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
hindrances, 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 form of 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 clue to the remainder. The States
which at present compose the American Union all present the same
features, as far as regards the external aspect of their
institutions. Their political or administrative existence is
centred in three focuses of action, which may not inaptly be
compared to the different nervous centres which convey motion to
the human body. The township is the lowest in order, then the
county, and lastly the State; and I propose to devote the
following chapter to the examination of these three divisions.
