American Institutions and Their Influence | Page 4

name, had been committed under former dynasties at home, he sought
to discover the means by which it was regulated in America, and
reconciled with social order. By his laborious investigations, and
minute observations of the history of the settlement of the country, and
of its progress through the colonial state to independence, he found the
object of his inquiry in the manners, habits, and opinions, of a people
who had been gradually prepared, by a long course of peculiar

circumstances, and by their local position, for self-government; and he
has explained, with a pencil of light, the mystery that has baffled
Europeans and perplexed Americans. He exhibits us, in our present
condition, a new, and to Europeans, a strange people. His views of our
political institutions are more general, comprehensive, and philosophic
than have been presented by any writer, domestic or foreign. He has
traced them from their source, democracy--the power of the
people--and has steadily pursued this foundation-principle in all its
forms and modifications: in the frame of our governments, in their
administration by the different executives, in our legislation, in the
arrangement of our judiciary, in our manners, in religion, in the
freedom and licentiousness of the press, in the influence of public
opinion, and in various subtle recesses, where its existence was
scarcely suspected. In all these, he analyzes and dissects the tendencies
of democracy; heartily applauds where he can, and faithfully and
independently gives warning of dangers that he foresees. No one can
read the result of his observations without better and clearer
perceptions of the structure of our governments, of the great pillars on
which they rest, and of the dangers to which they are exposed: nor
without a more profound and more intelligent admiration of the
harmony and beauty of their formation, and of the safeguards provided
for preserving and transmitting them to a distant posterity. The more
that general and indefinite notions of our own liberty, greatness,
happiness, &c., are made to give place to precise and accurate
knowledge of the true merits of our institutions, the peculiar objects
they are calculated to attain or promote, and the means provided for
that purpose, the better will every citizen be enabled to discharge his
great political duty of guarding those means against the approach of
corruption, and of sustaining them against the violence of party
commotions. No foreigner has ever exhibited such a deep, clear, and
correct insight of the machinery of our complicated systems of federal
and state governments. The most intelligent Europeans are confounded
with our _imperium in imperio_; and their constant wonder is, that
these systems are not continually jostling each other. M. DE
TOCQUEVILLE has clearly perceived, and traced correctly and
distinctly, the orbits in which they move, and has described, or rather
defined, our federal government, with an accurate precision,

unsurpassed even by an American pen. There is no citizen of this
country who will not derive instruction from our author's account of
our national government, or, at least, who will not find his own ideas
systematised, and rendered more fixed and precise, by the perusal of
that account.
Among other subjects discussed by the author, that of the political
influence of the institution of trial by jury, is one of the most curious
and interesting. He has certainly presented it in a light entirely new, and
as important as it is new. It may be that he has exaggerated its influence
as "a gratuitous public school;" but if he has, the error will be readily
forgiven.
His views of religion, as connected with patriotism, in other words,
with the democratic principle, which he steadily keeps in view, are
conceived in the noblest spirit of philanthropy, and cannot fail to
confirm the principles already so thoroughly and universally
entertained by the American people. And no one can read his
observations on the union of "church and state," without a feeling of
deep gratitude to the founders of our government, for saving us from
such a prolific source of evil.
These allusions to topics that have interested the writer, are not
intended as an enumeration of the various subjects which will arrest the
attention of the American reader. They have been mentioned rather
with a view of exciting an appetite for the whole feast, than as
exhibiting the choice dainties which cover the board.
It remains only to observe, that in this edition the constitutions of the
United States and of the state of New York, which had been published
at large in the original and in the English edition, have been omitted, as
they are documents to which every American reader has access. The
map which the author annexed to his work, and which has been hitherto
omitted, is now for the first time inserted in the American edition, to