of men. The
Union is a great republic in extent, but the paucity of objects for
which its Government provides assimilates it to a small State. Its acts
are important, but they are rare. As the sovereignty of the Union is
limited and incomplete, its exercise is not incompatible with liberty;
for it does not excite those insatiable desires of fame and power which
have proved so fatal to great republics. As there is no common centre to
the country, vast capital cities, colossal wealth, abject poverty, and
sudden revolutions are alike unknown; and political passion, instead
of spreading over the land like a torrent of desolation, spends its
strength against the interests and the individual passions of every
State.

Nevertheless, all commodities and ideas circulate throughout the Union
as freely as in a country inhabited by one people. Nothing checks the
spirit of enterprise. Government avails itself of the assistance of all
who have talents or knowledge to serve it. Within the frontiers of the
Union the profoundest peace prevails, as within the heart of some great
empire; abroad, it ranks with the most powerful nations of the earth;
two thousand miles of coast are open to the commerce of the world; and
as it possesses the keys of the globe, its flags is respected in the
most remote seas. The Union is as happy and as free as a small people,
and as glorious and as strong as a great nation.

Why The Federal System Is Not Adapted To All Peoples, And How The
Anglo-Americans Were Enabled To Adopt It.

Every Federal system contains defects which baffle the efforts of the
legislator--The Federal system is complex--It demands a daily exercise
of discretion on the part of the citizens--Practical knowledge of
government common amongst the Americans--Relative weakness of the
Government of the Union, another defect inherent in the Federal
system--The Americans have diminished without remedying it--The
sovereignty of the separate States apparently weaker, but really
stronger, than that of the Union--Why?--Natural causes of union must
exist between confederate peoples besides the laws--What these causes
are amongst the Anglo-Americans--Maine and Georgia, separated by a
distance of a thousand miles, more naturally united than Normandy and
Brittany--War, the main peril of confederations--This proved even by
the example of the United States--The Union has no great wars to
fear--Why?--Dangers to which Europeans would be exposed if they ado