of restraining the ambition of the citizens within a narrow
sphere, and of turning those same passions, which might
have worked havoc in the state, to the good of the township
or the parish. The American legislators have succeeded to
a certain extent in opposing the notion of rights, to the feel
ings of envy ; the permanence of the religious world, to the
continual shifting of politics ; the experience of the people,
to its theoretical ignorance ; and its practical knowledge of
business, to the impatience of its desires.

The Americans, then, have not relied upon the nature of
their country, to counterpoise those dangers which originate
in their constitution and in their political laws. To evils
which are common to all democratic peoples, they have ap
plied remedies which none but themselves had ever thought
of before ; and although they were the first to make the ex
periment, they have succeeded in it.

The manners and laws of the Americans are not the only
ones which may suit a democratic people ; but the Ameri
cans have shown that it would be wrong to despair of regu
lating democracy by the aid of manners and of laws. If
other nations should borrow this general and pregnant idea
from the Americans, without however intending to imitate
them in the peculiar application which they have made of it ;
if they should attempt to fit themselves for that social condi
tion, which it seems to be the will of Providence to impose
upon the generations of this age, and so to escape from the
despotism of the anarchy which threatens them ; what rea
son is there to suppose that their efforts would not be crowned
with success ? The organization and the establishment of
democracy in Christendom, is the great political problem of
the time. The Americans, unquestionably, have not resolved
this problem, but they furnish useful data to those who un
dertake the task.



THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 331



IMPORTANCE OF WHAT PRECEDES WITH EESPECT TO THE
STATE OF EUROPE.

IT may readily be discovered with what intention I undertooK
the foregoing inquiries. The question here discussed is inte
resting not only to the United States, but to the whole world ;
it concerns, not a nation, but all mankind. 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 demo
cracy 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 in
stitutions, what refuge would remain open to the nations
except the despotism of a single individual ? 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 ac
quainted with the haven to 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 what it
might become at the present time.

If absolute power were re-established among the demo
cratic nations of Europe, I am persuaded that it would assume
a new form, and appear under features unknown to our fore
fathers. There was a time in Europe, when the laws and
the consent of the people had invested princes with almost
unlimited authority ; but they scarcely ever availed them
selves 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 break the blows of the sovereign authority, and to
maintain a spirit of resistance in the nation. Independently
of these political institutions which, however opposed they
might be to personal liberty, served to keep alive the love of
freedom in the mind of the public, and which may be esteemed
to have been useful in this respect the manners and opi
nions of the nation confined the royal authority within barriers
which were not less powerful, although they were less con
spicuous. Religion, the affections of the people, the benevo
lence of the prince, the sense of honor, family pride, provin
cial prejudices, custom, and public opinion, limited the power
of kings, and restrained their authority within an invisible



33*2 CAUSES TENDING TO MAINTAIN

circle. The constitution of nations was despotic at that time,
but their manners were free. Princes had the right h but
they had neither the means nor the desire, of doing whatever
they pleased.

But what now remains of those barriers which formerly
arrested the aggressions of tyranny ? Since religion has lost
its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boun
dary which divided good from evil is overthrown : the very
elements of the moral world are indeterminate ; the princes
and the peoples of the earth are guided by chance, and none
can define the natural limits of despotism and the bounds of
license. Long revolutions have for ever destroyed the re
spect which surrounded the rulers of the state ; and since
they have been relieved from the burden of public esteem,
princes may henceforward surrender themselves without fear
to the seductions of arbitrary power.

When kings find that the hearts of their subjects are turned
toward them, they are clement, because they are conscious
of their strength ; and they are chary of the affection of their
people, because the affection of their people is the bulwark of
the throne. A mutual interchange of good will then takes
place between the prince and the people, which resembles
the gracious intercourse of domestic society. The subjects
may murmur at the sovereign'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 the tumult
of revolution ; when successive monarchs have occupied the
throne, and alternately displayed to the people the weakness
of right, and the harshness of power, the sovereign is no lon
ger regarded by any as the father of the state, and he is
feared by all as its master. If he be weak, he is despised ;
if he be strong, he is detested. He is himself full of ani
mosity and alarm ; he finds that he is a stranger in his own
country, and he treats his subjects like conquered enemies.

When the provinces and the towns formed so many dif
ferent nations in the midst of their common country, each of
them had a will of its own, which was opposed to the general
spirit of subjection ; but now that all the parts of the same
empire, after having lost their immunities, their customs,
their prejudices, their traditions, and their names, are sub
jected and accustomed to the same laws, it is not more diffi
cult to oppress them collectively, than it was formerly to op
press them singly.

While the nobles enjoyed their power, and indeed long



THE* DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. 333

after that power was lost, the honor of aristocracy conferred
an extraordinary degree of force upon their personal opposi
tion. They afforded instances of men who, notwithstanding
their weakness, still entertained a high opinion of their per
sonal value, and dared to cope single-handed with the efforts
of the public authority. But at the present day, when all
ranks are more and more confounded, when the individual
disappears in the throng, and is easily lost in the midst of a
common obscurity, when the honor of monarchy has almost
lost its empire without being succeeded by public virtue, and
when nothing can enable man to rise above himself, who
shall say at what point the exigencies of power and servility
of weakness will stop ?

As long as family feeling was kept alive, the antagonist of
oppression was never alone ; he looked about him, and found
his clients, his hereditary friends, and his kinsfolk. If this
support was wanting, he was sustained by his ancestors and
animated by his posterity. But when patrimonial estates are
divided, and when a few years suffice to confound the dis
tinctions of a race, where can family feeling be found ?
What force can there be in the customs of a country which
has changed, and is still perpetually changing its aspect ; in
which every act of tyranny has a precedent, and every crime
an example ; in which there is nothing so old that its anti
quity can save it from destruction, and nothing so unparal
leled that its novelty can prevent it from being done ?
What resistance can be offered by manners of so pliant a
make, that they have already often yielded ? What strength
can even public opinion have retained, when no twenty per
sons are connected by a common tie ; when not a man, nor
a family, nor chartered corporation, nor class, nor free insti
tution, has the power of representing that opinion ; and when
every citizen being equally weak, equally poor, and equally
dependant has only his personal impotence to oppose to the
organized force of the government ?

The annals of France furnish nothing analogous to the con
dition in which that country might then be thrown. But it
may more aptly be assimilated to the times of old, and to
those hideous eras of Roman oppression, when the manners
of the people were corrupted, their traditions obliterated, their
habits destroyed, their opinions shaken, and freedom, expelled
from the laws, could find no refuge in the land ; when noth
ing protected the citizens, and the citizens no longer protected
themselves ; when human nature was the sport of man, and
princes wearied out the clemency of Heaven before they ex-



334 CAUSES TENDING TO

hausted the patience of their subjects. Those who hope to
revive the monarchy of Henry IV. or of Louis XIV., appear
to me to be afflicted with mental blindness ; and when I con
sider the present condition of several European nations 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 Cesars.

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 gradu
ally to raise the crowd to their own level, or to sink the citi
zens below that of humanity, would not the doubts of many
be resolved, the consciences of many be healed, and the
community be prepared to make great sacrifices with little
difficulty ? In that case, the gradual growth of democratic
manners and institutions should be regarded, not as the best,
but as the only means of preserving freedom ; and without
liking the government of democracy, it might be 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 govern
ment ; 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 democracy 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 democracy and the dominioa of a single arm,
should we not rather incline toward 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 ?

Those who, after having read this book, should imagine that
my intention in writing it has been to propose the laws and
manners of the Anglo-Americans for the imitation of all de
mocratic peoples, would commit a very great mistake ; they
must have paid more attention to the form than to the sub
stance of my ideas. My aim has been to show, by the ex
ample of America, that laws, and especially manners, may
exist, which will allow a democratic people to remain free.
But I am very far from thinking that we ought to follow the
example of the American democracy, and copy the means
which it has employed to attain its ends ; for I am well aware
of the influence which the nature of a country and its poli
tical precedents exercise upon a constitution ; and I should



THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. J3f3-J

regard it as a great misfortune for mankind, if liberty were to
exist, all over the world, under the same forms.

But I am of opinion that if we do not succeed in gradu
ally introducing democratic institutions into France, and if
we despair of imparting to the citizens those ideas and senti
ments which first prepare them for freedom, and afterward
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, but an equal tyranny over all ; and I foresee
that if the peaceable empire of the majority be not founded
among us in time, we shall sooner or later arrive at the un
limited authority of a single despot.



CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE CONDITION OF THE
THREE RACES WHICH INHABIT THE TERRITORY OF THE
UNITED STATES.

THE principal part of the task which I had imposed upon my
self is now performed : I have shown, as far as I was able,
the laws and manners of the American democracy. Here 1
might stop ; but the reader would perhaps feel that I had not
satisfied his expectations.

The absolute supremacy of democracy is not all that we
meet with in America ; the inhabitants of the New World
may be considered from more than one point of view. In
the course of this work, my subject has often led me to speak
of the Indians and the negroes ; but I have never been able
to stop in order to show what places these two races occupy,
in the midst of the democratic people whom I was engaged
in describing. I have mentioned in what spirit, and accord
ing to what laws, the Anglo-American Union was formed ;
but I could only glance at the dangers which menace that
confederation, while it was equally impossible for me to give
a detailed account of its chances of duration, independently
of its laws and manners. When speaking of the United re
publican States, I hazarded no conjectures upon the perma
nence of republican forms in the New World ; and when
making frequent allusion to the commercial activity which



336 PRESENT AND FUTURE CONDITION OF

reigns in the Union, I was unable to inquire into the future
condition of the Americans as a commercial people.

These topics are collaterally connected with my subject,
without forming a part of it ; they are American, without be
ing democratic ; and to portray democracy has been my prin
cipal aim. It was therefore necessary to postpone these ques
tions, which I now take up as the proper termination of my
work.

The territory now occupied or claimed by the American
Union, spreads from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the
Pacific ocean. On the east and west its limits are those of the
continent itself. On the south it advances nearly to the tropic,
and it extends upward to the icy regions of the north.*

The human beings who are scattered over this space do
not form, as in Europe, so many branches of the same stock.
Three races naturally distinct, and I might almost say hostile
to each other, are discoverable among them at the first glance.
Almost insurmountable barriers had been raised between
them by education and by law, as well as by their origin and
outward characteristics ; but fortune has brought them toge
ther on the same soil, where, although they are mixed, they
do not amalgamate, and each race fulfils its destiny apart.

Among these widely differing families of men, the first which
attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and
in enjoyment, is the white or European, the MAN pre-eminent;
and in subordinate grades, the negro and the Indian. These
two unhappy races have nothing in common ; neither birth,
nor features, nor language, nor habits. Their only resem
blance lies in their misfortunes. Both of them occupy an
inferior rank in the country they inhabit ; both suffer from
tyranny ; and if their wrongs are not the same, they originate
at any rate with the same authors.

If we reasoned from what passes in the world, we should
almost say that the European is to the other races of man
kind, what man is to the lower animals ; he makes them
subservient to his use ; and when he cannot subdue, he des
troys them. Oppression has at one stroke deprived the des
cendants of the Africans of almost all the privileges of hu
manity. The negro of the United States has lost all remem
brance of his country ; the language which his forefathers
spoke is never heard around him ; he abjured their religion
and forgot their customs when he ceased to belong to Africa,
without acquiring any claim to European privileges. But he
remains half-way between the two communities ; sold by the

* See the map.



THE THREE RACES INHABITING THE U. S. 337

one, repulsed by the other ; finding not a spot in the universe
to call by the name of country, except the faint image of a
home which the shelter of his master's roof affords.

The negro has no family ; woman is merely the temporary
companion of his pleasures, and his children are upon an
equality with himself from the moment of their birth. Am I
to call it a proof of God's mercy, or a visitation of his wrath,
that man in certain states appears to be insensible to his
extreme wretchedness, and almost affects with a depraved
taste the cause of his misfortunes ? The negro, who is
plunged in this abyss of evils, scarcely feels his own calami
tous situation. Violence made him a slave, and the habit of
servitude g ; ves him the thoughts and desires of a slave ; he
admires his tyrants more than he hates them, and finds his
joy and his pride in the servile imitation of those who oppress
him : his understanding is degraded to the level of his soul.

The negro enters upon slavery as soon as he is born ; nay,
he may have been purchased in the womb, and have begun
his slavery before he began his existence. Equally devoid
of wants and of enjoyment, and useless to himself, he learns,
with his first notions of existence, that he is the property of
another who has an interest in preserving his life, and that
the care of it does not devolve upon himself; even the power
of thought appears to him a useless gift of Providence, and he
quietly enjoys the privileges of his debasement.

If he becomes free, independence is often felt by him to be
a heavier burden than slavery ; for having learned, in the
course of his life, to submit to everything except reason, he
is too much unacquainted with her dictates to obey them. A
thousand new desires beset him, and he is destitute of the
knowledge and energy necessary to resist them : these are
masters which it is necessary to contend with, and he has
learned only to submit and obey. In short, he sinks to such
a depth of wretchedness, that while servitude brutalizes,
liberty destroys him.

Oppression has been no less fatal to the Indian than to the
negro race, but its effects are different. Before the arrival
of the white men in the New World, the inhabitants of North
America lived quietly in their woods, enduring the vicissi
tudes, and practising the virtues and vices common to savage
nations. The Europeans, having dispersed the Indian tribes
and driven them into the deserts, condemned them to a wander
ing life full of inexpressible sufferings.

Savage nations are only controlled by opinion and by
custom. When the North American Indians had lost their
22



338 PRESENT AND FUTURE CONDITION OF

sentiment of attachment to their country ; when their families
were dispersed, their traditions obscured, and the chain of
their recollections broken ; when all their habits were changed,
and their wants increased beyond measure, European tyranny
rendered them more disorderly and less civilized than they
were before. The moral and physical condition of these
tribes continually grew worse, and they became more barba
rous as they became more wretched. Nevertheless the
Europeans have not been able to metamorphose the character
of the Indians ; and though they have had power to destroy
them, they have never been able to make them submit to the
rules of civilized society.

The lot of the negro is placed on the extreme limit of ser
vitude, while that of the Indian lies on the utmost verge of
liberty ; and slavery does not produce more fatal effects upon
the first, than independence upon the second. The negro has
lost all property in his own person, and he cannot dispose of
his existence without committing a sort of fraud : but the
savage is his own master as soon as he is able to act ; parental
authority is scarcely known to him ; he has never bent his
will to that of any of his kind, or learned the difference
between voluntary obedience and a shameful subjection ; and
the very name of law is unknown to him. To be free, with
him, signifies to escape from all the shackles of society. As he
delights in this barbarous independence, and would rather
perish than sacrifice the least part of it, civilisation has little
power over him.

The negro makes a thousand fruitless 'efforts to insinuate
himself among men who repulse him ; he conforms to the
taste of his oppressors, adopts their opinions, and hopes by
imitating them to form a part of their community. Having
been told from infancy that his race is naturally inferior to
that of the whites, he, assents to the proposition, and is ashamed
of his own nature. In each of his features he discovers a
trace of slavery, and, if it were in his power, he would will
ingly rid himself of everything that makes him what he is.

The Indian, on the contrary, has his imagination inflated
with the pretended nobility of his origin, and lives and dies in
the midst of these dreams of pride. Far from desiring to
conform his habits to ours, he loves his savage life as the dis
tinguishing mark of his race, and he repels every advance to
civilisation, less perhaps from the hatred which he entertains
for it, than from a dread of resembling the Europeans.*

* The native of North America retains his opinions and the most
insignificant ofhis habits -vith a degree of tenacity which has no parallel



THE THREE RACES INHABITING THE U. S. 339

While he has nothing to oppose to our perfection in the arts
but the resources of the desert, to our tactics nothing but un
disciplined courage ; while our well-digested plans are met
by the spontaneous instincts of savage life, who can wonder
if he fails in this unequal contest ?

The negro who earnestly desires to mingle his race with
that of the European, cannot effect it ; while the Indian, who
might succeed to a certain extent, disdains to make the
attempt. The servility of the one dooms him to slavery, the
pride of the other to death.

I remember that while I was travelling through the forests
which still cover the state of Alabama, I arrived one day at
the log house of a pioneer. I did not wish to penetrate into the
dwelling of the American, but retired to rest myself for a
while on the margin of a spring, which was not far off, in the
woods. While I was in this place (which was in the neigh
borhood of the Creek territory), an Indian woman appeared,
followed by a negress, and holding by the hand a little white
girl of five or six years old, whom I took to be the daughter
of the pioneer. A sort of barbarous luxury set off the costume
of the Indian ; rings of metal were hanging from her nostrils
and ears ; her hair, which was adorned with glass beads, fell
loosely upon her shoulders ; and I saw that she was not
married, for she still wore the necklace of shells which the

in history. For more than two hundred years the wandering tribes of
North America have had daily intercourse with the whites, and they have
never derived from them either a custom or an idea. Yet the Europe
ans have exercised a powerful influence over the savages : they have
made them more licentious, but not more European. In the summer
of 1831, I happened to be beyond Lake Michigan, at a place called
Green Bay, which serves as the extreme frontier between the United
States and the Indians on the northwestern side^. Here I became ac
quainted with an American officer, Major H., who, after talking to me
at length on the inflexibility of the Indian character, related the follow
ing fact : " I formerly knew a young Indian," said he, "who had been
educated at a college in New England, where he had greatly distin