Democracy in America — Volume 1 eBook

In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a degree foreign to the social body, directs it, and forces it to pursue a certain track.  In others the ruling force is divided, being partly within and partly without the ranks of the people.  But nothing of the kind is to be seen in the United States; there society governs itself for itself.  All power centres in its bosom; and scarcely an individual is to be meet with who would venture to conceive, or, still less, to express, the idea of seeking it elsewhere.  The nation participates in the making of its laws by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government; it may almost be said to govern itself, so feeble and so restricted is the share left to the administration, so little do the authorities forget their popular origin and the power from which they emanate. a [Footnote a:  See Appendix, H.]

Chapter V:  Necessity Of Examining The Condition Of The States—­Part I

Necessity Of Examining The Condition Of The States Before That Of The Union At Large.

It is proposed to examine in the following chapter what is the form of government established in America on the principle of the sovereignty of the people; what are its resources, its hindrances, its advantages, and its dangers.  The first difficulty which presents itself arises from the complex nature of the constitution of the United States, which consists of two distinct social structures, connected and, as it were, encased one within the other; two governments, completely separate and almost independent, the one fulfilling the ordinary duties and responding to the daily and indefinite calls of a community, the other circumscribed within certain limits, and only exercising an exceptional authority over the general interests of the country.  In short, there are twenty-four small sovereign nations, whose agglomeration constitutes the body of the Union.  To examine the Union before we have studied the States would be to adopt a method filled with obstacles.  The form of the Federal Government of the United States was the last which was adopted; and it is in fact nothing more than a modification or a summary of those republican principles which were current in the whole community before it existed, and independently of its existence.  Moreover, the Federal Government is, as I have just observed, the exception; the Government of the States is the rule.  The author who should attempt to exhibit the picture as a whole before he had explained its details would necessarily fall into obscurity and repetition.