power with any effect, and he is thus rendered subordinate to the Legislative. Years may pass during which the nation is content to let its affairs be managed by its rulers as they may see fit; but the moment it is seriously dissatisfied, the moment its confidence is broken or a danger seems to menace the country, from that moment it can begin to recall its delegated power, and practically order its policy at home and abroad. It is only a qualified trust which the people yield to their representatives. They are themselves politicians by habit and custom. Every other year they are called upon to decide what principles they wish advanced, and which men they desire to advocate them.

Whether a government of this nature is the one above all others most advantageous to society is a question open to much dispute, but that an essential requisite of good government is practicable under the system—namely, that it shall be strong and efficient, and capable of maintaining its place among nations— it is impossible to deny. That of the United States. passed through the tremendous assaults made upon it in the civil war with resolution and success which could not have been excelled had it been in the hands of a small and privileged class. It gained in security by submitting itself wholly to the guidance of the majority. It was the servant of the people, and the people came forward as one man to its support. They prized it, and by their instrumentality it was saved from destruction when a section of the

CHAP. I.

MISREPRESENTATIONS OF CRITICS.

7

country became dissatisfied, and sought to form itself into a distinct nation. Burden after burden was laid upon them, sacrifice after sacrifice demanded, and instead of complaining they came again and again, demanding greater burdens and offering greater sacrifices, and continued to display the same lavish spirit long after the war was over. Popular government saved the Union in 1861, and the government of a privileged class could have done no more.

But in such periods as these we behold the government in its most attractive aspect. The patriotism and spirit of the people are evoked, a power unsuspected even by themselves is made manifest to the world, and in the splendour and renown of victory all defects and shortcomings are overlooked. We see everything through a false and exaggerated medium. From a disbelief in the country, the public mind goes over with unthinking and infatuated eagerness to the worship of all its institutions. Nothing, it is argued, can be amiss in a form of policy which survived the shocks of 1861-65, and came out of the trial apparently strong enough to pass through another equally severe. But if the old prejudices against the American Union were mischievous and unreasonable, this attachment to it without a cause is likely to produce still more evil consequences. No American of eminence has ever yet denied the existence of great and peculiar failings in his government. That these imperfections should now be questioned or lost sight of by the rest of the world is greatly owing to

a reaction in the public feeling produced by the failure of the prophecies relative to the fall of the Union. Many writers have predicted the inevitable collapse of American democracy directly it was opposed to its first searching test, reasoning very often upon imaginary parallels in the history of other nations, and forgetting that the experiment is being tried in the United States under circumstances so exceptional as to put to confusion all speculative or philosophical theories upon systems of government. The exceedingly favourable conditions under which the people live, although habitually acknowledged in general terms, are seldom properly appreciated. It is indeed hard to realise them fully. Setting aside altogether the physical advantages enjoyed by the Americans, due consideration has not been given to the fact that in the majority is vested the power to amend the government whenever it falls short of their necessities. The Constitution by which a small community was originally governed, and which sufficed for that period, is not to be regarded as an instrument destined to place a limit upon thought, progress, and improvement. It is not a band of iron which is to hold the nation in a fixed position for ever. Not the Constitution, but the popular will, is what gives government its powers in America. A written Constitution cannot retard or hinder the growth of principles, least of all in an active and young community, full of nervous energy, and quickness, and eager life. Where the people create the govern

CHAP. I.

CHANGE A LAW OF THE PEOPLE.

9

ment they will be above the government.

The

American, as one of their own writers justly remarks,

66

never loses sight of the fact that government is only a device founded on expediency; and he keeps in mind that it possesses no intrinsic right to exist, and that it is always subject to the arbitration of the popular right of revolution." 5 A government which had its birth in revolution, and that in quite recent times, cannot be considered master of the people. They will not look upon its first inception as a Divine inspiration with which it would be sacrilege to meddle. It must expand with their growth, and be treated as the work of men like unto themselves, while its fundamental principles, so far as they are consistent with liberty and justice, are scrupulously preserved. But if the Constitution is to retain the authority ascribed to it by all American jurists, as "a code of positive law," binding upon all persons and upon all departments of the government, it should be altered and amended only by the means dictated in the instrument itself. If one part of the nation, having temporary command of the national armies, alters and adapts it to its own purposes without consulting the other part, what becomes of it as a code of positive law? It then changes with the fortunes of every party, perhaps with every election. The form of government is, in truth, of little importance to

5 North American Review,' Oct. 1865,

This phrase is used by Mr. R. H. Dana, junr., in his very valuable notes to Wheaton,' p. 54.

America so far as its present prosperity is concerned. Call the nominal ruler king, emperor, or president, and the material interests of the people must still flourish while land is plentiful, while the country is covered with small proprietors, while labour is scarce and wages high. These conditions not unnaturally sometimes lead the people themselves to attribute to a political system the blessings which they really owe to nature. In a land of universal prosperity men do not find fault with the government under which they live. It has been said that in the number of small landed proprietors consists the true strength of a nation. Undoubtedly it is a source of strength to the American Union. Abstract arguments against democracy prove nothing against the American government, because it is a democracy existing under conditions which would make any method of government successful. Democracy there, it is sometimes asserted, must fail because democracy from its very nature cannot be enduring, and it is also assumed, and so far as we can at present judge with entire truth, that the American people never would consent to adopt any other form of government. Thus the philosophers end by leaving the Americans without a government of any kind. They hand them over to a reign of anarchy. It is true that the evidence of facts is wholly opposed to such reasonings. What we find in the United States is that the people possess a government which they have the power of adapting to their ends, although not in the manner theore