of
1831 exercised a very great influence upon the minds of the malcontents,
and prepared them for the open revolt against the commercial laws of the
Union which took place in 1832.

It cannot be denied that the unrestrained liberty of association
for political purposes is the privilege which a people is longest in
learning how to exercise. If it does not throw the nation into anarchy,
it perpetually augments the chances of that calamity. On one point,
however, this perilous liberty offers a security against dangers of
another kind; in countries where associations are free, secret
societies are unknown. In America there are numerous factions, but no
conspiracies.

Different ways in which the right of association is understood in
Europe and in the United States--Different use which is made of it.

The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting
for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his
fellow-creatures, and of acting in common with them. I am therefore led
to conclude that the right of association is almost as inalienable
as the right of personal liberty. No legislator can attack it without
impairing the very foundations of society. Nevertheless, if the liberty
of association is a fruitful source of advantages and prosperity to some
nations, it may be perverted or carried to excess by others, and
the element of life may be changed into an element of destruction. A
comparison of the different methods which associations pursue in those
countries in which they are managed with discretion, as well as in those
where liberty degenerates into license, may perhaps be thought useful
both to governments and to parties.

The greater part of Europeans look upon an association as a weapon which
is to be hastily fashioned, and immediately tried in the conflict.
A society is formed for discussion, but the idea of impending action
prevails in the minds of those who constitute it: it is, in fact, an
army; and the time given to parley serves to reckon up the strength and
to animate the courage of the host, after which they direct their march
against the enemy. Resources which lie within the bounds of the law may
suggest themselves to the persons who compose it as means, but never as
the only means, of success.

Such, however, is not the manner in which the right of association is
understood in the United States. In America the citizens who form
the minority associate, in order, in the first plac