Now, the problem was solved by America more than sixty years ago. The principles of sovereignty of the people.
We enthroned in France but yesterday,has there held undivided sway for over sixty years.
It is there reduced to practice in the most direct, the most unlimited, and the most absolute manner.
For sixty years the peoplewho have made it the common source of all theiar laws have incresed continually in population,in territory, and opulence ; and -consider it well- it is found to have been, during the period, not only the most prosperous, but the most stable, of all the nations of the earth. While all the nations ofEurope have been devastated by war or torn by civil discord, the American people alone in the civilized Worldhave remained at peace. Almost all Europe was convulsed by revolutions ; America has not had even a revolt. the republic there has not been assailant, but the guardian, of all vested rights ; the property of individuals has had better guarrantees there than any other country of the world ;anarchy has there been as unknown as despotism.
Where else could we find greater causes of hope , or more instructive lessons ?
Let us look to America , not in order to make a servile copyof the institutions that he has established , but to gain clearerview of polity that will be the best for us ; let us look there less to find examples than instruction ; let us borrow from him the principles, rather the details , of his laws. The laws of the French republic may be , and ought to be in many cases , different from those which govern the U.S ; but the principles on which the American constitution rest , those principles of order , of the balance of powers, of true liberty , of deep and sincere respect for right , are indispensable to all republics ; they ought to be common to all ; and it may be said beforehand that wherever they are not found , the republic will soon have ceased to exist.
P.s
By Alexis de TOCQUEVILLE
Preface to the 12th Edition of
Democracy in America, 1848