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 to make out 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
paupers in the receipt of relief from the townships, there is no class of
persons who do not exercise the elective franchise, and who do not 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 adduced; 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 for the decrees 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 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 been sometimes
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, but 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 have 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 have 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 the law not 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, the traveller 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 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, whilst 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 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 amongst 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; 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 met to decide
upon the building of a church; there, the election of a representative is going
on; a little further 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; 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. *c
c [ At the time of my stay in the
United States the temperance societies already consisted of more than 270,000
members, and their effect had been to diminish the consumption of fermented
liquors by 500,000 gallons per annum in the State of Pennsylvania alone.]
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 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
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. *d 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.
d [ The same remark was made at Rome
under the first Caesars. Montesquieu somewhere alludes to the excessive
despondency of certain Roman citizens who, after the excitement of political
life, were all at once flung back into the stagnation of private life.]
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 co-operate 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 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, 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 greater 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 skilful kind of government upon
the people, but it produces that which the most skilful 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 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 purport of 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 witness vices than
crimes and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offences 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 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 surer means of satisfying them than by equalizing the
conditions of men, 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment