e, to show their
numerical strength, and so to diminish the moral authority of the
majority; and, in the second place, to stimulate competition, and to
discover those arguments which are most fitted to act upon the majority;
for they always entertain hopes of drawing over their opponents to their
own side, and of afterwards disposing of the supreme power in their
name. Political associations in the United States are therefore
peaceable in their intentions, and strictly legal in the means which
they employ; and they assert with perfect truth that they only aim at
success by lawful expedients.

The difference which exists between the Americans and ourselves depends
on several causes. In Europe there are numerous parties so diametrically
opposed to the majority that they can never hope to acquire its support,
and at the same time they think that they are sufficiently strong in
themselves to struggle and to defend their cause. When a party of this
kind forms an association, its object is, not to conquer, but to fight.
In America the individuals who hold opinions very much opposed to those
of the majority are no sort of impediment to its power, and all other
parties hope to win it over to their own principles in the end. The
exercise of the right of association becomes dangerous in proportion
to the impossibility which excludes great parties from acquiring the
majority. In a country like the United States, in which the differences
of opinion are mere differences of hue, the right of association may
remain unrestrained without evil consequences. The inexperience of many
of the European nations in the enjoyment of liberty leads them only
to look upon the liberty of association as a right of attacking the
Government. The first notion which presents itself to a party, as well
as to an individual, when it has acquired a consciousness of its own
strength, is that of violence: the notion of persuasion arises at a
later period and is only derived from experience. The English, who are
divided into parties which differ most essentially from each other,
rarely abuse the right of association, because they have long been
accustomed to exercise it. In France the passion for war is so intense
that there is no undertaking so mad, or so injurious to the welfare of
the State, that a man does not consider himself honored in defending it,
at the risk of his life.

But perhaps the most powerful of the causes which tend to mitigate the
excesses