American Institutions And Their Influence

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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.[Footnote:

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.

]

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.[Footnote:

The same remark was made at Rome under the first Cesars.
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.

] 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.

* * * * *

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.[Footnote:

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.

]

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.