DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.

THE first volume of this profound and philosophic work exhibited the various forms of government which exist in America, from the corporation of a township up to the federal constitution of the United States. It also examined the nature and formation of the legislative bodies, and of the executive authority, and "depicted the present characteristics of political society in that country. The first part of the second and concluding volume is devoted to a consideration of the sovereign power of the people, and . of the means by which it is modified ; to an examination of the different parties existing in the States ; and to an exposition of the power of the majority, of the tyranny which it produces, and of the means by which that tyranny is mitigated. The author then investi- gates the causes which tend to maintain Democracy in America; and finally, speculates upon the probable futunty of the Anglo-American race, as regards the extent of their dominion, their numbers, their national occupations, the political cha- racter of the people, the permanency of their present forms of government, and the political spirit by which they will be am- mated. It will be seen, therefore, that the first volume dealt with the more fixed and tangible subjects of laws and institutions ; the present with matters of a more fleeting kind,—as opinions, man- ners,customs, and creeds. To follow the author through all these subjects, is beside our purpose; but we will bestow some atten- tion upon two points which have a practical relation to our- selves,—Power as exercised by the majority of the people; and the sort of Government likely to supersede the present Govern- ments of Europe, if Democracies should fail in being established. It has been truly observed by BURKE, that whenever the people can be induced to act simultaneously, their power is irresistible. According to M. DE TOCQUEVILLE, the effect of the American institutions is to bring this power into constant exercise. The people, in the most extended sense of the term, appoint the legis- lative and executive authorities ; they directly nominate many magistrates, and virtually control the nomination of all; and they furnish the jurors, who punish all offenders against the laws. Nor are these powers exercised at distantly-recurring points of time: some functions are continually in the act of performance, and the elections both of the Provincial and Federal Representatives and Executives take place at periods varying from an annual to a quinquennial term. Hence, the power of the majority is not only great, but absolute, unlimited, and in constant motion. It not only controls the government and the laws, but it exercises a boundless sway over opinion itself. When once, according to Al. DE TOCQUEVILLE, the majority has clearly expressed its opinion, there is an end of dispute. Take, for instance, the case of aristocracy: there may be concealed aristocrats in America, (our author presents us with a striking sketch of one,) but there is no avowed aristocratical party. There are constant struggles going on between rival parties, one with aristocratical the other with democratical objects in view ; but each repudiates aristo- cratic opinions, for the majority will not tolerate aristocracy ; and When once the majority have been brought to decide upon the Point in dispute, the question is finally settled. This power of the majority is not without checks to its autho- rity, nor devoid of circumstances which mitigate its more material tyranny in some degree. To be available, however, the checks can only be exercised by a numerous minority ; and of these, political associations are the most potent, having for the time being an in- fluence not dissimilar to that of a distinct class of society in Europe.. Again, the absence of a central government seems to give a single province the power of practically resisting the mere numerical majority of the United States,—as was lately seen in tlae resistance to the Tariff by South Carolina. This want of a centralized administration, too, is a powerful means of enabling small minority to resist, or rather to battle, the expresscd will of the majority. The directing powers of the American Govern- ment may order, but they cannot execute. " When the central government, which represents the majority, has issued a decree, it must intrust the execution of its will to agents, over whom it frequently has no control, and whom it cannot perpetually direct. The townships, municipal bodies, and counties, may therefore be looked upon as concealed breakwaters, which check or part the tide of popular excitement. If an oppressive law were passed, the liberties of the people would still be protected by the Means by which that law would be put in execution : the majority cannot descend to the details, and (as I will venture to style them) the puerilities of administrative tyranny. Nor does the people entertain that full consciousness of its authority, which would prompt it to interfere in these matters;. it knows the extent of its natural powers, but is unacquainted with the increased resources which the art of government might furnish."

There are other modifying circumstances mentioned by M. DR TOCQUEVILLE ; but into them we shall not enter, as they could not be made very obvious without extracting the whole of the original passages, which would occupy too much space. Nor will we endeavour to exhibit in detail the effects which he conceives this power of the majority to produce upon the laws, upon the conduct of the Executive, and upon the characters of publio men; partly for a similar reason (the space that it would occupy), and partly because our author seems to consider the balance of advantage decidedly in favour of the existing condition of things. But as his views upon the tyranny which the majority exercises over opinion, seem to us not so much perhaps untrue, as insuffi- ciently developed, we purpose entering more minutely into the question. Here is the statement.

I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America. In any constitutional state in Europe, every sort of religious and political theory may be advocated and propagated abroad; for there is no country in Europe so subdued by any single authority, as not to contain citizens who are ready to protect the man who raises his voice in the cause of truth from the consequences of his hardihood. If he is unfortunate enough to live under an absolute government, the people is upon his side ; if he inhabits a free country, he may dud a shelter behind the autho- rity of the throne, if he require one. The aristocratic part of society supports him in some countries, and the democracy in others. But in a nation where democratic institutions exist, organized like those of the United States, there is but one sole authority, one single element of strength and of success, with nothing beyond it. In America, the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he will repent it if he ever step beyond them. Not that he is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe, but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy. His political career is closed for ever, since he has offended the only authority which is able to promote his success. Every sort of compensa. tion, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before he published his opi- nions, he imagined that he held them in common with many others ; but no sooner has he declared them openly, than he is loudly censured by his over- bearing opponents, whilst those who think, without having the courage to speak like hint, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, oppressed by the daily efforts he has been snaking ; and he subsides into silence, as if he was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth. Fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly employed ; but the civilization of our age has refined the arts of despotism, which seemed, however, to have been sufficiently perfected before. The ex- cesses of monarchical power had devised a variety of physical means of oppres- sion; the democratic republics of the present day have rendered it as entirely an affair of the mind as that will which it is intended to coerce. Under the absolute sway of an individual despot, the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul ; and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it, and

rose superior to the attempt: but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics ; there the body is left free and the soul is enslaved.

The sovereign can no longer say, " You shall think as 1(10 on pain of death ; "

but he says, " You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your determina- tion, you are henceforth an alien among your people. You may retain your

civil rights, but they will be useless to you ; for you will never be chosen by your fellow citizens if you solicit their suffrages, and they will affect to scorn you if you solicit their esteem. You will remain among men, but you will

be deprived of the rights of mankind. Your fellow creatures will shun you like an impure being; and those who are most persuaded of your innocence will abandon you too, lest they should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace ! I have given you your life, but it is an existence incomparably worse than death.

Monarchical institutions have thrown an odium upon despotism ; let us be- ware lest democratic republics should restore oppression, and should render it less odious and less degrading in the eyes of the many, by making it still more onerous to the few.

Works have been published in the proudest nations of the Old World, ex- pressly intended to censure the vices and deride the follies of the times. Labruyige inhabited the palace of Louis the Fourteenth when he composed his chapter Olson the Great ; and Moliil!re criticized the courtiers in the very pieces which were acted before the Court. But the ruling power in the United States is not to be made game of : the smallest reproach irritates its sensibility, and the slightest joke which has any foundation in truth renders it indignant; from the style of its language to the more solid virtues of its character, every thing must be made the subject of encomium. No writer, whatever be his eminence, can escape from this tribute of adulation to his fellow citizens. The majority lives in the perpetual practice of self-applause ; and there are certain truths which the Americans can only learn from strangers or from experience.

If great writers have not at present existed in America, the reason is very simply given in these facts : there can be no literary genius without freedom of opinion, and freedom of opinion does not exist in America. Allowing that the breadth of view and the vividness of expres- sion which form one great merit of M. DE TOCQUEVILLE are not inconsistent with minute and faithful exactness, the facts ad- duced scarcely seem to support the whole conclusion he would have drawn ; for we suspect that individual opinions expose the Party! o as much obloquy in Europe as in America. To say nothing of the ridicule in WASHINGTON'S IRVING'S earlier works,

it appears to us that when MOLIERE satirized the courtiers

,of Louis the Great, be satirized the minority : had he ridi- culed his patron, he would have found the majority of power

could not have been touched with impunity,—as the Huguenots discovered that they dared not worship other than the majority Thought fit ; and the same result would have followed had either the essayist or the dramatist held up to laughter any widely-

entertained prejudice of the age. The persecution of PRIESTLEY- and, since we are speaking of opinions, of some other men—shows

that a hundred years had rolled over without really producing any change in monarchies. Even at this day, opinions are enter- tained by individuals very few of whom think it prudent to avow them, and those who do find themselves in the predicament described by our author, of being "censured by overbearing opponents, whilst those who think, without having the courage

to speak like him, abandon him in silence." Differing from M. DE TocoucviLLE with the greatest respect, and not without considerable hesitation, we incline to think, that in the pre- sent case he has treated a formal difference as if it were an essential one.

The cause of this formal difference is. however, very important ; and is traceable to a matter which the author sometimes appears to overlook, but which should always be present to his reader's mind,

as forming in reality the basis of the whole of his speculations,— and that is, the general equality of conditions. In America, there is no privileged class ; every man is equal before the law; and there is neither great poverty nor great riches to create any prac- tical inequalities. Each person, as M. DE TOCQUEVILLE else- where observes, is educated up to a certain point, very few beyond it ; and from the want of leisure and the practice of early engaging in the business of life, no one educates himself: from all which there must arise a general uniformity of ideas. In Europe, all this is reversed, and with a corresponding variation in results ; whence we conclude, (which is perhaps M. DE TOC- cUEVILLE'S meaning,) that man is not more tolerant in Europe, but that opinions are much more various. Which social condition is the best,—whether a refined luxury, a variety in thought, a boldness of speculation, and a mass of misery, are pre- ferable to the more level and easy condition of the Americans,— it is not now necessary to inquire. Suffice it to say, that society, such as it is in America, can never exist in a European state, until after a revolution which shall have destroyed every distinct class, and thinned the population to an American density. The Democracy to which M. DE TOCQUEVILLE considers the world is hastening, will, as he admits, be something very different in forms from that which is established beyond the Atlantic. From the practical conclusion to which this discussion leads, it is right and necessary that it should be so. In a country where great equality both of mind and property exists, the entire power may properly enough be lodged in the whole people; for the numerical majo- rity may represent with tolerable fairness the fortunes, interests, and opinions of the nation. But if this institution of univer- sal suffrage be applied, unchecked, to a different state of society, and one too with a more centralized system of government, then the emphatic prophecy of M. us TOCQUEVILLE would indeed be realized; and "in that country a more insufferable despotism would prevail than any which now exists in the monarchical states of Europe, or indeed in any which could be found on this side the confines of Asia."

It was stated in the notice of the first volume,—or rather, the author stated for himself,—that Europe is irresistibly advancing to Democracy. It did not; most unfortunately, belong to M. DE TOCQUEVILLE'S plan to put forward his views as to the safest means by which this momentous change may be effected. It may be inferred that he would break up existing institutions as little as may be ; that he would infuse as much as possible of a democratic spirit into aristocratic forms ; and boldly widen the basis of popular power, in conformity with the spirit of the age. But if his views are obscure as to how the alteration should be made, he is distinct enough as to the consequences which must follow, if resistance should prevent its peaceable establishment. His closing passages are remarkable for their power as a com- position; and, though more immediately applicable to France, memorable for a warning to all who from fear or folly endeavour to oppose the inevitable change which is at hand.

If those nations whose social condition is democratic could only remain free as long as they are inhabitants of the wilds, we could not but despair of the future destiny of the human race ; for democracy is rapidly acquiring a more extended sway, and the wilds are gradually peopled with men. If it were true that laws and manners are insufficient to maintain democratic institutions, what refuge would remain open to the nations, except the despotism of a single in- dividual? I am aware that there are many worthy persons at the present time who are not alarmed at this latter alternative, and who are so tired of liberty as to be glad of repose far from those storms by which it is attended. But these individuals are ill acquainted with the haven towards which they are bound. They are so deluded by their recollections, as to judge the tendency of absolute power by what it was formerly, and not by what it might become at the pre- sent time.

If absolute power were reestablished amongst the democratic nations of Eu- rope, I am persuaded that it would assume a new form, and appear under fea- tures unknown to our forefathers. There was a time in Europe when the laws and the consent of the people had invested princes with almost unlimited autho- rity; but they scarcely ever availed themselves of it. I do not speak of the prerogatives of the nobility, of the authority of supreme courts of justice, of corporations and their chartered rights, or of provincial privileges, which served to the blows of the sovereign authority, and to maintain a spirit of re-

n these political institutions, which, how. sistance in the nation. Independetly of

Serty, served to keep alive the love of ever opposed they might be to personal h. and wt'' may te esteemed to have bee useful in this respect, the manners a ts freedom in the mind of the public, anions of the nation confined the arid anions not less powerful, although they of r provincial cpieaol er,eitiht dei cbeesn, benevolence royal authority. within barriers which Were were less conspicuous. Religion, the aVediont

ad restrained their authority

of the prince, the sense of honour, family pride, n.ltiornigs right, but bduets;ietyic had nei- ther and public opinion, limited the power of -kings, a.

witlun an invisible circle. The constitution of

time, but their manners were free. Princes had tht' easetud;ned twoward:them, the means nor the desire of doing' whatever they p; When kings find that the hearts of their subjects are they are clement, because they are conscious of their strt'ogth;leanntial i‘telsiepylaaeree chary of the affection of their people, becaase the affection of their people is the bulwark of the throne. A mutual interchange of good-wili , between the prince and the people, which resembles the gracious intercourse of democratic society. The subjects may murmur at the sove.reign's decree, but they are grieved to displease him; and the sovereign chastises his subjects with the light hand of parental affection. But when once the spell of royalty is broken in thw' tumult of revolution ; when successive monarchs have crossed the throne, so aralternately to display to the people the weakness of their right, and the harshness of their poster; the sovereign is no longer regarded by any as the father of the state, and he is feared by all as its master. If lie be weak, he is despised ; if he be strong, he is detested. Ile is himself full of animosity and alarm ; hr finds that he is as a stranger in his own country, and he treats his subjects like cooquered enemies.

Passing over the author's remarks upon the changes which have taken place in the condition and character of the. munici- pal corporations, of the nobles, and of family feeling, here is the final result he looks to.

The annals of France furnish nothing analogous to the condition in which that country might then be thrown. But it may more aptly be assiniih,red to the tunes of old, and to those hideous mras of Roman oppression, when. the manners of the people were corrupted, their traditions obliterated, their hahita destroyed, their opinions shaken, and freedom, expelled from the laws, coohl find no refuge in the land ; when nothing protected the citizens, and the eit;... tens no longer protected themselves ; when human nature was the sport of mar), and princes wearied out the clemency of heaven before they exhausted the pa- tience of their subjects. Those who hope to revive the monarchy of Henry the Fourth or of Louis the Fourteenth, appear to me to be afflicted with mental blindness; and when I consider the present condition of several European na- tions,—a condition to which all the others tend,—I am led to believe that they will soon be left with no other alternative than democratic liberty or the tyranny of the Cmsars.

And indeed it is deserving of consideration, whether men are to be entirely emancipated or entirely. enslaved ; whether their rights are to be made equal, or wholly taken away from them. If the rulers of society were reduced either gradually to raise the crowd to their own level, or to sink the citizens below that of humanity, would not the doubts of many be resolved, the consciences of many be healed; and the community prepared to make great sacrifices with little difficulty ? In that ease, the gradual growth of democratic manners and institutions should be regarded, not as the best but as the only means of pre- serving freedom ; and without liking the government of democracy, it might fie adopted as the most applicable and the fairest remedy for the present ills of society.

It is difficult to associate a people in the work of government ; but it is still more difficult to supply it with experience, and to inspire it with the feelings

which it requires in order to govern well. I grant that the caprices of demo- cracy are perpetual ; its instruments are rude, its laws imperfect. But if it were true that soon no just medium would exist between the empire of demo- cracy and the dominion of a single arm, should we not rather incline towards the former than submit voluntarily to the latter? And if complete equality be our fate, is it not better to be levelled by free institutions than by despotic

power? •

But I am of opinion, that if we do not succeed in gradually introducing democratic institutions into France, and if we despair of imparting to the citizens those ideas and sentiments which first prepare them for freedom and afterwards allow them to enjoy it, there will be no independence at all, either for the middling classes or the nobility, for the poor or for the rich, hut an equal tyranny over all ; and I foresee, that if the peaceable empire of the ma- jority be not founded amongst us in time, we shall sooner or later arrive at the unlimited authority of a single despot.

We have spoken of this as the concluding passage ; and so it is of the examination of Democracy. But above a third of the volume is devoted to an investigation of the past and present condition of' the Coloured Races in the States, and to a specula- tion on their future fate. The whole is valuable and interesting, —perhaps more interesting, as a piece of reading, than any other portion of the work. Into this we cannot now enter : but the substance of M. ris TocoausviLLE's conclusions comes to this— that the Indian Aborigines must be destroyed, and that a Negro or Mixed race will eventually people the whole of the West Indian Islands and the Southern States of the Ameiican Union.