he United States
were colonized by men holding equal rank amongst themselves, there is as
yet no natural or permanent source of dissension between the interests
of its different inhabitants.

There are certain communities in which the persons who constitute the
minority can never hope to draw over the majority to their side, because
they must then give up the very point which is at issue between them.
Thus, an aristocracy can never become a majority whilst it retains its
exclusive privileges, and it cannot cede its privileges without ceasing
to be an aristocracy.

In the United States political questions cannot be taken up in so
general and absolute a manner, and all parties are willing to recognize
the right of the majority, because they all hope to turn those rights to
their own advantage at some future time. The majority therefore in that
country exercises a prodigious actual authority, and a moral influence
which is scarcely less preponderant; no obstacles exist which can impede
or so much as retard its progress, or which can induce it to heed the
complaints of those whom it crushes upon its path. This state of things
is fatal in itself and dangerous for the future.

How The Unlimited Power Of The Majority Increases In America The
Instability Of Legislation And Administration Inherent In Democracy
The Americans increase the mutability of the laws which is inherent in
democracy by changing the legislature every year, and by investing
it with unbounded authority--The same effect is produced upon the
administration--In America social amelioration is conducted more
energetically but less perseveringly than in Europe.

I have already spoken of the natural defects of democratic institutions,
and they all of them increase at the exact ratio of the power of the
majority. To begin with the most evident of them all; the mutability
of the laws is an evil inherent in democratic government, because it is
natural to democracies to raise men to power in very rapid succession.
But this evil is more or less sensible in proportion to the authority
and the means of action which the legislature possesses.

In America the authority exercised by the legislative bodies is supreme;
nothing prevents them from accomplishing their wishes with celerity, and
with irresistible power, whilst they are supplied by new representatives
every year. That is to say, the circumstances which contribute most
powerfully to democratic instability, and w