American Institutions And Their Influence

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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.[Footnote:

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.

] And they also bring three-quarters of the exports of the New
World to the European consumer.[Footnote:

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.)

] 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.[Footnote:

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.

]

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;[Footnote:

Materials are, generally speaking, less expensive in America than
in Europe, but the price of labor is much higher.

] 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.[Footnote:

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.

] 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;[Footnote:

Part of the commerce of the Mediterranean is already carried on
by American vessels.

] 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.