ry crisis, it is the first effort of a great people rising.

The party of slavery had introduced into the heart of American
democracy, a permanent cause of debasement and corruption. In this
respect, also, it was leading the Confederation to its death by the most
direct and speedy way. I wish to show how it developed the worst sides
of the democratic system. I hope to be impartial towards this system;
although persuaded that the government of which England offers us the
model is better suited to guaranty public liberties and to second true
progress in every thing, I am not of those who place the shadow before
the substance, and who condemn democracy without appeal. Are we destined
some day to pass into its hands? Have we already begun to glide down the
descent that leads to it? It is possible. In any case, it would be
unjust to hate America on account of it, as is too often done. America
has had no choice; in virtue of its origin and its history, it could be
nothing else than a democracy. If it has the faults of democracy, the
unamiable rudeness, the violent proceedings, the levelling passions, I
am scarcely surprised at it. I ask myself rather if it has known how to
find a basis of support against the temptations of such a system, if it
has prevented the subjugation of individuals by the mass, the absorption
of consciences by the State, the substitution of the sovereignty of the
end for that of the people. These are the shoals of democracy; have they
been shunned by the United States? Have they been able to avoid
transforming it either into tyranny or socialism? We shall see that, if
it has not succumbed to the temptation, this has not been the fault of
the party of slavery. Thanks to it, the corruption of democratic
institutions was rapidly advancing; a single adversary, constantly the
same, has combated the progress of this work of destruction. We shall
encounter again, upon the ground of political institutions, the
fundamental antagonism of the Gospel and slavery.

I say first, that it is rarely that names are altogether fortuitous, and
do not correspond to things. It has often given rise to astonishment
that the party of slavery should have taken the name of the democratic
party; notwithstanding, nothing was more natural. How could slavery have
been defended if not by exaggerating democracy? It was necessary, in
such a cause, to deny the notions of right, of truth, and of justice; it
was necessary that the greater