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CHAPTER V.
OF THE USE WHICH THE AMERICANS MAKE OF PUBLIC ASSOCIATIONS
IN CIVIL LIFE.
I do not propose to speak of those political associations by the
aid of which men endeavour to defend themselves against the
despotic influence of a majority, or against the aggressions of regal
power. That subject I have already treated. If each citizen did
not learn, in proportion as he individually becomes more feeble and
consequently more incapable of preserving his freedom single handed,
to combine with his fellow-citizens for the purpose of defending
it, it is clear that tyranny would unavoidably increase together with
equality.
Those associations only which are formed in civil life, without reference to political objects, are here adverted to. The political associations which exist in the United States are only a single feature in the midst of the immense assemblage of associations in that country. Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions, constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds—religious, moral, serious, futile, extensive or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found establishments for education, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; and in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools. If it be proposed to advance some truth, or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever, at the head of some new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
