But In The States A
System Of Government Has Been Produced, Under A Written
Constitution, In Which No Englishman Can Disbelieve, And Which Every
Frenchman Must Envy.
It has done its work.
The people have been
free, well educated, and politically great. Those among us who are
most inclined at the present moment to declare that the institutions
of the United States have failed, can at any rate only declare that
they have failed in their finality; that they have shown themselves
to be insufficient to carry on the nation in its advancing strides
through all times. They cannot deny that an amount of success and
prosperity, much greater than the nation even expected for itself,
has been achieved under this Constitution and in connection with it.
If it be so, they cannot disbelieve in it. Let those who now say
that it is insufficient, consider what their prophecies regarding it
would have been had they been called on to express their opinions
concerning it when it was proposed in 1787. If the future as it has
since come forth had then been foretold for it, would not such a
prophecy have been a prophecy of success? That Constitution is now
at the period of its hardest trial, and at this moment one may
hardly dare to speak of it with triumph; but looking at the nation
even in its present position, I think I am justified in saying that
its Constitution is one in which no Englishman can disbelieve. When
I also say that it is one which every Frenchman must envy, perhaps I
am improperly presuming that Frenchmen could not look at it with
Englishmen's eyes.
When the Constitution came to be written, a man had arisen in the
States who was peculiarly suited for the work in hand: he was one of
those men to whom the world owes much, and of whom the world in
general knows but little. This was Alexander Hamilton, who alone on
the part of the great State of New York signed the Constitution of
the United States. The other States sent two, three, four, or more
delegates; New York sent Hamilton alone; but in sending him New York
sent more to the Constitution than all the other States together. I
should be hardly saying too much for Hamilton if I were to declare
that all those parts of the Constitution emanated from him in which
permanent political strength has abided. And yet his name has not
been spread abroad widely in men's mouths. Of Jefferson, Franklin,
and Madison we have all heard; our children speak of them, and they
are household words in the nursery of history. Of Hamilton,
however, it may, I believe, be said that he was greater than any of
those.
Without going with minuteness into the early contests of democracy
in the United States, I think I may say that there soon arose two
parties, each probably equally anxious in the cause of freedom, one
of which was conspicuous for its French predilections and the other
for its English aptitudes. It was the period of the French
Revolution - the time when the French Revolution had in it as yet
something of promise and had not utterly disgraced itself. To many
in America the French theory of democracy not unnaturally endeared
itself and foremost among these was Thomas Jefferson. He was the
father of those politicians in the States who have since taken the
name of Democrats, and in accordance with whose theory it has come
to pass that everything has been referred to the universal suffrage
of the people. James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson as President,
was a pupil in this school, as indeed have been most of the
Presidents of the United States. At the head of the other party,
from which through various denominations have sprung those who now
call themselves Republicans, was Alexander Hamilton. I believe I
may say that all the political sympathies of George Washington were
with the same school. Washington, however, was rather a man of
feeling and of action than of theoretical policy or speculative
opinion. When the Constitution was written Jefferson was in France,
having been sent thither as minister from the United States, and he
therefore was debarred from concerning himself personally in the
matter. His views, however, were represented by Madison; and it is
now generally understood that the Constitution as it stands is the
joint work of Madison and Hamilton.* The democratic bias, of which
it necessarily contains much, and without which it could not have
obtained the consent of the people, was furnished by Madison; but
the conservative elements, of which it possesses much more than
superficial observers of the American form of government are wont to
believe, came from Hamilton.
* It should, perhaps, be explained that the views of Madison were
originally not opposed to those of Hamilton. Madison, however,
gradually adopted the policy of Jefferson - his policy rather than
his philosophy.
The very preamble of the Constitution at once declares that the
people of the different States do hereby join themselves together
with the view of forming themselves into one nation. "We, the
people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Here
a great step was made toward centralization, toward one national
government, and the binding together of the States into one nation.
But from that time down to the present the contest has been going
on, sometimes openly and sometimes only within the minds of men,
between the still alleged sovereignty of the individual States and
the acknowledged sovereignty of the central Congress and central
government. The disciples of Jefferson, even though they have not
known themselves to be his disciples, have been carrying on that
fight for State rights which has ended in secession; and the
disciples of Hamilton, certainly not knowing themselves to be his
disciples, have been making that stand for central government, and
for the one acknowledged republic, which is now at work in opposing
secession, and which, even though secession should to some extent be
accomplished, will, we may hope, nevertheless, and not the less on
account of such secession, conquer and put down the spirit of
democracy.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 76 of 140
Words from 76416 to 77488
of 142339
