In speaking of the American Constitution I have said so much of the
American form of government that but little more is left to me to
say under that heading. Nevertheless, I should hardly go through
the work which I have laid out for myself if I did not endeavor to
explain more continuously, and perhaps more graphically, than I
found myself able to do in the last chapter, the system on which
public affairs are managed in the United States.
And here I must beg my readers again to bear in mind how moderate is
the amount of governing which has fallen to the lot of the
government of the United States; how moderate, as compared with the
amount which has to be done by the Queen's officers of state for
Great Britain, or by the Emperor, with such assistance as he may
please to accept from his officers of state, for France. That this
is so must be attributed to more than one cause; but the chief cause
is undoubtedly to be found in the very nature of a federal
government. The States are individually sovereign, and govern
themselves as to all internal matters. All the judges in England
are appointed by the Crown; but in the United States only a small
proportion of the judges are nominated by the President. The
greater number are servants of the different States. The execution
of the ordinary laws for the protection of men and property does not
fall on the government of the United States, but on the executives
of the individual States - unless in some special matters, which will
be defined in the next chapter. Trade, education, roads, religion,
the passing of new measures for the internal or domestic comfort of
the people, - all these things are more or less matters of care to
our government. In the States they are matters of care to the
governments of each individual State, but are not so to the central
government at Washington.
But there are other causes which operate in the same direction, and
which have hitherto enabled the Presidents of the United States,
with their ministers, to maintain their positions without much
knowledge of statecraft, or the necessity for that education in
state matters which is so essential to our public men. In the first
place, the United States have hitherto kept their hands out of
foreign politics. If they have not done so altogether, they have so
greatly abstained from meddling in them that none of that thorough
knowledge of the affairs of other nations has been necessary to them
which is so essential with us, and which seems to be regarded as the
one thing needed in the cabinets of other European nations. This
has been a great blessing to the United States, but it has not been
an unmixed blessing. It has been a blessing because the absence of
such care has saved the country from trouble and from expense. But
such a state of things was too good to last; and the blessing has
not been unmixed, seeing that now, when that absence of concern in
foreign matters has been no longer possible, the knowledge necessary
for taking a dignified part in foreign discussions has been found
wanting.
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