Legislative Powers.. 113 A farther Difference between the Senate aud the House of 115 The executive Power.. 116 Differences between the Position of the President of the ..... Why the President of the United States does not require the ..... 121 122 Means of determining the Jurisdiction of the federal Courts 138 ............ 140 Procedure of the federal Courts.. 146 High Rank of the supreme Courts among the great Powers 148 In what Respects the federal Constitution is superior to that 151 Characteristics which distinguish the federal Constitution of 155 Advantages of the federal System in General, and its special 158 Why the federal System is not adapted to all Peoples, and 164 CHAPTER IX. Why the People may strictly be said to govern in the United * 172 CHAPTER X. Parties in the United States... 173 Remains of the aristocratic Party in the United States.. PAGE 6 What the real Advantages are which American Society derives S 5 2 3 8 9 CHAPTER XVI. Causes which Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority in the United States. 273 ..... Absence of central Administration 273 PAGE The Profession of the Law in the United States serves to 275 284 ... Trial by Jury in the United States considered as a political CHAPTER XVII. Principal Causes which tend to maintain the democratic Repub- Accidental or providential Causes which contribute to the Influence of the Laws upon the Maintenance of the demo- 292 292 303 Influence of Manners upon the Maintenance of the democra- Religion considered as a political Institution, which power- 303 304 307 Indirect Influence of religious Opinions upon political So- 319 The Laws contribute more to the Maintenance of the demo- 324 Whether Laws and Manners are sufficient to maintain demo- CHAPTER XVIII. The present and probable future Condition of the three Races The present and probable future Condition of the Indian 331 335 340 360 386 Of the republican Institutions of the United States, and what 422 Reflections on the Causes of the commercial Prosperity of 428 Conclusion 436 Appendix... 443 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, suggests 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 right 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 a priest in the midst of nobles, and not unfrequently above the heads of kings. The different relations of men became more complicated and more numerous, as society gradually became more stable and more civilized. Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail. While the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in state affairs. The transactions of business opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political influence in which he was at once flattered and despised. Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science became the means of government, intelligence led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the state. The value attached to the privileges of birth, decreased in the exact proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and equality was thus introduced into the government by the aristocracy itself. In the course of these seven hundred years, it sometimes happened that, in order to resist the authority of the crown, or to diminish the power of their rivals, the nobles granted a certain share of political rights to the people. Or, more fre |