s extremely large in democratic
countries, so the number of persons who can hope to be benefited by the
receipt of it is comparatively small. In aristocratic countries, on the
contrary, the individuals who fix high salaries have almost always a
vague hope of profiting by them. These appointments may be looked upon
as a capital which they create for their own use, or at least as a
resource for their children.

It must, however, be allowed that a democratic State is most
parsimonious towards its principal agents. In America the secondary
officers are much better paid, and the dignitaries of the administration
much worse, than they are elsewhere.

These opposite effects result from the same cause; the people fixes
the salaries of the public officers in both cases; and the scale of
remuneration is determined by the consideration of its own wants. It is
held to be fair that the servants of the public should be placed in the
same easy circumstances as the public itself; *g but when the question
turns upon the salaries of the great officers of State, this rule
fails, and chance alone can guide the popular decision. The poor have no
adequate conception of the wants which the higher classes of society may
feel. The sum which is scanty to the rich appears enormous to the poor
man whose wants do not extend beyond the necessaries of life; and in his
estimation the Governor of a State, with his twelve or fifteen hundred
dollars a year, is a very fortunate and enviable being. *h If you
undertake to convince him that the representative of a great people
ought to be able to maintain some show of splendor in the eyes of
foreign nations, he will perhaps assent to your meaning; but when he
reflects on his own humble dwelling, and on the hard-earned produce
of his wearisome toil, he remembers all that he could do with a salary
which you say is insufficient, and he is startled or almost frightened
at the sight of such uncommon wealth. Besides, the secondary public
officer is almost on a level with the people, whilst the others are
raised above it. The former may therefore excite his interest, but the
latter begins to arouse his envy.

[Footnote g: The easy circumstances in which secondary functionaries
are placed in the United States result also from another cause, which
is independent of the general tendencies of democracy; every kind of
private business is very lucrative, and the State would not be served at
all if it did not pay its s