Influence Of The Laws Upon The Maintenance Of The
Democratic Republic In The United States
Three principal causes of the maintenance of the
democratic republic—Federal Constitutions—Municipal institutions—Judicial
power.
The principal aim of this book has been to make known the
laws of the United States; if this purpose has been accomplished, the reader is
already enabled to judge for himself which are the laws that really tend to
maintain the democratic republic, and which endanger its existence. If I have
not succeeded in explaining this in the whole course of my work, I cannot hope
to do so within the limits of a single chapter. It is not my intention to
retrace the path I have already pursued, and a very few lines will suffice to
recapitulate what I have previously explained.
Three circumstances seem to me to contribute most
powerfully to the maintenance of the democratic republic in the United States.
The first is that Federal form of Government which the
Americans have adopted, and which enables the Union to combine the power of a
great empire with the security of a small State.
The second consists in those municipal institutions which
limit the despotism of the majority, and at the same time impart a taste for
freedom and a knowledge of the art of being free to the people.
The third is to be met with in the constitution of the
judicial power. I have shown in what manner the courts of justice serve to
repress the excesses of democracy, and how they check and direct the impulses
of the majority without stopping its activity.
Influence Of Manners Upon The Maintenance Of The
Democratic Republic In The United States
I have previously remarked that the manners of the people
may be considered as one of the general causes to which the maintenance of a
democratic republic in the United States is attributable. I here used the word
manners with the meaning which the ancients attached to the word mores, for I
apply it not only to manners in their proper sense of what constitutes the
character of social intercourse, but I extend it to the various notions and
opinions current among men, and to the mass of those ideas which constitute
their character of mind. I comprise, therefore, under this term the whole moral
and intellectual condition of a people. My intention is not to draw a picture
of American manners, but simply to point out such features of them as are
favorable to the maintenance of political institutions.
Religion Considered As A Political Institution, Which
Powerfully Contributes To The Maintenance Of The Democratic Republic Amongst
The Americans
North America peopled by men who professed a democratic
and republican Christianity—Arrival of the Catholics—For what reason the
Catholics form the most democratic and the most republican class at the present
time.
Every religion is to be found in juxtaposition to a
political opinion which is connected with it by affinity. If the human mind be
left to follow its own bent, it will regulate the temporal and spiritual
institutions of society upon one uniform principle; and man will endeavor, if I
may use the expression, to harmonize the state in which he lives upon earth
with the state which he believes to await him in heaven. The greatest part of
British America was peopled by men who, after having shaken off the authority
of the Pope, acknowledged no other religious supremacy; they brought with them
into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than
by styling it a democratic and republican religion. This sect contributed
powerfully to the establishment of a democracy and a republic, and from the
earliest settlement of the emigrants politics and religion contracted an
alliance which has never been dissolved.
About fifty years ago Ireland began to pour a Catholic
population into the United States; on the other hand, the Catholics of America
made proselytes, and at the present moment more than a million of Christians
professing the truths of the Church of Rome are to be met with in the Union. *d
The Catholics are faithful to the observances of their religion; they are
fervent and zealous in the support and belief of their doctrines. Nevertheless
they constitute the most republican and the most democratic class of citizens
which exists in the United States; and although this fact may surprise the
observer at first, the causes by which it is occasioned may easily be
discovered upon reflection.
d [ [It is difficult to ascertain with
accuracy the amount of the Roman Catholic population of the United States, but
in 1868 an able writer in the "Edinburgh Review" (vol. cxxvii. p.
521) affirmed that the whole Catholic population of the United States was then
about 4,000,000, divided into 43 dioceses, with 3,795 churches, under the care
of 45 bishops and 2,317 clergymen. But this rapid increase is mainly supported
by immigration from the Catholic countries of Europe.]]
I think that the Catholic religion has erroneously been
looked upon as the natural enemy of democracy. Amongst the various sects of
Christians, Catholicism seems to me, on the contrary, to be one of those which
are most favorable to the equality of conditions. In the Catholic Church, the
religious community is composed of only two elements, the priest and the
people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all below him
are equal.
On doctrinal points the Catholic faith places all human
capacities upon the same level; it subjects the wise and ignorant, the man of
genius and the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed; it imposes the
same observances upon the rich and needy, it inflicts the same austerities upon
the strong and the weak, it listens to no compromise with mortal man, but,
reducing all the human race to the same standard, it confounds all the
distinctions of society at the foot of the same altar, even as they are
confounded in the sight of God. If Catholicism predisposes the faithful to
obedience, it certainly does not prepare them for inequality; but the contrary may
be said of Protestantism, which generally tends to make men independent, more
than to render them equal.
Catholicism is like an absolute monarchy; if the
sovereign be removed, all the other classes of society are more equal than they
are in republics. It has not unfrequently occurred that the Catholic priest has
left the service of the altar to mix with the governing powers of society, and
to take his place amongst the civil gradations of men. This religious influence
has sometimes been used to secure the interests of that political state of
things to which he belonged. At other times Catholics have taken the side of
aristocracy from a spirit of religion.
But no sooner is the priesthood entirely separated from
the government, as is the case in the United States, than is found that no
class of men are more naturally disposed than the Catholics to transfuse the
doctrine of the equality of conditions into the political world. If, then, the
Catholic citizens of the United States are not forcibly led by the nature of
their tenets to adopt democratic and republican principles, at least they are
not necessarily opposed to them; and their social position, as well as their
limited number, obliges them to adopt these opinions. Most of the Catholics are
poor, and they have no chance of taking a part in the government unless it be
open to all the citizens. They constitute a minority, and all rights must be
respected in order to insure to them the free exercise of their own privileges.
These two causes induce them, unconsciously, to adopt political doctrines,
which they would perhaps support with less zeal if they were rich and
preponderant.
The Catholic clergy of the United States has never
attempted to oppose this political tendency, but it seeks rather to justify its
results. The priests in America have divided the intellectual world into two
parts: in the one they place the doctrines of revealed religion, which command
their assent; in the other they leave those truths which they believe to have
been freely left open to the researches of political inquiry. Thus the
Catholics of the United States are at the same time the most faithful believers
and the most zealous citizens.
It may be asserted that in the United States no religious
doctrine displays the slightest hostility to democratic and republican
institutions. The clergy of all the different sects hold the same language,
their opinions are consonant to the laws, and the human intellect flows onwards
in one sole current.
I happened to be staying in one of the largest towns in
the Union, when I was invited to attend a public meeting which had been called
for the purpose of assisting the Poles, and of sending them supplies of arms
and money. I found two or three thousand persons collected in a vast hall which
had been prepared to receive them. In a short time a priest in his
ecclesiastical robes advanced to the front of the hustings: the spectators
rose, and stood uncovered, whilst he spoke in the following terms:—
"Almighty God! the God of Armies! Thou who didst strengthen
the hearts and guide the arms of our fathers when they were fighting for the
sacred rights of national independence; Thou who didst make them triumph over a
hateful oppression, and hast granted to our people the benefits of liberty and
peace; Turn, O Lord, a favorable eye upon the other hemisphere; pitifully look
down upon that heroic nation which is even now struggling as we did in the
former time, and for the same rights which we defended with our blood. Thou,
who didst create Man in the likeness of the same image, let not tyranny mar Thy
work, and establish inequality upon the earth. Almighty God! do Thou watch over
the destiny of the Poles, and render them worthy to be free. May Thy wisdom
direct their councils, and may Thy strength sustain their arms! Shed forth Thy
terror over their enemies, scatter the powers which take counsel against them;
and vouchsafe that the injustice which the world has witnessed for fifty years,
be not consummated in our time. O Lord, who holdest alike the hearts of nations
and of men in Thy powerful hand; raise up allies to the sacred cause of right;
arouse the French nation from the apathy in which its rulers retain it, that it
go forth again to fight for the liberties of the world.
"Lord, turn not Thou Thy face from us, and grant
that we may always be the most religious as well as the freest people of the
earth. Almighty God, hear our supplications this day. Save the Poles, we
beseech Thee, in the name of Thy well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died upon the cross for the salvation of men. Amen."
The whole meeting responded "Amen!" with
devotion.
Indirect Influence Of Religious Opinions Upon Political
Society In The United States
Christian morality common to all sects—Influence of
religion upon the manners of the Americans—Respect for the marriage tie—In what
manner religion confines the imagination of the Americans within certain
limits, and checks the passion of innovation—Opinion of the Americans on the
political utility of religion—Their exertions to extend and secure its
predominance.
I have just shown what the direct influence of religion
upon politics is in the United States, but its indirect influence appears to me
to be still more considerable, and it never instructs the Americans more fully
in the art of being free than when it says nothing of freedom.
The sects which exist in the United States are
innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due from man to
his Creator, but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man
to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all the
sects preach the same moral law in the name of God. If it be of the highest
importance to man, as an individual, that his religion should be true, the case
of society is not the same. Society has no future life to hope for or to fear;
and provided the citizens profess a religion, the peculiar tenets of that
religion are of very little importance to its interests. Moreover, almost all
the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of
Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.
It may be believed without unfairness that a certain
number of Americans pursue a peculiar form of worship, from habit more than from
conviction. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and
consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole
world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the
souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility,
and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most
powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
I have remarked that the members of the American clergy
in general, without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty,
are all in favor of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular
political system. They keep aloof from parties and from public affairs. In the
United States religion exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon
the details of public opinion, but it directs the manners of the community, and
by regulating domestic life it regulates the State.
I do not question that the great austerity of manners
which is observable in the United States, arises, in the first instance, from
religious faith. Religion is often unable to restrain man from the numberless
temptations of fortune; nor can it check that passion for gain which every
incident of his life contributes to arouse, but its influence over the mind of
woman is supreme, and women are the protectors of morals. There is certainly no
country in the world where the tie of marriage is so much respected as in
America, or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated. In
Europe almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of
domestic life. To despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasures of home,
is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness of heart, and the evil of
fluctuating desires. Agitated by the tumultuous passions which frequently
disturb his dwelling, the European is galled by the obedience which the
legislative powers of the State exact. But when the American retires from the
turmoil of public life to the bosom of his family, he finds in it the image of
order and of peace. There his pleasures are simple and natural, his joys are
innocent and calm; and as he finds that an orderly life is the surest path to
happiness, he accustoms himself without difficulty to moderate his opinions as
well as his tastes. Whilst the European endeavors to forget his domestic
troubles by agitating society, the American derives from his own home that love
of order which he afterwards carries with him into public affairs.
In the United States the influence of religion is not
confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.
Amongst the Anglo-Americans, there are some who profess the doctrines of
Christianity from a sincere belief in them, and others who do the same because
they are afraid to be suspected of unbelief. Christianity, therefore, reigns
without any obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have
before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and
determinate, although the political world is abandoned to the debates and the
experiments of men. Thus the human mind is never left to wander across a
boundless field; and, whatever may be its pretensions, it is checked from time
to time by barriers which it cannot surmount. Before it can perpetrate
innovation, certain primal and immutable principles are laid down, and the
boldest conceptions of human device are subjected to certain forms which retard
and stop their completion.
The imagination of the Americans, even in its greatest flights,
is circumspect and undecided; its impulses are checked, and its works
unfinished. These habits of restraint recur in political society, and are
singularly favorable both to the tranquillity of the people and to the
durability of the institutions it has established. Nature and circumstances
concurred to make the inhabitants of the United States bold men, as is
sufficiently attested by the enterprising spirit with which they seek for
fortune. If the mind of the Americans were free from all trammels, they would
very shortly become the most daring innovators and the most implacable
disputants in the world. But the revolutionists of America are obliged to
profess an ostensible respect for Christian morality and equity, which does not
easily permit them to violate the laws that oppose their designs; nor would
they find it easy to surmount the scruples of their partisans, even if they
were able to get over their own. Hitherto no one in the United States has dared
to advance the maxim, that everything is permissible with a view to the
interests of society; an impious adage which seems to have been invented in an
age of freedom to shelter all the tyrants of future ages. Thus whilst the law
permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from
conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.
Religion in America takes no direct part in the
government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of
the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste
for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. Indeed, it is in this
same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look
upon religious belief. I do not know whether all the Americans have a sincere
faith in their religion, for who can search the human heart? but I am certain
that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican
institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a
party, but it belongs to the whole nation, and to every rank of society.
In the United States, if a political character attacks a
sect, this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect from supporting
him; but if he attacks all the sects together, everyone abandons him, and he
remains alone.
Whilst I was in America, a witness, who happened to be
called at the assizes of the county of Chester (State of New York), declared
that he did not believe in the existence of God, or in the immortality of the
soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness
had destroyed beforehand all the confidence of the Court in what he was about
to say. *e The newspapers related the fact without any further comment.
e [ The New York "Spectator"
of August 23, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms:—"The Court of
Common Pleas of Chester county (New York) a few days since rejected a witness
who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge
remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did
not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction
of all testimony in a court of justice, and that he knew of no cause in a
Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such
belief."]
The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of
liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them
conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not
spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul
rather than to live.
I have known of societies formed by the Americans to send
out ministers of the Gospel into the new Western States to found schools and
churches there, lest religion should be suffered to die away in those remote
settlements, and the rising States be less fitted to enjoy free institutions
than the people from which they emanated. I met with wealthy New Englanders who
abandoned the country in which they were born in order to lay the foundations
of Christianity and of freedom on the banks of the Missouri, or in the prairies
of Illinois. Thus religious zeal is perpetually stimulated in the United States
by the duties of patriotism. These men do not act from an exclusive
consideration of the promises of a future life; eternity is only one motive of
their devotion to the cause; and if you converse with these missionaries of
Christian civilization, you will be surprised to find how much value they set
upon the goods of this world, and that you meet with a politician where you
expected to find a priest. They will tell you that "all the American
republics are collectively involved with each other; if the republics of the
West were to fall into anarchy, or to be mastered by a despot, the republican
institutions which now flourish upon the shores of the Atlantic Ocean would be
in great peril. It is, therefore, our interest that the new States should be
religious, in order to maintain our liberties."
Such are the opinions of the Americans, and if any hold
that the religious spirit which I admire is the very thing most amiss in
America, and that the only element wanting to the freedom and happiness of the
human race is to believe in some blind cosmogony, or to assert with Cabanis the
secretion of thought by the brain, I can only reply that those who hold this
language have never been in America, and that they have never seen a religious
or a free nation. When they return from their expedition, we shall hear what
they have to say.
There are persons in France who look upon republican
institutions as a temporary means of power, of wealth, and distinction; men who
are the condottieri of liberty, and who fight for their own advantage, whatever
be the colors they wear: it is not to these that I address myself. But there
are others who look forward to the republican form of government as a tranquil
and lasting state, towards which modern society is daily impelled by the ideas
and manners of the time, and who sincerely desire to prepare men to be free.
When these men attack religious opinions, they obey the dictates of their
passions to the prejudice of their interests. Despotism may govern without
faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic
which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack;
and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it
possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not
strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? and what can be
done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submissive to the
Divinity?
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