Before I enter upon the subject of the present chapter I am
induced to remind the reader of what I have more than once
adverted to in the course of this book. The political
institutions of the United States appear to me to be one of the
forms of government which a democracy may adopt; but I do not
regard the American Constitution as the best, or as the only one,
which a democratic people may establish. In showing the
advantages which the Americans derive from the government of
democracy, I am therefore very far from meaning, or from
believing, that similar advantages can only be obtained from the
same laws.
