, although the Europeans are at a considerable
+distance from them.
+
+[213] "The Indians," says Messrs. Clarke and Cass in their report to
+congress, p. 15, "are attached to their country by the same feelings
+which bind us to ours; and, besides, there are certain superstitious
+notions connected with the alienation of what the Great Spirit gave to
+their ancestors, which operate strongly upon the tribes who have made
+few or no cessions, but which are gradually weakened as our intercourse
+with them is extended. 'We will not sell the spot which contains
+the bones of our fathers,' is almost always the first answer to a
+proposition for a sale."
+
+[214] See in the legislative documents of congress (Doc. 117), the
+narrative of what takes place on these occasions. This curious passage
+is from the abovementioned report, made to congress by Messrs. Clarke
+and Cass, in February, 1829. Mr. Cass is now secretary of war.
+
+"The Indians," says the report, "reach the treaty-ground poor, and
+almost naked. Large quantities of goods are taken there by the traders,
+and are seen and examined by the Indians. The women and children become
+importunate to have their wants supplied, and their influence is
+soon exerted to induce a sale. Their improvidence is habitual and
+unconquerable. The gratification of his immediate wants and desires is
+the ruling passion of an Indian: the expectation of future advantages
+seldom produces much effect. The experience of the past is lost, and
+the prospects of the future disregarded. It would be utterly hopeless
+to demand a cession of land unless the means were at hand of gratifying
+their immediate wants; and when their condition and circumstances are
+fairly considered, it ought not to surprise us that they are so anxious
+to relieve themselves."
+
+[215] On the 19th of May, 1830, Mr. Edward Everett affirmed before the
+house of representatives, that the Americans had already acquired by
+_treaty_, to the east and west of the Mississippi, 230,000,000 of acres.
+In 1808, the Osages gave up 48,000,000 acres for an annual payment of
+1,000 dollars. In 1818, the Quapaws yielded up 29,000,000 acres for
+4,000 dollars. They reserved for themselves a territory of 1,000,000
+acres for a hunting-ground. A solemn oath was taken that it should be
+respected: but before long it was invaded like the rest. Mr. Bell, in
+his "Report of the Committee on Indian Affairs," February 24th,
+1830, has these words: "To pay an Indian tribe what their ancient
+hunting-grounds are worth to them, after the game is fled or destroyed,
+as a mode of appropriating wild lands claimed by Indians, has been found
+more convenient, and certainly it is more agreeable to the forms of
+justice, as well as more merciful, than to assert the possession of
+them by the sword. Thus the practice of buying Indian titles is but the
+substitute which humanity and expediency have imposed, in place of the
+sword, in arriving at the actual enjoyment of property claimed by the
+right of discovery, and sanctioned by the natural superiority allowed to
+the claims of civilized communities over those of savage tribes. Up
+to the present time, so invariable has been the operation of certain
+causes, first in diminishing the value of forest lands to the Indians,
+and secondly in disposing them to sell readily, that the plan of
+buying their right of occupancy has never threatened to retard, in any
+perceptible degree, the prosperity of any of the states." (Legislative
+documents, 21st congress, No. 227, p. 6.)
+
+[216] This seems, indeed, to be the opinion of almost all the American
+statesmen. "Judging of the future by the past," says Mr. Cass, "we
+cannot err in anticipating a progressive diminution of their numbers,
+and their eventual extinction, unless our border should become
+stationary, and they be removed beyond it, or unless some radical change
+should take place in the principles of our intercourse with them, which
+it is easier to hope for than to expect."
+
+[217] Among other warlike enterprises, there was one of the Wampanoags,
+and other confederate tribes, under Metacom in 1675, against the
+colonists of New England; the English were also engaged in war in
+Virginia in 1622.
+
+[218] See the "Histoire de la Nouvelle France," by Charlevoix, and the
+work entitled "Lettres Edifiantes."
+
+[219] "In all the tribes," says Volney, in his "Tableau des Etats Unis,"
+p. 423, "there still exists a generation of old warriors, who cannot
+forbear, when they see their countrymen using the hoe, from exclaiming
+against the degradation of ancient manners, and asserting that the
+savages owe their decline to these innovations: adding, that they have
+only to return to their primitive habits, in order to recover their
+power and their glory."
+
+[220] The following description occurs in an official document: "Until a
+young man has been engaged with an enemy, and has performed some acts of
+valor, he gains no consideration, but is regarded nearly as a woman. In
+their great war-dances all the warriors in succession strike the post,
+as it is called, and recount their exploits. On these occasions their
+auditory consists of the kinsmen, friends, and comrades of the narrator.
+The profound impression which his discourse produces on them is
+manifested by the silent attention it receives, and by the loud shouts
+which hail its termination. The young man who finds himself at such a
+meeting without anything to recount, is very unhappy; and instances
+have sometimes occurred of young warriors whose passions had been thus
+inflamed, quitting the war-dance suddenly, and going off alone to seek
+for trophies which they might exhibit, and adventures which they might
+be allowed to relate."
+
+[221] These nations are now swallowed up in the states of Georgia,
+Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. There were formerly in the south
+four great nations (remnants of which still exist), the Choctaws, the
+Chickasaws, the Creeks, and the Cherokees. The remnants of these four
+nations amounted, in 1830, to about 75,000 individuals. It is computed
+that there are now remaining in the territory occupied or claimed by
+the Anglo-American Union about 300,000 Indians. (See proceedings of the
+Indian board in the city of New York.) The official documents supplied
+to congress make the number amount to 313,130. The reader who is curious
+to know the names and numerical strength of all the tribes which inhabit
+the Anglo-American territory, should consult the documents I refer to.
+(Legislative Documents, 28th congress, No. 117, pp. 90-105.)
+
+[222] I brought back with me to France, one or two copies of this
+singular publication.
+
+[223] See in the report of the committee on Indian affairs, 21st
+congress, No. 227, p. 23, the reasons for the multiplication of Indians
+of mixed blood among the Cherokees. The principal cause dates from the
+war of independence. Many Anglo-Americans of Georgia, having taken the
+side of England, were obliged to retreat among the Indians where they
+married.
+
+[224] Unhappily the mixed race has been less numerous and less
+influential in North America than in any other country. The American
+continent was peopled by two great nations of Europe, the French and
+the English. The former were not slow in connecting themselves with the
+daughters of the natives; but there was an unfortunate affinity between
+the Indian character and their own: instead of giving the tastes and
+habits of civilized life to the savages, the French too often grew
+passionately fond of the state of wild freedom they found them in. They
+became the most dangerous of the inhabitants of the desert, and won the
+friendship of the Indian by exaggerating his vices and his virtues.
+M. de Senonville, the governor of Canada, wrote thus to Louis XIV., in
+1685: "It has long been believed that in order to civilize the savages
+we ought to draw them nearer to us, but there is every reason to suppose
+we have been mistaken. Those which have been brought into contact with
+us have not become French, and the French who have lived among them are
+changed into savages, affecting to live and dress like them." (History
+of New France, by Charlevoix, vol. ii., p. 345.) The Englishman, on the
+contrary, continuing obstinately attached to the customs and the most
+insignificant habits of his forefathers, has remained in the midst of
+the American solitudes just what he was in the bosom of European cities;
+he would not allow of any communication with savages whom he despised,
+and avoided with care the union of his race with theirs. Thus, while
+the French exercised no salutary influence over the Indians, the English
+have always remained alien from them.
+
+[225] There is in the adventurous life of the hunter a certain
+irresistible charm which seizes the heart of man, and carries him away
+in spite of reason and experience. This is plainly shown by the memoirs
+of Tanner. Tanner is a European who was carried away at the age of six
+by the Indians, and has remained thirty years with them in the woods.
+Nothing can be conceived more appalling than the miseries which he
+describes. He tells us of tribes without a chief, families without
+a nation to call their own, men in a state of isolation, wrecks of
+powerful tribes wandering at random amid the ice and snow and desolate
+solitudes of Canada. Hunger and cold pursue them; every day their
+life is in jeopardy. Among these men manners have lost their empire,
+traditions are without power. They become more and more savage. Tanner
+shared in all these miseries; he was aware of his European origin; he
+was not kept away from the whites by force; on the contrary, he came
+every year to trade with them, entered their dwellings, and saw their
+enjoyments; he knew that whenever he chose to return to civilized life,
+he was perfectly able to do so--and he remained thirty years in the
+deserts. When he came to civilized society, he declared that the rude
+existence which he described had a secret charm for him which he was
+unable to define: he returned to it again and again: at length he
+abandoned it with poignant regret; and when he was at length fixed among
+the whites, several of his children refused to share his tranquil and
+easy situation. I saw Tanner myself at the lower end of Lake Superior;
+he seemed to be more like a savage than a civilized being. His book is
+written without either taste or order; but he gives, even unconsciously,
+a lively picture of the prejudices, the passions, vices, and, above all,
+of the destitution in which he lived.
+
+[226] The destructive influence of highly civilized nations upon others
+which are less so, has been exemplified by the Europeans themselves.
+About a century ago the French founded the town of Vincennes upon the
+Wabash, in the middle of the desert; and they lived there in great
+plenty, until the arrival of the American settlers, who first ruined the
+previous inhabitants by their competition, and afterward purchased their
+lands at a very low rate. At the time when M. de Volney, from whom I
+borrow these details, passed through Vincennes, the number of the French
+was reduced to a hundred individuals, most of whom were about to pass
+over to Louisiana or to Canada. These French settlers were worthy
+people, but idle and uninstructed: they had contracted many of the
+habits of the savages. The Americans, who were perhaps their inferiors
+in a moral point of view, were immeasurably superior to them in
+intelligence: they were industrious, well-informed, rich, and accustomed
+to govern their own community.
+
+I myself saw in Canada, where the intellectual difference between the
+two races is less striking, that the English are the masters of commerce
+and manufacture in the Canadian country, that they spread on all sides,
+and confine the French within limits which scarcely suffice to contain
+them. In like manner, in Louisiana, almost all activity in commerce and
+manufacture centres in the hands of the Anglo-Americans.
+
+But the case of Texas is still more striking: the state of Texas is a
+part of Mexico, and lies upon the frontier between that country and the
+United States. In the course of the last few years the Anglo-Americans
+have penetrated into this province, which is still thinly peopled; they
+purchase land, they produce the commodities of the country, and supplant
+the original population. It may easily be foreseen that if Mexico takes
+no steps to check this change, the province of Texas will very shortly
+cease to belong to that government.
+
+If the different degrees, comparatively so light, which exist
+in European civilisation, produce results of such magnitude, the
+consequences which must ensue from the collision of the most perfect
+European civilisation with Indian savages may readily be conceived.
+
+[227] See in the legislative documents (21st congress, No. 89),
+instances of excesses of every kind committed by the whites upon the
+territory of the Indians, either in taking possession of a part of their
+lands, until compelled to retire by the troops of congress, or carrying
+off their cattle, burning their houses, cutting down their corn, and
+doing violence to their persons.
+
+It appears, nevertheless, from all these documents, that the claims of
+the natives are constantly protected by the government from the abuse
+of force. The Union has a representative agent continually employed to
+reside among the Indians; and the report of the Cherokee agent, which
+is among the documents I have referred to, is almost always favorable to
+the Indians. "The intrusion of whites," he says, "upon the lands of
+the Cherokees would cause ruin to the poor, helpless, and inoffensive
+inhabitants." And he farther remarks upon the attempt of the state of
+Georgia to establish a division line for the purpose of limiting the
+boundaries of the Cherokees, that the line drawn having been made by the
+whites, and entirely upon _exparte_ evidence of their several rights,
+was of no validity whatever.
+
+[228] In 1829 the state of Alabama divided the Creek territory into
+counties, and subjected the Indian population to the power of European
+magistrates.
+
+In 1830 the state of Mississippi assimilated the Choctaws and Chickasaws
+to the white population, and declared that any of them that should take
+the title of chief would be punished by a fine of 1,000 dollars and 3
+year's imprisonment. When these laws were enforced upon the Choctaws who
+inhabited that district, the tribes assembled, their chief communicated
+to them the intentions of the whites, and read to them some of the laws
+to which it was intended that they should submit; and they unanimously
+declared that it was better at once to retreat again into the wilds.
+
+[229] The Georgians, who are so much annoyed by the proximity of the
+Indians, inhabit a territory which does not at present contain more than
+seven inhabitants to the square mile. In France there are one hundred
+and sixty-two inhabitants to the same extent of country.
+
+[230] In 1818 congress appointed commissioners to visit the Arkansas
+territory accompanied by a deputation of Creeks, Choctaws, and
+Chickasaws. This expedition was commanded by Messrs. Kennerly,
+M'Coy, Wash Hood, and John Bell. See the different reports of the
+commissioners, and their journal, in the documents of congress, No. 87
+house of representatives.
+
+[231] The fifth article of the treaty made with the Creeks in August,
+1790, is in the following words: "The United States solemnly guaranty to
+the Creek nation all their land within the limits of the United States."
+
+The seventh article of the treaty concluded in 1791 with the Cherokees
+says: "The United States solemnly guaranty to the Cherokee nation all
+their lands not hereby ceded." The following article declared that if
+any citizen of the United States or other settler not of the Indian
+race, should establish himself upon the territory of the Cherokees, the
+United States would withdraw their protection from that individual, and
+give him up to be punished as the Cherokee nation should think fit.
+
+[232] This does not prevent them from promising in the most solemn
+manner to do so. See the letter of the president addressed to the Creek
+Indians, 23d March, 1829. ("Proceedings of the Indian Board, in the City
+of New York," p. 5.) "Beyond the great river Mississippi, where a part
+of your nation has gone, your father has provided a country large enough
+for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white
+brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and
+you can live upon it, you and all your children, as long as the grass
+grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. _It will be yours for
+ever_."
+
+The secretary of war, in a letter written to the Cherokees, April 18th,
+1829 (see the same work, page 6), declares to them that they cannot
+expect to retain possession of the land, at the time occupied by them,
+but gives them the most positive assurance of uninterrupted peace if
+they would remove beyond the Mississippi: as if the power which
+could not grant them protection then, would be able to afford it them
+hereafter!
+
+[233] To obtain a correct idea of the policy pursued by the several
+states and the Union with respect to the Indians, it is necessary to
+consult, 1st, "The laws of the colonial and state governments relating
+to the Indian inhabitants." (See the legislative documents, 21st
+congress, No. 319.) 2d, "The laws of the Union on the same subject, and
+especially that of March 20th, 1802." (See Story's Laws of the United
+States.) 3d, "The report of Mr. Cass, secretary of war, relative to
+Indian affairs, November 29th, 1823".
+
+[234] December 18th, 1829.
+
+[235] The honor of this result is, however, by no means due to the
+Spaniards. If the Indian tribes had not been tillers of the ground at
+the time of the arrival of the Europeans, they would unquestionably have
+been destroyed in South as well as in North America.
+
+[236] See among other documents, the report made by Mr. Bell in the name
+of the committee on Indian affairs, Feb. 24th, 1830, in which it is most
+logically established and most learnedly proved, that "the fundamental
+principle, that the Indians had no right by virtue of their ancient
+possession either of will or sovereignty, has never been abandoned
+either expressly or by implication."
+
+In perusing this report, which is evidently drawn up by an able hand,
+one is astonished at the facility with which the author gets rid of all
+arguments founded upon reason and natural right, which he designates
+as abstract and theoretical principles. The more I contemplate the
+difference between civilized and uncivilized man with regard to the
+principles of justice, the more I observe that the former contests the
+justice of those rights, which the latter simply violates.
+
+[237] It is well known that several of the most distinguished authors
+of antiquity, and among them AEsop and Terence, were or had been slaves.
+Slaves were not always taken from barbarous nations, and the chances of
+war reduced highly civilized men to servitude.
+
+[238] To induce the whites to abandon the opinion they have conceived
+of the moral and intellectual inferiority of their former slaves, the
+negroes must change; but as long as this opinion subsists, to change is
+impossible.
+
+[239] See Beverley's History of Virginia. See also in Jefferson's
+Memoirs some curious details concerning the introduction of negroes into
+Virginia, and the first act which prohibited the importation of them in
+1778.
+
+[240] The number of slaves was less considerable in the north, but the
+advantages resulting from slavery were not more contested there than in
+the south. In 1740, the legislature of the state of New York declared
+that the direct importation of slaves ought to be encouraged as much as
+possible, and smuggling severely punished, in order not to discourage
+the fair trader. (Kent's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 206.) Curious
+researches, by Belknap, upon slavery in New England, are to be found
+in the Historical Collections of Massachusetts, vol. iv., p. 193.
+It appears that negroes were introduced there in 1630, but that the
+legislation and manners of the people were opposed to slavery from the
+first; see also, in the same work, the manner in which public opinion,
+and afterward the laws, finally put an end to slavery.
+
+[241] Not only is slavery prohibited in Ohio, but no free negroes are
+allowed to enter the territory of that state, or to hold property in it.
+See the statutes of Ohio.
+
+[242] The activity of Ohio is not confined to individuals, but the
+undertakings of the state are surprisingly great: a canal has been
+established between Lake Erie and the Ohio, by means of which the valley
+of the Mississippi communicates with the river of the north, and the
+European commodities with arrive at New York, may be forwarded by water
+to New Orleans across five hundred leagues of continent.
+
+[243] The exact numbers given by the census of 1830 were: Kentucky,
+588,844; Ohio, 937,679. [In 1840 the census gave, Kentucky 779,828; Ohio
+1,519,467.]
+
+[244] Independently of these causes which, wherever free workmen abound,
+render their labor more productive and more economical than that of
+slaves, another cause may be pointed out which is peculiar to the United
+States: the sugar-cane has hitherto been cultivated with success only
+upon the banks of the Mississippi, near the mouth of that river in
+the gulf of Mexico. In Louisiana the cultivation of the sugar-cane is
+exceedingly lucrative; nowhere does a laborer earn so much by his
+work: and, as there is always a certain relation between the cost of
+production and the value of the produce, the price of slaves is very
+high in Louisiana. But Louisiana is one of the confederate states, and
+slaves may be carried thither from all parts of the Union; the price
+given for slaves in New Orleans consequently raises the value of slaves
+in all the other markets. The consequence of this is, that in the
+countries where the land is less productive, the cost of slave labor
+is still very considerable, which gives an additional advantage to the
+competition of free labor.
+
+[245] A peculiar reason contributes to detach the two last-mentioned
+states from the cause of slavery. The former wealth of this part of
+the Union was principally derived from the cultivation of tobacco. This
+cultivation is specially carried on by slaves; but within the last few
+years the market-price of tobacco has diminished, while the value of the
+slaves remains the same. Thus the ratio between the cost of production
+and the value of the produce is changed. The natives of Maryland and
+Virginia are therefore more disposed than they were thirty years ago, to
+give up slave labor in the cultivation of tobacco, or to give up slavery
+and tobacco at the same time.
+
+[246] The states in which slavery is abolished usually do what they
+can to render their territory disagreeable to the negroes as a place
+of residence; and as a kind of emulation exists between the different
+states in this respect, the unhappy blacks can only choose the least of
+the evils which beset them.
+
+[247] There is a very great difference between the mortality of the
+blacks and of the whites in the states in which slavery is abolished;
+from 1820 to 1831 only one out of forty-two individuals of the white
+population died in Philadelphia; but one negro out of twenty-one
+individuals of the black population died in the same space of time.
+The mortality is by no means so great among the negroes who are still
+slaves. (See Emmerson's Medical Statistics, p. 28.)
+
+[248] This is true of the spots in which rice is cultivated;
+rice-grounds, which are unwholesome in all countries, are particularly
+dangerous in those regions which are exposed to the beams of a tropical
+sun. Europeans would not find it easy to cultivate the soil in that part
+of the New World if it must necessarily be made to produce rice: but may
+they not subsist without rice-grounds?
+
+[249] These states are nearer to the equator than Italy and Spain, but
+the temperature of the continent of America is very much lower than that
+of Europe.
+
+[250] The Spanish government formerly caused a certain number of
+peasants from the Azores to be transported into a district of Louisiana
+called Attakapas, by way of experiment. These settlers still cultivate
+the soil without the assistance of slaves, but their industry is so
+languid as scarcely to supply their most necessary wants.
+
+[251] We find it asserted in an American work, entitled, "Letters on
+the Colonization Society," by Mr. Carey, 1833, that "for the last forty
+years the black race has increased more rapidly than the white race in
+the state of South Carolina; and that if we take the average population
+of the five states of the south into which slaves were first introduced,
+viz., Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia,
+we shall find that from 1790 to 1830, the whites have augmented in the
+proportion of 80 to 100, and the blacks in that of 112 to 100."
+
+In the United States, 1830, the population of the two races stood as
+follows:--
+
+States where slavery is abolished, 6,565,434 whites; 120,520 blacks.
+Slave states, 3,960,814 whites; 2,208,112 blacks.
+
+[By the census of 1840, the population of the two races was as follows:
+States where slavery is abolished, 9,556,065 whites; 171,854 blacks.
+Slave states, 4,633,153 whites; 2,581,688 blacks.]
+
+[252] This opinion is sanctioned by authorities infinitely weightier
+than anything that I can say; thus, for instance, it is stated in the
+Memoirs of Jefferson (as collected by M. Conseil), "Nothing is more
+clearly written in the book of destiny than the emancipation of the
+blacks; and it is equally certain that the two races will never live in
+a state of equal freedom under the same government, so insurmountable
+are the barriers which nature, habit, and opinions, have established
+between them."
+
+[253] If the British West India planters had governed themselves, they
+would assuredly not have passed the slave emancipation bill which the
+mother country has recently imposed upon them.
+
+[254] This society assumed the name "The Society for the Colonization
+of the Blacks." See its annual reports; and more particularly the
+fifteenth. See also the pamphlet, to which allusion has already been
+made, entitled "Letters on the Colonization Society, and on its probable
+results," by Mr. Carey, Philadelphia, April, 1833.
+
+[255] This last regulation was laid down by the founders of the
+settlement; they apprehended that a state of things might arise in
+Africa, similar to that which exists on the frontiers of the United
+States, and that if the negroes, like the Indians, were brought into
+collision with a people more enlightened than themselves, they would be
+destroyed before they could be civilized.
+
+[256] Nor would these be the only difficulties attendant upon the
+undertaking; if the Union undertook to buy up the negroes now in
+America, in order to transport them to Africa, the price of slaves,
+increasing with their scarcity, would soon become enormous.
+
+[257] In the original, "Voulant la servitude, il se sont laisse
+entrainer, malgre eux ou a leur insu, vers la liberte."
+
+"Desiring servitude, they have suffered themselves, involuntarily or
+ignorantly, to be drawn toward liberty."--_Reviser_.
+
+[258] See the conduct of the northern states in the war of 1812. "During
+that war," said Jefferson, in a letter to General Lafayette, "four
+of the eastern states were only attached to the Union, like so many
+inanimate bodies to living men."
+
+[259] The profound peace of the Union affords no pretext for a standing
+army; and without a standing army a government is not prepared to profit
+by a favorable opportunity to conquer resistance, and take the sovereign
+power by surprise.
+
+[260] Thus the province of Holland in the republic of the Low Countries,
+and the emperor in the Germanic Confederation, have sometimes put
+themselves in the place of the Union, and have employed the federal
+authority to their own advantage.
+
+[261] See Darby's View of the United States, pp. 64, 79.
+
+[262] See Darby's View of the United States, p. 435.
+
+[In Carey & Lea's Geography of America, the United States are said to
+form an area of 2,076,400 square miles.--_Translator's Note._]
+
+[The discrepancy between Darby's estimate of the area of the United
+States given by the author, and that stated by the translator, is
+not easily accounted for. In Bradford's comprehensive Atlas, a work
+generally of great accuracy, it is said that "as claimed by this
+country, the territory of the United States extends from 25 deg. to 54 deg.
+north latitude, and from 65 deg. 49' to 125 deg. west longitude, over an area of
+about 2,200,000 square miles."--_American Editor._]
+
+[263] It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that by the expression
+_Anglo-Americans_, I only mean to designate the great majority of the
+nation; for a certain number of isolated individuals are of course to be
+met with holding very different opinions.
+
+[264] Census of 1790........ 3,929,328.  do      1830........12,856,165.
+ [do.     1840........17,068,666.]
+
+[265] This indeed is only a temporary danger. I have no doubt that in
+time society will assume as much stability and regularity in the west,
+as it has already done upon the coast of the Atlantic ocean.
+
+[266] Pennsylvania contained 431,373 inhabitants in 1790.
+
+[267] The area of the state of New York is about 46,000 square miles.
+See Carey & Lea's American Geography, p. 142.
+
+[268] If the population continues to double every twenty-two years, as
+it has done for the last two hundred years, the number of inhabitants in
+the United States in 1852, will be twenty millions: in 1874, forty-eight
+millions; and in 1896, ninety-six millions. This may still be the case
+even if the lands on the western slope of the Rocky mountains should
+be found to be unfit for cultivation. The territory which is already
+occupied can easily contain this number of inhabitants. One hundred
+millions of men disseminated over the surface of the twenty-four states,
+and the three dependencies, which constitute the Union, would give only
+702 inhabitants to the square league: this would be far below the
+mean population of France, which is 1,003 to the square league; or of
+England, which is 1,457; and it would even be below the population of
+Switzerland, for that country, notwithstanding its lakes and mountains,
+contains 783 inhabitants to the square league. (See Maltebrun, vol. vi.,
+p. 92.)
+
+[269] See Legislative Documents, 20th congress, No. 117, p. 105.
+
+[270] 3,672,317; census 1830.
+
+[271] The distance of Jefferson, the capital of the state of Missouri,
+to Washington, is 1,018 miles. (American Almanac, 1831, p. 40.)
+
+[272] The following statements will suffice to show the difference which
+exists between the commerce of the south and that of the north:--
+
+In 1829, the tonnage of all the merchant-vessels belonging to Virginia,
+the two Carolinas, and Georgia (the four great southern states),
+amounted to only 5,243 tons. In the same year the tonnage of the vessels
+of the state of Massachusetts alone amounted to 17,322 tons. (See
+Legislative Documents, 21st congress, 2d session, No. 140, p. 244.) Thus
+the state of Massachusetts has three times as much shipping as the
+four abovementioned states. Nevertheless the area of the state of
+Massachusetts is only 7,335 square miles, and its population amounts
+to 610,014 inhabitants; while the area of the four other states I have
+quoted is 210,000 square miles, and their population 3,047,767. Thus the
+area of the state of Massachusetts forms only one thirtieth part of the
+area of the four states; and its population is five times smaller than
+theirs. (See Darby's View of the United States.) Slavery is prejudicial
+to the commercial prosperity of the south in several different ways; by
+diminishing the spirit of enterprise among the whites, and by preventing
+them from meeting with as numerous a class of sailors as they require.
+Sailors are generally taken from the lowest ranks of the population. But
+in the southern states these lowest ranks are composed of slaves, and
+it is very difficult to employ them at sea. They are unable to serve as
+well as a white crew, and apprehensions would always be entertained of
+their mutinying in the middle of the ocean, or of their escaping in the
+foreign countries at which they might touch.
+
+[273] Darby's view of the United States, p. 444.
+
+[274] It may be seen that in the course of the last ten years (1820-'30)
+the population of one district, as for instance, the state of Delaware,
+has increased in the proportion of 5 per cent.; while that of another,
+as the territory of Michigan, has increased 250 per cent. Thus the
+population of Virginia has augmented 13 per cent., and that of the
+border state of Ohio 61 per cent., in the same space of time. The
+general table of these changes, which is given in the National Calendar,
+displays a striking picture of the unequal fortunes of the different
+states.
+
+[275] It has just been said that in the course of the last term the
+population of Virginia has increased 13 per cent.; and it is necessary
+to explain how the number of representatives of a state may decrease,
+when the population of that state, far from diminishing, is actually
+upon the increase. I take the state of Virginia, to which I have already
+alluded, as my term of comparison. The number of representatives
+of Virginia in 1823 was proportionate to the total number of the
+representatives of the Union, and to the relation which its population
+bore to that of the whole Union; in 1833, the number of representatives
+of Virginia was likewise proportionate to the total number of the
+representatives of the Union, and to the relation which its population,
+augmented in the course of ten years, bore to the augmented population
+of the Union in the same space of time. The new number of Virginian
+representatives will then be to the old number, on the one hand, as the
+new number of all the representatives is to the old number; and, on the
+other hand, as the augmentation of the population of Virginia is to that
+of the whole population of the country. Thus, if the increase of the
+population of the lesser country be to that of the greater in an exact
+inverse ratio of the proportion between the new and the old numbers of
+all the representatives, the number of representatives of Virginia will
+remain stationary; and if the increase of the Virginian population be
+to that of the whole Union in a feebler ratio than the new number
+of representatives of the Union to the old number, the number of the
+representatives of Virginia must decrease.
+
+[276] See the report of its committees to the convention, which
+proclaimed the nullification of the tariff in South Carolina.
+
+[277] The population of a country assuredly constitutes the first
+element of its wealth. In the ten years (1820-'30) during which Virginia
+lost two of its representatives in congress, its population increased in
+the proportion of 13-7 per cent.; that of Carolina in the proportion
+of 15 per cent.; and that of Georgia 51-5 per cent. (See the American
+Almanac, 1832, p. 162.) But the population of Russia, which increases
+more rapidly than that of any other European country, only augments in
+ten years at the rate of 9-5 per cent.; of France at the rate of 7
+per cent.; and of Europe in general at the rate of 4-7 per cent. (See
+Maltebrun, vol. vi., p. 95.)
+
+[278] It must be admitted, however, that the depreciation which has
+taken place in the value of tobacco, during the last fifty years, has
+notably diminished the opulence of the southern planters; but this
+circumstance is as independent of the will of their northern brethren,
+as it is of their own.
+
+[279] In 1832, the district of Michigan, which only contains 31,639
+inhabitants, and is still an almost unexplored wilderness, possessed
+940 miles of mail-roads. The territory of Arkansas, which is still more
+uncultivated, was already intersected by 1,938 miles of mail-roads. (See
+report of the general post-office, 30th November, 1833.) The postage of
+newspapers alone in the whole Union amounted to $254,796.
+
+[280] In the course of ten years, from 1821 to 1831, 271 steamboats have
+been launched upon the rivers which water the valley of the Mississippi
+alone. In 1829, 259 steamboats existed in the United States. (See
+Legislative Documents, No. 140, p. 274.)
+
+[281] See in the legislative documents already quoted in speaking of
+the Indians, the letter of the President of the United States to the
+Cherokees, his correspondence on this subject with his agents, and his
+messages to Congress.
+
+[282] The first act of cession was made by the state of New York in
+1780; Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South and North Carolina,
+followed this example at different times, and lastly, the act of cession
+of Georgia was made as recently as 1802.
+
+[283] It is true that the president refused his assent to this law;
+but he completely adopted it in principle. See message of 8th December,
+1833.
+
+[284] The present bank of the United States was established in 1816,
+with a capital of 35,000,000 dollars; its charter expires in 1836. Last
+year congress passed a law to renew it, but the president put his veto
+upon the bill. The struggle is still going on with great violence on
+either side, and the speedy fall of the bank may easily be foreseen.
+
+[285] See principally for the details of this affair, the legislative
+documents, 22d congress, 2d session, No 3.
+
+[286] That is to say, the majority of the people; for the opposite
+party, called the Union party, always formed a very strong and active
+minority. Carolina may contain about 47,000 electors; 30,000 were in
+favor of nullification, and 17,000 opposed to it.
+
+[287] This decree was preceded by a report of the committee by which it
+was framed, containing the explanation of the motives and object of
+the law. The following passage occurs in it, p. 34: "When the rights
+reserved by the constitution to the different states are deliberately
+violated, it is the duty and the right of those states to interfere, in
+order to check the progress of the evil, to resist usurpation, and to
+maintain, within their respective limits, those powers and privileges
+which belong to them as _independent sovereign states_. If they were
+destitute of this right, they would not be sovereign. South Carolina
+declares that she acknowledges no tribunal upon earth above her
+authority. She has indeed entered into a solemn compact of union with
+the other states: but she demands, and will exercise, the right of
+putting her own construction upon it; and when this compact is violated
+by her sister states, and by the government which they have created, she
+is determined to avail herself of the unquestionable right of judging
+what is the extent of the infraction, and what are the measures best
+fitted to obtain justice."
+
+[288] Congress was finally decided to take this step by the conduct of
+the powerful state of Virginia, whose legislature offered to serve as a
+mediator between the Union and South Carolina. Hitherto the latter
+state had appeared to be entirely abandoned even by the states which had
+joined her in her remonstrances.
+
+[289] This law was passed on the 2d March, 1833.
+
+[290] This bill was brought in by Mr. Clay, and it passed in four days
+through both houses of Congress, by an immense majority.
+
+[291] The total value of goods imported during the year which ended
+on the 30th September, 1832, was 101,129,266 dollars. The value of the
+cargoes of foreign vessels did not amount to 10,731,039 dollars, or
+about one-tenth of the entire sum.
+
+[292] The value of goods exported during the same year amounted to
+87,176,943 dollars; the value of goods exported by foreign vessels
+amounted to 21,036,183 dollars, or about one quarter of the whole sum.
+(Williams's Register, 1833, p. 398.)
+
+[293] The tonnage of the vessels which entered all the ports of the
+Union in the years 1829, 1830, and 1831, amounted to 3,307,719 tons,
+of which 544,571 tons were foreign vessels; they stood therefore to
+the American vessels in a ratio of about 16 to 100. (National Calendar,
+1833, p. 304.) The tonnage of the English vessels which entered the
+ports of London, Liverpool and Hull, in the years 1820, 1826, and 1831,
+amounted to 443,800 tons. The foreign vessels which entered the same
+ports during the same years, amounted to 159,431 tons. The ratio between
+them was therefore about 36 to 100. (Companion to the Almanac, 1834, p.
+169.) In the year 1832 the ratio between the foreign and British ships
+which entered the ports of Great Britain was 29 to 100.
+
+[294] Materials are, generally speaking, less expensive in America than
+in Europe, but the price of labor is much higher.
+
+[295] It must not be supposed that English vessels are exclusively
+employed in transporting foreign produce into England, or British
+produce to foreign countries; at the present day the merchant shipping
+of England may be regarded in the light of a vast system of public
+conveyances ready to serve all the producers of the world, and to open
+communications between all peoples. The maritime genius of the Americans
+prompts them to enter into competition with the English.
+
+[296] Part of the commerce of the Mediterranean is already carried on by
+American vessels.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+I have now nearly reached the close of my inquiry. Hitherto, in speaking
+of the future destiny of the United States, I have endeavored to divide
+my subject into distinct portions, in order to study each of them with
+more attention. My present object is to embrace the whole from one
+single point; the remarks I shall make will be less detailed, but they
+will be more sure. I shall perceive each object less distinctly, but I
+shall descry the principal facts with more certainty. A traveller, who
+has just left the walls of an immense city, climbs the neighboring
+hill; as he goes farther off, he loses sight of the men whom he has so
+recently quitted; their dwellings are confused in a dense mass; he can
+no longer distinguish the public squares, and he can scarcely trace out
+the great thoroughfares; but his eye has less difficulty in following
+the boundaries of the city, and for the first time he sees the shape of
+the vast whole. Such is the future destiny of the British race in North
+America to my eye; the details of the stupendous picture are overhung
+with shade, but I conceive a clear idea of the entire subject.
+
+The territory now occupied or possessed by the United States of America,
+forms about one-twentieth part of the habitable earth. But extensive as
+these confines are, it must not be supposed that the Anglo-American race
+will always remain within them; indeed, it has already far overstepped
+them.
+
+There was once a time at which we also might have created a great French
+nation in the American wilds, to counter-balance the influence of the
+English upon the destinies of the New World. France formerly possessed
+a territory in North America, scarcely less extensive than the whole of
+Europe. The three greatest rivers of that continent then flowed within
+her dominions. The Indian tribes which dwelt between the mouth of the
+St. Lawrence and the delta of the Mississippi were unaccustomed to any
+tongue but ours; and all the European settlements scattered over that
+immense region recalled the traditions of our country. Louisburg,
+Montmorency, Duquesne, Saint-Louis, Vincennes, New Orleans (for such
+were the names they bore), are words dear to France and familiar to our
+ears.
+
+But a concourse of circumstances, which it would be tedious to
+enumerate,[297] have deprived us of this magnificent inheritance.
+Wherever the French settlers were numerically weak and partially
+established, they have disappeared; those who remain are collected on a
+small extent of country, and are now subject to other laws. The 400,000
+French inhabitants of Lower Canada constitute, at the present time, the
+remnant of an old nation lost in the midst of a new people. A foreign
+population is increasing around them unceasingly, and on all sides,
+which already penetrates among the ancient masters of the country,
+predominates in their cities, and corrupts their language. This
+population is identical with that of the United States; it is therefore
+with truth that I asserted that the British race is not confined within
+the frontiers of the Union, since it already extends to the northeast.
+
+To the northwest nothing is to be met with but a few insignificant
+Russian settlements; but to the southwest, Mexico presents a barrier to
+the Anglo-Americans. Thus, the Spaniards and the Anglo-Americans are,
+properly speaking, the only two races which divide the possession of the
+New World. The limits of separation between them have been settled by
+a treaty; but although the conditions of that treaty are exceedingly
+favorable to the Anglo-Americans, I do not doubt that they will
+shortly infringe this arrangement. Vast provinces, extending beyond
+the frontiers of the Union toward Mexico, are still destitute of
+inhabitants. The natives of the United States will forestall the
+rightful occupants of these solitary regions. They will take possession
+of the soil, and establish social institutions, so that when the legal
+owner arrives at length, he will find the wilderness under cultivation,
+and strangers quietly settled in the midst of his inheritance.
+
+The lands of the New World belong to the first occupants and they are
+the natural reward of the swiftest pioneer. Even the countries which are
+already peopled will have some difficulty in securing themselves from
+this invasion. I have already alluded to what is taking place in the
+province of Texas. The inhabitants of the United States are perpetually
+migrating to Texas, where they purchase land, and although they conform
+to the laws of the country, they are gradually founding the empire of
+their own language and their own manners. The province of Texas is still
+part of the Mexican dominions, but it will soon contain no Mexicans:
+the same thing has occurred whenever the Anglo-Americans have come into
+contact with populations of a different origin.
+
+[The prophetic accuracy of the author, in relation to the present actual
+condition of Texas, exhibits the sound and clear perception with which
+he surveyed our institutions and character.--_American Editor_.]
+
+It cannot be denied that the British race has acquired an amazing
+preponderance over all the other European races in the New World; and
+that it is very superior to them in civilisation, in industry, and in
+power. As long as it is only surrounded by desert or thinly-peopled
+countries, as long as it encounters no dense populations upon its route,
+through which it cannot work its way, it will assuredly continue to
+spread. The lines marked out by treaties will not stop it; but it will
+everywhere transgress these imaginary barriers.
+
+The geographical position of the British race in the New World is
+peculiarly favorable to its rapid increase. Above its northern frontiers
+the icy regions of the pole extend; and a few degrees below its southern
+confines lies the burning climate of the equator. The Anglo-Americans
+are therefore placed in the most temperate and habitable zone of the
+continent.
+
+It is generally supposed that the prodigious increase of population in
+the United States is posterior to their declaration of independence. But
+this is an error: the population increased as rapidly under the colonial
+system as it does at the present day; that is to say, it doubled in
+about twenty-two years. But this proportion, which is now applied to
+millions, was then applied to thousands, of inhabitants; and the same
+fact which was scarcely noticeable a century ago, is now evident to
+every observer.
+
+The British subjects in Canada, who are dependent on a king, augment and
+spread almost as rapidly as the British settlers of the United States,
+who live under a republican government. During the war of independence,
+which lasted eight years, the population continued to increase without
+intermission in the same ratio. Although powerful Indian nations allied
+with the English existed, at that time, upon the western frontiers, the
+emigration westward was never checked. While the enemy laid waste the
+shores of the Atlantic, Kentucky, the western parts of Pennsylvania, and
+the states of Vermont and of Maine were filling with inhabitants. Nor
+did the unsettled state of the constitution, which succeeded the war,
+prevent the increase of the population, or stop its progress across the
+wilds. Thus, the difference of laws, the various conditions of peace and
+war, of order and of anarchy, have exercised no perceptible influence
+upon the gradual development of the Anglo-Americans. This may be readily
+understood: for the fact is, that no causes are sufficiently general
+to exercise a simultaneous influence over the whole of so extensive a
+territory. One portion of the country always offers a sure retreat from
+the calamities which afflict another part; and however great may be the
+evil, the remedy which is at hand is greater still.
+
+It must not, then, be imagined that the impulse of the British race in
+the New World can be arrested. The dismemberment of the Union, and the
+hostilities which might ensue, the abolition of republican institutions,
+and the tyrannical government which might succeed it, may retard this
+impulse, but they cannot prevent it from ultimately fulfilling the
+destinies to which that race is reserved. No power upon earth can close
+upon the emigrants that fertile wilderness which offers resources to all
+industry and a refuge from all want. Future events, of whatever nature
+they may be, will not deprive the Americans of their climate or of their
+inland seas, of their great rivers or of their exuberant soil. Nor will
+bad laws, revolutions, and anarchy, be able to obliterate that love
+of prosperity and that spirit of enterprise which seem to be the
+distinctive characteristics of their race, or to extinguish that
+knowledge which guides them on their way.
+
+Thus, in the midst of the uncertain future, one event at least is sure.
+At a period which may be said to be near (for we are speaking of the
+life of a nation), the Anglo-Americans will alone cover the immense
+space contained between the polar regions and the tropics, extending
+from the coasts of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific ocean. The
+territory which will probably be occupied by the Anglo-Americans at
+some future time, may be computed to equal three-quarters of Europe in
+extent.[298] The climate of the Union is upon the whole preferable to
+that of Europe, and its natural advantages are not less great; it
+is therefore evident that its population will at some future time be
+proportionate to our own. Europe, divided as it is between so many
+different nations, and torn as it has been by incessant wars and the
+barbarous manners of the Middle Ages, has notwithstanding attained a
+population of 410 inhabitants to the square league.[299] What cause can
+prevent the United States from having as numerous a population in time?
+
+Many ages must elapse before the divers offsets of the British race in
+America cease to present the same homogeneous characteristics; and the
+time cannot be foreseen at which a permanent inequality of conditions
+will be established in the New World. Whatever differences may arise,
+from peace or from war, from freedom or oppression, from prosperity or
+want, between the destinies of the different descendants of the great
+Anglo-American family, they will at least preserve an analogous social
+condition, and they will hold in common the customs and the opinions to
+which that social condition has given birth.
+
+In the Middle Ages, the tie of religion was sufficiently powerful
+to imbue all the different populations of Europe with the same
+civilisation. The British of the New World have a thousand other
+reciprocal ties; and they live at a time when the tendency to equality
+is general among mankind. The Middle Ages were a period when everything
+was broken up; when each people, each province, each city, and each
+family, had a strong tendency to maintain its distinct individuality. At
+the present time an opposite tendency seems to prevail, and the nations
+seem to be advancing to unity. Our means of intellectual intercourse
+unite the most remote parts of the earth; and it is impossible for men
+to remain strangers to each other, or to be ignorant of the events which
+are taking place in any corner of the globe. The consequence is, that
+there is less difference, at the present day, between the Europeans and
+their descendants in the New World, than there was between certain towns
+in the thirteenth century, which were only separated by a river. If this
+tendency to assimilation brings foreign nations closer to each other,
+it must _a fortiori_ prevent the descendants of the same people from
+becoming aliens to each other.
+
+The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men
+will be living in North America,[300] equal in condition, the progeny of
+one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and preserving the same
+civilisation, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the
+same manners, and imbued with the same opinions, propagated under the
+same forms. The rest is uncertain, but this is certain; and it is a fact
+new to the world--a fact fraught with such portentous consequences as to
+baffle the efforts even of the imagination.
+
+There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world, which
+seem to tend toward the same end, although they started from different
+points; I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have
+grown up unnoticed; and while the attention of mankind was directed
+elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place among the
+nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness at
+almost the same time.
+
+All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and
+only to be charged with the maintenance of their power; but these are
+still in the act of growth;[301] all the others are stopped, or continue
+to advance with extreme difficulty; these are proceeding with ease and
+with celerity along a path to which the human eye can assign no term.
+The American struggles against the natural obstacles which oppose
+him; the adversaries of the Russian are men; the former combats the
+wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilisation with all its
+weapons and its arts; the conquests of the one are therefore gained by
+the ploughshare; those of the other, by the sword. The Anglo-American
+relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free
+scope to the unguided exertions and common sense of the citizens;
+the Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm; the
+principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude.
+Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same;
+yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway
+the destinies of half the globe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes:
+
+[297] The foremost of these circumstances is, that nations which are
+accustomed to free institutions and municipal government are better able
+than any others to found prosperous colonies. The habit of thinking and
+governing for oneself is indispensable in a new country, where success
+necessarily depends, in a great measure, upon the individual exertions
+of the settlers.
+
+[298] The United States already extend over a territory equal to one
+half of Europe. The area of Europe is 500,000 square leagues, and its
+population 205,000,000 of inhabitants. (Maltebrun, liv. 114, vol., vi.,
+p. 4.)
+
+[299] See Maltebrun, liv. 116, vol. vi., p.92.
+
+[300] This would be a population proportionate to that of Europe, taken
+at a mean rate of 410 inhabitants to the square league.
+
+[301] Russia is the country in the Old World in which population
+increases most rapidly in proportion.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+APPENDIX A.--Page 17.
+
+For information concerning all the countries of the West which have
+not been visited by Europeans, consult the account of two expeditions
+undertaken at the expense of congress by Major Long. This traveller
+particularly mentions, on the subject of the great American desert, that
+a line may be drawn nearly parallel to the 20th degree of longitude[302]
+(meridian of Washington), beginning from the Red river and ending at
+the river Platte. From this imaginary line to the Rocky mountains, which
+bound the valley of the Mississippi on the west, lie immense plains,
+which are almost entirely covered with sand, incapable of cultivation,
+or scattered over with masses of granite. In summer, these plains are
+quite destitute of water, and nothing is to be seen on them but herds of
+buffaloes and wild horses. Some hordes of Indians are also found there,
+but in no great number.
+
+Major Long was told, that in travelling northward from the river Platte,
+you find the same desert constantly on the left; but he was unable to
+ascertain the truth of this report. (Long's Expedition, vol. ii., p.
+361.)
+
+However worthy of confidence may be the narrative of Major Long, it
+must be remembered that he only passed through the country of which he
+speaks, without deviating widely from the line which he had traced out
+for his journey.
+
+[302] The 20th degree of longitude according to the meridian of
+Washington, agrees very nearly with the 97th degree on the meridian of
+Greenwich.
+
+
+APPENDIX B.--Page 18.
+
+South America, in the regions between the tropics, produces an
+incredible profusion of climbing-plants, of which the Flora of the
+Antilles alone presents us with forty different species.
+
+Among the most graceful of these shrubs is the passion-flower, which,
+according to Descourtiz, grows with such luxuriance in the Antilles, as
+to climb trees by means of the tendrils with which it is provided, and
+form moving bowers of rich and elegant festoons, decorated with blue and
+purple flowers, and fragrant with perfume. (Vol. i., p. 265.)
+
+The _mimosa scandens_ (acacia a grandes gousses) is a creeper of
+enormous and rapid growth, which climbs from tree to tree, and sometimes
+covers more than half a league. (Vol. iii., p. 227.)
+
+
+APPENDIX C.--Page 20.
+
+The languages which are spoken by the Indians of America, from the Pole
+to Cape Horn, are said to be all formed upon the same model, and subject
+to the same grammatical rules; whence it may fairly be concluded that
+all the Indian nations sprang from the same stock.
+
+Each tribe of the American continent speaks a different dialect; but
+the number of languages, properly so called, is very small, a fact which
+tends to prove that the nations of the New World had not a very remote
+origin.
+
+Moreover, the languages of America have a great degree of regularity;
+from which it seems probable that the tribes which employ them had not
+undergone any great revolutions, or been incorporated, voluntarily, or
+by constraint, with foreign nations. For it is generally the union of
+several languages into one which produces grammatical irregularities.
+
+It is not long since the American languages, especially those of the
+north, first attracted the serious attention of philologists, when the
+discovery was made that this idiom of a barbarous people was the product
+of a complicated system of ideas and very learned combinations. These
+languages were found to be very rich, and great pains had been taken at
+their formation to render them agreeable to the ear.
+
+The grammatical system of the Americans differs from all others in
+several points, but especially in the following:--
+
+Some nations in Europe, among others the Germans, have the power of
+combining at pleasure different expressions, and thus giving a complex
+sense to certain words. The Indians have given a most surprising
+extension to this power, so as to arrive at the means of connecting a
+great number of ideas with a single term. This will be easily understood
+with the help of an example quoted by Mr. Duponceau, in the Memoirs of
+the Philosophical Society of America.
+
+"A Delaware woman, playing with a cat or a young dog," says this writer,
+"is heard to pronounce the word _kuligatschis_; which is thus composed;
+_k_ is the sign of the second person, and signifies 'thou' or 'thy;'
+_uli_ is a part of the word _wulit_, which signifies 'beautiful,'
+'pretty;' _gat_ is another fragment of the word _wichgat_, which means
+'paw;' and lastly, _schis_ is a diminutive giving the idea of smallness.
+Thus in one word the Indian woman has expressed, 'Thy pretty little
+paw.'"
+
+Take another example of the felicity with which the savages of America
+have composed their words. A young man of Delaware is called _pilape_.
+This word is formed from _pilsit_, chaste, innocent; and _lenape_, man;
+viz., man in his purity and innocence.
+
+This facility of combining words is most remarkable in the strange
+formation of their verbs. The most complex action is often expressed by
+a single verb, which serves to convey all the shades of an idea by the
+modification of its construction.
+
+Those who may wish to examine more in detail this subject, which I have
+only glanced at superficially, should read:--
+
+1. The correspondence of Mr. Duponceau and the Rev. Mr. Hecwelder
+relative to the Indian languages; which is to be found in the first
+volume of the Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of America, published
+at Philadelphia, 1819, by Abraham Small, vol i., pp 356-464.
+
+2. The grammar of the Delaware or Lenape language by Geiberger, the
+preface of Mr. Duponceau. All these are in the same collection, vol.
+iii.
+
+3. An excellent account of these works, which is at the end of the 6th
+volume of the American Encyclopaedia.
+
+
+APPENDIX D.--Page 22.
+
+See in Charlevoix, vol i., p. 235, the history of the first war which
+the French inhabitants of Canada carried on, in 1610, against the
+Iroquois. The latter, armed with bows and arrows, offered a desperate
+resistance to the French and their allies. Charlevoix is not a great
+painter, yet he exhibits clearly enough, in this narrative, the contrast
+between the European manners and those of savages, as well as the
+different way in which the two races of men understood the sense of
+honor.
+
+When the French, says he, seized upon the beaver-skins which covered the
+Indians who had fallen, the Hurons, their allies, were greatly offended
+at this proceeding; but without hesitation they set to work in their
+usual manner, inflicting horrid cruelties upon the prisoners, and
+devouring one of those who had been killed, which made the Frenchmen
+shudder. The barbarians prided themselves upon a scrupulousness
+which they were surprised at not finding in our nation; and could not
+understand that there was less to reprehend in the stripping of dead
+bodies, than in the devouring of their flesh like wild beasts.
+
+Charlevoix, in another place (vol. i., p. 230), thus describes the first
+torture of which Champlain was an eyewitness, and the return of the
+Hurons into their own village.
+
+"Having proceeded about eight leagues," says he, "our allies halted: and
+having singled out one of their captives, they reproached him with all
+the cruelties which he had practised upon the warriors of their nation
+who had fallen into his hands, and told him that he might expect to
+be treated in like manner; adding, that if he had any spirit, he would
+prove it by singing. He immediately chanted forth his death-song, and
+then his war-song, and all the songs he knew, 'but in a very mournful
+strain,' says Champlain, who was not then aware that all savage music
+has a melancholy character. The tortures which succeeded, accompanied by
+all the horrors which we shall mention hereafter, terrified the French,
+who made every effort to put a stop to them, but in vain. The following
+night one of the Hurons having dreamed that they were pursued, the
+retreat was changed to a real flight, and the savages never stopped
+until they were out of the reach of danger."
+
+The moment they perceived the cabins of their own village, they cut
+themselves long sticks, to which they fastened the scalps which had
+fallen to their share, and carried them in triumph. At this sight, the
+women swam to the canoes, where they received the bloody scalps from the
+hands of their husbands, and tied them round their necks.
+
+The warriors offered one of these horrible trophies to Champlain; they
+also presented him with some bows and arrows--the only spoils of the
+Iroquois which they had ventured to seize--entreating him to show them
+to the king of France.
+
+Champlain lived a whole winter quite alone among these barbarians,
+without being under any alarm for his person or property.
+
+
+APPENDIX E.--Page 36.
+
+Although the puritanical strictness which presided over the
+establishment of the English colonies in America is now much relaxed,
+remarkable traces of it are still found in their habits and their laws.
+In 1792, at the very time when the anti-Christian republic of France
+began its ephemeral existence, the legislative body of Massachusetts
+promulgated the following law, to compel the citizens to observe the
+sabbath. We give the preamble, and the principal articles of this law,
+which is worthy of the reader's attention.
+
+"Whereas," says the legislator, "the observation of the Sunday is
+an affair of public interest; inasmuch as it produces a necessary
+suspension of labor, leads men to reflect upon the duties of life and
+the errors to which human nature is liable, and provides for the public
+and private worship of God the creator and governor of the universe,
+and for the performance of such acts of charity as are the ornament and
+comfort of Christian societies:--
+
+"Whereas, irreligious or light-minded persons, forgetting the duties
+which the sabbath imposes, and the benefits which these duties confer on
+society, are known to profane its sanctity, by following their pleasures
+or their affairs; this way of acting being contrary to their own
+interest as Christians, and calculated to annoy those who do not follow
+their example; being also of great injury to society at large, by
+spreading a taste for dissipation and dissolute manners;--
+
+"Be it enacted and ordained by the governor, council, and
+representatives convened in general court of assembly, that all and
+every person and persons shall, on that day, carefully apply themselves
+to the duties of religion and piety; that no tradesman or laborer shall
+exercise his ordinary calling, and that no game or recreation shall be
+used on the Lord's day, upon pain of forfeiting ten shillings;--
+
+"That no one shall travel on that day, or any part thereof, under pain
+of forfeiting twenty shillings; that no vessel shall leave a harbor of
+the colony; that no person shall keep outside the meetinghouse during
+the time of public worship, or profane the time by playing or talking,
+on penalty of five shillings.
+
+"Public-houses shall not entertain any other than strangers or lodgers,
+under a penalty of five shillings for every person found drinking or
+abiding therein.
+
+"Any person in health who, without sufficient reason, shall omit to
+worship God in public during three months, shall be condemned to a fine
+of ten shillings.
+
+"Any person guilty of misbehavior in a place of public worship shall be
+fined from five to forty shillings.
+
+"These laws are to be enforced by the tithing-men of each township, who
+have authority to visit public-houses on the Sunday. The innkeeper who
+shall refuse them admittance shall be fined forty shillings for such
+offence.
+
+"The tithing-men are to stop travellers, and to require of them their
+reason for being on the road on Sunday: any one refusing to answer shall
+be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five pounds sterling. If
+the reason given by the traveller be not deemed by the tithing-men
+sufficient, he may bring the traveller before the justice of the
+peace of the district." (_Law of the 8th March, 1792: General Laws of
+Massachusetts_, vol. i., p. 410.)
+
+On the 11th March, 1797, a new law increased the amount of fines, half
+of which was to be given to the informer. (_Same collection_, vol. ii.,
+p. 525.)
+
+On the 16th February, 1816, a new law confirmed these measures. (_Same
+collection_, vol. ii., p. 405.)
+
+Similar enactments exist in the laws of the state of New York, revised
+in 1827 and 1828. (See _Revised Statutes_, part i., chapter 20, p. 675.)
+In these it is declared that no one is allowed on the sabbath to sport,
+to fish, play at games, or to frequent houses where liquor is sold. _No
+one_ can travel except in case of necessity.
+
+And this is not the only trace which the religious strictness and
+austere manners of the first emigrants have left behind them in the
+American laws.
+
+In the revised statutes of the state of New York, vol. i., p. 662, is
+the following clause:--
+
+"Whoever shall win or lose in the space of twenty-four hours, by gaming
+or betting, the sum of twenty-five dollars, shall be found guilty of
+a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be condemned to pay a fine
+equal to at least five times the value of the sum lost or won; which
+will be paid to the inspector of the poor of the township. He that loses
+twenty-five dollars or more, may bring an action to recover them; and
+if he neglects to do so, the inspector of the poor may prosecute the
+winner, and oblige him to pay into the poor box both the sum he has
+gained and three times as much beside."
+
+The laws we quote from are of recent date; but they are unintelligible
+without going back to the very origin of the colonies. I have no doubt
+that in our days the penal part of these laws is very rarely applied.
+Laws preserve their inflexibility long after the manners of a nation
+have yielded to the influence of time. It is still true, however, that
+nothing strikes a foreigner on his arrival in America more forcibly than
+the regard to the sabbath.
+
+There is one, in particular, of the large American cities, in which all
+social movements begin to be suspended even on Saturday evening. You
+traverse its streets at the hour at which you expect men in the middle
+of life to be engaged in business, and young people in pleasure; and you
+meet with solitude and silence. Not only have all ceased to work, but
+they appear to have ceased to exist. Neither the movements of industry
+are heard, nor the accents of joy, nor even the confused murmur which
+arises from the midst of a great city. Chains are hung across the
+streets in the neighborhood of the churches; the half closed shutters
+of the houses scarcely admit a ray of sun into the dwellings of the
+citizens. Now and then you perceive a solitary individual, who glides
+silently along the deserted streets and lanes.
+
+Next day, at early dawn, the rolling of carriages, the noise of hammers,
+the cries of the population, begin to make themselves heard again. The
+city is awake. An eager crowd hastens toward the resort of commerce
+and industry; everything around you bespeaks motion, bustle, hurry. A
+feverish activity succeeds to the lethargic stupor of yesterday: you
+might almost suppose that they had but one day to acquire wealth and to
+enjoy it.
+
+
+APPENDIX F.--Page 41.
+
+It is unnecessary for me to say, that in the chapter which has just been
+read, I have not had the intention of giving a history of America. My
+only object was to enable the reader to appreciate the influence which
+the opinions and manners of the first emigrants had exercised upon
+the fate of the different colonies and of the Union in general. I have
+therefore confined myself to the quotation of a few detached fragments.
+
+I do not know whether I am deceived, but it appears to me that by
+pursuing the path which I have merely pointed out, it would be easy to
+present such pictures of the American republics as would not be unworthy
+the attention of the public, and could not fail to suggest to the
+statesman matter for reflection.
+
+Not being able to devote myself to this labor, I am anxious to render
+it easy to others; and for this purpose, I subjoin a short catalogue and
+analysis of the works which seem to me the most important to consult.
+
+At the head of the general documents, which it would be advantageous
+to examine, I place the work entitled An Historical Collection of State
+Papers, and other authentic Documents, intended as Materials for a
+History of the United States of America, by Ebenezer Hasard. The first
+volume of this compilation, which was printed at Philadelphia in 1792,
+contains a literal copy of all the charters granted by the crown of
+England to the emigrants, as well as the principal acts of the colonial
+governments, during the commencement of their existence. Among other
+authentic documents, we here find a great many relating to the affairs
+of New England and Virginia during this period. The second volume is
+almost entirely devoted to the acts of the confederation of 1643. This
+federal compact, which was entered into by the colonies of New England
+with the view of resisting the Indians, was the first instance of
+union afforded by the Anglo-Americans. There were besides many other
+confederations of the same nature, before the famous one of 1776, which
+brought about the independence of the colonies.
+
+Each colony has, besides, its own historic monuments, some of which are
+extremely curious; beginning with Virginia, the state which was first
+peopled. The earliest historian of Virginia was its founder, Capt. John
+Smith. Capt. Smith has left us an octavo volume, entitled, The generall
+Historic of Virginia and New England, by Captain John Smith, sometymes
+Governour in those Countryes, and Admirall of New England; printed at
+London in 1627. The work is adorned with curious maps and engravings of
+the time when it appeared; the narrative extends from the year 1584 to
+1626. Smith's work is highly and deservedly esteemed. The author was one
+of the most celebrated adventurers of a period of remarkable adventure;
+his book breathes that ardor for discovery, that spirit of enterprise
+which characterized the men of his time, when the manners of chivalry
+were united to zeal for commerce, and made subservient to the
+acquisition of wealth.
+
+But Capt. Smith is remarkable for uniting, to the virtues which
+characterized his contemporaries, several qualities to which they were
+generally strangers: his style is simple and concise, his narratives
+bear the stamp of truth, and his descriptions are free from false
+ornament.
+
+This author throws most valuable light upon the state and condition of
+the Indians at the time when North America was first discovered.
+
+The second historian to consult is Beverley, who commences his narrative
+with the year 1595, and ends it with 1700. The first part of his book
+contains historical documents, properly so called, relative to the
+infancy of the colonies. The second affords a most curious picture of
+the Indians at this remote period. The third conveys very clear ideas
+concerning the manners, social condition, laws, and political customs of
+the Virginians in the author's lifetime.
+
+Beverley was a native of Virginia, which occasions him to say at the
+beginning of his book that he entreats his readers not to exercise their
+critical severity upon it, since, having been born in the Indies, he
+does not aspire to purity of language. Notwithstanding this colonial
+modesty, the author shows throughout his book the impatience with which
+he endures the supremacy of the mother-country. In this work of Beverley
+are also found numerous traces of that spirit of civil liberty which
+animated the English colonies of America at the time when he wrote. He
+also shows the dissensions which existed among them and retarded their
+independence. Beverley detests his catholic neighbors of Maryland, even
+more than he hates the English government; his style is simple, his
+narrative interesting and apparently trustworthy.
+
+I saw in America another work which ought to be consulted, entitled, The
+_History of Virginia_, by William Stith. This book affords some curious
+details, but _I_ thought it long and diffuse.
+
+The most ancient as well as the best document to be consulted on the
+history of Carolina is a work in a small quarto, entitled, The History
+of Carolina, by John Lawson, printed at London in 1718. This work
+contains, in the first part, a journey of discovery in the west of
+Carolina; the account of which, given in the form of a journal, is
+in general confused and superficial; but it contains a very striking
+description of the mortality caused among the savages of that time, both
+by the small-pox and the immoderate use of brandy; and with a curious
+picture of the corruption of manners prevalent among them, which was
+increased by the presence of Europeans. The second part of Lawson's book
+is taken up with a description of the physical condition of Carolina,
+and its productions. In the third part, the author gives an interesting
+account of the manners, customs, and government of the Indians at that
+period. There is a good deal of talent and originality in this part of
+the work.
+
+Lawson concludes his history with a copy of the charter granted to the
+Carolinas in the reign of Charles II. The general tone of this work is
+light, and often licentious, forming a perfect contrast to the solemn
+style of the works published at the same period in New England. Lawson's
+history is extremely scarce in America, and cannot be procured in
+Europe. There is, however, a copy of it in the royal library at Paris.
+
+From the southern extremity of the United States I pass at once to the
+northern limit; as the intermediate space was not peopled till a later
+period.
+
+I must first point out a very curious compilation, entitled, Collection
+of the Massachusetts Historical Society, printed for the first time at
+Boston in 1792, and reprinted in 1806. The collection of which I speak,
+and which is continued to the present day, contains a great number of
+very valuable documents relating to the history of the different states
+of New England. Among them are letters which have never been published,
+and authentic pieces which have been buried in provincial archives. The
+whole work of Gookin concerning the Indians is inserted there.
+
+I have mentioned several times, in the chapter to which this note
+relates, the work of Nathaniel Norton, entitled New England's Memorial;
+sufficiently perhaps to prove that it deserves the attention of those
+who would be conversant with the history of New England. This book is in
+8vo. and was reprinted at Boston in 1826.
+
+The most valuable and important authority which exists upon the history
+of New England is the work of the Rev. Cotton Mather, entitled Magnalia
+Christi Americana, or the Ecclesiastical History of New England,
+1620-1698, 2 vols. 8vo, reprinted at Hartford, United States, in 1820.
+(A folio edition of this work was published in London in 1702.) The
+author divided his work into seven books. The first presents the history
+of the events which prepared and brought about the establishment of New
+England. The second contains the lives of the first governors and chief
+magistrates who presided over the country. The third is devoted to the
+lives and labors of the evangelical ministers who during the same period
+had the care of souls. In the fourth the author relates the institution
+and progress of the University of Cambridge (Massachusetts). In the
+fifth he describes the principles and the discipline of the Church of
+New England. The sixth is taken up in retracing certain facts, which, in
+the opinion of Mather, prove the merciful interposition of Providence
+in behalf of the inhabitants of New England. Lastly, in the seventh, the
+author gives an account of the heresies and the troubles to which the
+Church of New England was exposed. Cotton Mather was an evangelical
+minister who was born at Boston, and passed his life there. His
+narratives are distinguished by the same ardor and religious zeal which
+led to the foundation of the colonies of New England. Traces of bad
+taste sometimes occur in his manner of writing; but he interests,
+because he is full of enthusiasm. He is often intolerant, still oftener
+credulous, but he never betrays an intention to deceive. Sometimes his
+book contains fine passages, and true and profound reflections, such as
+the following:--
+
+"Before the arrival of the Puritans," says he (vol. i., chap, iv.),
+"there were more than a few attempts of the English to people and
+improve the parts of New England which were to the northward of New
+Plymouth; but the design of those attempts being aimed no higher
+than the advancement of some worldly interests, a constant series of
+disasters has confounded them, until there was a plantation erected upon
+the nobler designs of Christianity: and that plantation, though it
+has had more adversaries than perhaps any one upon earth, yet, having
+obtained help from God, it continues to this day."
+
+Mather occasionally relieves the austerity of his descriptions with
+images full of tender feeling: after having spoken of an English lady
+whose religious ardor had brought her to America with her husband, and
+who soon after sank under the fatigues and privations of exile, he adds,
+"As for her virtuous husband, Isaac Johnson,
+
+  "He tried
+  To live without her, liked it not, and died."--(Vol. i.)
+
+Mather's work gives an admirable picture of the time and country which
+he describes. In his account of the motives which led the puritans to
+seek an asylum beyond seas, he says:--
+
+"The God of heaven served, as it were, a summons upon the spirits of his
+people in the English nation, stirring up the spirits of thousands which
+never saw the faces of each other, with a most unanimous inclination to
+leave the pleasant accommodations of their native country, and go over
+a terrible ocean, into a more terrible desert, for the pure enjoyment
+of all his ordinances. It is now reasonable that, before we pass any
+farther, the reasons of this undertaking should be more exactly made
+known unto posterity, especially unto the posterity of those that were
+the undertakers, lest they come at length to forget and neglect the true
+interest of New England. Wherefore I shall now transcribe some of them
+from a manuscript wherein they were then tendered unto consideration.
+
+"_General Considerations for the Plantation of New England_.
+
+"First, it will be a service unto the church of great consequence, to
+carry the gospel unto those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark
+against the kingdom of antichrist, which the Jesuits labor to rear up in
+all parts of the world.
+
+"Secondly, all other churches of Europe have been brought under
+desolations; and it may be feared that the like judgments are coming
+upon us; and who knows but God hath provided this place to be a refuge
+for many whom he means to save out of the general destruction!
+
+"Thirdly, the land grows weary of her inhabitants, inasmuch that man,
+which is the most precious of all creatures, is here more vile and
+base than the earth he treads upon; children, neighbors, and friends,
+especially the poor, are counted the greatest burdens, which, if things
+were right, would be the chiefest of earthly blessings.
+
+"Fourthly, we are grown to that intemperance in all excess of riot, as
+no mean estate almost will suffice a man to keep sail with his equals,
+and he that fails in it must live in scorn and contempt; hence it comes
+to pass, that all arts and trades are carried in that deceitful manner
+and unrighteous course, as it is almost impossible for a good upright
+man to maintain his constant charge and live comfortably in them.
+
+"Fifthly, the schools of learning and religion are so corrupted, as
+(beside the unsupportable charge of education) most children, even the
+best, wittiest, and of the fairest hopes, are prevented, corrupted,
+and utterly overthrown by the multitude of evil examples and licentious
+behaviors in these seminaries.
+
+"Sixthly, the whole earth is the Lord's garden, and he hath given it to
+the sons of Adam, to be tilled and improved by them: why then should
+we stand starving here for places of habitation, and in the mean time
+suffer whole countries, as profitable for the use of man, to lie waste
+without any improvement?
+
+"Seventhly, what can be a better or a nobler work, and more worthy of a
+Christian, than to erect and support a reformed particular church in its
+infancy, and unite our forces with such a company of faithful people, as
+by timely assistance may grow stronger and prosper; but for want of it,
+may be put to great hazards, if not be wholly ruined.
+
+"Eighthly, if any such as are known to be godly, and live in wealth
+and prosperity here, shall forsake all this to join with this reformed
+church, and with it run the hazard of a hard and mean condition, it will
+be an example of great use, both for the removing of scandal, and to
+give more life unto the faith of God's people in their prayers for the
+plantation, and also to encourage others to join the more willingly in
+it."
+
+Farther on, when he declares the principles of the church of New England
+with respect to morals, Mather inveighs with violence against the
+custom of drinking healths at table, which he denounces as a pagan and
+abominable practice. He proscribes with the same rigor all ornaments for
+the hair used by the female sex, as well as their custom of having the
+arms and neck uncovered.
+
+In another part of his work he relates several instances of witchcraft
+which had alarmed New England. It is plain that the visible action of
+the devil in the affairs of this world appeared to him an incontestible
+and evident fact.
+
+This work of Cotton Mather displays in many places, the spirit of civil
+liberty and political independence which characterized the times in
+which he lived. Their principles respecting government are discoverable
+at every page. Thus, for instance, the inhabitants of Massachusetts, in
+the year 1630, ten years after the foundation of Plymouth, are found to
+have devoted 400_l_. sterling to the establishment of the University of
+Cambridge. In passing from the general documents relative to the history
+of New England, to those which describe the several states comprised
+within its limits, I ought first to notice The History of the Colony of
+Massachusetts, by Hutchinson, Lieutenant-Governor of the Massachusetts
+Province, 2 vols., 8vo.
+
+The history of Hutchinson, which I have several times quoted in the
+chapter to which this note relates, commences in the year 1628 and ends
+in 1750. Throughout the work there is a striking air of truth and the
+greatest simplicity of style; it is full of minute details.
+
+The best history to consult concerning Connecticut is that of Benjamin
+Trumbull, entitled, A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and
+Ecclesiastical, 1630-1764; 2 vols., 8vo., printed in 1818, at New Haven.
+This history contains a clear and calm account of all the events which
+happened in Connecticut during the period given in the title. The author
+drew from the best sources; and his narrative bears the stamp of truth.
+All that he says of the early days of Connecticut is extremely curious.
+See especially the constitution of 1639, vol. i., ch. vi., p. 100; and
+also the penal laws of Connecticut, vol. i., ch. vii., p. 123.
+
+The History of New Hampshire, by Jeremy Belknap, is a work held in
+merited estimation. It was printed at Boston in 1792, in 2 vols.,
+8vo. The third chapter of the first volume is particularly worthy of
+attention for the valuable details it affords on the political and
+religious principles of the puritans, on the causes of their emigration,
+and on their laws. The following curious quotation is given from a
+sermon delivered in 1663: "It concerneth New England always to remember
+that they are a plantation religious, not a plantation of trade. The
+profession of the purity of doctrine, worship, and discipline, is
+written on her forehead. Let merchants, and such as are increasing cent
+per cent, remember this, that worldly gain was not the end and design
+of the people of New England, but religion. And if any man among us make
+religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, such an one hath not the
+true spirit of a true New Englishman." The reader of Belknap will find
+in his work more general ideas, and more strength of thought, than are
+to be met with in the American historians even to the present day.
+
+Among the central states which deserve our attention for their remote
+origin, New York and Pennsylvania are the foremost. The best history we
+have of the former is entitled A History of New York, by William Smith,
+printed in London in 1757. Smith gives us important details of the wars
+between the French and English in America. His is the best account of
+the famous confederation of the Iroquois.
+
+With respect to Pennsylvania, I cannot do better than point out the
+work of Proud, entitled the History of Pennsylvania, from the original
+Institution and Settlement of that Province, under the first Proprietor
+and Governor, William Penn, in 1681, till after the year 1742; by Robert
+Proud; 2 vols., 8vo., printed at Philadelphia in 1797. This work is
+deserving of the especial attention of the reader; it contains a mass of
+curious documents concerning Penn, the doctrine of the Quakers, and
+the character, manners, and customs of the first inhabitants of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+
+APPENDIX G.--Page 48.
+
+We read in Jefferson's Memoirs as follows:--
+
+"At the time of the first settlement of the English in Virginia, when
+land was had for little or nothing, some provident persons having
+obtained large grants of it, and being desirous of maintaining
+the splendor of their families, entailed their property upon their
+descendants. The transmission of these estates from generation to
+generation, to men who bore the same name, had the effect of raising up
+a distinct class of families, who, possessing by law the privilege of
+perpetuating their wealth, formed by these means a sort of patrician
+order, distinguished by the grandeur and luxury of their establishments.
+From this order it was that the king usually chose his counsellor of
+state." (This passage is extracted and translated from M. Conseil's
+work upon the Life of Jefferson, entitled, "_Melanges Politiques et
+Philosophiques de Jefferson_.")
+
+In the United States, the principal clauses of the English law
+respecting descent have been universally rejected. The first rule that
+we follow, says Mr. Kent, touching inheritance, is the following: If a
+man dies intestate, his property goes to his heirs in a direct line.
+If he has but one heir or heiress, he or she succeeds to the whole. If
+there are several heirs of the same degree, they divide the inheritance
+equally among them, without distinction of sex.
+
+This rule was prescribed for the first time in the state of New York
+by a statute of the 23d of February, 1786. (See Revised Statutes, vol.
+iii., Appendix, p. 48.) It has since then been adopted in the revised
+statutes of the same state. At the present day this law holds good
+throughout the whole of the United States, with the exception of the
+state of Vermont, where the male heir inherits a double portion: Kent's
+Commentaries, vol. iv., p. 370. Mr. Kent, in the same work, vol. iv., p.
+1-22, gives an historical account of American legislation on the subject
+of entail; by this we learn that previous to the revolution the colonies
+followed the English law of entail. Estates tail were abolished in
+Virginia in 1776, on a motion of Mr. Jefferson. They were suppressed
+in New York in 1786; and have since been abolished in North Carolina,
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri. In Vermont, Indiana,
+Illinois, South Carolina, and Louisiana, entail was never introduced.
+Those States which thought proper to preserve the English law of entail,
+modified it in such a way as to deprive it of its most aristocratic
+tendencies. "Our general principles on the subject of government," says
+Mr. Kent, "tend to favor the free circulation of property."
+
+It cannot fail to strike the French reader who studies the law
+of inheritance, that on these questions the French legislation is
+infinitely more democratic even than the American.
+
+The American law makes an equal division of the father's property, but
+only in the case of his will not being known; "for every man," says the
+law, "in the state of New York (Revised Statutes, vol. iii., Appendix,
+p. 51), has entire liberty, power, and authority, to dispose of his
+property by will, to leave it entire, or divided in favor of any persons
+he chooses as his heirs, provided he do not leave it to a political body
+or any corporation." The French law obliges the testator to divide his
+property equally, or nearly so, among his heirs.
+
+Most of the American republics still admit of entails, under certain
+restrictions; but the French law prohibits entail in all cases.
+
+If the social condition of the Americans is more democratic than that of
+the French, the laws of the latter are the most democratic of the two.
+This may be explained more easily than at first appears to be the case.
+In France, democracy is still occupied in the work of destruction; in
+America it reigns quietly over the ruins it has made.
+
+
+APPENDIX H.--Page 55.
+
+SUMMARY OF THE QUALIFICATIONS OF VOTERS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+All the states agree in granting the right of voting at the age of
+twenty-one. In all of them it is necessary to have resided for a certain
+time in the district where the vote is given. This period varies from
+three months to two years.
+
+As to the qualification; in the state of Massachusetts it is necessary
+to have an income of three pounds sterling or a capital of sixty pounds.
+
+In Rhode Island a man must possess landed property to the amount of 133
+dollars.
+
+In Connecticut he must have a property which gives an income of
+seventeen dollars. A year of service in the militia also gives the
+elective privilege.
+
+In New Jersey, an elector must have a property of fifty pounds a year.
+
+In South Carolina and Maryland, the elector must possess fifty acres of
+land.
+
+In Tennessee, he must possess some property.
+
+In the states of Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
+Delaware, New York, the only necessary qualification for voting is that
+of paying the taxes; and in most of the states, to serve in the militia
+is equivalent to the payment of taxes.
+
+In Maine and New Hampshire any man can vote who is not on the pauper
+list.
+
+Lastly, in the states of Missouri, Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana,
+Indiana, Kentucky, and Vermont, the conditions of voting have no
+reference to the property of the elector.
+
+I believe there is no other state beside that of North Carolina in which
+different conditions are applied to the voting for the senate and the
+electing the house of representatives. The electors of the former, in
+this case, should possess in property fifty acres of land; to vote for
+the latter, nothing more is required than to pay taxes.
+
+
+APPENDIX I.--Page 92.
+
+The small number of custom-house officers employed in the United States
+compared with the extent of the coast renders smuggling very easy;
+notwithstanding which it is less practised than elsewhere, because
+everybody endeavors to suppress it. In America there is no police for
+the prevention of fires, and such accidents are more frequent than in
+Europe, but in general they are more speedily extinguished, because the
+surrounding population is prompt in lending assistance.
+
+
+APPENDIX K--Page 94.
+
+It is incorrect to assert that centralization was produced by the French
+revolution: the revolution brought it to perfection, but did not create
+it. The mania for centralization and government regulations dates from
+the time when jurists began to take a share in the government, in the
+time of Philippe-le-Bel; ever since which period they have been on the
+increase. In the year 1775, M. de Malesherbes, speaking in the name
+of the Cour des Aides, said to Louis XIV. (see "Memoires pour servir a
+l'Histoire du Droit Public de la France eft matiere d'lmpots," p. 654,
+printed at Brussels in 1779):
+
+"Every corporation and every community of citizens retained the right of
+administering its own affairs; a right which not only forms part of the
+primitive constitution of the kingdom, but has a still higher origin;
+for it is the right of nature and of reason. Nevertheless, your
+subjects, sire, have been deprived of it; and we cannot refrain from
+saying that in this respect your government has fallen into puerile
+extremes. From the time when powerful ministers made it a political
+principle to prevent the convocation of a national assembly, one
+consequence has succeeded another, until the deliberations of the
+inhabitants of a village are declared null when they have not been
+authorized by the intendant. Of course, if the community have an
+expensive undertaking to carry through, it must remain under the control
+of the sub-delegate of the intendant, and consequently follow the plan
+he proposes, employ his favorite workmen, pay them according to his
+pleasure; and if an action at law is deemed necessary, the intendant's
+permission must be obtained. The cause must be pleaded before this first
+tribunal, previous to its being carried into a public court; and if the
+opinion of the intendant is opposed to that of the inhabitants, or if
+their adversary enjoys his favor, the community is deprived of the
+power of defending its rights. Such are the means, sire, which have been
+exerted to extinguish the municipal spirit in France; and to stifle, if
+possible, the opinions of the citizens. The nation may be said to lie
+under an interdict, and to be in wardship under guardians."
+
+What could be said more to the purpose at the present day, when the
+revolution has achieved what are called its victories in centralization?
+
+In 1789, Jefferson wrote from Paris to one of his friends: "There is no
+country where the mania for over-governing has taken deeper root than in
+France, or been the source of greater mischief." Letter to Madison, 28th
+August, 1789.
+
+The fact is that for several centuries past the central power of France
+has done everything it could to extend central administration; it has
+acknowledged no other limits than its own strength. The central power to
+which the revolution gave birth made more rapid advances than any of
+its predecessors, because it was stronger and wiser than they had been;
+Louis XIV. committed the welfare of such communities to the caprice
+of an intendant; Napoleon left them to that of the minister. The same
+principle governed both, though its consequences were more or less
+remote.
+
+
+APPENDIX L.--Page 97.
+
+This immutability of the constitution of France is a necessary
+consequence of the laws of that country.
+
+To begin with the most important of all the laws, that which decides
+the order of succession to the throne; what can be more immutable in its
+principle than a political order founded upon the natural succession of
+father to son? In 1814 Louis XVIII. had established the perpetual law
+of hereditary succession in favor of his own family. The individuals
+who regulated the consequences of the revolution of 1830 followed his
+example; they merely established the perpetuity of the law in favor of
+another family. In this respect they imitated the Chancellor Maurepas,
+who, when he erected the new parliament upon the ruins of the old,
+took care to declare in the same ordinance that the rights of the new
+magistrates should be as inalienable as those of their predecessors had
+been.
+
+The laws of 1830, like those of 1814, point out no way of changing the
+constitution; and it is evident that the ordinary means of legislation
+are insufficient for this purpose. As the king, peers, and deputies, all
+derive their authority from the constitution, these three powers united
+cannot alter a law by virtue of which alone they govern. Out of the
+pale of the constitution, they are nothing; where, then, could they take
+their stand to effect a change in its provisions? The alternative is
+clear; either their efforts are powerless against the charter, which
+continues to exist in spite of them, in which case they only reign in
+the name of the charter; or, they succeed in changing the charter, and
+then the law by which they existed being annulled, they themselves cease
+to exist. By destroying the charter, they destroy themselves.
+
+This is much more evident in the laws of 1830 than in those of 1814.
+In 1814, the royal prerogative took its stand above and beyond the
+constitution; but in 1830, it was avowedly created by, and dependant on,
+the constitution.
+
+A part therefore of the French constitution is immutable, because it is
+united to the destiny of a family; and the body of the constitution is
+equally immutable, because there appear to be no legal means of changing
+it.
+
+These remarks are not applicable to England. That country having no
+written constitution, who can assert when its constitution is changed.
+
+
+APPENDIX M.--Page 97.
+
+The most esteemed authors who have written upon the English constitution
+agree with each other in establishing the omnipotence of the parliament.
+
+Delolme says: "It is a fundamental principle with the English lawyers,
+that parliament can do everything except making a woman a man, or a man
+a woman."
+
+Blackstone expresses himself more in detail if not more energetically
+than Delolme, in the following terms:--
+
+"The power and jurisdiction of parliament," says Sir Edward Coke (4
+Inst. 36), "is so transcendant and absolute, that it cannot be confined,
+either for causes or persons, within any bounds. And of this high
+court," he adds, "may be truly said, 'Si antiquitatem spectes, est
+vetustissima; si dignitatem, est honoratissima; si jurisdictionem, est
+capacissima.' It hath sovereign and uncontrollable authority in making,
+confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving and
+expounding of laws, concerning matters of all possible denominations;
+ecclesiastical or temporal; civil, military, maritime, or criminal; this
+being the place where that absolute despotic power which must, in all
+governments, reside somewhere, is intrusted by the constitution of these
+kingdoms. All mischiefs and grievances, operations and remedies, that
+transcend the ordinary course of the laws, are within the reach of this
+extraordinary tribunal. It can regulate or new model the succession to
+the crown; as was done in the reigns of Henry VIII. and William III. It
+can alter the established religion of the land; as was done in a variety
+of instances in the reigns of King Henry VIII. and his three children.
+It can change and create afresh even the constitution of the kingdom,
+and of the parliaments themselves; as was done by the act of union and
+the several statutes for triennial and septennial elections. It can, in
+short, do everything that is not naturally impossible to be done; and,
+therefore, some have not scrupled to call its power, by a figure rather
+too bold, the omnipotence of parliament."
+
+
+APPENDIX N.--Page 107.
+
+There is no question upon which the American constitutions agree more
+fully than upon that of political jurisdiction. All the constitutions
+which take cognizance of this matter, give to the house of delegates the
+exclusive right of impeachment; excepting only the constitution of North
+Carolina which grants the same privilege to grand-juries. (Article 23.)
+
+Almost all the constitutions give the exclusive right of pronouncing
+sentence to the senate, or to the assembly which occupies its place.
+
+The only punishments which the political tribunals can inflict are
+removal and interdiction of public functions for the future. There is
+no other constitution but that of Virginia (152), which enables them to
+inflict every kind of punishment.
+
+The crimes which are subject to political jurisdiction, are, in the
+federal constitution (section 4, art. 1); in that of Indiana (art. 3,
+paragraphs 23 and 24); of New York (art. 5); of Delaware (art. 5); high
+treason, bribery, and other high crimes or offences.
+
+In the constitution of Massachusetts (chap. 1, section 2); that of
+North Carolina (art. 23); of Virginia (p. 252), misconduct and
+mal-administration.
+
+In the constitution of New Hampshire (p. 105) corruption, intrigue and
+mal-administration.
+
+In Vermont (chap, ii., art 24), mal-administration.
+
+In South Carolina (art. 5); Kentucky (art. 5); Tennessee (art. 4); Ohio
+(art. 1, Sec.23, 24); Louisiana (art. 5); Mississippi (art. 5); Alabama
+(art. 6); Pennsylvania (art. 4); crimes committed in the non-performance
+of official duties.
+
+In the states of Illinois, Georgia, Maine, and Connecticut, no
+particular offences are specified.
+
+
+APPENDIX O.--Page 171.
+
+It is true that the powers of Europe may carry on maritime wars with
+the Union; but there is always greater facility and less danger in
+supporting a maritime than a continental war. Maritime warfare only
+requires one species of effort. A commercial people which consents to
+furnish its government with the necessary funds, is sure to possess a
+fleet. And it is far easier to induce a nation to part with its money,
+almost unconsciously, than to reconcile it to sacrifices of men and
+personal efforts. Moreover, defeat by sea rarely compromises the
+existence or independence of the people which endures it.
+
+As for continental wars, it is evident that the nations of Europe
+cannot be formidable in this way to the American Union. It would be
+very difficult to transport and maintain in America more than 25,000
+soldiers; an army which maybe considered to represent a nation of
+2,000,000 of men. The most populous nation of Europe contending in this
+way against the Union, is in the position of a nation of 2,000,000 of
+inhabitants at war with one of 12,000,000. Add to this, that America
+has all its resources within reach, while the European is at 4,000 miles
+distance from his; and that the immensity of the American continent
+would of itself present an insurmountable obstacle to its conquest.
+
+
+APPENDIX P.--Page 186.
+
+The first American journal appeared in April, 1704, and was published at
+Boston. See collection of the Historical Society of Massachusetts, vol.
+vi., p. 66.
+
+It would be a mistake to suppose that the periodical press has always
+been entirely free in the American colonies: an attempt was made to
+establish something analogous to a censorship and preliminary security.
+Consult the Legislative Documents of Massachusetts of the 14th of
+January, 1722.
+
+The committee appointed by the general assembly (the legislative body of
+the province), for the purpose of examining into circumstances connected
+with a paper entitled "The New England Courier," expresses its opinion
+that "the tendency of the said journal is to turn religion into
+derision, and bring it into contempt; that it mentions the sacred
+writings in a profane and irreligious manner; that it puts malicious
+interpretations upon the conduct of the ministers of the gospel; and
+that the government of his majesty is insulted, and the peace and
+tranquillity of the province disturbed by the said journal. The
+committee is consequently of opinion that the printer and publisher,
+James Franklin, should be forbidden to print and publish the said
+journal or any other work in future, without having previously submitted
+it to the secretary of the province; and that the justices of the peace
+for the county of Suffolk should be commissioned to require bail of the
+said James Franklin for his good conduct during the ensuing year."
+
+The suggestion of the committee was adopted and passed into a law, but
+the effect of it was null, for the journal eluded the prohibition by
+putting the name of Benjamin Franklin instead of James Franklin at
+the bottom of its columns, and this manoeuvre was supported by public
+opinion.
+
+
+APPENDIX Q.--Page 287.
+
+The federal constitution has introduced the jury into the tribunals of
+the Union in the same way as the states had introduced it into their own
+several courts: but as it has not established any fixed rules for the
+choice of jurors, the federal courts select them from the ordinary
+jury-list which each state makes for itself. The laws of the states must
+therefore be examined for the theory of the formation of juries.
+See Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, B. iii., chap. 38, pp.
+654-659; Sergeant's Constitutional Law, p. 165. See also the federal
+laws, of the years 1789, 1800, and 1802, upon the subject.
+
+For the purpose of thoroughly understanding the American principles with
+respect to the formation of juries, I examined the laws of states at
+a distance from one another, and the following observations were the
+result of my inquiries.
+
+In America all the citizens who exercise the elective franchise have the
+right of serving upon a jury. The great state of New York, however, has
+made a slight difference between the two privileges, but in a spirit
+contrary to that of the laws of France; for in the state of New York
+there are fewer persons eligible as jurymen than there are electors. It
+may be said in general that the right of forming part of a jury, like
+that of electing representatives, is open to all the citizens; the
+exercise of this right, however, is not put indiscriminately into any
+hands.
+
+Every year a body of municipal or county magistrates--called _selectmen_
+in New England, _supervisors_ in New York, _trustees_ in Ohio, and
+_sheriffs of the parish_ in Louisiana--choose for each county a certain
+number of citizens who have the right of serving as jurymen, and who we
+supposed to be capable of exercising their functions. These magistrates,
+being themselves elective, excite no distrust: their powers, like those
+of most republican magistrates, are very extensive and very arbitrary,
+and they frequently make use of them to remove unworthy or incompetent
+jurymen.
+
+The names of the jurymen thus chosen are transmitted to the county
+court; and the jury who have to decide any affair are drawn by lot from
+the whole list of names.
+
+The Americans have contrived in every way to make the common people
+eligible to the jury, and to render the service as little onerous as
+possible. The sessions are held in the chief town of every county; and
+the jury are indemnified for their attendance either by the state or
+the parties concerned. They receive in general a dollar per day, beside
+their travelling expenses. In America the being placed upon the jury is
+looked upon as a burden, but it is a burden which is very supportable.
+See Brevard's Digest of the Public Statute Law of South Carolina, vol.
+i, pp. 446 and 454, vol. ii., pp. 218 and 333; The General Laws of
+Massachusetts, revised and published by Authority of the Legislature,
+v. ii., pp. 187 and 331; The Revised Statutes of the State of New
+York, vol. ii., pp. 411, 643, 717, 720; The Statute Law of the State of
+Tennessee, vol. i., p. 209; Acts of the State of Ohio, pp. 95 and 210;
+and Digeste General des Actes de la Legislature de la Louisiana.
+
+
+APPENDIX R.--Page 290.
+
+If we attentively examine the constitution of the jury as introduced
+into civil proceedings in England, we shall readily perceive that the
+jurors are under the immediate control of the judge. It is true that the
+verdict of the jury, in civil as well as in criminal cases, comprises
+the question of fact and the question of right in the same reply; thus,
+a house is claimed by Peter as having been purchased by him: this is the
+fact to be decided. The defendant puts in a plea of incompetency on the
+part of the vendor: this is the legal question to be resolved.
+
+But the jury do not enjoy the same character of infallibility in civil
+cases, according to the practice of the English courts, as they do in
+criminal cases. The judge may refuse to receive the verdict; and even
+after the first trial has taken place, a second or new trial may be
+awarded by the court. See Blackstone's Commentaries, book iii., ch. 24.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Institutions and Their
+Influence, by Alexis de Tocqueville et al.
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS ***
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