.

Of The Republican Institutions Of The United States, And What Their
Chances Of Duration Are

The Union is accidental--The Republican institutions have more prospect
of permanence--A republic for the present the natural state of the
Anglo-Americans--Reason of this--In order to destroy it, all the laws
must be changed at the same time, and a great alteration take place
in manners--Difficulties experienced by the Americans in creating an
aristocracy.

The dismemberment of the Union, by the introduction of war into the
heart of those States which are now confederate, with standing armies,
a dictatorship, and a heavy taxation, might, eventually, compromise the
fate of the republican institutions. But we ought not to confound the
future prospects of the republic with those of the Union. The Union is
an accident, which will only last as long as circumstances are favorable
to its existence; but a republican form of government seems to me to
be the natural state of the Americans; which nothing but the continued
action of hostile causes, always acting in the same direction, could
change into a monarchy. The Union exists principally in the law which
formed it; one revolution, one change in public opinion, might destroy
it forever; but the republic has a much deeper foundation to rest upon.

What is understood by a republican government in the United States is
the slow and quiet action of society upon itself. It is a regular state
of things really founded upon the enlightened will of the people. It is
a conciliatory government under which resolutions are allowed time to
ripen; and in which they are deliberately discussed, and executed with
mature judgment. The republicans in the United States set a high value
upon morality, respect religious belief, and acknowledge the
existence of rights. They profess to think that a people ought to be
moral, religious, and temperate, in proportion as it is free. What is
called the republic in the United States, is the tranquil rule of the
majority, which, after having had time to examine itself, and to give
proof of its existence, is the common source of all the powers of the
State. But the power of the majority is not of itself unlimited. In the
moral world humanity, justice, and reason enjoy an undisputed supremacy;
in the political world vested rights are treated with no less deference.
The majority recognizes these two barriers; and if it now and then
overstep them, it is because, li