f restricting the functionary
to a line of conduct laid down beforehand, and they are interested in
confining him by certain regulations which he cannot evade.

Chapter XIII: Government Of The Democracy In America--Part II

Instability Of The Administration In The United States

In America the public acts of a community frequently leave fewer
traces than the occurrences of a family--Newspapers the only historical
remains--Instability of the administration prejudicial to the art of
government.

The authority which public men possess in America is so brief, and they
are so soon commingled with the ever-changing population of the country,
that the acts of a community frequently leave fewer traces than the
occurrences of a private family. The public administration is, so to
speak, oral and traditionary. But little is committed to writing, and
that little is wafted away forever, like the leaves of the Sibyl, by the
smallest breeze.

The only historical remains in the United States are the newspapers; but
if a number be wanting, the chain of time is broken, and the present
is severed from the past. I am convinced that in fifty years it will
be more difficult to collect authentic documents concerning the social
condition of the Americans at the present day than it is to find remains
of the administration of France during the Middle Ages; and if the
United States were ever invaded by barbarians, it would be necessary to
have recourse to the history of other nations in order to learn anything
of the people which now inhabits them.

The instability of the administration has penetrated into the habits of
the people: it even appears to suit the general taste, and no one cares
for what occurred before his time. No methodical system is pursued; no
archives are formed; and no documents are brought together when it would
be very easy to do so. Where they exist, little store is set upon them;
and I have amongst my papers several original public documents which
were given to me in answer to some of my inquiries. In America
society seems to live from hand to mouth, like an army in the field.
Nevertheless, the art of administration may undoubtedly be ranked as
a science, and no sciences can be improved if the discoveries and
observations of successive generations are not connected together in
the order in which they occur. One man, in the short space of his life
remarks a fact; another conceives an idea; the former invents a me