Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville
Chapter XVIII: Future Condition Of Three Races—Part X
7979 words | Chapter 70
It is difficult to say for what reason the Americans can trade at a
lower rate than other nations; and one is at first led to attribute
this circumstance to the physical or natural advantages which are
within their reach; but this supposition is erroneous. The American
vessels cost almost as much to build as our own; *j they are not better
built, and they generally last for a shorter time. The pay of the
American sailor is more considerable than the pay on board European
ships; which is proved by the great number of Europeans who are to be
met with in the merchant vessels of the United States. But I am of
opinion that the true cause of their superiority must not be sought for
in physical advantages, but that it is wholly attributable to their
moral and intellectual qualities.
j
[ Materials are, generally speaking, less expensive in America than in
Europe, but the price of labor is much higher.]
The following comparison will illustrate my meaning. During the
campaigns of the Revolution the French introduced a new system of
tactics into the art of war, which perplexed the oldest generals, and
very nearly destroyed the most ancient monarchies in Europe. They
undertook (what had never before been attempted) to make shift without
a number of things which had always been held to be indispensable in
warfare; they required novel exertions on the part of their troops
which no civilized nations had ever thought of; they achieved great
actions in an incredibly short space of time; and they risked human
life without hesitation to obtain the object in view. The French had
less money and fewer men than their enemies; their resources were
infinitely inferior; nevertheless they were constantly victorious,
until their adversaries chose to imitate their example.
The Americans have introduced a similar system into their commercial
speculations; and they do for cheapness what the French did for
conquest. The European sailor navigates with prudence; he only sets
sail when the weather is favorable; if an unforseen accident befalls
him, he puts into port; at night he furls a portion of his canvas; and
when the whitening billows intimate the vicinity of land, he checks his
way, and takes an observation of the sun. But the American neglects
these precautions and braves these dangers. He weighs anchor in the
midst of tempestuous gales; by night and by day he spreads his sheets
to the wind; he repairs as he goes along such damage as his vessel may
have sustained from the storm; and when he at last approaches the term
of his voyage, he darts onward to the shore as if he already descried a
port. The Americans are often shipwrecked, but no trader crosses the
seas so rapidly. And as they perform the same distance in a shorter
time, they can perform it at a cheaper rate.
The European touches several times at different ports in the course of
a long voyage; he loses a good deal of precious time in making the
harbor, or in waiting for a favorable wind to leave it; and he pays
daily dues to be allowed to remain there. The American starts from
Boston to go to purchase tea in China; he arrives at Canton, stays
there a few days, and then returns. In less than two years he has
sailed as far as the entire circumference of the globe, and he has seen
land but once. It is true that during a voyage of eight or ten months
he has drunk brackish water and lived upon salt meat; that he has been
in a continual contest with the sea, with disease, and with a tedious
existence; but upon his return he can sell a pound of his tea for a
half-penny less than the English merchant, and his purpose is
accomplished.
I cannot better explain my meaning than by saying that the Americans
affect a sort of heroism in their manner of trading. But the European
merchant will always find it very difficult to imitate his American
competitor, who, in adopting the system which I have just described,
follows not only a calculation of his gain, but an impulse of his
nature.
The inhabitants of the United States are subject to all the wants and
all the desires which result from an advanced stage of civilization;
but as they are not surrounded by a community admirably adapted, like
that of Europe, to satisfy their wants, they are often obliged to
procure for themselves the various articles which education and habit
have rendered necessaries. In America it sometimes happens that the
same individual tills his field, builds his dwelling, contrives his
tools, makes his shoes, and weaves the coarse stuff of which his dress
is composed. This circumstance is prejudicial to the excellence of the
work; but it powerfully contributes to awaken the intelligence of the
workman. Nothing tends to materialize man, and to deprive his work of
the faintest trace of mind, more than extreme division of labor. In a
country like America, where men devoted to special occupations are
rare, a long apprenticeship cannot be required from anyone who embraces
a profession. The Americans, therefore, change their means of gaining a
livelihood very readily; and they suit their occupations to the
exigencies of the moment, in the manner most profitable to themselves.
Men are to be met with who have successively been barristers, farmers,
merchants, ministers of the gospel, and physicians. If the American be
less perfect in each craft than the European, at least there is
scarcely any trade with which he is utterly unacquainted. His capacity
is more general, and the circle of his intelligence is enlarged.
The inhabitants of the United States are never fettered by the axioms
of their profession; they escape from all the prejudices of their
present station; they are not more attached to one line of operation
than to another; they are not more prone to employ an old method than a
new one; they have no rooted habits, and they easily shake off the
influence which the habits of other nations might exercise upon their
minds from a conviction that their country is unlike any other, and
that its situation is without a precedent in the world. America is a
land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion, and every
movement seems an improvement. The idea of novelty is there
indissolubly connected with the idea of amelioration. No natural
boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet
done is only what he has not yet attempted to do.
This perpetual change which goes on in the United States, these
frequent vicissitudes of fortune, accompanied by such unforeseen
fluctuations in private and in public wealth, serve to keep the minds
of the citizens in a perpetual state of feverish agitation, which
admirably invigorates their exertions, and keeps them in a state of
excitement above the ordinary level of mankind. The whole life of an
American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a
battle. As the same causes are continually in operation throughout the
country, they ultimately impart an irresistible impulse to the national
character. The American, taken as a chance specimen of his countrymen,
must then be a man of singular warmth in his desires, enterprising,
fond of adventure, and, above all, of innovation. The same bent is
manifest in all that he does; he introduces it into his political laws,
his religious doctrines, his theories of social economy, and his
domestic occupations; he bears it with him in the depths of the
backwoods, as well as in the business of the city. It is this same
passion, applied to maritime commerce, which makes him the cheapest and
the quickest trader in the world.
As long as the sailors of the United States retain these inspiriting
advantages, and the practical superiority which they derive from them,
they will not only continue to supply the wants of the producers and
consumers of their own country, but they will tend more and more to
become, like the English, the factors of all other peoples. *k This
prediction has already begun to be realized; we perceive that the
American traders are introducing themselves as intermediate agents in
the commerce of several European nations; *l and America will offer a
still wider field to their enterprise.
k
[ It must not be supposed that English vessels are exclusively employed
in transporting foreign produce into England, or British produce to
foreign countries; at the present day the merchant shipping of England
may be regarded in the light of a vast system of public conveyances,
ready to serve all the producers of the world, and to open
communications between all peoples. The maritime genius of the
Americans prompts them to enter into competition with the English.]
l
[ Part of the commerce of the Mediterranean is already carried on by
American vessels.]
The great colonies which were founded in South America by the Spaniards
and the Portuguese have since become empires. Civil war and oppression
now lay waste those extensive regions. Population does not increase,
and the thinly scattered inhabitants are too much absorbed in the cares
of self-defense even to attempt any amelioration of their condition.
Such, however, will not always be the case. Europe has succeeded by her
own efforts in piercing the gloom of the Middle Ages; South America has
the same Christian laws and Christian manners as we have; she contains
all the germs of civilization which have grown amidst the nations of
Europe or their offsets, added to the advantages to be derived from our
example: why then should she always remain uncivilized? It is clear
that the question is simply one of time; at some future period, which
may be more or less remote, the inhabitants of South America will
constitute flourishing and enlightened nations.
But when the Spaniards and Portuguese of South America begin to feel
the wants common to all civilized nations, they will still be unable to
satisfy those wants for themselves; as the youngest children of
civilization, they must perforce admit the superiority of their elder
brethren. They will be agriculturists long before they succeed in
manufactures or commerce, and they will require the mediation of
strangers to exchange their produce beyond seas for those articles for
which a demand will begin to be felt.
It is unquestionable that the Americans of the North will one day
supply the wants of the Americans of the South. Nature has placed them
in contiguity, and has furnished the former with every means of knowing
and appreciating those demands, of establishing a permanent connection
with those States, and of gradually filling their markets. The
merchants of the United States could only forfeit these natural
advantages if he were very inferior to the merchant of Europe; to whom
he is, on the contrary, superior in several respects. The Americans of
the United States already exercise a very considerable moral influence
upon all the peoples of the New World. They are the source of
intelligence, and all the nations which inhabit the same continent are
already accustomed to consider them as the most enlightened, the most
powerful, and the most wealthy members of the great American family.
All eyes are therefore turned towards the Union; and the States of
which that body is composed are the models which the other communities
try to imitate to the best of their power; it is from the United States
that they borrow their political principles and their laws.
The Americans of the United States stand in precisely the same position
with regard to the peoples of South America as their fathers, the
English, occupy with regard to the Italians, the Spaniards, the
Portuguese, and all those nations of Europe which receive their
articles of daily consumption from England, because they are less
advanced in civilization and trade. England is at this time the natural
emporium of almost all the nations which are within its reach; the
American Union will perform the same part in the other hemisphere; and
every community which is founded, or which prospers in the New World,
is founded and prospers to the advantage of the Anglo-Americans.
If the Union were to be dissolved, the commerce of the States which now
compose it would undoubtedly be checked for a time; but this
consequence would be less perceptible than is generally supposed. It is
evident that, whatever may happen, the commercial States will remain
united. They are all contiguous to each other; they have identically
the same opinions, interests, and manners; and they are alone competent
to form a very great maritime power. Even if the South of the Union
were to become independent of the North, it would still require the
services of those States. I have already observed that the South is not
a commercial country, and nothing intimates that it is likely to become
so. The Americans of the South of the United States will therefore be
obliged, for a long time to come, to have recourse to strangers to
export their produce, and to supply them with the commodities which are
requisite to satisfy their wants. But the Northern States are
undoubtedly able to act as their intermediate agents cheaper than any
other merchants. They will therefore retain that employment, for
cheapness is the sovereign law of commerce. National claims and
national prejudices cannot resist the influence of cheapness. Nothing
can be more virulent than the hatred which exists between the Americans
of the United States and the English. But notwithstanding these
inimical feelings, the Americans derive the greater part of their
manufactured commodities from England, because England supplies them at
a cheaper rate than any other nation. Thus the increasing prosperity of
America turns, notwithstanding the grudges of the Americans, to the
advantage of British manufactures.
Reason shows and experience proves that no commercial prosperity can be
durable if it cannot be united, in case of need, to naval force. This
truth is as well understood in the United States as it can be anywhere
else: the Americans are already able to make their flag respected; in a
few years they will be able to make it feared. I am convinced that the
dismemberment of the Union would not have the effect of diminishing the
naval power of the Americans, but that it would powerfully contribute
to increase it. At the present time the commercial States are connected
with others which have not the same interests, and which frequently
yield an unwilling consent to the increase of a maritime power by which
they are only indirectly benefited. If, on the contrary, the commercial
States of the Union formed one independent nation, commerce would
become the foremost of their national interests; they would
consequently be willing to make very great sacrifices to protect their
shipping, and nothing would prevent them from pursuing their designs
upon this point.
Nations, as well as men, almost always betray the most prominent
features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When I
contemplate the ardor with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute
commercial enterprise, the advantages which befriend them, and the
success of their undertakings, I cannot refrain from believing that
they will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They
are born to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.
Conclusion
I have now nearly reached the close of my inquiry; hitherto, in
speaking of the future destiny of the United States, I have endeavored
to divide my subject into distinct portions, in order to study each of
them with more attention. My present object is to embrace the whole
from one single point; the remarks I shall make will be less detailed,
but they will be more sure. I shall perceive each object less
distinctly, but I shall descry the principal facts with more certainty.
A traveller who has just left the walls of an immense city, climbs the
neighboring hill; as he goes father off he loses sight of the men whom
he has so recently quitted; their dwellings are confused in a dense
mass; he can no longer distinguish the public squares, and he can
scarcely trace out the great thoroughfares; but his eye has less
difficulty in following the boundaries of the city, and for the first
time he sees the shape of the vast whole. Such is the future destiny of
the British race in North America to my eye; the details of the
stupendous picture are overhung with shade, but I conceive a clear idea
of the entire subject.
The territory now occupied or possessed by the United States of America
forms about one-twentieth part of the habitable earth. But extensive as
these confines are, it must not be supposed that the Anglo-American
race will always remain within them; indeed, it has already far
overstepped them.
There was once a time at which we also might have created a great
French nation in the American wilds, to counterbalance the influence of
the English upon the destinies of the New World. France formerly
possessed a territory in North America, scarcely less extensive than
the whole of Europe. The three greatest rivers of that continent then
flowed within her dominions. The Indian tribes which dwelt between the
mouth of the St. Lawrence and the delta of the Mississippi were
unaccustomed to any other tongue but ours; and all the European
settlements scattered over that immense region recalled the traditions
of our country. Louisbourg, Montmorency, Duquesne, St. Louis,
Vincennes, New Orleans (for such were the names they bore) are words
dear to France and familiar to our ears.
But a concourse of circumstances, which it would be tedious to
enumerate, *m have deprived us of this magnificent inheritance.
Wherever the French settlers were numerically weak and partially
established, they have disappeared: those who remain are collected on a
small extent of country, and are now subject to other laws. The 400,000
French inhabitants of Lower Canada constitute, at the present time, the
remnant of an old nation lost in the midst of a new people. A foreign
population is increasing around them unceasingly and on all sides,
which already penetrates amongst the ancient masters of the country,
predominates in their cities and corrupts their language. This
population is identical with that of the United States; it is therefore
with truth that I asserted that the British race is not confined within
the frontiers of the Union, since it already extends to the northeast.
m
[ The foremost of these circumstances is, that nations which are
accustomed to free institutions and municipal government are better
able than any others to found prosperous colonies. The habit of
thinking and governing for oneself is indispensable in a new country,
where success necessarily depends, in a great measure, upon the
individual exertions of the settlers.]
To the northwest nothing is to be met with but a few insignificant
Russian settlements; but to the southwest, Mexico presents a barrier to
the Anglo-Americans. Thus, the Spaniards and the Anglo-Americans are,
properly speaking, the only two races which divide the possession of
the New World. The limits of separation between them have been settled
by a treaty; but although the conditions of that treaty are exceedingly
favorable to the Anglo-Americans, I do not doubt that they will shortly
infringe this arrangement. Vast provinces, extending beyond the
frontiers of the Union towards Mexico, are still destitute of
inhabitants. The natives of the United States will forestall the
rightful occupants of these solitary regions. They will take possession
of the soil, and establish social institutions, so that when the legal
owner arrives at length, he will find the wilderness under cultivation,
and strangers quietly settled in the midst of his inheritance. *n
n
[ [This was speedily accomplished, and ere long both Texas and
California formed part of the United States. The Russian settlements
were acquired by purchase.]]
The lands of the New World belong to the first occupant, and they are
the natural reward of the swiftest pioneer. Even the countries which
are already peopled will have some difficulty in securing themselves
from this invasion. I have already alluded to what is taking place in
the province of Texas. The inhabitants of the United States are
perpetually migrating to Texas, where they purchase land; and although
they conform to the laws of the country, they are gradually founding
the empire of their own language and their own manners. The province of
Texas is still part of the Mexican dominions, but it will soon contain
no Mexicans; the same thing has occurred whenever the Anglo-Americans
have come into contact with populations of a different origin.
It cannot be denied that the British race has acquired an amazing
preponderance over all the other European races in the New World; and
that it is very superior to them in civilization, in industry, and in
power. As long as it is only surrounded by desert or thinly peopled
countries, as long as it encounters no dense populations upon its
route, through which it cannot work its way, it will assuredly continue
to spread. The lines marked out by treaties will not stop it; but it
will everywhere transgress these imaginary barriers.
The geographical position of the British race in the New World is
peculiarly favorable to its rapid increase. Above its northern
frontiers the icy regions of the Pole extend; and a few degrees below
its southern confines lies the burning climate of the Equator. The
Anglo-Americans are, therefore, placed in the most temperate and
habitable zone of the continent.
It is generally supposed that the prodigious increase of population in
the United States is posterior to their Declaration of Independence.
But this is an error: the population increased as rapidly under the
colonial system as it does at the present day; that is to say, it
doubled in about twenty-two years. But this proportion which is now
applied to millions, was then applied to thousands of inhabitants; and
the same fact which was scarcely noticeable a century ago, is now
evident to every observer.
The British subjects in Canada, who are dependent on a king, augment
and spread almost as rapidly as the British settlers of the United
States, who live under a republican government. During the war of
independence, which lasted eight years, the population continued to
increase without intermission in the same ratio. Although powerful
Indian nations allied with the English existed at that time upon the
western frontiers, the emigration westward was never checked. Whilst
the enemy laid waste the shores of the Atlantic, Kentucky, the western
parts of Pennsylvania, and the States of Vermont and of Maine were
filling with inhabitants. Nor did the unsettled state of the
Constitution, which succeeded the war, prevent the increase of the
population, or stop its progress across the wilds. Thus, the difference
of laws, the various conditions of peace and war, of order and of
anarchy, have exercised no perceptible influence upon the gradual
development of the Anglo-Americans. This may be readily understood; for
the fact is, that no causes are sufficiently general to exercise a
simultaneous influence over the whole of so extensive a territory. One
portion of the country always offers a sure retreat from the calamities
which afflict another part; and however great may be the evil, the
remedy which is at hand is greater still.
It must not, then, be imagined that the impulse of the British race in
the New World can be arrested. The dismemberment of the Union, and the
hostilities which might ensure, the abolition of republican
institutions, and the tyrannical government which might succeed it, may
retard this impulse, but they cannot prevent it from ultimately
fulfilling the destinies to which that race is reserved. No power upon
earth can close upon the emigrants that fertile wilderness which offers
resources to all industry, and a refuge from all want. Future events,
of whatever nature they may be, will not deprive the Americans of their
climate or of their inland seas, of their great rivers or of their
exuberant soil. Nor will bad laws, revolutions, and anarchy be able to
obliterate that love of prosperity and that spirit of enterprise which
seem to be the distinctive characteristics of their race, or to
extinguish that knowledge which guides them on their way.
Thus, in the midst of the uncertain future, one event at least is sure.
At a period which may be said to be near (for we are speaking of the
life of a nation), the Anglo-Americans will alone cover the immense
space contained between the polar regions and the tropics, extending
from the coasts of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The
territory which will probably be occupied by the Anglo-Americans at
some future time, may be computed to equal three-quarters of Europe in
extent. *o The climate of the Union is upon the whole preferable to
that of Europe, and its natural advantages are not less great; it is
therefore evident that its population will at some future time be
proportionate to our own. Europe, divided as it is between so many
different nations, and torn as it has been by incessant wars and the
barbarous manners of the Middle Ages, has notwithstanding attained a
population of 410 inhabitants to the square league. *p What cause can
prevent the United States from having as numerous a population in time?
o
[ The United States already extend over a territory equal to one-half
of Europe. The area of Europe is 500,000 square leagues, and its
population 205,000,000 of inhabitants. (“Malte Brun,” liv. 114. vol.
vi. p. 4.)
[This computation is given in French leagues, which were in use when
the author wrote. Twenty years later, in 1850, the superficial area of
the United States had been extended to 3,306,865 square miles of
territory, which is about the area of Europe.]]
p
[ See “Malte Brun,” liv. 116, vol. vi. p. 92.]
Many ages must elapse before the divers offsets of the British race in
America cease to present the same homogeneous characteristics: and the
time cannot be foreseen at which a permanent inequality of conditions
will be established in the New World. Whatever differences may arise,
from peace or from war, from freedom or oppression, from prosperity or
want, between the destinies of the different descendants of the great
Anglo-American family, they will at least preserve an analogous social
condition, and they will hold in common the customs and the opinions to
which that social condition has given birth.
In the Middle Ages, the tie of religion was sufficiently powerful to
imbue all the different populations of Europe with the same
civilization. The British of the New World have a thousand other
reciprocal ties; and they live at a time when the tendency to equality
is general amongst mankind. The Middle Ages were a period when
everything was broken up; when each people, each province, each city,
and each family, had a strong tendency to maintain its distinct
individuality. At the present time an opposite tendency seems to
prevail, and the nations seem to be advancing to unity. Our means of
intellectual intercourse unite the most remote parts of the earth; and
it is impossible for men to remain strangers to each other, or to be
ignorant of the events which are taking place in any corner of the
globe. The consequence is that there is less difference, at the present
day, between the Europeans and their descendants in the New World, than
there was between certain towns in the thirteenth century which were
only separated by a river. If this tendency to assimilation brings
foreign nations closer to each other, it must a fortiori prevent the
descendants of the same people from becoming aliens to each other.
The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men
will be living in North America, *q equal in condition, the progeny of
one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and preserving the same
civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits,
the same manners, and imbued with the same opinions, propagated under
the same forms. The rest is uncertain, but this is certain; and it is a
fact new to the world—a fact fraught with such portentous consequences
as to baffle the efforts even of the imagination.
q
[ This would be a population proportionate to that of Europe, taken at
a mean rate of 410 inhabitants to the square league.]
There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world which
seem to tend towards the same end, although they started from different
points: I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have
grown up unnoticed; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed
elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place amongst
the nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness
at almost the same time.
All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and
only to be charged with the maintenance of their power; but these are
still in the act of growth; *r all the others are stopped, or continue
to advance with extreme difficulty; these are proceeding with ease and
with celerity along a path to which the human eye can assign no term.
The American struggles against the natural obstacles which oppose him;
the adversaries of the Russian are men; the former combats the
wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilization with all its
weapons and its arts: the conquests of the one are therefore gained by
the ploughshare; those of the other by the sword. The Anglo-American
relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free
scope to the unguided exertions and common-sense of the citizens; the
Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm: the
principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter servitude.
Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same;
yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway
the destinies of half the globe.
r
[ Russia is the country in the Old World in which population increases
most rapidly in proportion.]
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