nal commotion had occurred that
tested its strength, or its power of resistance to internal strife, such
as had converted his beloved France into fields of slaughter torn by
tempests of wrath.

He had a strong conviction that no government could be ordained that
could resist these internal forces, when, they are directed to its
destruction by bad men, or unreasoning mobs, and many then believed, as
some yet believe, that our government is unequal to such pressure, when
the assault is thoroughly desperate.

Had De Tocqueville lived to examine the history of the United States
from 1860 to 1870, his misgivings as to this power of self-preservation
would, probably, have been cleared off. He would have seen that, at
the end of the most destructive civil war that ever occurred, when
animosities of the bitterest sort had banished all good feeling from
the hearts of our people, the States of the American Union, still in
complete organization and equipped with all their official entourage,
aligned themselves in their places and took up the powers and duties of
local government in perfect order and without embarrassment. This would
have dispelled his apprehensions, if he had any, about the power of the
United States to withstand the severest shocks of civil war. Could he
have traced the further course of events until they open the portals of
the twentieth century, he would have cast away his fears of our
ability to restore peace, order, and prosperity, in the face of any
difficulties, and would have rejoiced to find in the Constitution of the
United States the remedy that is provided for the healing of the nation.

De Tocqueville examined, with the care that is worthy the importance
of the subject, the nature and value of the system of "local
self-government," as we style this most important feature of our plan,
and (as has often happened) when this or any subject has become a matter
of anxious concern, his treatment of the questions is found to have been
masterly and his preconceptions almost prophetic.

We are frequently indebted to him for able expositions and true
doctrines relating to subjects that have slumbered in the minds of the
people until they were suddenly forced on our attention by unexpected
events.

In his introductory chapter, M. De Tocqueville says: "Amongst the novel
objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United
States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of
condit