the war for the Confederacy, disapproved that extension of the franchise on every ground; yet it was maintained without fatal results, and seems likely to be quite as harmless, in the long run, as the naturalization of foreigners in earlier times.

It would certainly have been a dangerous experiment anywhere else; the fortunate result is due to the superiority of natural over conventional law. Social and political organizations have an overplus of vital and conservative forces, as vegetables and animals have. They can overcome difficulties and correct errors, expel obstructions or conform to new conditions as a human body can expel disease or become acclimated. A law of equilibrium is observed in all nature and it is only necessary that it be allowed to act freely to maintain. all things in place. American institutions and habits have been more perfectly conformed to natural law than any other, and the self-regulating principle has been allowed its widest possible range. It has saved the country in every peril. This freedom of action was almost unlimited in the North, while it was set aside in all things that related to slavery in the South. The result was a growth incomparably greater and stronger in the North, and a trial of that comparative strength must inevitably be against the South, while a free development would have left the sections fairly equal.

The American system has a healthy vigor and fullness of vitality equal to every possible difficulty. The general judgments of the American mind reveal a clearness and accuracy of estimate that renders fatal catastrophes quite impossible. There being little restraint on party or individual action they can accommodate themselves to all circumstances and crises. There is a much clearer comprehension of political issues than the amount of general education would measure, for Americans are educated the most fully on political topics, and possess a vast amount of political sagacity and tact. They have the excellent gift of allowing things to take their course when no matter of immediate personal interest or public peril is in

GOOD SENSE AND MANLINESS IN THE AMERICAN CITIZEN. 507

volved, and quietly pursue personal ends; but when a serious danger threatens they spring into action. They have also something of the shrewdness and impassiveness of the English, of their disinclination to disturb the existing order, to make the best of a situation lest hasty action should make a worse. Discontent commonly contents itself with discussion, grumbling, prophesying evil, acting with the party and really making the best of things as they are. So Americans really do very few important things in haste.

The ignorant and degraded, on obtaining the right of suf frage, are raised in their own esteem and are treated with consideration by parties and politicians. Gradually they learn to think and judge correctly in politics even if ignorant as to other things. There is always less ignorance on critical subjects than appears on the surface, and a man treated as such soon feels and acts as such; learns to discriminate within reasonable bounds and to be amenable to reason in general. Thus the country that recognizes a man, as such, finds that she has a vast sum of manliness when that quality is pressingly needed. There is no possible danger from which the quality she has so carefully cultivated will not save her.

Not that there has appeared a miracle of purity, dignity and nobility in the details of American history. Men have been still more or less vicious; more or less forgetful of high aims in pursuing individual ends. Every generation has feared and cried out against its own evils, which have been neither few nor small. Improvement has been as imperceptible as natural growth always is, and it has been the less noticeable that it has been general. Great crises that awaken enthusiasm produce a glow and brightness among its nobler men which renders them distinguished, and early American history was remarkable for many men distinguished for highmindedness. Later times, for the most part, have less raised individuals to special renown than elevated the tone of the whole people so that they appreciated the noble work done

by the founders of the Republic, and, amidst all the selfish interests and rivalries of ordinary life, sustained it and carried it forward toward completion. That is the greatest possible praise, especially when there was unusual freedom to pursue selfish interests.

The general system reacts favorably on men; the adjustment leaves every man to live out his own life; the responsibility for maintaining order and justice has been thrown on the general public and has required men to think and act for the general welfare. All these have appealed to the good sense and better nature of common citizens sufficiently to lead them to act in a higher strain than any people have ever done before. On the whole, there has been a large average of true progress with every generation since the settlements of the English colonies in America commenced.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GRAND EXPERIMENT AND EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY.

American democracy was transplanted from Europe. It had its remote root in the nature of races which refused to accept civilization, as did the old Asiatic and many later races, at the hands of an absolute despotism. They maintained many liberties as progress among them went on. Yet, the royal, the noble, the rich and the educated classes gathered the most of the public power into their hands during Feudal times and for centuries later, even where the independent spirit was strongest in the people. As learning spread and became more thorough and true, and as the increasing range of activity and gain demanded more freedom of action, both theory and interest revived the original self-assertion of the primitive man. A movement against privileged classes, among those of the people who felt themselves mentally their equals or superiors, was quickened by the arrogance with which those classes asserted their conventional superiority and their actual power, and this formed the beginning of an intelligent democracy in most of the nations of Europe.

Yet, society was so firmly constructed on class rule that a real and true democracy could not hope to succeed. The larger masses of the people were too humble, too ignorant, too powerless and too much intimidated by the splendors of power and rank to rise against them except in the blind fury of passion at some extreme injustice to sink back into their ordinary submission when a temporary vengeance had been taken or attempted. Many Europeans who settled in the English colonies were of the few who disputed the principle of class rule and who sought relief from a galling oppression. They were intelligent, energetic and sufficiently numerous

and influential to lay new foundations in the wild solitudes of the New World.

Yet, the theory that only the higher of classes a nation were capable of governing it, continued to maintain its place almost universally in Europe, and much pride of caste found its way across the sea. European notions of respectability and rank were fostered by the form of colonial governments and their connection with the mother country, and held no small place in the public mind down to the times of the Revolution.

To establish so complete a democracy was to undertake an experiment; it was to bring the radical theories of scholars and the aspirations of the lower classes to a final test. At that time, indeed, few scholars dared to go so far even in theory; and the people, as masses, had scarcely conceived such a complete change as possible. But the higher tone, great independence and intelligence of the common people in the colonies would not have permitted organization on a strictly European model. The whole tendency of life in the New World was to bring the different classes nearer to a common level; but still it was with many misgivings, and because no other plan could be agreed upon, that all class distinctions were swept away from the political field as to the white, or European race, but property conditions still limited the number of voters, and various checks to injudicious and hasty popular action were devised.

The separation of the settlements into colonies independent of each other, favored popular liberty and a democratic organization of the General Government. These, as States, unwillingly accepted a superior; allowed it control over none but the most general interests, to reserve the field, as much as possible, to State control. In the States the people were strong without being violent, but asserted themselves with emphasis. All things were favorable to the experiment of a government founded on the political equality of its citi