American Institutions And Their Influence

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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.[Footnote:

In New England the estates are exceedingly small, but they are
rarely subjected to farther division.

] 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.

* * * * *