rial interests. A certain uniformity of civilization is not less necessary to the durability of a confederation, than a uniformity of interests in the states which compose it. In Switzerland, the difference between the civilization of the Canton of Uri and that of the Canton of Vaud is like the difference between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries; therefore, properly speaking, Switzerland has never had a federal government. The union between these two Cantons subsists only upon the map; and this would soon be perceived if an attempt were made by a central authority to prescribe the same laws to the whole territory.

The circumstance which makes it easy to maintain a Federal government in America is, that the States not only have similar interests, a common origin, and a common language, but that they are also arrived at the same stage of civilization; which almost always renders a union feasible. I do not know of any European nation, however small, which does not present less uniformity in its different provinces than the American people, which occupies a territory as extensive as one half of Europe. The distance from Maine to Georgia is about one thousand miles; but the difference between the civilization of Maine and that of Georgia is slighter than the difference between the habits of Normandy and those of Brittany. Maine and Georgia, which are placed at the opposite extremities of a great empire, have therefore more real inducements to form a confederation than Normandy and Brittany, which are separated only by a brook.

The geographical position of the country increased the facilities which the American legislators derived from the manners and customs of the inhabitants; and it is to this circumstance that the adoption and the maintenance of the Federal system are mainly attributable.

The most important occurrence in the life of a nation is the breaking out of a war. In war, a people act as one

man against foreign nations, in defence of their very existence. The skill of the government, the good sense of the community, and the natural fondness which men almost always entertain for their country, may be enough, as long as the only object is to maintain peace in the interior of the state, and to favor its internal prosperity; but that the nation may carry on a great war, the people must make more numerous and painful sacrifices; and to suppose that a great number of men will, of their own accord, submit to these exigencies, is to betray an ignorance of human nature. All the nations which have been obliged to sustain a long and serious warfare have consequently been led to augment the power of their government. Those who have not succeeded in this attempt have been subjugated. A long war almost always reduces nations to the wretched alternative of being abandoned to ruin by defeat, or to despotism by success. War therefore renders the weakness of a government most apparent and most alarming; and I have shown that the inherent defect of federal governments is that of being weak.

The federal system not only has no centralized administration, and nothing which resembles one, but the central government itself is imperfectly organized, which is always a great cause of weakness when the nation is opposed to other countries which are themselves governed by a single authority. In the Federal Constitution of the United States, where the central government has more real force than in any other confederation, this evil is still extremely sensible. A single example will illustrate the case.

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The Constitution confers upon Congress the right of calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions"; and another article declares that the President of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the militia. In the war of 1812, the President ordered the militia of the Northern

States to march to the frontiers; but Connecticut and Massachusetts, whose interests were impaired by the war, refused to obey the command. They argued that the Constitution authorizes the Federal government to call forth the militia in case of insurrection or invasion; but in the present instance, there was neither invasion nor insurrection. They added, that the same Constitution which conferred upon the Union the right of calling the militia into active service, reserved to the States that of naming the officers; and consequently (as they understood the clause) no officer of the Union had any right to command the militia, even during war, except the President in person: and in this case, they were ordered to join an army commanded by another individual. These absurd and pernicious doctrines received the sanction not only of the Governors and the legislative bodies, but also of the courts of justice in both States; and the Federal government was constrained to raise elsewhere the troops which it required.*

How happens it, then, that the American Union, with all the relative perfection of its laws, is not dissolved by the occurrence of a great war? It is because it has no great wars to fear. Placed in the centre of an immense continent, which offers a boundless field for human industry, the Union is almost as much insulated from the world as if all its frontiers were girt by the ocean. Canada con

*Kent's Commentaries, Vol. I. p. 244. I have selected an example which relates to a time long after the promulgation of the present Constitution. If I had gone back to the days of the Confederation, I might have given still more striking instances. The whole nation was at that time in a state of enthusiastic excitement; the Revolution was represented by a man who was the idol of the people; but at that very period, Congress had, to say the truth, no resources at all at its disposal. Troops and supplies were perpetually wanting. The best-devised projects failed in the execution, and the Union, constantly on the verge of destruction, was saved by the weakness of its enemies far more than by its own strength.

tains only a million of inhabitants, and its population is divided into two inimical nations. The rigor of the climate limits the extension of its territory, and shuts up its ports during the six months of winter. From Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a few savage tribes are to be met with, which retire, perishing in their retreat, before six thousand soldiers. To the south, the Union has a point of contact with the empire of Mexico; and it is thence. that serious hostilities may one day be expected to arise. But for a long while to come, the uncivilized state of the Mexican people, the depravity of their morals, and their extreme poverty, will prevent that country from ranking high amongst nations. As for the powers of Europe, they are too distant to be formidable.*

The great advantage of the United States does not, then, consist in a Federal Constitution which allows them to carry on great wars, but in a geographical position which renders such wars extremely improbable.

No one can be more inclined than I am to appreciate the advantages of the Federal system, which I hold to be one of the combinations most favorable to the prosperity and freedom of man. I envy the lot of those nations which have been able to adopt it; but I cannot believe that any confederate people could maintain a long or an equal contest with a nation of similar strength in which the government is centralized. A people which should divide its sovereignty into fractional parts, in the presence of the great military monarchies of Europe, would, in my opinion, by that very act abdicate its power, and perhaps its existence and its name. But such is the admirable position of the New World, that man has no other enemy than himself; and that, in order to be happy and to be free, he has only to determine that he will be so.

*See Appendix O.

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CHAPTER IX.

THUS far, I have examined the institutions of the United States; I have passed their legislation in review, and have described the present forms of political society in that country. But above these institutions, and beyond all these characteristic forms, there is a sovereign power-that of the people-which may destroy or modify them at its pleasure. It remains to be shown in what manner this power, superior to the laws, acts; what are its instincts and its passions, what the secret springs which retard, accelerate, or direct its irresistible course, what the effects of its unbounded authority, and what the destiny which is reserved for it.

HOW IT CAN BE STRICTLY SAID THAT THE PEOPLE GOVERN IN THE UNITED STATES.

IN America, the people appoint the legislative and the executive power, and furnish the jurors who punish all infractions of the laws. The institutions are democratic, not only in their principle, but in all their consequences; and the people elect their representatives directly, and for the most part annually, in order to insure their dependence. The people are, therefore, the real directing power; and although the form of government is representative, it is evident that the opinions, the prejudices, the interests, and even the passions of the people are hindered by no permanent obstacles from exercising a perpetual influence on