American Institutions

interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress. Would it be wise to imagine that a social movement, the causes of which' lie so far back, can be checked by the ef forts of one generation? Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists? Will it stop now that it is grown so strong and its adversaries so weak?"

He who wrote these lines in the presence of a monarchy which had been rather confirmed than shaken by the Revolution of 1830, may now fearlessly ask again the attention of the public to his work. And he may be permitted to add, that the present state of affairs gives to his book an immediate interest and a practical utility which it had not when it was first published. Royalty was then in power; it has now been overthrown. The institutions of America, which were a subject only of curiosity to monarchical France, ought to be a subject of study for republican France. It is not force alone, but good laws, which give stability to a new government. After the combatant, comes the legislator; the one has pulled down, the other builds up; each has his office. Though it is no longer a question whether we shall have a monarchy or a republic in France, we are yet to learn whether we shall have a convulsed or a tranquil republic, whether it shall be regular or irregular, pacific or warlike, liberal or oppressive, — -a republic which menaces the sacred rights of property and family, or one which honors and

protects them both. It is a fearful problem, the solution of which concerns not France alone, but the whole civilized world. If we save ourselves, we save at the same time all the nations which

surround us. If we perish, we shall cause all of them to perish with us. According as democratic liberty or democratic tyranny is established here, the destiny of the world will be different; and it may be said that this day it depends upon us, whether the republic shall be everywhere finally established, or everywhere finally overthrown.

Now this problem, which among us has but just been proposed for solution, was solved by America more than sixty years ago. The principle of the sovereignty of the people, which we enthroned in France but yesterday, has there held undivided sway for over sixty years. It is there reduced to practice in the most direct, the most unlimited, and the most absolute. manner. For sixty years, the people who have made it the common source of all their laws have increased continually in population, in territory, and in opulence; and consider it well-it is found to have been, during that period, not only the most prosperous, but the most stable, of all the nations of the earth. Whilst all the nations of Europe have been devastated by war or torn by civil discord, the American people alone in the civilized world have remained at peace. Almost all Europe was convulsed by revolutions; America has not had even a revolt.* The republic there has not been

-

* Thank God that this is history, though it is not the present fact. The

the assailant, but the guardian, of all vested rights; the property of individuals has had better guaranties there than in any other country of the world; anarchy has there been as unknown as despotism.

Where else could we find greater causes of hope, br more instructive lessons? Let us look to America, not in order to make a servile copy of the institutions which she has established, but to gain a clearer view of the polity which will be the best for us; let us look there less to find examples than instruction; let us borrow from her the principles, rather than the details, of her laws. The laws of the French republic may be, and ought to be, in many cases, different from those which govern the United States; but the principles on which the American constitutions rest, those principles of order, of the balance of powers, of true liberty, of deep and sincere respect for right,—are indispensable to all republics; they ought to be common to all; and it may be said beforehand, that wherever they shall not be found, the republic will soon have ceased to exist.

1848..

record of what our country has been, and of what she accomplished during three quarters of a century, is beyond the power even of a gigantic rebellion to blot out. Let only the faint-hearted, on looking into the past, exclaim, with the great Italian,

"Nessun maggior dolore

Che ricordarsi del tempo felice

Nella miseria."

Nobler spirits will say, though the memory of what has been be the only star which shines in the thick darkness that now surrounds us, it shall light us on to mightier efforts, and kindle in our hearts a surer hope of the reappearance of the day, - of a day whose sunshine shall not be broken even by the one dark cloud that dimmed our former prosperity. AM. ED. 1862.

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EXTERIOR FORM OF NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER II.