This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leon Meyer. Chapter 13. Part 3. Government of the Democracy in America. Corruptions 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 democratic principles mutually invade 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, whilst 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 can 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 has rendered newgatory. 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, an approach which was rarely addressed to the public characters of the ancient monarchy. But in France the practice of bribing electors is almost unknown, whilst it is notoriously and publicly carried out in England. In the United States I have never heard a man accused of spinning his wealth and 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 air of grandeur in the depravity of the great which frequently prevent it from spreading abroad. The people can never penetrate into 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 vind the favors of the state are arts which the meanest villain may comprehend and hope to practice in his turn. In reality it is far less prejudicial to witness the immorality of the great than to witness that immorality which leads to greatness. In the 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 today 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 one 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 democracy is capable The Union has only had one struggle hitherto for its existence enthusiasm at the commencement of the war indifference towards its close difficulty of establishing military conscription or impressment of semen in America why a democratic people is less capable of sustained effort than another. I hear war in the reader that I speak of a government which implicitly follows the real desires of a 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 Wilstead exercises that moral influence which belongs to the decision 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 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 affords 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 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 and the Federalist, number 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 and incident to a languid and multilated state of trade as 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 ever 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 many are induced to enlist by bounties the notions and habits of the people of the United States are so opposed to compulsory enlistment that I do not imagine it can ever be sanctioned by the laws what is termed the conscription in France is assuredly the heaviest tax upon the population in that country yet how could a great continental war be carried on without it the Americans have not adopted the British impressment of semen 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 service 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 is 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 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 inclined 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 and 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 attended 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 in 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 pleasures 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 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 the opinion that a democratic government tends in the end to increase the real strength of society 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 populace 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 of 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 then the fear of being involved in losses or ruined by the failure of other parties and a sort of guilty tolerance as extended by the public conscience to an offense which everyone condemns in his individual capacity in the new states of the Southwest the citizens generally take justice into their own hands and murders are a 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 someone 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 our legislators rejoined by 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 this kind would be sure of losing their seats when Siam to infer, replied I 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 contend 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 a greater also because it is rarely embarrassed by internal interests which conflict with those of the majority and resists the authority of reason but a democracy can only obtain truth as the result of experience and many nations may forfeit their existence whilst they are awaiting the consequences of their errors the great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist in there being more enlightened than other nations but in there 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 civilization there are tribes and peoples whose education has been so vicious and whose character presents so strange mixture of passion of ignorance and of erroneous notions upon all subjects that they are unable to discern the causes 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 witness the daily decline of their numerical strength and 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 civilization the incessant revolutions which have convulsed the South American provinces for the last quarter of a century have frequently been averted 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 frenzy 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 entrusts the permanent direction of the external interest of the nation to the president and the senate 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 quote the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible so far as we have already formed engagements let them be 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 in 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 interests 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 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 patronizing 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 towards another and habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave it is a slave to its animosity or to its affection either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest unquote the political conduct of Washington was always guided by these maxims he succeeded in maintaining his country in a state of peace whilst 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 further and he introduced a maxim into the policy of the union which affirms that quote the Americans ought never to solicit any privileges from foreign nations in order not to be obliged to grant similar privileges themselves unquote 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 interest 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 whilst 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 amongst the 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 the 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 it 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 to a predominant position if on the contrary we observe the natural defects of aristocracy we shall find that their influence is comparatively noxious 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 interest of the Americans forbade them to take any part in the contest which was about to deluge Europe of 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 on 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 if the constitution in the favor of the public had not entrusted 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 ever 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 the designs may be shaken besides which a king is not immortal but an aristocratic body is too numerous to be led astray but 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 perpetuity translated by Joshua Christensen 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 only be obtained 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 whilst its beneficial influence is less perceptively 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 favour 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 the 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 error of 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 as 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 unwillingly 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 that it can await, without destruction the general tendency of the legislation which I'll then be able to conceive that a democratic government not withstanding 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 public officers it is easy to proceed that the American democracy frequently errs in the choice of the individuals to whom it entrusts 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 interests 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 there 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 and 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 sometimes been 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 point of 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 mistaken 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 inclusive 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 not concert his measures with another magistrate simply because that individual is not 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 the maneuvers 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 government public men are swayed by the interest 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 and 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 our 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 interest to promote connected with their caste the general and constant influence of the government is beneficial although the individuals who conduct it are frequently unskillful 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 whilst in aristocratic institutions there is a secret propensity which notwithstanding the talents and 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 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 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 mansions of their fathers they enjoy the tranquility 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 awakes 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 a 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 whilst the manner of a people are simple and its faith unshaken whilst 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 co-evil 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 whilst 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 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 their own nor under borrowed features and they entrench themselves within the dull precincts of a narrow egotism they are emancipated from prejudice without having acknowledged the empire of reason emancipated by the instinctive patriotism of monarchial 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 anymore than a man can return to the innocence and the bloom of childhood such things may be regretted 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 forever 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 to decrease in Europe in proportion as those rights are extended in the United States the inhabitants were thrown by this 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 everyone takes a zealous and interest in the affairs of his township his county and of the whole state as if they were his own because everyone 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 of 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 regards this prosperity as the result of its own exertions the citizen looks upon the fortune of the public as his private interest and he cooperates 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 necessary 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 very 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 or of the citizens or of the authorities or 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 tranquility 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 people respect of rights in the United States whence it arises after the idea of virtue I know 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 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 almost 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 purposes 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 term 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 poppers and as everyone has property of his own to defend everyone 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 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 enjoyment 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 want and mischief can this be wondered at since care has been taken that they should have nothing to lose the government of 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 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 are 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 would be a 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 the child does to the whole of nature and the celebrated adage may then be applied to them homo pure 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 the spotic 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 aroused 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 end of chapter 14 part 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org read by Joshua Christensen chapter 14 advantages American society derives from democracy part 2 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 everyone 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 for 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 poppers in the receipt of relief from the townships there is no class of persons who do not exercise the elective franchise and indirectly contribute 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 further reduced in the United States everyone 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 to the treaties 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 sometimes been 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 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 amongst civilized nations revolts are rarely excited except by such persons as of 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 of no excuse for not complying with the enactments they have themselves made and by which they are themselves benefited whilst the citizens whose interests might be promoted by the infraction of them are induced by their character and their stations to submit to the decisions of the legislature whatever they may be besides which the people in America obeys not the law 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 there 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 and the world is struck by the change in the former all is bustle and activity in the latter everything is calm and motionless in the one amelioration 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 generous 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 whilst so few seem to occur in the latter if this remark is applicable to those free countries in which monarchial and aristocratic institutions subsist it is still more striking with regard to the democratic republics in these states it is not only a portion of the people who succeed with the amelioration 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 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 meant to decide upon the building of a church there the election of a representative is going on whether 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 plows 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 whilst 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 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 the 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 hurraings 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 was addressing a meeting and if he should chance to 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 quick set 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 less void in the life which he is accustomed to lead and his richness would be unbearable 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 order should take apart 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 cooperate 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 apart in political undertakings which did not originate in his own conception but which give him a taste of the beginnings of the kind new ameliorations 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 this is 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 learn 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 that undertakes with the skill of a drake 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 way the transactions of the public administration are not nearly so important as what is done by private exertion democracy does not confer the most skillful kind of government upon the people but it produces that which the most skillful governments are frequently unable to awaken namely an all pervading and restless activity a super abundant 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 whilst it is yet in its early growth and others are ready with their vows of adoration for this new deity 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 purportive society and the aim of government is 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 forever 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 man than genius if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism but to create habits of peace if you had rather witnessed vices than crimes and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds provided offenses be diminished to the same proportion if instead of living in the midst of a brilliant state of society you are contented to have prosperity around you in short you are of opinion 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 sureer means of satisfying them by equalizing the conditions of man and establishing democratic institutions but if the time be passed at which such a choice was possible and if some superhuman power impel us towards 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 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 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 entrusted but whilst the law increased the strength of the authorities which of themselves were strong it had feebled more and more of those which were naturally weak it deprived the representatives of the executive of all stability and independence and by subjecting them completely to the capitalists of the legislature it robbed them of the slender influence which the nature of 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 the majority to depend on the pleasure of a legislative authority since the representatives were empowered and they were able 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 irate 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 of the same thing as if the majority of the populace held its deliberations in the marketplace several other circumstances concur and rendering the power of the majority in America not only reponderant 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 on its last retreat by a doctrine which the minority hesitate to admit and in which they very slowly concur like all 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 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 amalgated with the matters of the people and with the minor incidents of social intercourse the French under the old monarchy held it for a maximum which is still a fundamental principle of the English constitution that the king could do no wrong and if it did do wrong the blame was imputed to his advisors this notion was highly favourable to habits of obedience and it enabled the subject to complain of the law without ceasing to love and honour the lawgiver the Americans had attained 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 rarely 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 to comply with its demands that existed in America are a class of citizens who in the legislative 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 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 colonised by man holding equal rank amongst themselves they are easy as yet no natural or permanent source of dissension to the interests of the different inhabitants 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 whilst it retains its exclusive privileges as it cannot see its privileges without ceasing to be an aristocracy in the United States political questions cannot be taken up in so general an absolute manner and all parties are willing to recognise the right of the majority because they all hope to learn those rights into their own advantage at some time in the future the majority therefore in that country exercises a prodigious actual authority and a moral influence which is scarcely disproportionate, no obstacles exist which can impede or so much as retard this process or which can induce 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 administration inherent in democracy I've already spoken of the natural defects of democratic institutions and they all of them increase at 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 democracy because it is natural for democracies to raise men to power in a very rapid succession but this evil is more or less sensible in proportion to the authority and the means of action that the legislature possesses in America the authority exercised by the legislator bodies is supreme nothing prevents them from accomplishing their wishes with serenity and with irresistible power was there supplied by new representatives every year that is to say the circumstances which contribute most powerfully to democratic instability and which admitted the free application of countries to every object in the state are here in full operation and conformity with this principle America is at the present time almost all American constitutions have been amended within the course of 30 years that is therefore not a single American state which has not modified the principles of the legislation in the laps of time as for the laws themselves a single glance upon the archives of different states of the union suffices to convince one that in America the activity of the legislator never slackens not the American democracy is naturally less stable than any other but that it is allowed to follow its capricious perpetrators in the formation of the laws the omnipotence of the majority and the rappin as well as the absolute manner in which the decisions are executed in the United States has not only the effect of rendering the law unstable but it exercises the same influence upon the execution of the law and the conduct of the public administration as the majority is the only power which is important to court all its projects are taken up with the greatest outdoor but no sooner is its attention destructed than all this adore ceases whilst 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 ameliorations are undertaken with much more zeal and activity than elsewhere and yet the same ends are permitted by much less social effort but more continuously applied some years ago several pious individuals undertook to ameliorate the conditions of the prisons the public was excited by the statements which they put forward and the regeneration of the 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 from the part of the prison discipline but this happy alteration in which the public had taken so hearty an interest in which the exertions of the citizens had resisted to be accelerated could not be competed in a moment whilst the new penitentiaries were being created and it was the pleasure of the majority that they should be terminated with all possible serenity the old prisons existed and the new offenders these jails became more unwholesome and more corrupt in proportion as the new establishments were beautiful and improved forming a contrast which may readily be understood the majority were 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 sanitary regulations of discipline were first relaxed and afterwards broken so that in the immediate neighbourhood of a prison we all witnessed the mild and enlightened spirit of our time dungeons might be met with which reminded the visitor of the barbarity of the middle ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Democracy in America Volume 1 by El Existe Tocqueville translated by Henry Reeve and generated by Ryan Meese Chapter 15 The Unlimited Power of the Majority and its Consequences Part 2 Terane of the Majority I hold it to be an impious and 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 unsanctioned 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 all 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 evidently outstep the boundaries of justice and a reason of those affairs of its own and that consequently full power may be fearlessly 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 as 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 for these reasons I can ever willingly invest in a number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them I do not think that 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 all 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 comprises 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 era 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 disillusion 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 in danger 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 honour for itself or of reverential obedience to the rights which it represents that I will consent to its uncontrolled and all predominate authority When I see that the right in the means of absolute command are conferred upon a people or upon a king upon an aristocracy or upon a democracy a monarchy or a republic I recognise the germ of tyranny and I journey onward to a land of more hopeful institutions In my opinion the main evil of the prison democratic institutions lies 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 remains in that country is at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny When an individual or party is wronged in the United States to whom can he apply for a redress if to public opinion public opinion constitutes the majority if to the legislature it presents the majority and implicitly obeys its injunctions to the executive power it is appointed by the majority and remains 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 I said one day to an inhabitant of Pennsylvania be so good as to explain to me how it happens that an estate founded by Quakers and celebrated for its toleration freed blacks are not allowed to exercise civil rights they pay taxes is it not fair that they should have a vote you insult us replied my informant if you imagine that our legislators will have committed so gross and active injustice and intolerance and 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 an 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 laws are sometimes unable to maintain its authority without the support of the majority but in this case the majority entertains a very strong prejudice 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 if on the other hand the legislative power could be 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 other two 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 in the manners of the country more than in its laws the effect of the unlimited power of the majority upon the arbitrary authority of the American public officers a distinction must be drawn between tyranny and arbitrary power tyranny may be exercised by a 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 the majority which is favourable to the legal despotism of the legislature is likewise favourable to the arbitrary authority of the magistrate the majority has an entire control over the law when it is made and when it is executed and it possesses an equal authority over those who are in power and the community at large it considers public officers its passive agents and really confides the task of serving its designs to their vigilance the details of their office and the privileges which they are to enjoy are really defined beforehand but the majority treats them as a master as 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 ventured upon such manifestations of their power as astonishing European by this means habits are formed in the heart of a free country which may some day prove fatal to its liberties the power exercised by the majority in America upon opinion 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 exercising 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 within certain notions which are opposed to that authority from circulating in secret throughout their dominions and even in their courts such is not the case in America as long as the majority is still undecided discussion is carried out 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 ascending to its propriety the reason of this is perfectly clear no monarch has served salute and 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 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 virginity 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 contests but all controversy I know of no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion is in America in any constitution or state in Europe a very 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 is not to contend citizens who are ready to protect the man who raises his voice in the cause of truth from the consequences of his hardyhood if he is unfortunate enough to live under the 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 requires one the right to support him in some countries and the democracy in others but in a nation democratic institutions exist organized like those of the united states that is but one sort of authority one single element of strength and of success with nothing beyond it in America the majority arises very formidable barriers to its liberty of opinion within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases but he will repent it not that he is exposed to the terrors of an autodafar but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obliquy his political career is closed forever 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 that he is loudly censured whereas 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 course instruments which tyranny formally employed but the civilization 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 physical means of oppression the democratic republics of the prison day have rendered it as entirely in the fate 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 no longer the course adopted by tyranny and democratic republics there the bodies are free and the soul is enslaved the sovereign can no longer say you shall think as I do on pain of death but it says you are free to think differently from me and to retain your life, your property and all you possess but of such should 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 that your innocence will abandon you lest they should be shunned in their turn go in peace I have given you your life but it is in existence and comparably worse than death monarchical institutions 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 protest nations of the old world expressly intended to censure the vices and arrive the follies of the times de Bruyere inhabited the palace of deus the fourteenth but 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 when is it indignant from the start of its language to the more solid virtues of its character everything must be made the subject of incombium a writer, whatever his eminence can escape from this tribute of adulation to his various citizens the majority lives in the perpetual practice 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 little really 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 has 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 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 judicious exercise is an accidental occurrence the effects of the tyranny of the majority for the national character of the americans the tendencies which I have just alluded to are as yet 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 singular 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 there arose in great numbers for public opinion and served not to tyrannize over budgetary the exertions of individuals took a full part in the general agitation of mine common at the 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 so are nearest to the throne flatter the passions of the sovereign and voluntarily chuckle 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 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 failing to approve what one does the one is the necessary case of a weak person the other befits the temper of a lackey in three countries where everyone is more or less called upon to give his opinion 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 it's attention can almost always be attracted by a diversification more persons are to be met with who speculate upon it's foibles and live at the cost of it's passions than an absolute monarch is not because men are naturally worse in these states than elsewhere but the temptation is stronger and of easy access at the time the result is a far more extensive debasement of the character of citizens democratic republics extend the practice of currying favor with the men air 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 republic especially the case the big authority of the majority is so absolute and so irresistible that a man must give up his rights as a citizen if he intends to stray from the track which it lays down in the immense crowd which throngs the avenues to power in the united states I've found very few men who displayed any of that manly candor and that masculine independence of opinion which frequently distinguish the americans in former times the indistinguished 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 descend from these rigorous formularies with men who deplore the defects of the laws the mutability or the ignorance of democracy who even go so far as to observe the evil tendencies which impair the national character without 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 assured of two things in the first place that all who persuade them will raise their voices to condemn me in the second place that many of them will acquit me at the bottom of their conscience 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 often forever talking of the natural intelligence of the populace they serve they do not debate the question as to whether the virtues of their master is preeminently worthy of admiration but 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 be raised at his pleasure to the rank of his concubines by reficing their opinions they prostitute themselves moralists and philosophers in a manica 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 would have been at the rest of the world it would have been impossible for the psychophones to lose the 14th of flattery more dexterously for my part I am persuaded that in all governments whatever the nature may be civility will cower to force and agitation will cling to power the only means of preventing men from degrading themselves is to invest no one with the unlimited authority which is the shortest method of debasing them the greatest dangers of the american republics proceed from the unlimited power of the majority governments usually fall a sacrifice to impotence or to tyranny in the former case their power escapes from them it is wrestled from their grasp in the latter many observers will witness the anarchy of democratic states have imagined that the government of their states was nurtured a weak and impotent the truth is that 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 force or without resources I say rather that it is almost always by the abuse of its force and the disemployment 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 a democratic republic the power which directs a society is not stable but it often changes hands and assumes a new direction but whichever way it turns its force is almost irresistible the government of America and republics appear to me to be as much centralized as those of the absolute monarchies of Europe they are more energetic than they are I do not therefore imagine that they will perish from weakness if ever the three 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 to the cost of physical force anarchy will then be the result but it will have been brought about by despotism Mr. Hamilton expresses the same opinion in federalist number 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 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 is 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 be truly said to reign as a state of nature where weaker individuals not secured against the violence of the stronger the latter state even the stronger individuals are promoted by the uncertainty of their condition just admit it to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves so in the former state 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 a little doubted that if the state of Rhode Island was separated from the Confederacy and left to itself the regular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of the facetists and majorities that some power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by the voice of the very factions who misrule and prove the necessity of it Jefferson has also thus expressed himself in the letter to Madison the executive power in our government is not the only perhaps not even the principal object of my solicitude the tyranny of the legislature the danger must 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 said for