On passing from a country in which free institutions are established to
one where they do not exist, the traveler is struck by the change; in
the former all is bustle and activity, in the latter everything is calm
and motionless. In the one, melioration and progress are the general
topics of inquiry; in the other, it seems as if the community only
aspired to repose in the enjoyment of the advantages which it has
acquired. Nevertheless, the country which exerts itself so strenuously
to promote its welfare is generally more wealthy and more prosperous
than that which appears to be so contented with its lot; and when we
compare them together, we can scarcely conceive how so many new wants
are daily felt in the former, while so few seem to occur in the latter.
If this remark is applicable to those free countries in which
monarchical and aristocratic institutions subsist, it is still more
striking with regard to democratic republics. In these States it is not
only a portion of the people which is busied with the melioration of its
social condition, but the whole community is engaged in the task; and it
is not the exigencies and the convenience of a single class for which a
provision is to be made, but the exigencies and the convenience of all
ranks of life.
It is not impossible to conceive the surpassing liberty which the
Americans enjoy; some idea may likewise be formed of the extreme
equality which subsists among them; but the political activity which
pervades the United States must be seen in order to be understood. No
sooner do you set foot upon the American soil than you are stunned by a
kind of tumult; a confused clamor is heard on every side; a thousand
simultaneous voices demand the immediate satisfaction of their social
wants. Everything is in motion around you; here, the people of one
quarter of a town are met to decide upon the building of a church;
there, the election of a representative is going on; a little farther,
the delegates of a district are posting to the town in order to consult
upon some local improvements; or, in another place, the laborers of a
village quit their ploughs to deliberate upon the project of a road or a
public school. Meetings are called for the sole purpose of declaring
their disapprobation of the line of conduct pursued by the Government;
while in other assemblies the citizens salute the authorities of the day
as the fathers of their country. Societies are formed which regard
drunkenness as the principal cause of the evils under which the State
labors, and which solemnly bind themselves to give a constant example of
temperance.
The great political agitation of the American legislative bodies,
which is the only kind of excitement that attracts the attention of
foreign countries, is a mere episode or a sort of continuation of that
universal movement which originates in the lowest classes of the people
and extends successively to all the ranks of society. It is impossible
to spend more efforts in the pursuit of enjoyment.
The cares of political life engross a most prominent place in the
occupation of a citizen in the United States; and almost the only
pleasure of which an American has any idea, is to take a part in the
Government, and to discuss the part he has taken. This feeling pervades
the most trifling habits of life; even the women frequently attend
public meetings, and listen to political harangues as a recreation after
their household labors. Debating clubs are to a certain extent a
substitute for theatrical entertainments: an American cannot converse,
but he can discuss; and when he attempts to talk he falls into a
dissertation. He speaks to you as if he were addressing a meeting; and
if he should warm in the course of the discussion, he will infallibly
say, "Gentlemen," to the person with whom he is conversing.
In some countries the inhabitants display a certain repugnance to
avail themselves of the political privileges with which the law invests
them; it would seem that they set too high a value upon their time to
spend it on the interests of the community; and they prefer to withdraw
within the exact limits of a wholesome egotism, marked out by four sunk
fences and a quickset hedge. But if an American were condemned to
confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half
of his existence; he would feel an immense void in the life which he is
accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness would be unbearable. I am
persuaded that if ever a despotic government is established in America,
it will find it more difficult to surmount the habits which free
institutions have engendered than to conquer the attachment of the
citizens to freedom.
This ceaseless agitation which democratic government has
introduced into the political world, influences all social intercourse.
I am not sure that upon the whole this is not the greatest advantage of
democracy; and I am much less inclined to applaud it for what it does
than for what it causes to be done.
It is incontestable that the people frequently conducts public
business very ill; but it is impossible that the lower orders should
take a part in public business without extending the circle of their
ideas, and without quitting the ordinary routine of their mental
acquirements. The humblest individual who is called upon to 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 a part in political
undertakings which did not originate in his own conception, but which
give him a taste for undertakings of the kind. New meliorations are
daily pointed out in the property which he holds in common with others,
and this gives him the desire of improving that property which is more
peculiarly his own. He is perhaps neither happier nor better than those
who came before him, but he is better informed and more active. I have
no doubt that the democratic institutions of the United States, joined
to the physical constitution of the country, are the cause (not the
direct, as is so often asserted, but the indirect cause) of the
prodigious commercial activity of the inhabitants. It is not engendered
by the laws, but the people learns how to promote it by the experience
derived from legislation.
When the opponents of democracy assert that a single individual
performs the duties which he undertakes much better than the government
of the community, it appears to me that they are perfectly right. The
government of an individual, supposing an equality of instruction on
either side, is more consistent, more persevering, and more accurate
than that of a multitude, and it is much better qualified judiciously to
discriminate the characters of the men it employs. If any deny what I
advance, they have certainly never seen a democratic government, or have
formed their opinion upon very partial evidence. It is true that even
when local circumstances and the disposition of the people allow
democratic institutions to subsist, they never display a regular and
methodical system of government. Democratic liberty is far from
accomplishing all the projects it undertakes, with the skill of an
adroit despotism. It frequently abandons them before they have borne
their fruits, or risks them when the consequences may prove dangerous;
but in the end it produces more than any absolute government, and if it
do fewer things well, it does a great number of things. Under its sway,
the transactions of the public administration are not nearly so
important as what is done by private exertion. Democracy does not confer
the most 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 superabundant
force, and an energy which is inseparable from it, and which may, under
favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing benefits. These are the
true advantages of democracy.
In the present age, when the destinies of Christendom seem to be
in suspense, some hasten to assail democracy as its foe while it is yet
in its early growth; and others are ready with their vows of adoration
for this new duty which is springing forth from chaos; but both parties
are very imperfectly acquainted with the object of their hatred or of
their desires; they strike in the dark, and distribute their blows by
mere chance.
We must first understand what the purport of society and the aim
of government are held to be. If it be your intention to confer a
certain elevation upon the human mind, and to teach it to regard the
things of this world with generous feelings; to inspire men with a scorn
of mere temporal advantage; to give birth to living convictions, and to
keep alive the spirit of honorable devotedness; if you hold it to be a
good thing to refine the habits, to embellish the manners, to cultivate
the arts of a nation, and to promote the love of poetry, of beauty, and
of renown; if you would constitute a people not unfitted to act with
power upon all other nations; nor unprepared for those high enterprises,
which, whatever be the result of its efforts, will leave a name 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 men than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the
virtues of heroism, but to create habits of peace; if you had rather
behold vices than crimes, and are content to meet with fewer noble
deeds, provided offenses be diminished in the same proportion; if,
instead of living in the midst of a brilliant state of society, you are
contented to have prosperity around you; if, in short, you are of
opinion that the principal object of a government is not to confer the
greatest possible share of power and of glory upon the body of the
nation, but to insure the greatest degree of enjoyment, and the least
degree of misery, to each of the individuals who compose it - if such be
your desires, you can have no surer means of satisfying them than by
equalizing the condition of men, and establishing democratic
institutions.
But if the time be past at which such a choice was possible, and
if some superhuman power impel us toward one or the other of these two
governments without consulting our wishes, let us at least endeavor to
make the best of that which is allotted to us; and let us so inquire
into its good and its evil propensities as to be able to foster the
former, and repress the latter to the utmost.
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