lishing military conscription
or impressment of seamen in America--Why a democratic people is less
capable of sustained effort than another.

I here warn the reader that I speak of a government which implicitly
follows the real desires of a people, and not of a government which
simply commands in its name. Nothing is so irresistible as a tyrannical
power commanding in the name of the people, because, whilst it exercises
that moral influence which belongs to the decision of the majority, it
acts at the same time with the promptitude and the tenacity of a single
man.

It is difficult to say what degree of exertion a democratic government
may be capable of making a crisis in the history of the nation. But no
great democratic republic has hitherto existed in the world. To style
the oligarchy which ruled over France in 1793 by that name would be to
offer an insult to the republican form of government. The United States
afford the first example of the kind.

The American Union has now subsisted for half a century, in the course
of which time its existence has only once been attacked, namely, during
the War of Independence. At the commencement of that long war, various
occurrences took place which betokened an extraordinary zeal for the
service of the country. *p But as the contest was prolonged, symptoms of
private egotism began to show themselves. No money was poured into the
public treasury; few recruits could be raised to join the army; the
people wished to acquire independence, but was very ill-disposed to
undergo the privations by which alone it could be obtained. "Tax
laws," says Hamilton in the "Federalist" (No. 12), "have in vain been
multiplied; new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been
tried; the public expectation has been uniformly disappointed and the
treasuries of the States have remained empty. The popular system of
administration inherent in the nature of popular government, coinciding
with the real scarcity of money incident to a languid and mutilated
state of trade, has hitherto defeated every experiment for extensive
collections, and has at length taught the different legislatures the
folly of attempting them."

[Footnote p: One of the most singular of these occurrences was the
resolution which the Americans took of temporarily abandoning the use of
tea. Those who know that men usually cling more to their habits than
to their life will doubtless admire this great though obscure sacrifice