The constitutional and political history of the United States

Front matter

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Preface

WRITTEN IN ENGLISH BY THE AUTHOR.

The United States are about to commence the second centurj of their life as an independent commonwealth and as a republic. It is a curious fact that, at the same time, they evidently are entering upon a new phase of their political development. The era of buoyant youth is coming to a close: ripe and sober manhood is to take its place.

I take i f , to be a good omen for the success of this work that just at this moment an English translation of it is to be offered to the American public. As all the sources I have been able to use, are, without a single exception, printed books well known to every student of American politics, no new facts are to be found in the work* and I even cannot claim that new views of importance have presented themselves to my mind. Yet I trust that it will not be considered as lost labor. There are, among the authors who have written on the constitutional law or the politics of the United States, more than one, whom, in all candiclness, I do not pretend to equal in many very important respects. But I venture to assert that among all the works, covering about as large a ground as mine, there is not one to be found which has been written with as much soberness of mind. And it is not strange that it should be so.

Among foreign authors there is but one whom, to some extent, I can consider as a predecessor. Tocqueville's work will alwa} r s be read, not only with interest, but also with great profit. Yet even at the time it appeared, it failed to

PB

| French scholar was a

on French Bubjects the reasoning, consequent upon this lU ,l nnpolitical turn of his mind, is to a great ap by the vastness and thoroughness of his h, hie work on " Democracy in •ran. It makes itself strongly felt on ... [acka the necessary positive knowing rican p r , re I have one great ad- ;i ]l of th. -in: I am a foreigner. This I con- ... . though, during my sojourn in ; L872), 1 had frequently t<> hear: .. v, . you cannot fully understand our Bys-

'IIIH'llt."

I. . ■ . ,l«, not deny that there is a certain something

character of every nation which a foreigner will completely understand, because it cannot ed by the judgment; it can only be felt, and in i and blood must be filled with biment. But, however often my shot may mark in consequence of this lack of the . though it might greatly impair the rk for other foreigners, it cannot possibly to it with regard to American readers, for they etive in their American feeling. r hand, it is much easier for a foreigner to from being betrayed by his feeling. [Ie has onlj to ward off his prejudices. This, though no ne to a high degree, while it is im positional sentiment, because part of the individuality. 'Die attempt would ii Scylla into Charybdis;

n effort to do the work, bo to Bay, as a .v it boat any feeling whatever. There philosophers who pretend that

PREFACE. IX

this is the only correct way to treat historical and political problems. They may be good chroniclers and quite fit statesmen for some commonwealth in the clouds, but they will never be able to write a history or to make us understand the nature and the working of the government of an actual state. There is nothing in the life of a nation into which the nation's way of feeling does not enter as a constructive element of great force; and in order to understand a nation's way of feeling one has to feel with it.

Several European critics of my work have been of opinion that my judgment of the American system of government and its working is an almost unqualified condemnation, and I do not doubt that some American readers will receive the same impression and laugh at my claiming to " feel" with the people of the United States. Yet the claim is well-founded. I came to the United States as an emigrant, and one of the first things I did was to have my declaration of intending to become a citizen registered in the city hall of New York. I, in fact, felt with the people of the United States, before I commenced to study them and their institutions. For a considerable time, however, this feeling was partly of a kind to render my studies pretty fruitless.

On the continent of Europe the United States are, even among the best educated classes, in a really astonishing degree, a terra incognita. Just on this account they have always been used with predilection as an illustration in the service of party ends. Their fate in this quality has been pretty varied. In quick succession and more than once they have run through all the phases from the idol to a bugbear. I was inclined to look upon them in the light of the former, for Laboulaye was the butler who had filled my knapsack of expectations. So I was rather unprepared for Tammany Hall, the first institution I got somewhat better acquainted w T ith.

For a long time I was fairly bewildered by the throng

PR] i

|tD d even after I had read

lltlllk . I searched id vain for ^a

through this labyrinth. Only

I in finding out what , up to tine

80I1 W hy all my efforts time

much a wild chase. Without

of it, I expected to find in everything

, quite different from what was known

tudyorby personal observation; and this

.1 had failed to distinctly show m<

could not but be fatal to the success of my

came aware of the mistake, is the

; before that I have studied

rfthmore Boberness of mind than any of my

: _ leave to add that, after this from my eyes, ray interest in the subject

pact r; from that moment it was I had found the principal task of my life J

writer, for it is the work of a lifetime I

ken. Now it had fully come to what I would

U consciousness that here was only an act

ran, a, the history of western civilization;

strongly in order to be distinct—

in it, the principal 01 well as the great

either derai-goda nor devils, but men, 6trug-

many shortcomings, bu f . with great energy,

!, not with startling leaps, but advancing

it nations of the

id to do. Nothing was left of either the misty

•id and wonderful fairy-tale or of the

; I felt myseM

it air of stern historical truth.

a ill find in this " confession of

• method" of my studies, >o far as

it. Whether my hope, based on its

PREFACE. XI principles, is well founded, that my labor is not lost, though no new materials of any kind have been at my service, this question I have to leave to my readers to decide.

H. von HOLST.

Freiburg, 1875.

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TRANSLATORS' NOTE.

We herewith present to the American people the first part of the most important work on the internal history of the United States that has emanated from the European press, and one of the most valuable contributions that has as yet been made to our historical literature by any writer, whether native or foreign.

We were led to undertake the task of its translation when we did because we considered the Centennial year the most opportune time for its publication. The people of the United States are just now looking back with intense interest over their past to the birth and growth of the nation, and to the lives of the great men who projected the scheme of government under which we live. At such a time they cannot but feel disposed to welcome a production in which so much ability and research have been lavished upon the subject uppermost in their thoughts. That the work is the production of an eminent foreigner, will give it a zest which it might not have coming from an American author.

Professor Yon Hoist possesses in an eminent degree all the qualifications necessary to fit him to accomplish his undertaking in the most creditable manner. We have heard it said that only an American can write the history of this country. As well say that Grote could not have written the history of Greece, nor Mommsen that of Rome. But if not an American, the author sojourned long enough in this country to catch the spirit of the people, of their history

! ;. intends, besides, before completing

more. Elow industriously he has

al at his command, every

Americans will not all

:h him in at men who

r in ln's view of questions which

• of debate here from the very begin-

nol to be expected. Removed from

party passion, he may have formed a

opinion of their character than ie possible

What the American people need more than

nr time, is to take an objective

and that is best furnished them by

y an earnest of those which

and which will excite, we are confident, a de-

• inferior to that produced by De Tocque-

I K m< >cracy in America.

The Translators.

.,;..! \ \M> THE FEDERAL GOVERN-

CHAPTEB XII.

\rn.iFi. \'ii«'N. Tin: COMPROMISE BETWEEN

imi mi. Federal Government 459

STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND SLAVERY.