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CHAPTER V.
NECESSITY OF EXAMINING THE CONDITION OF THE STATES BEFORE THAT
OF THE UNION AT LARGE.
It is proposed to examine in the following chapter, what is the
form of government established in America on the principle of the
sovereignty of the people; what are its resources, its hinderances, its
advantages, and its dangers. The first difficulty which presents
itself arises from the complex nature of the constitution of the
United States, which consists of two distinct social structures,
connected, and, as it were, encased, one within the other; two
governments, completely separate, and almost independent, the one
fulfilling the ordinary duties, and responding to the daily and
indefinite calls of a community, the other circumscribed within certain
limits, and only exercising an exceptional authority over the
general interests of the country. In short, there are twenty-four
small sovereign nations, whose agglomeration constitutes the body
of the Union. To examine the Union before we have studied the
states, would be to adopt a method filled with obstacles. The
Federal government of the United States was the last which was
adopted; and it is in fact nothing more than a modification or a
summary of those republican principles which were current in the
whole community before it existed, and independently of its existence.
Moreover, the federal government is, as I have just observed,
the exception; the government of the states is the rule. The
author who should attempt to exhibit the picture as a whole, before
he had explained its details, would necessarily fall into obscurity
and repetition.
The great political principles which govern American society at this day, undoubtedly took their origin and their growth in the state. It is therefore necessary to become acquainted with the state in order to possess a clew to the remainder. The states which at
