American Institutions and Their Influence | Page 6

Majority upon the national Character of the
Americans. The greatest Dangers of the American Republics proceed
from the unlimited Power of the Majority.

CHAPTER XVI
. Causes which Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority in the United
States. Absence of central Administration. The Profession of the Law
in the United States serves to Counterpoise the Democracy. Trial by
Jury in the United States considered as a political Institution.

CHAPTER XVII
. Principal Causes which tend to maintain the democratic Republic in
the United States. Accidental or providential Causes which contribute
to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States.
Influence of the Laws upon the Maintenance of the democratic
Republic in the United States. Influence of Manners upon the
Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States. Religion
considered as a political Institution, which powerfully Contributes to
the Maintenance of the democratic Republic among the Americans.
Indirect Influence of religious Opinions upon political Society in the
United States. Principal Causes which render Religion powerful in
America. How the Instruction, the Habits, and the practical Experience
of the Americans, promote the Success of their democratic Institutions.
The Laws contribute more to the Maintenance of the democratic
Republic in the United States than the physical Circumstances of the

Country, and the Manners more than the Laws. Whether Laws and
Manners are sufficient to maintain democratic Institutions in other
Countries beside America. Importance of what precedes with respect to
the State of Europe.

CHAPTER XVIII
. The present and probable future Condition of the three Races which
Inhabit the Territory of the United States. The present and probable
future Condition of the Indian Tribes which Inhabit the Territory
possessed by the Union. Situation of the black Population in the United
States, and Dangers with which its Presence threatens the Whites. What
are the Chances in favor of the Duration of the American Union, and
what Dangers threaten it. Of the republican Institutions of the United
States, and what their Chances of Duration are. Reflections on the
Causes of the commercial Prosperity of the United States. Conclusion.
Appendix
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in
the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general
equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence
which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by
giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the
laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar
habits to the governed.
I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond
the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no
less empire over civil society than over the government; it creates
opinions, engenders sentiments, the ordinary practices of life, and
modifies whatever it does not produce.
The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I
perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from
which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all
my observations constantly terminated.
I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined
that I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New

World presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is
daily advancing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have
reached in the United States; and that the democracy which governs the
American communities, appears to be rapidly rising into power in
Europe.
I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader.
It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on
among us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and consequences.
To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such may still be
checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform,
the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be
found in history.
Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when
the territory was divided among a small number of families, who were
the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the fight of
governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to
generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man;
and landed property was the sole source of power.
Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and
began to exert itself; the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the
poor and the rich, the villain and the lord; equality penetrated into the
government through the church, and the being who, as a serf, must have
vegetated in perpetual bondage, took his place as