ens, to have
energetic minds in order to have powerful nations, to have resistance in
order to have support--such is the programme of individualism. Show me
a country where men are proud enough not to bow before the majority,
where they do not think themselves lost when they depart from, the
beaten track, and jostle of received opinions; and I will admit that
there it will be possible to practise democracy without falling into
servitude.

There is but one country of individual belief, that could attempt the
alliance, hitherto deemed impossible, of democracy and liberty. The
theory in accordance with which the public liberties of England have the
aristocracy for their essential basis, is admitted as an axiom; without
contemning this element of social organization, it is advisable to mine
deeper than this to discover the true foundation of liberty. Individual
belief--this is the foundation. The more we reflect, the more we
discover that the essential thing is not the forms of government, or
even the relations of the different classes, but the moral state of the
community. Are men there? Have souls become masters of themselves? Are
characters formed? Has the force of resistance appeared? Whoever shall
have replied to these questions will have decided, knowingly or
unknowingly, whether liberty be possible.

I do not know that any people should be excluded from liberty; only all
are bound to pursue it by the path that leads to it, by earnestness of
convictions, by internal affranchisement, which signifies by the Gospel.
We may seek in vain, we shall find no means comparable to this (I speak
in the political point of view) when the question is to make citizens.
To place one's self under the absolute authority of God and his word, is
to acquire in the face of mere parties, majorities, general opinions, an
independence that nothing can supply. The independence within is always
translated without; he who is independent of men, in the domain of
beliefs and of thoughts, will be equally so in the domain of public
affairs. Thus democracy itself will not degenerate into socialism. No
one has been able to point out the slightest symptom of socialism in the
United States. Notwithstanding, democracy is fully complete there, and
the election of Mr. Lincoln, once drover, once flatboatman, once
rail-splitter, once clerk--of Mr. Lincoln, the son of his works, who has
succeeded by his own powers in becoming a well-informed man and an
orato