which was made by a whole people.]

The United States have not had any serious war to carry on ever since
that period. In order, therefore, to appreciate the sacrifices which
democratic nations may impose upon themselves, we must wait until the
American people is obliged to put half its entire income at the disposal
of the Government, as was done by the English; or until it sends forth a
twentieth part of its population to the field of battle, as was done by
France. *q

[Footnote q: [The Civil War showed that when the necessity arose the
American people, both in the North and in the South, are capable of
making the most enormous sacrifices, both in money and in men.]]

In America the use of conscription is unknown, and men are induced to
enlist by bounties. The notions and habits of the people of the United
States are so opposed to compulsory enlistment that I do not imagine it
can ever be sanctioned by the laws. What is termed the conscription
in France is assuredly the heaviest tax upon the population of that
country; yet how could a great continental war be carried on without it?
The Americans have not adopted the British impressment of seamen, and
they have nothing which corresponds to the French system of maritime
conscription; the navy, as well as the merchant service, is supplied
by voluntary service. But it is not easy to conceive how a people can
sustain a great maritime war without having recourse to one or the other
of these two systems. Indeed, the Union, which has fought with some
honor upon the seas, has never possessed a very numerous fleet, and
the equipment of the small number of American vessels has always been
excessively expensive.

I have heard American statesmen confess that the Union will have great
difficulty in maintaining its rank on the seas without adopting the
system of impressment or of maritime conscription; but the difficulty is
to induce the people, which exercises the supreme authority, to submit
to impressment or any compulsory system.

It is incontestable that in times of danger a free people displays far
more energy than one which is not so. But I incline to believe that
this is more especially the case in those free nations in which the
democratic element preponderates. Democracy appears to me to be much
better adapted for the peaceful conduct of society, or for an occasional
effort of remarkable vigor, than for the hardy and prolonged endurance
of the storms which beset the po