Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI. DEMOCEACT. American nationality has two hearth-stones—democracy and self-government. The origin of all other nations and states, past or present, was different from that of the American commonwealth. America was evolved from a fruitful social element and principle. The authority of one exercised over the many, acquired by traditional influences, by superior physical or mental force, or by voluntary submission of individuals, forming one and the same race, family or tribe—such in all ages was the beginning of societies. Nimrod, Zohack, Saturn, Japhet, Danaus, Cadmus, Theseus, Romulus, Odin, Pharamond, and all those heroic legendary founders of nations and states, bore the same character, acted under similar circumstances and conditions. Conquest and the individual authority of one over all, or afterwards of few over many, begat classes and castes. And so to the present day, whatever may have been the changes and modifications, European society, like that of the ancient world, is composed of three principal elements. The one, which under different names rules and legislates; the secondj which shares, in- the power, in the spoils, prominently executes the laws, defends, fights and upholds the privileged state ; the third, on whose shoulders reposes and presses the whole structure. Not one of these elements existed at the outset of American communities. No hero or chief, implanting his sword or banner, marked out around the foundations of the city the boundaries of an empire. No submissive companions or subjects were the pillars of the genuine American structure, nor was it cemented by any authoritative will. Democracy was the vital essence of this new society, and democracy was cradled and nursed by the combination of events which brought it into existence. An...