American Institutions and Their Influence | Page 9

and the most moral classes of the nation have
never attempted to connect themselves with it in order to guide it. The
people have consequently been abandoned to its wild propensities, and
it has grown up like those outcasts who receive their education in the
public streets, and who are unacquainted with aught but the vices and
wretchedness of society. The existence of a democracy was seemingly
unknown, when, on a sudden, it took possession of the supreme power.
Everything was then submitted to its caprices; it was worshipped as the
idol of strength; until, when it was enfeebled by its own excesses, the
legislator conceived the rash project of annihilating its power, instead
of instructing it and correcting its vices; no attempt was made to fit it to
govern, but all were bent on excluding it from the government.
The consequence of this has been that the democratic revolution has
been effected only in the material parts of society, without that
concomitant change in laws, ideas, customs, and mariners, which was
necessary to render such a revolution beneficial. We have gotten a
democracy, but without the conditions which lessen its vices, and
render its natural advantages more prominent; and although we already
perceive the evils it brings, we are ignorant of the benefits it may
confer.
While the power of the crown, supported by the aristocracy, peaceably
governed the nations of Europe, society possessed, in the midst of its

wretchedness, several different advantages which can now scarcely be
appreciated or conceived.
The power of a part of his subjects was an insurmountable barrier to the
tyranny of the prince; and the monarch who felt the almost divine
character which he enjoyed in the eyes of the multitude, derived a
motive for the just use of his power from the respect which he inspired.
High as they were placed above the people, the nobles could not but
take that calm and benevolent interest in its fate which the shepherd
feels toward his flock; and without acknowledging the poor as their
equals, they watched over the destiny of those whose welfare
Providence had intrusted to their care.
The people, never having conceived the idea of a social condition
different from its own, and entertaining no expectation of ever ranking
with its chiefs, received benefits from them without discussing their
rights. It grew attached to them when they were clement and just, but it
submitted without resistance or servility to their exactions, as to the
inevitable visitations of the arm of God. Custom, and the manners of
the time, had moreover created a species of law in the midst of violence,
and established certain limits to oppression.
As the noble never suspected that any one would attempt to deprive
him of the privileges which he believed to be legitimate, and as the serf
looked upon his own inferiority as a consequence of the immutable
order of nature, it is easy to imagine that a mutual exchange of
good-will took place between two classes so differently gifted by fate.
Inequality and wretchedness were then to be found in society; but the
souls of neither rank of men were degraded.
Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit
of obedience; but by the exercise of power which they believe to be
illegal, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped
and oppressive.
On one side were wealth, strength, and leisure, accompanied by the
refinement of luxury, the elegance of taste, the pleasures of wit, and the
religion of art. On the other were labor, and a rude ignorance; but in the
midst of this coarse and ignorant multitude, it was not uncommon to
meet with energetic passions, generous sentiments, profound religious
convictions, and independent virtues.
The body of a state thus organized, might boast of its stability, its

power, and above all, of its glory.
But the scene is now changed, and gradually the two ranks mingle; the
divisions which once severed mankind, are lowered; property is divided,
power is held in common, the light of intelligence spreads, and the
capacities of all classes are equally cultivated; the state becomes
democratic, and the empire of democracy is slowly and peaceably
introduced into the institutions and manners of the nation.
I can conceive a society in which all men would profess an equal
attachment and respect for the laws of which they are the common
authors; in which the authority of the state would be respected as
necessary, though not as divine; and the loyalty of the subject to the
chief magistrate would not be a passion, but a quiet and rational
persuasion. Every individual being in the possession of rights which he
is sure to retain, a kind of manly reliance and reciprocal courtesy would
arise