CHAPTER XI How the Americans understand the equality of the sexes CHAPTER XIII. That the principle of equality naturally divides the Americans into a number of small private circles Of the gravity of the Americans, and why it does not prevent them from often committing inconsiderate actions CHAPTER XVI. Why the national vanity of the Americans is more restless and less captious than that of the English CHAPTER XVII. That the aspect of society in the United States is at once excited and monotonous CHAPTER XVIII. Of honour in the United States and in democratic communities CHAPTER XIX. Why so many ambitious men, and so little lofty ambition, are to be found in the CHAPTER XX. The trade of place-hunting in certain democratic countries Why democratic nations are naturally desirous of peace, and democratic armies of war CHAPTER XXIII. Which is the most warlike and most revolutionary class in democratic armies 287 CHAPTER XXIV. Causes which render democratic armies weaker than other armies at the outset of a campaign, and more formidable in protracted warfare 291 FOURTH BOOK. INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRATIC OPINIONS AND SENTIMENTS ON POLITICAL SOCIETY. CHAPTER I. That equality naturally gives men a taste for free institutions CHAPTER II That the notions of democratic nations on government are naturally favourable to the concentration of power CHAPTER III. That the sentiments of democratic nations accord with their opinions in leading them to concentrate political power CHAPTER IV. Of certain peculiar and accidental causes which either lead a people to complete centralization of government, or which divert them from it CHAPTER V. That among the European governments of our time the power of governments is increasing although the persons who govern are less stable Page 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 toward 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 ich may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the host 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. The 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. 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 advance ment. 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. |