Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2)

A >> Alexis de Toqueville >> Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2)


No man, upon the earth, can as yet affirm absolutely and generally,
that the new state of the world is better than its former one; but it
is already easy to perceive that this state is different. Some vices
and some virtues were so inherent in the constitution of an aristocratic
nation, and are so opposite to the character of a modern people, that
they can never be infused into it; some good tendencies and some bad
propensities which were unknown to the former, are natural to the
latter; some ideas suggest themselves spontaneously to the imagination
of the one, which are utterly repugnant to the mind of the other. They
are like two distinct orders of human beings, each of which has its
own merits and defects, its own advantages and its own evils. Care
must therefore be taken not to judge the state of society, which is now
coming into existence, by notions derived from a state of society
which no longer exists; for as these states of society are exceedingly
different in their structure, they cannot be submitted to a just or fair
comparison. It would be scarcely more reasonable to require of our
own contemporaries the peculiar virtues which originated in the social
condition of their forefathers, since that social condition is itself
fallen, and has drawn into one promiscuous ruin the good and evil which
belonged to it.

But as yet these things are imperfectly understood. I find that a great
number of my contemporaries undertake to make a certain selection from
amongst the institutions, the opinions, and the ideas which originated
in the aristocratic constitution of society as it was: a portion of
these elements they would willingly relinquish, but they would keep the
remainder and transplant them into their new world. I apprehend that
such men are wasting their time and their strength in virtuous
but unprofitable efforts. The object is not to retain the peculiar
advantages which the inequality of conditions bestows upon mankind, but
to secure the new benefits which equality may supply. We have not to
seek to make ourselves like our progenitors, but to strive to work out
that species of greatness and happiness which is our own. For myself,
who now look back from this extreme limit of my task, and discover from
afar, but at once, the various objects which have attracted my more
attentive investigation upon my way, I am full of apprehensions and
of hopes. I perceive mighty dangers which it is possible to ward
off--mighty evils which may be avoided or alleviated; and I cling with
a firmer hold to the belief, that for democratic nations to be virtuous
and prosperous they require but to will it. I am aware that many of my
contemporaries maintain that nations are never their own masters
here below, and that they necessarily obey some insurmountable and
unintelligent power, arising from anterior events, from their race, or
from the soil and climate of their country. Such principles are false
and cowardly; such principles can never produce aught but feeble men
and pusillanimous nations. Providence has not created mankind entirely
independent or entirely free. It is true that around every man a fatal
circle is traced, beyond which he cannot pass; but within the wide
verge of that circle he is powerful and free: as it is with man, so with
communities. The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of
men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the
principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to
knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or to wretchedness.




Part I.




Appendix A

For information concerning all the countries of the West which have
not been visited by Europeans, consult the account of two expeditions
undertaken at the expense of Congress by Major Long. This traveller
particularly mentions, on the subject of the great American desert, that
a line may be drawn nearly parallel to the 20th degree of longitude *a
(meridian of Washington), beginning from the Red River and ending at
the River Platte. From this imaginary line to the Rocky Mountains, which
bound the valley of the Mississippi on the west, lie immense plains,
which are almost entirely covered with sand, incapable of cultivation,
or scattered over with masses of granite. In summer, these plains are
quite destitute of water, and nothing is to be seen on them but herds of
buffaloes and wild horses. Some hordes of Indians are also found
there, but in no great numbers. Major Long was told that in travelling
northwards from the River Platte you find the same desert lying
constantly on the left; but he was unable to ascertain the truth of this
report. However worthy of confidence may be the narrative of Major Long,
it must be remembered that he only passed through the country of which
he speaks, without deviating widely from the line which he had traced
out for his journey.

[Footnote a: The 20th degree of longitude, according to the meridian of
Washington, agrees very nearly with the 97th degree on the meridian of
Greenwich.]




Appendix B

South America, in the region between the tropics, produces an incredible
profusion of climbing plants, of which the flora of the Antilles alone
presents us with forty different species. Among the most graceful of
these shrubs is the passion-flower, which, according to Descourtiz,
grows with such luxuriance in the Antilles, as to climb trees by means
of the tendrils with which it is provided, and form moving bowers of
rich and elegant festoons, decorated with blue and purple flowers, and
fragrant with perfume. The Mimosa scandens (Acacia a grandes gousses) is
a creeper of enormous and rapid growth, which climbs from tree to tree,
and sometimes covers more than half a league.




Appendix C

The languages which are spoken by the Indians of America, from the Pole
to Cape Horn, are said to be all formed upon the same model, and subject
to the same grammatical rules; whence it may fairly be concluded that
all the Indian nations sprang from the same stock. Each tribe of
the American continent speaks a different dialect; but the number of
languages, properly so called, is very small, a fact which tends to
prove that the nations of the New World had not a very remote origin.
Moreover, the languages of America have a great degree of regularity,
from which it seems probable that the tribes which employ them had not
undergone any great revolutions, or been incorporated voluntarily or
by constraint, with foreign nations. For it is generally the union of
several languages into one which produces grammatical irregularities. It
is not long since the American languages, especially those of the
North, first attracted the serious attention of philologists, when the
discovery was made that this idiom of a barbarous people was the product
of a complicated system of ideas and very learned combinations. These
languages were found to be very rich, and great pains had been taken
at their formation to render them agreeable to the ear. The grammatical
system of the Americans differs from all others in several points, but
especially in the following:--Some nations of Europe, amongst
others the Germans, have the power of combining at pleasure different
expressions, and thus giving a complex sense to certain words. The
Indians have given a most surprising extension to this power, so as to
arrive at the means of connecting a great number of ideas with a single
term. This will be easily understood with the help of an example quoted
by Mr. Duponceau, in the "Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of
America": A Delaware woman playing with a cat or a young dog, says
this writer, is heard to pronounce the word kuligatschis, which is thus
composed: k is the sign of the second person, and signifies "thou" or
"thy"; uli is a part of the word wulit, which signifies "beautiful,"
"pretty"; gat is another fragment, of the word wichgat, which means
"paw"; and, lastly, schis is a diminutive giving the idea of smallness.
Thus in one word the Indian woman has expressed "Thy pretty little paw."
Take another example of the felicity with which the savages of America
have composed their words. A young man of Delaware is called pilape.
This word is formed from pilsit, "chaste," "innocent"; and lenape,
"man"; viz., "man in his purity and innocence." This facility of
combining words is most remarkable in the strange formation of their
verbs. The most complex action is often expressed by a single verb,
which serves to convey all the shades of an idea by the modification
of its construction. Those who may wish to examine more in detail this
subject, which I have only glanced at superficially, should read:--

1. The correspondence of Mr. Duponceau and the Rev. Mr. Hecwelder
relative to the Indian languages, which is to be found in the first
volume of the "Memoirs of the Philosophical Society of America,"
published at Philadelphia, 1819, by Abraham Small; vol. i. p. 356-464.

2. The "Grammar of the Delaware or the Lenape Language," by Geiberger,
and the preface of Mr. Duponceau. All these are in the same collection,
vol. iii.

3. An excellent account of these works, which is at the end of the sixth
volume of the American Encyclopaedia.




Appendix D

See in Charlevoix, vol. i. p. 235, the history of the first war which
the French inhabitants of Canada carried on, in 1610, against the
Iroquois. The latter, armed with bows and arrows, offered a desperate
resistance to the French and their allies. Charlevoix is not a great
painter, yet he exhibits clearly enough, in this narrative, the contrast
between the European manners and those of savages, as well as the
different way in which the two races of men understood the sense of
honor. When the French, says he, seized upon the beaver-skins which
covered the Indians who had fallen, the Hurons, their allies, were
greatly offended at this proceeding; but without hesitation they set
to work in their usual manner, inflicting horrid cruelties upon the
prisoners, and devouring one of those who had been killed, which
made the Frenchmen shudder. The barbarians prided themselves upon a
scrupulousness which they were surprised at not finding in our nation,
and could not understand that there was less to reprehend in the
stripping of dead bodies than in the devouring of their flesh like wild
beasts. Charlevoix, in another place (vol. i. p. 230), thus describes
the first torture of which Champlain was an eyewitness, and the return
of the Hurons into their own village. Having proceeded about eight
leagues, says he, our allies halted; and having singled out one of
their captives, they reproached him with all the cruelties which he
had practised upon the warriors of their nation who had fallen into his
hands, and told him that he might expect to be treated in like manner;
adding, that if he had any spirit he would prove it by singing. He
immediately chanted forth his death-song, and then his war-song, and all
the songs he knew, "but in a very mournful strain," says Champlain, who
was not then aware that all savage music has a melancholy character. The
tortures which succeeded, accompanied by all the horrors which we shall
mention hereafter, terrified the French, who made every effort to put a
stop to them, but in vain. The following night, one of the Hurons having
dreamt that they were pursued, the retreat was changed to a real flight,
and the savages never stopped until they were out of the reach of
danger. The moment they perceived the cabins of their own village, they
cut themselves long sticks, to which they fastened the scalps which had
fallen to their share, and carried them in triumph. At this sight, the
women swam to the canoes, where they received the bloody scalps from the
hands of their husbands, and tied them round their necks. The warriors
offered one of these horrible trophies to Champlain; they also presented
him with some bows and arrows--the only spoils of the Iroquois which
they had ventured to seize--entreating him to show them to the King
of France. Champlain lived a whole winter quite alone among these
barbarians, without being under any alarm for his person or property.




Appendix E

Although the Puritanical strictness which presided over the
establishment of the English colonies in America is now much relaxed,
remarkable traces of it are still found in their habits and their laws.
In 1792, at the very time when the anti-Christian republic of France
began its ephemeral existence, the legislative body of Massachusetts
promulgated the following law, to compel the citizens to observe the
Sabbath. We give the preamble and the principal articles of this
law, which is worthy of the reader's attention: "Whereas," says the
legislator, "the observation of the Sunday is an affair of public
interest; inasmuch as it produces a necessary suspension of labor, leads
men to reflect upon the duties of life, and the errors to which human
nature is liable, and provides for the public and private worship of
God, the creator and governor of the universe, and for the performance
of such acts of charity as are the ornament and comfort of Christian
societies:--Whereas irreligious or light-minded persons, forgetting the
duties which the Sabbath imposes, and the benefits which these duties
confer on society, are known to profane its sanctity, by following their
pleasures or their affairs; this way of acting being contrary to their
own interest as Christians, and calculated to annoy those who do not
follow their example; being also of great injury to society at large, by
spreading a taste for dissipation and dissolute manners; Be it enacted
and ordained by the Governor, Council, and Representatives convened in
General Court of Assembly, that all and every person and persons shall
on that day carefully apply themselves to the duties of religion
and piety, that no tradesman or labourer shall exercise his ordinary
calling, and that no game or recreation shall be used on the Lord's Day,
upon pain of forfeiting ten shillings.

"That no one shall travel on that day, or any part thereof, under pain
of forfeiting twenty shillings; that no vessel shall leave a harbour of
the colony; that no persons shall keep outside the meeting-house during
the time of public worship, or profane the time by playing or talking,
on penalty of five shillings.

"Public-houses shall not entertain any other than strangers or lodgers,
under penalty of five shillings for every person found drinking and
abiding therein.

"Any person in health, who, without sufficient reason, shall omit to
worship God in public during three months, shall be condemned to a fine
of ten shillings.

"Any person guilty of misbehaviour in a place of public worship, shall
be fined from five to forty shillings.

"These laws are to be enforced by the tything-men of each township, who
have authority to visit public-houses on the Sunday. The innkeeper who
shall refuse them admittance, shall be fined forty shillings for such
offence.

"The tything-men are to stop travellers, and require of them their
reason for being on the road on Sunday; anyone refusing to answer, shall
be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding five pounds sterling. If
the reason given by the traveller be not deemed by the tything-man
sufficient, he may bring the traveller before the justice of the peace
of the district." (Law of March 8, 1792; General Laws of Massachusetts,
vol. i. p. 410.)

On March 11, 1797, a new law increased the amount of fines, half of
which was to be given to the informer. (Same collection, vol. ii. p.
525.) On February 16, 1816, a new law confirmed these same measures.
(Same collection, vol. ii. p. 405.) Similar enactments exist in the
laws of the State of New York, revised in 1827 and 1828. (See Revised
Statutes, Part I. chapter 20, p. 675.) In these it is declared that no
one is allowed on the Sabbath to sport, to fish, to play at games, or to
frequent houses where liquor is sold. No one can travel, except in
case of necessity. And this is not the only trace which the religious
strictness and austere manners of the first emigrants have left behind
them in the American laws. In the Revised Statutes of the State of New
York, vol. i. p. 662, is the following clause:--

"Whoever shall win or lose in the space of twenty-four hours, by gaming
or betting, the sum of twenty-five dollars, shall be found guilty of a
misdemeanour, and upon conviction shall be condemned to pay a fine equal
to at least five times the value of the sum lost or won; which shall
be paid to the inspector of the poor of the township. He that loses
twenty-five dollars or more may bring an action to recover them; and if
he neglects to do so the inspector of the poor may prosecute the winner,
and oblige him to pay into the poor's box both the sum he has gained and
three times as much besides."

The laws we quote from are of recent date; but they are unintelligible
without going back to the very origin of the colonies. I have no doubt
that in our days the penal part of these laws is very rarely applied.
Laws preserve their inflexibility, long after the manners of a nation
have yielded to the influence of time. It is still true, however, that
nothing strikes a foreigner on his arrival in America more forcibly
than the regard paid to the Sabbath. There is one, in particular, of
the large American cities, in which all social movements begin to be
suspended even on Saturday evening. You traverse its streets at the hour
at which you expect men in the middle of life to be engaged in business,
and young people in pleasure; and you meet with solitude and silence.
Not only have all ceased to work, but they appear to have ceased to
exist. Neither the movements of industry are heard, nor the accents of
joy, nor even the confused murmur which arises from the midst of a great
city. Chains are hung across the streets in the neighborhood of the
churches; the half-closed shutters of the houses scarcely admit a ray
of sun into the dwellings of the citizens. Now and then you perceive a
solitary individual who glides silently along the deserted streets and
lanes. Next day, at early dawn, the rolling of carriages, the noise of
hammers, the cries of the population, begin to make themselves heard
again. The city is awake. An eager crowd hastens towards the resort of
commerce and industry; everything around you bespeaks motion, bustle,
hurry. A feverish activity succeeds to the lethargic stupor of
yesterday; you might almost suppose that they had but one day to acquire
wealth and to enjoy it.




Appendix F

It is unnecessary for me to say, that in the chapter which has just been
read, I have not had the intention of giving a history of America. My
only object was to enable the reader to appreciate the influence which
the opinions and manners of the first emigrants had exercised upon the
fate of the different colonies, and of the Union in general. I have
therefore confined myself to the quotation of a few detached fragments.
I do not know whether I am deceived, but it appears to me that, by
pursuing the path which I have merely pointed out, it would be easy to
present such pictures of the American republics as would not be unworthy
the attention of the public, and could not fail to suggest to the
statesman matter for reflection. Not being able to devote myself to this
labor, I am anxious to render it easy to others; and, for this purpose,
I subjoin a short catalogue and analysis of the works which seem to me
the most important to consult.

At the head of the general documents which it would be advantageous to
examine I place the work entitled "An Historical Collection of State
Papers, and other authentic Documents, intended as Materials for a
History of the United States of America," by Ebenezer Hasard. The first
volume of this compilation, which was printed at Philadelphia in 1792,
contains a literal copy of all the charters granted by the Crown of
England to the emigrants, as well as the principal acts of the colonial
governments, during the commencement of their existence. Amongst other
authentic documents, we here find a great many relating to the affairs
of New England and Virginia during this period. The second volume is
almost entirely devoted to the acts of the Confederation of 1643. This
federal compact, which was entered into by the colonies of New England
with the view of resisting the Indians, was the first instance of
union afforded by the Anglo-Americans. There were besides many other
confederations of the same nature, before the famous one of 1776, which
brought about the independence of the colonies.

Each colony has, besides, its own historic monuments, some of which are
extremely curious; beginning with Virginia, the State which was first
peopled. The earliest historian of Virginia was its founder, Captain
John Smith. Captain Smith has left us an octavo volume, entitled "The
generall Historie of Virginia and New England, by Captain John Smith,
sometymes Governor in those Countryes, and Admirall of New England";
printed at London in 1627. The work is adorned with curious maps and
engravings of the time when it appeared; the narrative extends from the
year 1584 to 1626. Smith's work is highly and deservedly esteemed.
The author was one of the most celebrated adventurers of a period of
remarkable adventure; his book breathes that ardor for discovery, that
spirit of enterprise, which characterized the men of his time, when
the manners of chivalry were united to zeal for commerce, and made
subservient to the acquisition of wealth. But Captain Smith is
most remarkable for uniting to the virtues which characterized his
contemporaries several qualities to which they were generally strangers;
his style is simple and concise, his narratives bear the stamp of truth,
and his descriptions are free from false ornament. This author throws
most valuable light upon the state and condition of the Indians at the
time when North America was first discovered.

The second historian to consult is Beverley, who commences his narrative
with the year 1585, and ends it with 1700. The first part of his book
contains historical documents, properly so called, relative to the
infancy of the colony. The second affords a most curious picture of the
state of the Indians at this remote period. The third conveys very clear
ideas concerning the manners, social conditions, laws, and political
customs of the Virginians in the author's lifetime. Beverley was a
native of Virginia, which occasions him to say at the beginning of
his book, that he entreats his readers not to exercise their critical
severity upon it, since, having been born in the Indies, he does not
aspire to purity of language. Notwithstanding this colonial modesty, the
author shows throughout his book the impatience with which he endures
the supremacy of the mother-country. In this work of Beverley are also
found numerous traces of that spirit of civil liberty which animated the
English colonies of America at the time when he wrote. He also shows the
dissensions which existed among them, and retarded their independence.
Beverley detests his Catholic neighbors of Maryland even more than
he hates the English government: his style is simple, his narrative
interesting, and apparently trustworthy.

I saw in America another work which ought to be consulted, entitled "The
History of Virginia," by William Stith. This book affords some curious
details, but I thought it long and diffuse. The most ancient as well as
the best document to be consulted on the history of Carolina, is a work
in small quarto, entitled "The History of Carolina," by John Lawson,
printed at London in 1718. This work contains, in the first part, a
journey of discovery in the west of Carolina; the account of which,
given in the form of a journal, is in general confused and superficial;
but it contains a very striking description of the mortality caused
among the savages of that time both by the smallpox and the immoderate
use of brandy; with a curious picture of the corruption of manners
prevalent amongst them, which was increased by the presence of
Europeans. The second part of Lawson's book is taken up with a
description of the physical condition of Carolina, and its productions.
In the third part, the author gives an interesting account of the
manners, customs, and government of the Indians at that period. There is
a good deal of talent and originality in this part of the work.
Lawson concludes his history with a copy of the charter granted to the
Carolinas in the reign of Charles II. The general tone of this work is
light, and often licentious, forming a perfect contrast to the solemn
style of the works published at the same period in New England. Lawson's
history is extremely scarce in America, and cannot be procured in
Europe. There is, however, a copy of it in the Royal Library at Paris.

From the southern extremity of the United States, I pass at once to the
northern limit; as the intermediate space was not peopled till a later
period. I must first point out a very curious compilation, entitled
"Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society," printed for the
first time at Boston in 1792, and reprinted in 1806. The collection of
which I speak, and which is continued to the present day, contains a
great number of very valuable documents relating to the history of the
different States in New England. Among them are letters which have never
been published, and authentic pieces which had been buried in provincial
archives. The whole work of Gookin, concerning the Indians, is inserted
there.