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CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH TEND TO MAINTAIN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
IN THE UNITED STATES.
A democratic republic subsists in the United States; and the
principal object of this book has been to account for the fact of its
existence. Several of the causes which contribute to maintain the
institutions of America have been voluntarily passed by, or only
hinted at, as I was borne along by my subject. Others I have been
unable to discuss; and those on which I have dwelt most, are, as
it were, buried in the details of the former part of this work.
I think, therefore, that before I proceed to speak of the future, I cannot do better than collect within a small compass the reasons which best explain the present. In this retrospective chapter I shall be succinct; for I shall take care to remind the reader very summarily of what he already knows; and I shall only select the most prominent of those facts which I have not yet pointed out. All the causes which contribute to the maintenance of the democratic republic in the United States are reducible to three heads:
I. The peculiar and accidental situation in which Providence has placed the Americans.
II. The laws.
III. The manners and customs of the people.
