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<h2> Chapter V: Necessity Of Examining The Condition Of The States—Part III </h2>
<h3> Legislative Power Of The State </h3>
<p>Division of the Legislative Body into two Houses—Senate—House
of Representatives—Different functions of these two Bodies.</p>
<p>The legislative power of the State is vested in two assemblies, the first
of which generally bears the name of the Senate. The Senate is commonly a
legislative body; but it sometimes becomes an executive and judicial one.
It takes a part in the government in several ways, according to the
constitution of the different States; *m but it is in the nomination of
public functionaries that it most commonly assumes an executive power. It
partakes of judicial power in the trial of certain political offences, and
sometimes also in the decision of certain civil cases. *n The number of
its members is always small. The other branch of the legislature, which is
usually called the House of Representatives, has no share whatever in the
administration, and only takes a part in the judicial power inasmuch as it
impeaches public functionaries before the Senate. The members of the two
Houses are nearly everywhere subject to the same conditions of election.
They are chosen in the same manner, and by the same citizens. The only
difference which exists between them is, that the term for which the
Senate is chosen is in general longer than that of the House of
Representatives. The latter seldom remain in office longer than a year;
the former usually sit two or three years. By granting to the senators the
privilege of being chosen for several years, and being renewed seriatim,
the law takes care to preserve in the legislative body a nucleus of men
already accustomed to public business, and capable of exercising a
salutary influence upon the junior members.</p>
<p class="foot">
m <br/> [ In Massachusetts the Senate is not invested with any
administrative functions.]</p>
<p class="foot">
n <br/> [ As in the State of New York.]</p>
<p>The Americans, plainly, did not desire, by this separation of the
legislative body into two branches, to make one house hereditary and the
other elective; one aristocratic and the other democratic. It was not
their object to create in the one a bulwark to power, whilst the other
represented the interests and passions of the people. The only advantages
which result from the present constitution of the United States are the
division of the legislative power and the consequent check upon political
assemblies; with the creation of a tribunal of appeal for the revision of
the laws.</p>
<p>Time and experience, however, have convinced the Americans that if these
are its only advantages, the division of the legislative power is still a
principle of the greatest necessity. Pennsylvania was the only one of the
United States which at first attempted to establish a single House of
Assembly, and Franklin himself was so far carried away by the necessary
consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of the people as to have
concurred in the measure; but the Pennsylvanians were soon obliged to
change the law, and to create two Houses. Thus the principle of the
division of the legislative power was finally established, and its
necessity may henceforward be regarded as a demonstrated truth. This
theory, which was nearly unknown to the republics of antiquity—which
was introduced into the world almost by accident, like so many other great
truths—and misunderstood by several modern nations, is at length
become an axiom in the political science of the present age.</p>
<p>[See Benjamin Franklin]</p>
<p>The Executive Power Of The State</p>
<p>Office of Governor in an American State—The place he occupies in
relation to the Legislature—His rights and his duties—His
dependence on the people.</p>
<p>The executive power of the State may with truth be said to be represented
by the Governor, although he enjoys but a portion of its rights. The
supreme magistrate, under the title of Governor, is the official moderator
and counsellor of the legislature. He is armed with a veto or suspensive
power, which allows him to stop, or at least to retard, its movements at
pleasure. He lays the wants of the country before the legislative body,
and points out the means which he thinks may be usefully employed in
providing for them; he is the natural executor of its decrees in all the
undertakings which interest the nation at large. *o In the absence of the
legislature, the Governor is bound to take all necessary steps to guard
the State against violent shocks and unforeseen dangers. The whole
military power of the State is at the disposal of the Governor. He is the
commander of the militia, and head of the armed force. When the authority,
which is by general consent awarded to the laws, is disregarded, the
Governor puts himself at the head of the armed force of the State, to
quell resistance, and to restore order. Lastly, the Governor takes no
share in the administration of townships and counties, except it be
indirectly in the nomination of Justices of the Peace, which nomination he
has not the power to cancel. *p The Governor is an elected magistrate, and
is generally chosen for one or two years only; so that he always continues
to be strictly dependent upon the majority who returned him.</p>
<p class="foot">
o <br/> [ Practically speaking, it is not always the Governor who executes
the plans of the Legislature; it often happens that the latter, in voting
a measure, names special agents to superintend the execution of it.]</p>
<p class="foot">
p <br/> [ In some of the States the justices of the peace are not elected
by the Governor.]</p>
<p>Political Effects Of The System Of Local Administration In The United
States</p>
<p>Necessary distinction between the general centralization of Government and
the centralization of the local administration—Local administration
not centralized in the United States: great general centralization of the
Government—Some bad consequences resulting to the United States from
the local administration—Administrative advantages attending this
order of things—The power which conducts the Government is less
regular, less enlightened, less learned, but much greater than in Europe—Political
advantages of this order of things—In the United States the
interests of the country are everywhere kept in view—Support given
to the Government by the community—Provincial institutions more
necessary in proportion as the social condition becomes more democratic—Reason
of this.</p>
<p>Centralization is become a word of general and daily use, without any
precise meaning being attached to it. Nevertheless, there exist two
distinct kinds of centralization, which it is necessary to discriminate
with accuracy. Certain interests are common to all parts of a nation, such
as the enactment of its general laws and the maintenance of its foreign
relations. Other interests are peculiar to certain parts of the nation;
such, for instance, as the business of different townships. When the power
which directs the general interests is centred in one place, or vested in
the same persons, it constitutes a central government. In like manner the
power of directing partial or local interests, when brought together into
one place, constitutes what may be termed a central administration.</p>
<p>Upon some points these two kinds of centralization coalesce; but by
classifying the objects which fall more particularly within the province
of each of them, they may easily be distinguished. It is evident that a
central government acquires immense power when united to administrative
centralization. Thus combined, it accustoms men to set their own will
habitually and completely aside; to submit, not only for once, or upon one
point, but in every respect, and at all times. Not only, therefore, does
this union of power subdue them compulsorily, but it affects them in the
ordinary habits of life, and influences each individual, first separately
and then collectively.</p>
<p>These two kinds of centralization mutually assist and attract each other;
but they must not be supposed to be inseparable. It is impossible to
imagine a more completely central government than that which existed in
France under Louis XIV.; when the same individual was the author and the
interpreter of the laws, and the representative of France at home and
abroad, he was justified in asserting that the State was identified with
his person. Nevertheless, the administration was much less centralized
under Louis XIV. than it is at the present day.</p>
<p>In England the centralization of the government is carried to great
perfection; the State has the compact vigor of a man, and by the sole act
of its will it puts immense engines in motion, and wields or collects the
efforts of its authority. Indeed, I cannot conceive that a nation can
enjoy a secure or prosperous existence without a powerful centralization
of government. But I am of opinion that a central administration enervates
the nations in which it exists by incessantly diminishing their public
spirit. If such an administration succeeds in condensing at a given
moment, on a given point, all the disposable resources of a people, it
impairs at least the renewal of those resources. It may ensure a victory
in the hour of strife, but it gradually relaxes the sinews of strength. It
may contribute admirably to the transient greatness of a man, but it
cannot ensure the durable prosperity of a nation.</p>
<p>If we pay proper attention, we shall find that whenever it is said that a
State cannot act because it has no central point, it is the centralization
of the government in which it is deficient. It is frequently asserted, and
we are prepared to assent to the proposition, that the German empire was
never able to bring all its powers into action. But the reason was, that
the State was never able to enforce obedience to its general laws, because
the several members of that great body always claimed the right, or found
the means, of refusing their co-operation to the representatives of the
common authority, even in the affairs which concerned the mass of the
people; in other words, because there was no centralization of government.
The same remark is applicable to the Middle Ages; the cause of all the
confusion of feudal society was that the control, not only of local but of
general interests, was divided amongst a thousand hands, and broken up in
a thousand different ways; the absence of a central government prevented
the nations of Europe from advancing with energy in any straightforward
course.</p>
<p>We have shown that in the United States no central administration and no
dependent series of public functionaries exist. Local authority has been
carried to lengths which no European nation could endure without great
inconvenience, and which has even produced some disadvantageous
consequences in America. But in the United States the centralization of
the Government is complete; and it would be easy to prove that the
national power is more compact than it has ever been in the old nations of
Europe. Not only is there but one legislative body in each State; not only
does there exist but one source of political authority; but district
assemblies and county courts have not in general been multiplied, lest
they should be tempted to exceed their administrative duties, and
interfere with the Government. In America the legislature of each State is
supreme; nothing can impede its authority; neither privileges, nor local
immunities, nor personal influence, nor even the empire of reason, since
it represents that majority which claims to be the sole organ of reason.
Its own determination is, therefore, the only limit to this action. In
juxtaposition to it, and under its immediate control, is the
representative of the executive power, whose duty it is to constrain the
refractory to submit by superior force. The only symptom of weakness lies
in certain details of the action of the Government. The American republics
have no standing armies to intimidate a discontented minority; but as no
minority has as yet been reduced to declare open war, the necessity of an
army has not been felt. *q The State usually employs the officers of the
township or the county to deal with the citizens. Thus, for instance, in
New England, the assessor fixes the rate of taxes; the collector receives
them; the town-treasurer transmits the amount to the public treasury; and
the disputes which may arise are brought before the ordinary courts of
justice. This method of collecting taxes is slow as well as inconvenient,
and it would prove a perpetual hindrance to a Government whose pecuniary
demands were large. It is desirable that, in whatever materially affects
its existence, the Government should be served by officers of its own,
appointed by itself, removable at pleasure, and accustomed to rapid
methods of proceeding. But it will always be easy for the central
government, organized as it is in America, to introduce new and more
efficacious modes of action, proportioned to its wants. [Footnote q: [The
Civil War of 1860-65 cruelly belied this statement, and in the course of
the struggle the North alone called two millions and a half of men to
arms; but to the honor of the United States it must be added that, with
the cessation of the contest, this army disappeared as rapidly as it had
been raised.—Translator's Note.]]</p>
<p>The absence of a central government will not, then, as has often been
asserted, prove the destruction of the republics of the New World; far
from supposing that the American governments are not sufficiently
centralized, I shall prove hereafter that they are too much so. The
legislative bodies daily encroach upon the authority of the Government,
and their tendency, like that of the French Convention, is to appropriate
it entirely to themselves. Under these circumstances the social power is
constantly changing hands, because it is subordinate to the power of the
people, which is too apt to forget the maxims of wisdom and of foresight
in the consciousness of its strength: hence arises its danger; and thus
its vigor, and not its impotence, will probably be the cause of its
ultimate destruction.</p>
<p>The system of local administration produces several different effects in
America. The Americans seem to me to have outstepped the limits of sound
policy in isolating the administration of the Government; for order, even
in second-rate affairs, is a matter of national importance. *r As the
State has no administrative functionaries of its own, stationed on
different points of its territory, to whom it can give a common impulse,
the consequence is that it rarely attempts to issue any general police
regulations. The want of these regulations is severely felt, and is
frequently observed by Europeans. The appearance of disorder which
prevails on the surface leads him at first to imagine that society is in a
state of anarchy; nor does he perceive his mistake till he has gone deeper
into the subject. Certain undertakings are of importance to the whole
State; but they cannot be put in execution, because there is no national
administration to direct them. Abandoned to the exertions of the towns or
counties, under the care of elected or temporary agents, they lead to no
result, or at least to no durable benefit.</p>
<p class="foot">
r <br/> [ The authority which represents the State ought not, I think, to
waive the right of inspecting the local administration, even when it does
not interfere more actively. Suppose, for instance, that an agent of the
Government was stationed at some appointed spot in the country, to
prosecute the misdemeanors of the town and county officers, would not a
more uniform order be the result, without in any way compromising the
independence of the township? Nothing of the kind, however, exists in
America: there is nothing above the county-courts, which have, as it were,
only an incidental cognizance of the offences they are meant to repress.]</p>
<p>The partisans of centralization in Europe are wont to maintain that the
Government directs the affairs of each locality better than the citizens
could do it for themselves; this may be true when the central power is
enlightened, and when the local districts are ignorant; when it is as
alert as they are slow; when it is accustomed to act, and they to obey.
Indeed, it is evident that this double tendency must augment with the
increase of centralization, and that the readiness of the one and the
incapacity of the others must become more and more prominent. But I deny
that such is the case when the people is as enlightened, as awake to its
interests, and as accustomed to reflect on them, as the Americans are. I
am persuaded, on the contrary, that in this case the collective strength
of the citizens will always conduce more efficaciously to the public
welfare than the authority of the Government. It is difficult to point out
with certainty the means of arousing a sleeping population, and of giving
it passions and knowledge which it does not possess; it is, I am well
aware, an arduous task to persuade men to busy themselves about their own
affairs; and it would frequently be easier to interest them in the
punctilios of court etiquette than in the repairs of their common
dwelling. But whenever a central administration affects to supersede the
persons most interested, I am inclined to suppose that it is either misled
or desirous to mislead. However enlightened and however skilful a central
power may be, it cannot of itself embrace all the details of the existence
of a great nation. Such vigilance exceeds the powers of man. And when it
attempts to create and set in motion so many complicated springs, it must
submit to a very imperfect result, or consume itself in bootless efforts.</p>
<p>Centralization succeeds more easily, indeed, in subjecting the external
actions of men to a certain uniformity, which at least commands our
regard, independently of the objects to which it is applied, like those
devotees who worship the statue and forget the deity it represents.
Centralization imparts without difficulty an admirable regularity to the
routine of business; provides for the details of the social police with
sagacity; represses the smallest disorder and the most petty misdemeanors;
maintains society in a status quo alike secure from improvement and
decline; and perpetuates a drowsy precision in the conduct of affairs,
which is hailed by the heads of the administration as a sign of perfect
order and public tranquillity: *s in short, it excels more in prevention
than in action. Its force deserts it when society is to be disturbed or
accelerated in its course; and if once the co-operation of private
citizens is necessary to the furtherance of its measures, the secret of
its impotence is disclosed. Even whilst it invokes their assistance, it is
on the condition that they shall act exactly as much as the Government
chooses, and exactly in the manner it appoints. They are to take charge of
the details, without aspiring to guide the system; they are to work in a
dark and subordinate sphere, and only to judge the acts in which they have
themselves cooperated by their results. These, however, are not conditions
on which the alliance of the human will is to be obtained; its carriage
must be free and its actions responsible, or (such is the constitution of
man) the citizen had rather remain a passive spectator than a dependent
actor in schemes with which he is unacquainted.</p>
<p class="foot">
s <br/> [ China appears to me to present the most perfect instance of that
species of well-being which a completely central administration may
furnish to the nations among which it exists. Travellers assure us that
the Chinese have peace without happiness, industry without improvement,
stability without strength, and public order without public morality. The
condition of society is always tolerable, never excellent. I am convinced
that, when China is opened to European observation, it will be found to
contain the most perfect model of a central administration which exists in
the universe.]</p>
<p>It is undeniable that the want of those uniform regulations which control
the conduct of every inhabitant of France is not unfrequently felt in the
United States. Gross instances of social indifference and neglect are to
be met with, and from time to time disgraceful blemishes are seen in
complete contrast with the surrounding civilization. Useful undertakings
which cannot succeed without perpetual attention and rigorous exactitude
are very frequently abandoned in the end; for in America, as well as in
other countries, the people is subject to sudden impulses and momentary
exertions. The European who is accustomed to find a functionary always at
hand to interfere with all he undertakes has some difficulty in
accustoming himself to the complex mechanism of the administration of the
townships. In general it may be affirmed that the lesser details of the
police, which render life easy and comfortable, are neglected in America;
but that the essential guarantees of man in society are as strong there as
elsewhere. In America the power which conducts the Government is far less
regular, less enlightened, and less learned, but an hundredfold more
authoritative than in Europe. In no country in the world do the citizens
make such exertions for the common weal; and I am acquainted with no
people which has established schools as numerous and as efficacious,
places of public worship better suited to the wants of the inhabitants, or
roads kept in better repair. Uniformity or permanence of design, the
minute arrangement of details, *t and the perfection of an ingenious
administration, must not be sought for in the United States; but it will
be easy to find, on the other hand, the symptoms of a power which, if it
is somewhat barbarous, is at least robust; and of an existence which is
checkered with accidents indeed, but cheered at the same time by animation
and effort.</p>
<p class="foot">
t <br/> [ A writer of talent, who, in the comparison which he has drawn
between the finances of France and those of the United States, has proved
that ingenuity cannot always supply the place of a knowledge of facts,
very justly reproaches the Americans for the sort of confusion which
exists in the accounts of the expenditure in the townships; and after
giving the model of a departmental budget in France, he adds:—"We
are indebted to centralization, that admirable invention of a great man,
for the uniform order and method which prevail alike in all the municipal
budgets, from the largest town to the humblest commune." Whatever may be
my admiration of this result, when I see the communes of France, with
their excellent system of accounts, plunged into the grossest ignorance of
their true interests, and abandoned to so incorrigible an apathy that they
seem to vegetate rather than to live; when, on the other hand, I observe
the activity, the information, and the spirit of enterprise which keep
society in perpetual labor, in those American townships whose budgets are
drawn up with small method and with still less uniformity, I am struck by
the spectacle; for to my mind the end of a good government is to ensure
the welfare of a people, and not to establish order and regularity in the
midst of its misery and its distress. I am therefore led to suppose that
the prosperity of the American townships and the apparent confusion of
their accounts, the distress of the French communes and the perfection of
their budget, may be attributable to the same cause. At any rate I am
suspicious of a benefit which is united to so many evils, and I am not
averse to an evil which is compensated by so many benefits.]</p>
<p>Granting for an instant that the villages and counties of the United
States would be more usefully governed by a remote authority which they
had never seen than by functionaries taken from the midst of them—admitting,
for the sake of argument, that the country would be more secure, and the
resources of society better employed, if the whole administration centred
in a single arm—still the political advantages which the Americans
derive from their system would induce me to prefer it to the contrary
plan. It profits me but little, after all, that a vigilant authority
should protect the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly avert all
dangers from my path, without my care or my concern, if this same
authority is the absolute mistress of my liberty and of my life, and if it
so monopolizes all the energy of existence that when it languishes
everything languishes around it, that when it sleeps everything must
sleep, that when it dies the State itself must perish.</p>
<p>In certain countries of Europe the natives consider themselves as a kind
of settlers, indifferent to the fate of the spot upon which they live. The
greatest changes are effected without their concurrence and (unless chance
may have apprised them of the event) without their knowledge; nay more,
the citizen is unconcerned as to the condition of his village, the police
of his street, the repairs of the church or of the parsonage; for he looks
upon all these things as unconnected with himself, and as the property of
a powerful stranger whom he calls the Government. He has only a
life-interest in these possessions, and he entertains no notions of
ownership or of improvement. This want of interest in his own affairs goes
so far that, if his own safety or that of his children is endangered,
instead of trying to avert the peril, he will fold his arms, and wait till
the nation comes to his assistance. This same individual, who has so
completely sacrificed his own free will, has no natural propensity to
obedience; he cowers, it is true, before the pettiest officer; but he
braves the law with the spirit of a conquered foe as soon as its superior
force is removed: his oscillations between servitude and license are
perpetual. When a nation has arrived at this state it must either change
its customs and its laws or perish: the source of public virtue is dry,
and, though it may contain subjects, the race of citizens is extinct. Such
communities are a natural prey to foreign conquests, and if they do not
disappear from the scene of life, it is because they are surrounded by
other nations similar or inferior to themselves: it is because the
instinctive feeling of their country's claims still exists in their
hearts; and because an involuntary pride in the name it bears, or a vague
reminiscence of its bygone fame, suffices to give them the impulse of
self-preservation.</p>
<p>Nor can the prodigious exertions made by tribes in the defence of a
country to which they did not belong be adduced in favor of such a system;
for it will be found that in these cases their main incitement was
religion. The permanence, the glory, or the prosperity of the nation were
become parts of their faith, and in defending the country they inhabited
they defended that Holy City of which they were all citizens. The Turkish
tribes have never taken an active share in the conduct of the affairs of
society, but they accomplished stupendous enterprises as long as the
victories of the Sultan were the triumphs of the Mohammedan faith. In the
present age they are in rapid decay, because their religion is departing,
and despotism only remains. Montesquieu, who attributed to absolute power
an authority peculiar to itself, did it, as I conceive, an undeserved
honor; for despotism, taken by itself, can produce no durable results. On
close inspection we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been
the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government. Whatever
exertions may be made, no true power can be founded among men which does
not depend upon the free union of their inclinations; and patriotism and
religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently
direct the whole of a body politic to one end.</p>
<p>Laws cannot succeed in rekindling the ardor of an extinguished faith, but
men may be interested in the fate of their country by the laws. By this
influence the vague impulse of patriotism, which never abandons the human
heart, may be directed and revived; and if it be connected with the
thoughts, the passions, and the daily habits of life, it may be
consolidated into a durable and rational sentiment.</p>
<p>Let it not be said that the time for the experiment is already past; for
the old age of nations is not like the old age of men, and every fresh
generation is a new people ready for the care of the legislator.</p>
<p>It is not the administrative but the political effects of the local system
that I most admire in America. In the United States the interests of the
country are everywhere kept in view; they are an object of solicitude to
the people of the whole Union, and every citizen is as warmly attached to
them as if they were his own. He takes pride in the glory of his nation;
he boasts of its success, to which he conceives himself to have
contributed, and he rejoices in the general prosperity by which he
profits. The feeling he entertains towards the State is analogous to that
which unites him to his family, and it is by a kind of egotism that he
interests himself in the welfare of his country.</p>
<p>The European generally submits to a public officer because he represents a
superior force; but to an American he represents a right. In America it
may be said that no one renders obedience to man, but to justice and to
law. If the opinion which the citizen entertains of himself is
exaggerated, it is at least salutary; he unhesitatingly confides in his
own powers, which appear to him to be all-sufficient. When a private
individual meditates an undertaking, however directly connected it may be
with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the
co-operation of the Government, but he publishes his plan, offers to
execute it himself, courts the assistance of other individuals, and
struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less
successful than the State might have been in his position; but in the end
the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the Government
could have done.</p>
<p>As the administrative authority is within the reach of the citizens, whom
it in some degree represents, it excites neither their jealousy nor their
hatred; as its resources are limited, every one feels that he must not
rely solely on its assistance. Thus, when the administration thinks fit to
interfere, it is not abandoned to itself as in Europe; the duties of the
private citizens are not supposed to have lapsed because the State assists
in their fulfilment, but every one is ready, on the contrary, to guide and
to support it. This action of individual exertions, joined to that of the
public authorities, frequently performs what the most energetic central
administration would be unable to execute. It would be easy to adduce
several facts in proof of what I advance, but I had rather give only one,
with which I am more thoroughly acquainted. *u In America the means which
the authorities have at their disposal for the discovery of crimes and the
arrest of criminals are few. The State police does not exist, and
passports are unknown. The criminal police of the United States cannot be
compared to that of France; the magistrates and public prosecutors are not
numerous, and the examinations of prisoners are rapid and oral.
Nevertheless in no country does crime more rarely elude punishment. The
reason is, that every one conceives himself to be interested in furnishing
evidence of the act committed, and in stopping the delinquent. During my
stay in the United States I witnessed the spontaneous formation of
committees for the pursuit and prosecution of a man who had committed a
great crime in a certain county. In Europe a criminal is an unhappy being
who is struggling for his life against the ministers of justice, whilst
the population is merely a spectator of the conflict; in America he is
looked upon as an enemy of the human race, and the whole of mankind is
against him.</p>
<p class="foot">
u <br/> [ See Appendix, I.]</p>
<p>I believe that provincial institutions are useful to all nations, but
nowhere do they appear to me to be more indispensable than amongst a
democratic people. In an aristocracy order can always be maintained in the
midst of liberty, and as the rulers have a great deal to lose order is to
them a first-rate consideration. In like manner an aristocracy protects
the people from the excesses of despotism, because it always possesses an
organized power ready to resist a despot. But a democracy without
provincial institutions has no security against these evils. How can a
populace, unaccustomed to freedom in small concerns, learn to use it
temperately in great affairs? What resistance can be offered to tyranny in
a country where every private individual is impotent, and where the
citizens are united by no common tie? Those who dread the license of the
mob, and those who fear the rule of absolute power, ought alike to desire
the progressive growth of provincial liberties.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I am convinced that democratic nations are most exposed
to fall beneath the yoke of a central administration, for several reasons,
amongst which is the following. The constant tendency of these nations is
to concentrate all the strength of the Government in the hands of the only
power which directly represents the people, because beyond the people
nothing is to be perceived but a mass of equal individuals confounded
together. But when the same power is already in possession of all the
attributes of the Government, it can scarcely refrain from penetrating
into the details of the administration, and an opportunity of doing so is
sure to present itself in the end, as was the case in France. In the
French Revolution there were two impulses in opposite directions, which
must never be confounded—the one was favorable to liberty, the other
to despotism. Under the ancient monarchy the King was the sole author of
the laws, and below the power of the sovereign certain vestiges of
provincial institutions, half destroyed, were still distinguishable. These
provincial institutions were incoherent, ill compacted, and frequently
absurd; in the hands of the aristocracy they had sometimes been converted
into instruments of oppression. The Revolution declared itself the enemy
of royalty and of provincial institutions at the same time; it confounded
all that had preceded it—despotic power and the checks to its abuses—in
indiscriminate hatred, and its tendency was at once to overthrow and to
centralize. This double character of the French Revolution is a fact which
has been adroitly handled by the friends of absolute power. Can they be
accused of laboring in the cause of despotism when they are defending that
central administration which was one of the great innovations of the
Revolution? *v In this manner popularity may be conciliated with hostility
to the rights of the people, and the secret slave of tyranny may be the
professed admirer of freedom.</p>
<p class="foot">
v <br/> [ See Appendix K.]</p>
<p>I have visited the two nations in which the system of provincial liberty
has been most perfectly established, and I have listened to the opinions
of different parties in those countries. In America I met with men who
secretly aspired to destroy the democratic institutions of the Union; in
England I found others who attacked the aristocracy openly, but I know of
no one who does not regard provincial independence as a great benefit. In
both countries I have heard a thousand different causes assigned for the
evils of the State, but the local system was never mentioned amongst them.
I have heard citizens attribute the power and prosperity of their country
to a multitude of reasons, but they all placed the advantages of local
institutions in the foremost rank. Am I to suppose that when men who are
naturally so divided on religious opinions and on political theories agree
on one point (and that one of which they have daily experience), they are
all in error? The only nations which deny the utility of provincial
liberties are those which have fewest of them; in other words, those who
are unacquainted with the institution are the only persons who pass a
censure upon it.</p>
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