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laws that really tend to maintain the democratic republic, and which endanger its existence. If I have not succeeded in explaining this in the whole course of my work, I cannot hope to do so within the limits of a single chapter. It is not my intention to retrace the path I have already pursued; and a very few lines will suffice to recapitulate what I have previously explained.
Three circumstances seem to me to contribute most powerfully to the maintenance of the democratic republic in the United States.
The first is that federal form of government which the Americans have adopted, and which enables the Union to combine the power of a great empire with the security of a small state;—
The second consists in those municipal institutions which limit the despotism of the majority, and at the same time impart a taste for freedom, and a knowledge of the art of being free, to the people;—
The third is to be met with in the constitution of the judicial power. I have shown in what manner the courts of justice serve to repress the excesses of democracy; and how they check and direct the impulses of the majority, without stopping its activity.
INFLUENCE OF MANNERS UPON THE MAINTENANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN THE UNITED STATES.
I have previously remarked that the manners of the people may
be considered as one of the general causes to which the maintenance
of a democratic republic in the United States is attributable. I here
use the word manners, with the meaning which the ancients
attached to the word mores; for I apply it not only to manners, in their
proper sense of what constitutes the character of social intercourse,
but I extend it to the various notions and opinions current among
men, and to the mass of those ideas which constitute their character
of mind. I comprise, therefore, under this term the whole moral
and intellectual condition of a people. My intention is not to draw
a picture of American manners, but simply to point out such
features of them as are favourable to the maintenance of political
institutions.
