the world which can permanently direct the whole of a
body politic to one end.

Laws cannot succeed in rekindling the ardor of an extinguished faith,
but men may be interested in the fate of their country by the laws. By
this influence the vague impulse of patriotism, which never abandons the
human heart, may be directed and revived; and if it be connected with
the thoughts, the passions, and the daily habits of life, it may be
consolidated into a durable and rational sentiment.

Let it not be said that the time for the experiment is already past; for
the old age of nations is not like the old age of men, and every fresh
generation is a new people ready for the care of the legislator.

It is not the administrative but the political effects of the local
system that I most admire in America. In the United States the interests
of the country are everywhere kept in view; they are an object of
solicitude to the people of the whole Union, and every citizen is as
warmly attached to them as if they were his own. He takes pride in the
glory of his nation; he boasts of its success, to which he conceives
himself to have contributed, and he rejoices in the general prosperity
by which he profits. The feeling he entertains towards the State is
analogous to that which unites him to his family, and it is by a kind of
egotism that he interests himself in the welfare of his country.

The European generally submits to a public officer because he represents
a superior force; but to an American he represents a right. In America
it may be said that no one renders obedience to man, but to justice
and to law. If the opinion which the citizen entertains of himself is
exaggerated, it is at least salutary; he unhesitatingly confides in his
own powers, which appear to him to be all-sufficient. When a private
individual meditates an undertaking, however directly connected it
may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the
co-operation of the Government, but he publishes his plan, offers to
execute it himself, courts the assistance of other individuals, and
struggles manfully against all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less
successful than the State might have been in his position; but in the
end the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the
Government could have done.

As the administrative authority is within the reach of the citizens,
whom it in some degree represents, it excites neither their jealous