PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. My design in writing the present work, has not been to produce a formal treatise, in which the parts are made to hang together by certain prescribed rules of art, but to unfold a system of thought, which will exercise the mind, and not the critical skill, of the reader. The two are distinct, and often irreconcilable. The reader, quick in apprehension, will have no difficulty in seizing the governing principle which pervades the whole work, and in marking the many important results to which it has conducted me. Another object which I have had in view, an indirect one to be sure, has been to endeavor to correct, as far as it is in the power of a single individual to do, the vitiated taste for reading which prevails in our country. Great numbers read from ennui, not from a genuine desire for knowledge. The consequence is that the works selected are either of a superficial, or of an exciting character. But nothing contributes more to enfeeble the understanding, and even to pervert the moral faculties. The mischief extends itself to the few who are possessed with a noble ambition. There is no tribunal to which they can address themselves. Their efforts are chilled by the mental dyspepsia which prevails around them, when they stand in need of being powerfully braced by a healthful and invigorating influence. By laying open a field of thought which is peculiarly American (although allied with all other knowledge), and which has, in an eminent degree, both a literary and a philo sophical interest, I flatter myself that I may contribute, however little, towards giving a more fortunate direction to the general mind. They who have studied the history of Europe during the middle ages, must have been struck with one remarkable fact, that there was no beginning even toward the formation of a literature, science and philosophy, strictly modern, until ancient literature, &c., had ceased to be studied, and that there was no other way, by which it was possible to create it. We call the period, which succeeded the disappearance of ancient, and laid the foundation of modern literature and philosophy, the dark ages, because the fermentation which the human mind underwent in this transition period, did produce a temporary mental eclipse. The instruction, afforded by this remarkable case, is not that we should fall back into a state resembling the dark ages, but that we should search in the rich resources of our own history, our form of society, our civil and political institutions, for the materials on which to construct an American literature. Until we do, our authors will have none of the originality and raciness, which give dignity and interest to mental speculations, and our population will continue to read only to assuage the pain of ennui. Very material additions have been made to the present edition-a chapter on the great question of "the right of secession in a confederate government," another on the still more important question, "the ultimate destiny of free instistutions." New matter has also been incorporated into the former chapters-ten or twelve pages in Chap. vii. Book I., and the same number in Chap. vi. Book II., and Chap. iv. Book IV.; about eight in Chap. vi. Book I., and Chap. i. Book IV. In Chap. i. Book II. and Chap. vi. Book IV., four pages, and in several other chapters from a third of a page to three pages. The introductory chapter on our modern civilization has also been added to the present volume, and the numerous typographical errors in the former edition have also been endeavored to be corrected. .... ...... .... ... CHAPTER IV. --Character and operation of elective governments,..... 47 CHAPTER V.-The principle of equality; to what extent can it be ....... .... .......................... ................................. .. CHAPTER VI.---Is the American government a balanced one?......... 601 CHAPTER VII.---The influence of America upon Europe, ... 616 CHAPTER VIII. - Ultimate destiny of free institutions,............... NATURE AND TENDENCY OF FREE INSTITUTIONS. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THE existence of free institutions presupposes the existence of a highly civilized society. An examination, therefore, of their genius and tendency, will very naturally be preceded by an examination of the origin and nature of civilization. Civilization, then, is that state in which the higher part of our nature is made to predominate over the lower, and the qualities which fit men for society, obtain an ascendency over their selfish, and anti-social propensities. But as much the greater part of the human race have always been found at one period in an uncivilized condition, the question what has induced a change from one state to the other, is not one merely of curious inquiry, but of the highest philosophical interest. History presents us with the earliest traces of civilization in those regions where the densest population existed. This is a striking fact; and perhaps it may afford a clue to the solution of the difficulty. A population which is only tolerably full, is inconsistent |