It is a remark often made, and generally assented to, that in the English colonies, before their separation from the mother country, the state of society and feeling was essentially republican, and that every thing was prepared for this form of government. But a republican form of government can govern, and, in point of fact, has governed societies essentially different; and the same society may undergo great changes without ceasing to be a republic. All the English colonies showed themselves, nearly in the same degree, in favor of the republican constitution. At the North and at the South, in Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the public will was the same, so far as the form of government was concerned.
Still, (and the remark has been often made,) considered in their social organization, in the condition and relative position of their inhabitants, these colonies were very different.
In the South, especially in Virginia and North Carolina, the soil belonged, in general, to large proprietors, who were surrounded by slaves or by cultivators on a small scale. Entails and the right of primogeniture secured the perpetuity of families. There was an established and endowed church. The civil legislation of England, bearing strongly the impress of its feudal origin, had been maintained almost without exception. The social state was aristocratic.
In the North, especially in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, &c., the fugitive Puritans had brought with them, and planted there, strict democracy with religious enthusiasm. Here, there was no slavery; there were no large proprietors in the midst of an inferior population, no entailment of landed property; there was no church, with different degrees of rank, and founded in the name of the State; no social superiority, lawfully established and maintained. Man was here left to his own efforts and to divine favor. The spirit of independence and equality had passed from the church to the state.
Still, however, even in the northern colonies, and under the sway of Puritan principles, other causes, not sufficiently noticed, qualified this character of the social state, and modified its development. There is a great, a very great difference between a purely religious and a purely political democratic spirit. However ardent, however impracticable the former may be, it receives in its origin, and maintains in its action, a powerful element of subordination and order, that is, reverence. In spite of their spiritual pride, the Puritans, every day, bent before a master, and submitted to him their thoughts, their heart, their life: and on the shores of America, when they had no longer to defend their liberties against human power, when they were governing themselves in the presence of God, the sincerity of their faith and the strictness of their manners, counteracted the inclination of the spirit of democracy towards individual lawlessness and general disorder. Those magistrates, so watched, so constantly changed, had still a strong ground of support, which rendered them firm, often even severe, in the exercise of authority. In the bosom of those families, so jealous of their rights, so opposed to all political display, to all conventional greatness, the paternal authority was strong and much respected. The law sanctioned rather than limited it. Entails and inequality in inheritance were forbidden; but the father had the entire disposition of his property, and divided it among his children according to his own will. In general, civil legislation was not controlled by political maxims, and preserved the impress of ancient manners. In consequence of this, the democratic spirit, though predominant, was everywhere met by checks and balances.
Besides, a circumstance of material importance, temporary, but of decisive effect, served to conceal its presence and retarded its sway. In the towns, there was no populace; in the country, the population was settled around the principal planters, commonly those who had received grants of the soil, and were invested with the local magistracies. The social principles were democratic, but the position of individuals was very little so. Instruments were wanting to give effect to the principles. Influence still dwelt with rank. And on the other hand, the number did not press heavily enough to make the greater weight in the balance.
But the Revolution, hastening the progress of events, gave to American society a general and rapid movement in the direction of democracy. In those States where the aristocratic principle was still strong, as in Virginia, it was immediately assailed and subdued. Entails disappeared. The church lost not only its privileges, but its official rank in the State. The elective principle prevailed throughout the whole government. The right of suffrage was greatly extended. Civil legislation, without undergoing a radical change, inclined more and more towards equality.
The progress of democracy was still more marked in events than in laws. In the towns, the population increased rapidly, and with it, the populace also. In the country towards the west, beyond the Alleghany mountains, by a constant and accelerated movement of emigration, new States were growing up or preparing to be formed, inhabited by a scattered population, always in contest with the rude powers of nature and the ferocious passions of savages; half savage themselves; strangers to the forms and proprieties of thickly settled communities; given up to the selfishness of their own separated and solitary existence, and of their passions; bold, proud, rude, and passionate. Thus, in all parts of the country, along the sea-board as well as in the interior of the continent, in the great centres of population, and in the forests hardly yet explored, in the midst of commercial activity and of rural life, numbers, the simple individual, personal independence, primitive equality, all these democratic elements were increasing, extending their influence, and taking, in the State and its institutions, the place which had been prepared for them, but which they had not previously held.
And, in the course of ideas, the same movement, even more rapid, hurried along the minds of men and the progress of opinion, far in advance of events. In the midst of the most civilized and wisest States, the most radical theories obtained not only favor but strength. "The property of the United States has been protected from the confiscation of Britain, by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to be the common property of all; and he that attempts opposition to this creed, is an enemy to equity and justice, and ought to be swept from the face of the earth. … They are determined to annihilate all debts, public and private, and have agrarian laws, which are easily effected by the means of unfunded paper money, which shall be a tender in all cases whatever." [Footnote 55]